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Villagisation in Ethiopia's Arsi Region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

John M. Cohen  and
Nils-Ivar Isaksson
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Extract

The Government of Socialist Ethiopia has decided to move all rural inhabitants into newly established villages as part of its strategy for promoting economic growth through agrarian socialism. Known as ‘villagisation’, this programme started in 1978 in parts of Bale Region and continued in Hararghe Region in 1984. Based on this experience, as well as on lessons learned while resettling those evicted to make way for state farms in the Wabe Shebelli valley, the Government began a nationwide campaign in late 1985 designed to move some 33 million rural people into consolidated settlements by 1995.1

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , September 1987 , pp. 435 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

Page 435 note 1 The few published studies to date are quite general: Madeley, J., ‘Villagization and Food Output in Ethiopia’, in Land Use Policy (London), III, 3, 1986, pp. 158–60;Google Scholar and ‘Ethiopia: villagization resumes’, in The Indian Ocean Newsletter (Paris), 18 10 1986, p. 1.Google Scholar

Page 435 note 2 The growing of ensete, or ‘false banana’, is described in Shack, William A., Gurage: a people of the ensete culture (London, 1966).Google Scholar

Page 436 note 1 Cohen, John M. and Isaksson, Nils-Ivar, ‘Villagization in the Arsi Region of Ethiopia’, International Rural Development Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Rural Development Study No. 19, February 1987.Google Scholar

Page 436 note 2 For example, Hyden, Goran, Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania: underdevelopment and an uncaptured peasantry (London, 1980), pp. 129–55.Google Scholar

Page 436 note 3 Ministry of Agriculture, Villagisation Guidelines (Addis Ababa, 1985), in Amharic.Google ScholarPubMed

Page 436 note 4 Ethiopian Herald (Addis Ababa), 11 01 and 30 07 1986.Google Scholar

Page 437 note 1 Ibid. 11 September 1986.

Page 437 note 2 Ibid.

Page 437 note 3 ‘Villagization Draft Strategy Approved’, in ibid. 12 September 1986.

Page 438 note 1 On rist and other tenures, see Cohen, John M. and Weintraub, Dov, Land and Peasants in Imperial Ethiopia (Assen, 1975), ppp. 28–75.Google Scholar

Page 438 note 2 For example, Harden, Blaine, ‘Ethiopia's Farmers Nudged Into Villages’, in The Washington Post, 17 December 1985,Google Scholar and Svoboda, Wayne, ‘Calamity in Mengistu's Countryside’, in The Wall Street Journal (New York), 20 02 1985.Google Scholar

Page 438 note 3 Italy and Canada have decided to donate modest supplies of aid in support of resettlement and villagisation efforts. But the Swedish International Development Authority has taken the position that the implementation of the programme in Arsi would lead to decreased agricultural production during the next few years, and hence now questions its support for the South-East Agricultural Development Zone.

Page 438 note 4 ‘The Implementation of Socialism Requires a Very Long Period of Time: interview with Comrade Chairman Mengistu Haile Mariam, Ethiopia Head of State’, in The Courier: African Caribbean-Pacific European Community (Brussels), 09-10 1986, p. 29.Google Scholar

Page 439 note 1 Background data from: Central Statistical Office, Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia, 1975 (Addis Ababa, 1975);Google ScholarMinistry of Agriculture, ‘General Agricultural Survey’, Preliminary Report, 1984; and Central Statistical Office, ‘Draft 1984 Census’, Addis Ababa, Bulletin No. 49, February 1986.Google Scholar

Page 439 note 2 For a description of this project, see Cohen, John M., Integrated Rural Development: the Ethiopian experience and the debate (Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, 1987).Google Scholar

Page 440 note 1 The crop-production surveys are summarised by Griffen, Keith and Hay, Roger, ‘Problems of Agricultural Development in Socialist Ethiopia: an overview and a suggested strategy’, in Journal of Peasant Studies (London), XIII, 1, 1985, pp. 37–66.Google Scholar

Page 440 note 2 Haberland, Eike, Galla Sud-Äthiopiens (Stuttgart, 1963);Google Scholar and Lexander, Arne, The Changing Rural Society in Arussiland (Addis Ababa, 1968), Chilalo Agricultural Development Unit, Publication No. 7.Google Scholar

Page 440 note 3 Marcus, Harold G., ‘Imperialism and Expansion in Ethiopia from 1865–1900’, in Gann, L. H. and Duignan, Peter (eds.), Colonialism in Africa, 1870–1960, Vol. 1, The History and Politics of Colonialism, 1870–1914 (Cambridge, 1969), pp. 420–61.Google Scholar

Page 441 note 1 Cohen, John M., ‘Effects of Green Revolution Strategies on the Tenants and Small-Scale Landowners of the Chilalo Region of Ethiopia’, in Journal of Developing Areas (Macomb, Ill.), IX, 3, 1975, pp. 335–58.Google Scholar

Page 441 note 2 Among the few studies that analyse land distribution within peasant associations are: Dessalegn Rahmato, Agrarian Reform in Ethiopia (Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, 1984); and Alemneh Dejene, ‘Smallholder Perceptions of Rural Development and Emerging Institutions in Arsi Region Since the Ethiopian Revolution’, Harvard Institute for International Development, Cambridge, Development Discussion Paper No. 192, 1985.Google Scholar

Page 441 note 3 See Cohen and Weintraub, op. cit.Google Scholar

Page 442 note 1 On socialism/communism in Ethiopia, see David, and Ottaway, Marina, Afrocommunism (New York, 1981);Google Scholar also Harbeson, John, ‘Socialist Politics in Ethiopia’, in Rosberg, Carl G. and Friedland, William H. (eds.), African Socialism (Berkeley, 2nd edn. 1979), pp. 345–72;Google ScholarHenze, Paul B., Communist Ethiopia–Is It Succeeding? (Santa Monica, 1985);Google Scholar and Keller, Edmond J., ‘The Ethiopian Revolution: how socialist is it?’, in Journal of African Studies (Washington, D.C.), XI, 2, 1984, pp. 52–65.Google Scholar

Page 443 note 1 World Bank documents provide the best source of data on Ethiopia's agricultural sector, notably Agricultural Development in Ethiopia with Particular Reference to the Highlands (Washington, D.C., 1982), Vols. 1 and 2;Google ScholarEconomic Memorandum on Ethiopia (Washington, D. C., 1981);Google Scholar and Ethiopia. The Agricultural Sector: an interim report (Washington, D.C., 1983).Google Scholar

Page 443 note 2 Government data for 1983 are consolidated by Ghose, Ajit Kumar, ‘Transforming Feudal Agriculture; agrarian change in Ethiopia since 1974’, in Journal of Development Studies (London), XXII, 1, 1985, pp. 131–4.Google Scholar

Page 444 note 1 The best documented critique of the resettlement programme is Clay, Jason W. and Holcombe, Bonnie K., Politics and the Ethiopian Famine, 1984–1985 (Cambridge, Mass., 1986).Google Scholar

Page 444 note 2 The literature on the producer co-coperatives is not well developed. See Abate, Alula, ‘Peasant Associations and Collective Agriculture in Ethiopia: promise and performance’, in Journal of African Studies, X, 3, 1983, pp. 97–108;Google Scholar and Genberg, Bjorn, Stahl, Michael, and Taube, Edvard, ‘Report on Peasant Associations and Agricultural Co-operatives in Ethiopia’, S.I.D.A., Addis Ababa, November 1982.Google Scholar

Page 444 note 3 On state farms, see Wood, Adrian, ‘Rural Development and National Integration in Ethiopia’, in African Affairs (London), LXII, 289, 1983, pp. 503–39.Google Scholar

Page 446 note 1 Maxwell, Neville, ‘Learning from Tachai’, in World Development (Oxford), III, 7–8, 1975, pp. 473–95. The question is whether the Wabe villages will eventually be shown to be as artificial and misleading a model as was Tachai. See ‘Up the Farm: rural poverty is the problem’,Google Scholar in Time Magazine (New York), 11 08 1980, p. 17.Google Scholar

Page 446 note 2 I U.S.$ = 2.07 Ethiopian Birr.

Page 446 note 3 Regional Villagisation Committee, Villagisation in Arsi, in Amharic, (Asella, 03 1986).Google Scholar

Page 448 note 1 Villagisation Guidelines, pp. 43–7.

Page 450 note 1 Source: ibid. p. 49.

Page 451 note 1 This is the case despite the fact that the report on Villagisation in Arsi claims that frequent seminars and meetings — some involving films, drama, and music — were held throughout the Region with the help of the mass organisations (W.P.E., R.E.W.A., and R.E.Y.A.). These gatherings were said to be focused on the advantages of village life, the importance of conserving local natural resources, the nation's policies for rural development, the need to resist rumours aimed at attacking the programme and the Government, and the rôle of the local defence and security forces.

Page 452 note 1 E.g. Harden, loc. cit.

Page 452 note 2 Prior to reaching Arsi the authors were informed that in late 1985 peasant association security committee members from northern Chilalo were sent to the southern woredas, and that others from the latter were sent to the north. The purpose of this arrangement, it was said, was to make it easier for security committees ‘to fire on peasants’ if resistance occurred. Yet, S.E.A.D. personnel in the field during the villagisation campaign strongly denied that such a strategy had been followed.

Page 453 note 1 Several respected western journals have drawn this parallel. See Puddington, Arch, ‘The Communist Uses of Famine’, in Commentary (New York), 04 1986, pp. 30–8;Google Scholar and ‘The Famine Next Time’, in The New Republic (Washington, D.C.), 15 12 1986, pp. 7–8.Google Scholar

Page 453 note 2 Cohen, John M. and Jonsson, Ingvar, ‘Size of Peasant Association Holdings and Government Policies: questions raised by recent research in Ethiopia's Arsi Region’, in Northeast African Studies (East Lansing), IX, 1, 1987, forthcoming.Google Scholar

Page 453 note 3 For example, an article in the Ethiopian Herald, 30 July 1986, on ‘Villagisation: path to accelerated development’, states that ‘according to official reports, a total of 20,237 villages have been built so far in over five-thousand kebele peasants’ associations following the launching scheme.’ This suggests, at least nation-wide, that each of these has been organised to cover four villages.

Page 454 note 1 Source: Villagisation in Arsi, p. 43.

Page 455 note 1 Ibid. pp. 44–5.

Page 455 note 2 Ibid. p. 45.

Page 455 note 3 Ethiopia News Agency, Bulletin (Addis Ababa), IX, 7, 15 11 1986, p. 2.Google Scholar

Page 455 note 4 Good rainfall during the 1975–6 season also confounded analysis of the effects of the landtenure reform. See Cohen, John M., ‘Analysing the Ethiopian Revolution: a cautionary tale’, in The Journal of Modern Studies (Cambridge), 18, 4, 12 1980, pp. 685–91.Google Scholar

Page 457 note 1 ‘The Famine Next Time’, in The New Republic, 15 December 1986, pp. 7–8.

Page 458 note 1 Roberts, Angela, ‘Report on Villagization in Oxfam American Assisted Project Areas in Hararghe Province, Ethiopia’, Oxfam America, June 1986.Google Scholar

Page 459 note 1 For the concept of Tanzania's ‘uncaptured peasantry’, see Hyden, op. cit.

Page 461 note 1 Ethiopian Herald, 30 November 1985, p. 1.

Page 464 note 1 Outlined by Cohen, John M., Mellor, John W., and Goldsmith, Arthur, ‘Rural Development Issues Following the Ethiopian Land Reform’, in Africa Today (Denver), XXIII, 2, 1976, pp. 7–28.Google Scholar