Masters Thesis

WOLLO UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND HERITAGE
MANAGEMENT
MASTERS THESIS
A HISTORY OF LANDTENURE SYSTEM IN SAGURÉ DISTRICT
IN ARSI (1941-1974)
BY: ZERIHUN MAMO BEDADA
ADVISOR MELAKU ABATE (PhD)
MAY, 2021
DESSIE, ETHIOPIA
A HISTORY OF LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN SAGURÉ DISTRICT
(1941-1974)
BY: ZERIHUN MAMO
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO SOCIAL SCIENCES COLLEGE
HISTORY DEPARTMENT WOLLO UNIVERSITY INPARTIAL
FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER
IN HISTORY
MAY, 2021
WOLLO UNIVERSITY, DESSIE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................... I
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................................. III
DECLARATION .............................................................................................................................. IV
KEY TO THE TRANSLITERATION SYSTEM ..............................................................................V
ACRONYM ...................................................................................................................................... VI
LIST OF MAP ................................................................................................................................. VII
LIST OF TABLE ............................................................................................................................VIII
GLOSSARY ..................................................................................................................................... IX
PREFACE ........................................................................................................................................ XII
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................XIII
CHAPTER ONE ................................................................................................................................. 1
GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ............................................................. 1
1.1.GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND .................................................................................................. 1

1.2. Historical Background………………………………………………………………………..3
CHAPTER TWO .............................................................................................................................. 17
LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN THE DISTRICT (1941-1974) .................................................... 17

2.1. THE GULT SYSTEM .................................................................................................................. 19
2.2. GÄBBAR OR PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS ................................................................................. 26
2.3. REST ........................................................................................................................................ 28
2.4. PRIVATE TENURE .................................................................................................................... 31
2.5. CHURCH LAND ........................................................................................................................ 32
2.6. GOVERNMENT TENURE ............................................................................................................ 36
2.7. LAND PRIVATIZATION AND REDISTRIBUTION .......................................................................... 36
2.8. WOMEN AND LAND RIGHTS .................................................................................................... 38
i
CHAPTER THREE .......................................................................................................................... 41
LAND PROCLAMATIONS AND MEASUREMENT AFTER LIBRATION............................... 41
3.1. LAND PROCLAMATIONS AND MEASUREMENT ............................................................ 41
3.2. Land Tax after Proclamation……………………………………………………………..…45

3.3. EFFECTS OF LAND MEASUREMENT ON LAND TENURE............................................................. 51
3.4. FACTORS AFFECTING LAND MEASUREMENT INITIATION ........................................................ 58
CHAPTER FOUR ............................................................................................................................ 65
LANDLORD-TENANT DISPUTES AND EFFECTS OF PRIVATIZATION ON TENANTS ... 65
4.1. THE NATURE OF LANDLORD-TENANT RELATION ................................................................. 65

4.2. CAUSES OF LANDLORD-TENANT DISPUTE AND ITS IMPACTS ON TENANTS .............................. 67
4.3. THE MAJOR EFFECTS OF PRIVATE LAND TENURE SYSTEM ON TENANTS ................................. 68
4.3.1. Tenancy .......................................................................................................................... 68
4.3.2. Sharecropping ................................................................................................................ 68
4.3.3. Eviction .......................................................................................................................... 69
4.3.4. Labor Service ................................................................................................................ 70
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................ 71
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................ 73
I. UNPUBLISHED SOURCES.............................................................................................................. 73
II. PUBLISHED SOURCES ................................................................................................................. 75
III. WEBSITES ............................................................................................................................. 80
LISTS OF INFORMANTS .............................................................................................................. 81
APPENDIX 1
APPENDIX 2
APPENDIX 3
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the study of this thesis, I obtained constructive comments, corrections, material and moral
supports from different individuals. The completion of this work has been made possible by the
direct and indirect assistance and cooperation of many individuals and offices. My thanks go to all
these individuals and offices. In particular, however, I am very grateful to Dr. Melaku Abate my
advisor, for the guidance he provided me and for reading and re-reading starting from the proposal
of this work up to the final work.
I wish to extend my profound thanks to those institutions and offices whose archives I had the
opportunity to utilize. My appreciation also goes to my informants, colleagues, and friends who
cooperated with me in one-way or another. Last but not least, the support which I got from my
colleague Qasis Yonas Lӓggӓsӓ, my wife Adӓnӓće Fanetayé Gullilat, and my brother Fikadu
Mamo is unforgettable and my thanks to them are beyond words.
iii
DECLARATION
I Zerihun Mamo Bedada declare that “A History of Land Tenure System in Saguré district (1941-
1974)” is my own original work and has not been presented for MA degree in History to any other
university. All the sources that have been used throughout the study are properly quoted and duly
acknowledged by means of footnotes and bibliography.
Name: Zerihun Mamo Signature: Date: 27/05/2021
iv
KEY TO THE TRANSLITERATION SYSTEM
The seven sounds of the Ethiopic alphabet are represented as follows:
Vowels symbol Amharic examples English examples
1st order (ge‟ez) ä ከበደ Käbbädä
2nd order (ka‟eb) u ቁርጥ Qurţ
3rd order (sales) i ሲሶ Siso
4th order (rabe) a ሳጉሬ Saguré
5th order (hames) é ቄስ Qés
6th order (Sades) e እሼቱ Ešétu
7th order (Sabé) o ኦሮሞ Oromo
Consonants
Amharic symbol Amharic examples English examples
ሸ š ሸዋ Šӓwa
ቀ q ቀበሌ Qӓbӓlé
ጠ ţ ጠቅላይግዛት Ţӓgelay gezat
ቸ ć ችሎት Ćelot
ኘ ň ስመኝ Semӓňň
ዠ ź አዛዥ Azaź
ጨ ç ጭሰኛ Ҫesӓňňӓ
ጸ Ş ጸድቅ Şadeq
v
ACRONYMS
AZRADO Arsi Zone Rural and Agricultural Development Office.
FAO Food and Agricultural Organization.
FDRECC Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopian Census Commission.
MI Ministry of Interior.
MLRA Ministry of Land Reform and Administration.
NALA National Archive Library Agency.
OUPI Oromia Urban Planning Institute.
SWAO Saguré Wäräda Agricultural Office.
SWCTO Saguré Wäräda Cultural and Tourism Office.
SWURLDO Saguré Wäräda Urban and Rural Land Development Office.
vi
List of Map
1. The Modern Geographical Map of the study area (since2010) _______________________16
vii
List of Table
Table.1. Traditional units of measurement Ethiopia……………………….………………..47
viii
GLOSSARY
The meanings of the Afaan Oromo and Amharic words or phrases not listed in the Glossary were
explained in the part of the thesis.
Afän Oromo terms
Terms Meaning
Abbaa Owner of the horse-name of prominent figures.
ҫhaffee Gada assembly
Luquҫҫe A vast land with no population settlement.
Moti King.
Qäbiyyee Land possession right.
Qӓlad Rope, unit of land measurement, the system of land measurement, measured land.
Qaalluu High priest of Oromo religious, who were highly respected among the
Oromo people and even interred in a none religious matters.
Qubana To settle in new areas.
Qubata The common name given to the new comer individual in the district.
Qubsiisa The new comers in the district allowing settling.
Amharic terms
Terms Meaning
Abbӓ Father, or a form of title for ordinary priests and also father, master of a ceremony/
religion.
Amišo One fifth.
Awrajja Sub- provinces of Ethiopia before 1991.
Balabbat Hereditary owner of rest land; or is an appointee at district level by the state to
ix
serve as subordinate land administrator or local landlord or father of land.
Ceqӓšum Political title.
Ҫessӓñña Tenants (Gäbbar farmers) who land owners used to evict them at any time.
Dajjӓzmӓč Commander of the gate, apolitical military title below ras, (a higher warrior
title of the Amhara) .
Därg Committee.
Ekul Half.
Erbo One fourth.
Fitӓwrӓri A warrior title literally means “Commander of the vanguard army”, title
below Dajjӓzmӓč,
Gäbbar Tribute, taxpaying peasants either in kind or money.
Gaša Unit of land measurement, equivalent to 40 hectares, or and 40,000km2.
Geber Agrarian tribute, tax paid in kind and or money.
Grazmač A warrior title of the Amhara, literally means “left leader”.
Hudad Government land, the place where peasants were forced labor farming services
for the state.
Kiflӓ Hӓgӓre Province.
Lӓm Cultivated land.
Lӓmtӓf Semi-cultivated land.
Madarya mӓrét Land granted to government officials.
Mӓlkañña Literally rifle men, (the commander of the army during the incorporation of the
southern region who inhabited a vast land).
Mӓr The kind of tribute given for mӓlkañña.
Mikitil Wäräda The post-1941 sub-district.
x
Näftañña From näft, „refile‟, name given to emperor Minilek‟s warrior of northern
origin, who later settled in the south.
Negus King.
Qӓbӓlé The lowest administrative structure in a district, a sub-country (in the post-
liberation period).
Qäññazmač An Amhara warrior title literally means “right leader”, or commander of
the right.
Qés priest.
Quriţ geber Pre-determined yearly tribute.
Ras „Head‟, the highest traditional political-military title under negus.
Rest A lineage system of land ownership, giving usufruct right to the
claimant; in the twentieth century, and rest assumes the meaning of absolute private
property.
Restä–gult Gult land elevated to the status samon of rest by the state.
Samon Church land.
Säfär Encampment, settlement, quarters.
Siso One third.

Šӓlӓqӓ Local representative of a higher authority, entrusted with the
Collection of tribute in recent times, equivalent to the army rank of major.
Tӓf Uncultivated land
Wäräda District.
xi
PREFACE
This research is intended to reconstruct a history of land tenure system in Saguré district from 1941
to 1974.The main reason why I have selected this topic is that no other researches have been
conducted addressing the types of land tenure system existed in the study area, and the socio-
economic impacts of private land tenure system on the peasants of the district. The study attempted
to assess the land holding system and its effects on tenants in the study area. Attempts are also
made to address the land measurement and proclamations in the district.
The study has been conducted by employing different methods of data collection. Secondary
sources such as books, articles, senior essays and M.A thesis were consulted. Various archival
materials and oral sources were also extensively used. Primary sources were the main sources of
this work. Interview was administered with knowledgeable district elders.
I have passed so many challenges while I was conducting this study. These include the
unwillingness of office workers to allow me to use materials, shortage of available sources and
time constraints. Above all, Covid-19 has remained a big problem in my work. Many universities,
offices, libraries, museums, and archival centers were closed off for the last nine months. The
spread of this pandemic disease was followed by many big problems such as shortage of
transportation and double transportation fees. It was difficult to join informants to conduct
interview when the government imposed Covid-19 curfew.
Another constrain that I faced while conducting my thesis is financial problem I don‟t claim that
this paper is exhaustive and complete. But I believe that it will be helpful for researchers,
government organizations and NGO‟s, who are interested for further investigation about a history
of land tenure system (1941-1974) in the study area.
xii
ABSTRACT
The study covers the time from the Italian occupation to the removal of the imperial regime in
1974. During this time, the Emperor consolidated his power and introduced socio-economic and
political developments including the land reforms and taxation. The research begins with the
historical study of the district by enlightening different developments before the restoration of the
imperial regime. The restoration of the imperial regime and its land reforms and the response of
the peoples of the district to these changes have been discussed in detail. The study also pointed
out tax proclamation issues and the impacts of land tenure system on tenants.
Moreover, the study attempted to assess the land holding system of the district during the imperial
regime. The Emperor was interested to consolidate his power by taking different land measures
which had their own merits and demerits on the political and socio-economic conditions of the
inhabitants of the district. The land lords benefited by privatization of land and in contrast,
peasants lost their land.
The thesis has four chapters. The first chapter deals with the geographical and historical
background of the study area. This chapter tries to look at the geographical features of the district.
It also describes a short history of Saguré and the land tenure system in Ethiopia as well as the
study area. The second chapter emphasizes on the land tenure system in the district. It describes
the pre-1975 land holding system, different types of crop farming and land alienation, land
redistribution, privatization of land, the types of land tenure in the district, and women‟s land right
in the district. Chapter three explains land proclamation and measurement in the district, land tax
after proclamation and effects of land measurement on land tenure. The last chapter concentrates
on the landlord-tenant disputes and effects of privatization on tenants. It also tries to address the
economic, political, and social effects of land tenure system on tenants in the district.
xiii
CHAPTER ONE
GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
OF SAGURÉ DISTRICT
1.1. Geographical Background
It is obvious that the cultural and historical development of every society depends on the natural
environmental situation of the area. Thus, describing the geographical location of Saguré district is
of paramount importance to the study of a history of land tenure system of the district.i Saguré
Wäräda (district) is located in south-eastern part of Ethiopia, 198 kms, from Addis Ababa and
23 kms from Asälla. During the imperial regime, Saguré was under Arsi Tӓqelӓy Gezat
(governorate-general) and Çelalo Awrajja (sub-province).1
During the Dӓrg regime, the area had been remained in Arsi province. Before 1987, the
province of Arsi was divided into three awrajjas (sub-provinces), namely Arbagugu, Tiććo and
Çelalo. Çelalo Awrajja was probably the largest of the three provinces. It was further sub-divided
into eleven districts. These were Tiyyo, Digӓlunnӓ Tijo, Lémmu-nnӓ Bilbillo, Šerka, Gӓdӓb
Hӓsasa, Kofale, Munessa, Zeway-Dugdӓ, Hetosa, Dodota and Siré.2
Nowadays, Saguré Wäräda is found in Oromiya Regional State, in East Arsi Administrative
Zone.3 It was bordered by Šerka district in the east, Munessa in the west, Tiyyo district in the
north, Hetosa and Tanna district in the north-east as well as Lémmunӓ Bilbilo district in the
south. Saguré itself was the town of Saguré district. The district consists of twenty seven
qäbälés, with small towns. Saguré is the administrative town of the district.4
1
Arsi Zone Rural and Agricultural Development Office (AZRADO).
2
Oromiya Urban Planning Institute, Southern Branch Office (OUPI).
3
Ibid.
4
Saguré Wäräda Urban and Rural Land Development Office (SWURLDO).
1
Saguré is considered as part of the south-east highlands and falls within the Arsi-Bale massifs.
The district has a total area of 90.27 Km2 (920,700 hectares) lies between 060 50' to 070 09'N
latitude and 38038' to 390 04' E longitude.5 It has an altitude of 2000-3000 meters with a rainfall
of 1000 mm to 1500 mm and a total yearly temperature above 200c. Topographically, Saguré is
composed of hills, valleys, forests, marshy plains and crossed by tributary streams. 6 The climatic
zone of the district is estimated to be 88% wäyna däga and 12% däga. It has a fertile soil and
many water resources.7
There are five largest ethnic groups living in the district. These are the Oromo 79.11%, the
Amhara, 7.28%, the Gurage 4.2%, the Selté 2.6% and t h e Käffiććo, 2.04%. All other ethnic
groups are made up of 4.77%. Afan Oromo language is widely spoken which accounts 78.78%,
Amharic 14.22%, Selté1.14% and Kaffa 1.12%.The remaining 6.7% spoke other languages8 The
majority of the inhabitants practiced the Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity with 83. %. The
followers of Islam and Protestantism were 14 and 1.5 % respectively while the rest 1.5%
practiced other different religions.9
Saguré district is endowed with considerable amount of water resources. Natural spring water
emanates from the high plateau. The district is surrounded by many all season long rivers,
namely Gušä, Ašäbäqä, Kätar, etc. which create a suitable condition for the cultivation of
different types of plants throughout the year all season by irrigation especially for potato plant
production. Saguré is well known as a major source of cereals and vegetables. The soil is
5
Saguré Wäräda Agricultural Office (SWAO).
6
“Socio-economic profile of Arsi zone Government of Oromiya region.” August, 2006.pp. 25-27.
7
Ibid.
8
Ibid.
9
Saguré Wäräda Agricultural Office (SWAO).
2
favorable to grow, especially bean, tef, onion and millet. Potato is often used as a cash crop in the
district. Over half of the cultivable land is used to grow this crop.10
1.2. Historical Background

Saguré was ruled by the Oromo chieftains, starting from the middle of the eighteenth century.
During the chiefdom period, a political hierarchy developed in which a king, moti, was at the top,
assisted by councils who were respected and wealthy people, chosen from the dominant clans
within the chiefdom.11 A moti would be chosen for his judicial and administrative role as a
governor of a province and he was usually selected from the majority clan in the province.
While the moti and abba qoro held vast lands on which they had settled landless cultivators
and their own slaves, the tenure of the land not held by them was based on qäbiyyee rights in
which the first occupants had priority and demanded the right of possession over unclaimed
forest and pasture lands. The late comers claimed the new status of qubsisa.12
With the councils' advice, a moti selected a number of abba qoro, who took a judicial and
administrative role as governors of a province of qäbiyyee holders or, abba lafa (landholders). It
is pointed out that for the inherited land, brothers held their respective plots individually and
there were actually no communal subdivision of the lands among all members of a lineage, which
was widely practiced in northern Ethiopia, and that even the purchase of land was rather common
among people at that time. In 1886, Saguré surrendered to King Menilek‟s expansion to south-
east and began to pay tribute to the Šäwan state. In those days, king Menilek as a Šäwan king was
expanding his territory rapidly. 13
10
Täkaleňň Wäldämariyam, “Land, Trade and Political Power among the Oromo of the Gibe Region”, In Proceedings
of the Third Annual Conference of the Department of History,(Addis Ababa University, 1986), pp. 145-159.
11
Ibid.
12
Informant: Assäffa Gämmäćću Lugo.
13
Abӓrra Jӓmbӓré , Legal history of Ethiopia, 1434-1974, (Addis Ababa: Master Printing Press, 1998), p.124.
3
An Amhara noble, who was a governor of Saguré from about 1907 to 1912, built the first
Orthodox Church in Saguré. He claimed tax payment from the peasants who lived dispersed on
86 g a š a l a n d and later confiscated it. At that time, about 300 peasants became the tenants
(ҫessӓñña) of this governor. Peasants were forced to surrender three-tenth of their harvests, two-
tenth as a tenant's rent and one-tenth as a tithe. But this does not mean that all peasants living
there were totally controlled by the Amhara lords.14
According to Pankhurst, in pre-revolutionary Ethiopia, the emergence of land tenure system
under feudalism was known as the gӓbbar system. The system of land holding that was
dominant in the central and northern parts of Ethiopia was the communal land holding system.
The southern parts of Çelalo province was largely occupied by the troops of the imperial state of
Ethiopia. The inhabitants of the area became Ҫesӓñña (tenants). The enlargement of the state
multiplied the opportunities for appointments and greatly increased the size of the northern ruling
class, and vastly expanded its landed possession and had transformed the northerners into a class
of landowners in the southern province as well.15 Thus feudalism in southern Ethiopia created
Ҫesӓñña, gäbbar farmers those landowners evicted them at any time. The major cause for the
emergence of the Ҫesӓñña was the new land tenure system. Under this system land was divided
into three parts. Two thirds of the land was put under the control of the state while the remaining
to one third was allocated the traditional rulers and the indigenous population.16
The reign of Emperor Haylȁ Sellasé I prior to the Italian invasion witnessed a number of
important attempts to modernize the land tenure system. The principle which the Ethiopians had
right to security in land holding being formulated as stated in the constitution of 1931. Article
14
John Markaki, 1975. Ethiopia: Anatomy of Traditional Polity, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), PP.90-91.
15
Richard Pankhurst, Economic History of Ethiopia 1800-1935, (Addis Ababa: Haylȁ Sellasé I University Press,
1968), PP.156-176.
16
Ibid.
4
XXVI of the constitution states that ‟except in the cases of public utility determined by the law
no one shall be entitled to deprive an Ethiopian subject of the movable.” 17
The system of landownership was crucial to the country‟s economic and social life. Determining
18
the questions of social class, it was the basis of administration, taxation and military services.
The existence of a large and highly developed social hierarchy necessitated an extensive
system of tribute taxation and rent. In light of the primary subsistence character of the economy
and the absence of slavery for agricultural activity, could be met only through payments in kind
and certain types of services. The granting of land was similarly almost the only way in which
rulers could r e w a r d their followers, servants, favorites and or provide for monasteries, churches
and persons they need.19
In the areas of land tenure, there was an acceleration of the privatization of land which had
already started before 1935. Only in the northern provinces did the old communal kinship
system of land tenure continued to wage a defensive struggle against the pervasive influence of
privatization. In the south, private tenure had increasingly been becoming the norm. After 1945,
the government land grants and improvements in the road system made during the Italian
occupation increased the process of internal-migration. By 1965, there were many people who
came from the north and living in Arsi as small-scale landowners and tenants.20
On the contrary, in the south, gäbbar connoted superior-inferior, ‟social relationship established
by the state between the settlers and members of the local society. In contrast to the north,
gäbbar in the south was culturally different. Haylä Sellasé‟s economic reform was intended to
17
Ibid.
18
Pankhurst, P.135.
19
Ibid.
20
Cohen, John M. and Isaksson, Nils-Ivar, Villagisation in Ethiopia's Arsi Region. The Journal of Modern African
Studies, Published by: Cambridge University, 1987. 25(3): pp.435-46.
5
end the gäbbar- näftañña system. One of the great achievements of the imperial economic
reforms in Saguré district and Ethiopia at large was, therefore, the abolition of corvee labor.21
However, in Saguré, the 1941 land grant and taxation reform, which abolished corvee labor and
payment of tax in kind was not made practical. The local officials continued exploiting the labor
of the local people as their own property. The lands of the balabbats were farmed by peasants.
The peasants presented gifts in kind. Their wives rendered different kinds of house services.22
Moreover, local officials abused government revenue which was collected from the people in
the form of land tax.23 Baxter describes the gäbbar-näftañña system in the district in the 1970s as
follows:
…. Arsi district which had the smallest proportion of Amhara settlers And land lords
in Arsi province, and even there it was difficult to see anything at all that the
population had gained from their incorporation the Ethiopian Empire. To the people it
seemed that all they got in return for taxes and exactions were yet more officials to
extract more taxes and exactions and bribes. 24
Haylȁ Sellasé‟s economic policies were aimed more at improving the extractive capabilities of
the state than at development. Between 1941 and 1961, the Emperor revised tax laws several
times in an effort to increase the amount of state revenues. Agricultural history of the imperial
period from 1950 to the fall of the regime in the 1970s was interesting for a number of
reasons.25 Firstly, in parts of cereal growing areas of the north and the inset complex of the
south this together supported two-thirds of the country‟s rural population. Peasant agriculture was
undergoing slow but steady process of decline. There were areas showing promising prospects in
21
Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia 1855-1991, (Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press, 2000),
pp.191-192.
22
Informants: Bäriso Sondi and Säddo Wäticha.
23
Ibid.
24
P. T. W. Baxter, 1978. “Ethiopia's Unacknowledged Problem: The Oromo”, African Affairs: A Quarterly Journal of
the Royal African Society. Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African Society.77
(308):pp. 283-296.
25
Edmond J. Keller, Ethiopia Revolution, Class and National Question, African Affairs, 1981. 80 (321), p. 110.
6
the central southeastern and south- western regions of the country. Secondly, peasant agriculture
became the object of state policy.26
The traditional land tenure system of Saguré was not individual right to occupy land as other
member of landlord clan. However, distribution of the land for use was regulated by the Chaffee,
the public gathering of the local Gada, an egalitarian socio-political institution of the Oromo to
bring the family and domestic animals to settle permanently on his qabiye land. Every male
member of the community had the right to use land called dhoqqee, a land on which he had the
right to keep and herd his cattle, sheep and goats. The female members of the society had no
right to receive land from family but instead she was only given cattle. The division of land took
the father‟s line and not of the mother‟s.27
In qubsiisa (allowing new settler), a person is given the name of qube (the new settler). Different
kinds of land rights on qäbiyyee (land possession rights) were granted, and the qube was
asked to provide labor service to the government officials for a detailed and exact number of
28
days. If he failed to do so he could be forced to leave the land. The qube can only remain on
his land as far as he fulfills his duty which he had according to the agreement between him and
his predecessors.29 Once King Menilek succeeded in defeating the Arsi Oromo, he established
the feudal system called the mälkañña system in which, his soldiers were given the authority
over the people. Each clan was required to provide annual tax (in kind) that was paid to different
landlords.30
26
Ibid, .p.109.
27
Ibid
28
Ibid
29
Ibid.
30
Kätabo Abdiyo, “The Political Economy of Land and Agrarian Development in Arsi: 1941-1991”, (doctoral
dissertation), Department of History, Addis Ababa University, 2010.
7
Furthermore, King Menilek m a de land grants. The northern farmers settled in Arsi. They
brought the plough and seized the fertile area. Following King Menilek‟s conquest of the late
nineteenth century, other groups of the people mainly the Amhara and the Šäwa Oromo moved
to Arsi land and later became inhabitants of the region. Meanwhile, it was historical fact that in
the process of the establishment of modern Ethiopia and in the process of the incorporation, the
two poles of reaction were evident; peaceful submission and armed (forceful) resistance.31
The change at the beginning in the land holding system among the Oromo was one factor which
weakened the egalitarian gada system and featured increase in the amount of small state that was
ruled by a prince in the mid-nineteenth century.32 Since land was a base for political and
economic issues, and also land became available only in small quantity, according to the Oromo
society culture, in order to get land, the Oromo members, families and clans have to give
military service for Oromo local people, to be strong in war, ride horse, and so on.33
The available sources do not indicate the expropriation of land or any imposition of regular
taxation by the individuals who rose to power. Nevertheless, informants remember that some of
the successful leaders demanded the people to participate in digging trenches and putting up
defensive fortifications. They also ordered the people to plow their land and pay amole (salt bar)
per year. 34 The Arsi Oromo offered furious resistance and as a result Emperor Menilek settled
a number of soldiers in the area imposing heavy burden on the people. Many Arsi Oromo were
forced to give labor for the soldiers living there. It w a s not easy for King Menilek to
incorporate Arsi though he deployed a sizeable and an organized army. After armed resistance,
many autonomous areas submitted to king Menilek‟s soldiers one after another. The
incorporation ensured King Menilek‟s steady source of revenue to strengthen his political and
31
Bahiru, A History of Modern Ethiopia- 1855-1991, 2005. p.62.
32
Ibid
33
Informant: Däbä Däbli Abo.
34
Bahiru, p. 62.
8
military position; especially during and after the battle of Adwa in 1896.35 To do this, the
government introduced a form of indirect rule in which clan chiefs were given the title of
balabbat and entrusted with the responsibility of collecting taxes, and settling disputes although
land remained under the ownership of the clan. In return, the balabbats were given vacant land.36
Before the Oromo population movement and expansion, land in the study area was the
common possessions of all clan. With the transformation of the Méçça Oromo clan particular
type of the process made. That means land wa s not obt a i ne d only for economic value, but
also for political issues. Some people compete each other for being a leader of the state.37
Moreover, after King Menilek‟s conquest of Arsi, the balabbat institution was introduced to the
area. Following this, the balabbats were recruited from the local people and served as a
communication channel between the central government and the local people. In return, the
central government recognized their economic privileges.38
According to Abbas, in Arsi balabbat kinship was not the monopoly of Arsi. They were given
the right of yäbalabbat märét (1/4 of the total land in position of their clan‟s men). Later, the
Arsi balabbats were forced to denounce their title and rights in favor of the Šäwan dignitaries
living in the area. In general, the Arsi balabbats benefited much from the system. They had got
about ten gaša of land under the title of yä-mätorya märét (the right of pension). Moreover, they
systematically expropriated the land from others.39
After the second half of the nineteenth century, the hereditary rulers of Saguré had distributed
newly incorporated lands among the families of the upper class of landlords. By the end of the
35
Ibid,.p.60.
36
Informant: Tusa Wäko.
37
Mohammed Hassen, The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History 1570-1860, (Cambridge: Cambridge University, Press,
1994), pp. 189-91.
38
Ibid.
39
Abbas Haji,. “The Dilemmas of Arsi Balabbats: A Study of Socio- Economic Positioning of Local Chiefs, 1886-
1935”. Proceedings of the 10t h International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, 1994, Paris, France. (Vol. I, 585-592).
9
nineteenth century, land belonged to big land-owners called Abba Lafa. They received fifteen to
twenty hectares, sometimes up to forty hectare (one gaša). The Abba Lafa employed tenants,
who remained landless.40 They were given small plots of land called rubi or about one-fourth
hectare of land to take the yield for themselves. They had to work one day per week on the land
of the Abba Lafa (landlord) and forced to cultivate for the gult owners. In crop sharing
arrangement, the gult holders had power over the peasants living on the land assigned to them
and they also were allowed to convert certain hold into private tenure.41 Mohammed said that
‟The majority of the land in the Arsi are cultivated and uncultivated, as well as forests, lands
belonged to the rulers.” 42
The majority of the people had small plots of land and some others were reduced to tenants. In
the case of Arsi, land was the most important economic sources and it was gained by different
means of settlement, buying and traditional land tenure system as well as through inheritance. In
the study area, land was also acquired by which t h e ruler gave for the religious
institutions.43After Menilek‟s incorporation of Saguré, a relation between the gäbbar and the
mӓlkañña known as gäbbar-mӓlkañña system was founded in which peasants had to pay regular
tribute and perform labor services. The people of the area lost their own land and were
considered as tenants. They lived under bitter oppression and domination of the then landlords
who had emerged from the feudal ruling system.44
The peasants were forced to pay dues. As to my informant, they were highly impoverished
through feudal taxation, rent land and other customary dues. Moreover, the then taxation system
40
Endälkaććäw Lälisa, “Land Tenure, Labor Allocation and Life of Coffee Farmers in Coffee Producing Areas: The
Case of Jimma and Limmu Awurajja since twentieth century”, Research on Humanities and Social Sciences (Bule
Hora: Vol. 8 No. 7, 2018), 1-11.
41
Ibid.
42
Mohammed, p, 190.
43
Ibid.
44
Informant: Dӓjӓné Gӓmmačču Lugo.
10
could be in the form of money and kind payments. The informants told me that the land use
payments in the form of money included: “asrat ‟ executed for the state; “yä-kӓbtoć-geber
“payments executed for their cattle; and “yä-balä märét-geber‟‟ executed for the landlord.45
In Arsi, however, at the first phase of the incorporation under the rule of Emperor Menilek in
the 1880s, the corruption and maladministration of the mӓlkañña very often incited revolts led
by the Oromo warriors who continued to resist them for several years. The revolt seriously
threatened King Menilek‟s troops. After the King attempted to take the local people and
a dde d into the administration of the area, the Oromo local governor became very strong and
acted as a significant intermediary between the settlers. But, soldiers and peasants exploitation
was relatively weakened.46
Peasants were forced to work on the extensive farmland of the landlords. They were also forced
to construct fences and various free labor services without payment almost throughout the year
whenever the local landlord ordered them and they were also obliged to offer or supply fattened
sheep, goats, oxen and agricultural productions like honey, butter, and the likes to the landlord.
Broadly speaking, Saguré area was rich in all these products and the area was enjoyable only to
the landlords and their representatives during the period under discussion.47
Generally, King Menilek‟s conquest seems to have brought a radical transformation in the social,
economic, cultural and political life of the Arsi Oromo. For instance, the Oromo gada institution
was destroyed and replaced by unfai r Šäwan administration. Churches began to be built for
new settlers in the region. The local people were turned into gäbbars with payment of heavy
tributes. The landlords seem to have antagonized the Arsi Oromo with the new settlers.48 In
addition, the coming of King Menilek‟s soldiers to the district had brought far-reaching social
45
Informant: Šubbé Balća Sobé.
46
Ibid.
47
Informant: Tӓsafayé Dirriba Kotu.
48
P.T.W Baxter, Jun Hultin and Alesandro Truilzi (ed.), “Being and Becoming Oromo”, A Historical and
Anthropological Inquires, In Nordiska, Africa Institutet, Uppsala, 1996,pp. 185-188.
11
changes in Arsi marriages. In the area, there were different types of marriages which were
practiced among the Arsi Oromo.49
According to Baxter and the information collected from the district, until the 1890s all the
marriages by the Arsi Oromo in Saguré district were accompanied by bride wealth. However, the
conquest of the area by King Menilek‟s forces and the famine of 1888-1892 throughout the
region had brought economic and social collapse. When family failed to pay tribute or to perform
labor service, their members were taken as domestic slaves by settled soldiers.50 Furthermore, the
use of slaves was rather common in the study area not only among the nӓftañña but also the
Oromo landlords until the early 1930s. The slaves were mainly brought from the Oromo regions
to the slave market in Saguré. Emperor Menilek died in 1913, but the system of land tenure and
taxation survived well into the 1970s although modified by the introduction of a written
constitutions, decrees and proclamations during the time of Emperor Haylȁ Sellasé (1930-
1974).51
In 1930, Emperor Haylȁ Sellasé introduced his reform of land holding system as part of his
modernization measures. Article 6 through 17 of the 1931 constitution gave authority to the
Emperor to undertake his reforms. While he was preparing to implement the reform, the Italo-
Ethiopian war of 1936-1941 started and his plan of land tax modernization was not practiced until
the evacuation of the Italians.52 Emperor Haylȁ Sellasé's economic policies were aimed more at
improving the extractive capabilities of new tax proclamation of the state than fostering
development.53
49
Wȁliyi Tusȁ, “Muslim and Customary Marriage Practices among Arsi Oromo of Kofale” (B. A. Thesis) Addis
Ababa University, 2011, pp. 185-188. .
50
Baxter, p.187.
51
Ibid.
52
A Naty, Memory and the Humiliation of Men: The Revolution in Aari, p.89.
53
Ibid.
12
Moreover, as a first step towards ensuring the continuity of government revenue, Emperor
Haylȁ Sellasé's government declared the 1941 land grant and taxation reform which led to the
increase in land price. This proclamation was the first radical measure which legalized the
payment of tribute in cash. The land reform introduced by the Emperor before the Italian
occupation did not satisfy the peasants. Following the increase in land price, many more peasants
in the district lost their land and became tenants.54
During the Italian occupation, the Italians had attempted to abolish the former land tenure system
introduced to win the loyalty of the peasants. It resulted in the disintegration of the gäbbar-
nӓftañña system and the appointment of the Oromo chiefs.55 This created resentment and
discontent among the Amhara governors. The Italians employed lesser Oromo chiefs which
influenced the people to accept their rule. At this time, the local people collaborated with the
Italians.56 Moreover, the Italians had broken the power of local Amhara balabbats. This resulted
in the development of political structure in which the Amhara could not have the opportunity
of getting complete dominance over their tenants. Furthermore, they also made an end to the
gäbbar-nӓftañña system i n the district.57
According to Baxter, the Arsi Oromo in Saguré area found the Italian administration as less
repressive than that of the Amhara. The Italians abolished asrat collection in the area. The power
of the balabbats to collect taxes from peasants weakened and peasants regained their land and
freely ploughed it without any tax until 1941.58 However, the antagonism between the newly
appointed Oromo chiefs and the deposed Amhara chiefs was exactly what the Italians wanted as
a part of their colonial policy. The Italian rule in Saguré halted the political and economic
54
Ibid.
55
Endälkaććäw, p. 81.
56
Edmond, pp. 519-549.
57
Bahiru, p. 192.
58
Baxter, pp. 23-41.
13
reforms such as taxation system, redistribution of land and other administrative measures
introduced by the imperial regime. During the period under discussion, the land which was
granted to the imperial soldiers was either given back to the first owners or brought under
the Italian control.59
The Italian policy accommodated the pre-conquest Oromo individual holding system and
satisfied the people of the study area. In return for allowing individual holders to farm, the
Italians imposed tithe on all crops of which one percent was remitted to the head man in charge
of collection. For all purposes land holding was reverted to its pre-conquest tenure during the
five years of the Italian occupation which affected drastic changes in the political history of the
district. The gäbbar were allowed to use the land which they earlier rented from landlords.60 In
addition to the abolition of corvee services, the Italians gave compensations to those gäbbar who
had been exploited by the imperial administration. As a result, the people of the district
benefitted from the process. The Italians gave the gäbbars right to ownership of land to win their
support. Some sources reveal that the tax requested by the Italians was lighter than that of the
imperial government. The Italians charged the gäbbars one Italian lire for an ox and wanted to
exploit the hatred between the Oromo and the Amhara landowners for their own objectives.61
The Italian colonial administrators did not control all socio-economic activities in the study area.
According to oral sources, some socio- economic affairs at local level had been solved by local
chiefs.62 The Italians encouraged further expansion of Islam in Saguré district. In line with this,
the Italians hired and paid local sheiks who actively toured the area seeking converts among the
local Arsi Oromo. Therefore, the people in Saguré were converted to Islam by sheik Abdul-
59
Endälkaććäw, p.1 and 11.
60
Ibid,.p.1.
61
Ibid.
62
Baxter, pp. 283-286.
14
Rahman Haji Lugi and Sheik Ebrahim Shäfi who were brought from Širka to Arsi and paid
regular salaries by the Italians. Thus, the Italians had supported the Muslim communities to the
extent of paying salary to the local sheik who was active in providing Islamic teaching to the
63
area.
63
Informants: Ebiso Batola.
15
Map: 1.The Modern Geographical Map of the study area (since 2010)
Source: Sagure Wäräda. Land Management Office.
16
CHAPTER TWO
LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN SAGURÉ
DISTRICT (1941-1974)
Land tenure is a relationship, whether legally or customarily defined, among people, as
individuals or groups, with respect to land. More succinctly, land tenure is an institution. That is,
rules invented by societies to regulate behavior. Rules of tenure define how property rights to land
are to be allocated within societies. They define how access is granted to rights to use, control, and
transfer land, as well as associated responsibilities and restraints. In simple terms, land tenure
systems determine who can use what resources for how long, and under what conditions.64
From the above definition one can understand that there are three things to be noted regarding
land tenure in this definition. Firstly, it refers to people‟s relationship to land. Secondly, land
tenure is an institution through which individual‟s access to land and use right is determined.
Thirdly, it denotes rules of the game through which the content of rights and duties of individuals
with respect to land are defined. The relationships are usually defined by customary rules or
formal laws. In both cases, tenure rules define property rights in land regarding access, control and
transfer of rights with corresponding duties and restraints.65
Similarly, land tenure has defined as a system of relations between people and groups expressed in
terms of their mutual rights and obligations with regard to land. This definition signifies that rules
of land tenure define how property rights to land are to be allocated within society. In history, land
tenure system refers to the social and administrative concept. It does not show physical or
geographical concept. Land has been one of the most highly valued possessions of human
society.66
64
FAO, Land Tenure and Rural Development, (Rome, Corporate Document Repository 2002), 7.
65
Ibid, .p.5.
66
Ibid.
17
Property rights are important factors in determining socio-economic interactions such as the
productivity of the land; effectiveness of agriculture and distribution produce in agrarian societies.
Rights to land and their implementation shape the security of any tenure system. It varies
substantially across time, communities and individuals. It is often governed by traditional
common property systems. In this system land is controlled by the village or the clan, which
allocates rights of use to individual members. Farmland is mostly privately owned, while forests,
pastures and wastelands are common or state property. 67
Land rights are major determinants of productivity, income, investment and effectiveness in
agriculture, and they are significant features of the political economy, distribution and welfare of
the district populations. In the study area, land has a number of important social, cultural and
religious implications. Land is a major asset and a substantial proportion of household wealth. Its
distribution is strongly correlated with income. In the study area, property rights to land are a
combination of different claims, such as use rights and transfer rights. For instance, the right to
cultivate the plot, to keep the full crop output, to donate the plot and sometimes to sell it within
the community.68
Until the 1974 Ethiopian revolution, there were different types of land tenure systems in Saguré
including communal, rest, gult and restä-gult. In the study area, the most ancient system of land
holding is the communal land tenure system. It has survived to this day in the study area. The
ancient form of land tenure gradually changed. New forms of land right emerged and additional
claims on the ownership of land came into being. There are three technical terms connected with
67
Informant: Astér Zӓwdé
68
Ibid
18
this development. These were rest, gult and restä-gult. All such and other land holding types were
dominant in Saguré District during the imperial period that made issues of land measurement to be
complex and time consuming.69
2.1. The Gult System
Besides the collections of formal taxes and tributes by the government, there was a system by
which the government transferred the right to collect and use land taxes and tributes instead of
land grants or salary payments to its officials or servants. This was known as the gult system.
Gult was an administrative right over land. The word gult was derived from the word “gullet”
which literally means to place or to settle someone or something close to someone else. Gult
means something immobile. It implies the power or authority of the doer or and the recipient was
named balä-gult (gult owner).70 In short, gult was a tax and tribute appropriation right granted by
the government to various servants in the power hierarchy, such as local rulers, members of the
royal family, the nobility, or priesthood as well as the religious establishment. It was the
government„s right to create and transfer the gult right at will from one official to the other.
Even though most scholars consider gult to be a right to land, it had also been characterized as a
right to control the labor power of the peasants living on the land. Gult rights were temporary.71
Gult was the system developed by the state. Despite the multiplicity of regional variations, the
gult system was essentially the same in both the north and south. Both rest and gult could extend
over the same land, but they had different origins. They were separated clearly into two different
69
Ibid.
70
Berhanu Abägaz, Poverty Trap in a Tributary Mode of Production: the Peasant Economy of Ethiopia‖, Working
Paper Number 6 (College of William and Mary: Department of Economics, 2004), pp.1-2.
71
Ibid.
19
domains rest to the peasant and gult to the state. The following saying elucidates their difference:
“The rich by his gult and the poor by his rest.” 72
As to other parts of the country, gult rights of the Saguré district were not inheritable or not
necessarily hereditary. Since formal land ownership was vested in the state, the beneficiaries of
gult were patriots, exiles, members of the royal family and religious institutions. The Emperor
could grant gult in any part of the country merely by transferring his taxation right to a third party
without any change in the property relations.73
Gult was usually linked to an office. In the study area, the gult owner had a number of duties to
the state such as administration, maintenance of law and order and military services. He also had
the mandate to oversee other administrative personnel in the area under his domain. The gult
system had other administrative and judicial implications. The gult holder was, for example, a
judge, administrator and responsible for raising and leading troops at the time of war. In this
regard, a pamphlet in the national archive states,74 “Gult was the right to own land without paying
land tax.” Gult means taxed, but a delimited area of land possessed by a person of good merit or a
member of the royal family.75
In the study area, both madärya gult and restä-gult rights were granted to privileged personalities
like the members of local mäkuanent and the clergy. The political and economic status of
individuals was important not only to secure their land but it was also important to hold secular
72
Ibid.
73
Hoben, A. Ethiopian Rural Land Tenure Policy revisited. Symposium for Reviewing Ethiopia‟s Socio-Economic
Performance,1991–1999, p.89.
74
Hoben, Family, Land and Class in Northwest Europe and Northern Highland Ethiopia. In Proceedings of the First
United States Conference of Ethiopian Studies. Ed. by Harold Marcus. (Michigan State University:
African Studies Center,1975), p.76.
75
National Archive, 34 / 07/7.
20
and religious guilty. In Saguré, according to the report of the Ministry of Interior, restä-gult and
siso-rest (one-third) tenure systems were not dominant tenure systems.76
The balä-gult (gult owner) had the right to take part in the tribute he had collected from the
peasants of his gult. He could collect one-fifth of the produce from the holding of each peasant
called amšo (one-fifth). In addition, in some places, the gult owners were exempted from taxation
and they were able to collect fees for their services in judicial duties. They were also given the
right to labor services from the peasants like building of houses, fences and hudad (cultivation of
the gult governor‟s rest land) and others.77
In some areas, gult owners had purposefully established gult lands in different agro-climatic
zones. Siso-gult and rest land was an expression of a former gult owner in Saguré district. Siso-
gult was also a type of tenure system in which the government took two-thirds out of the land
possessed by the balabbat. The remaining one-third of the land was taken by the local balabbat.
The government entitled the balabbat to retain his portion by imposing just a nominal tax on it
until the land was fertile. The tax, which was paid in kind, varied according to the produce of the
area.78
The system and the rate of land tax on siso-gult was more or less the same as for restä-gult. The
main difference between the siso-gult and restä-gult systems lay in their origin. While the right of
siso originated in respect of one-third of the land for the balabbat, the emperor had granted the
right of restä-gult. Land tax Proclamation number 70 of 1964 amended restä-gult and siso-gult.
According to the proclamation, “all landowners who held possessions within restä-gult and siso
79
should pay the land tax like any other Ethiopian landowners do….” In the circular, by the
76
Nägarit Gäzéta, Land Tax Proclamation No. 70 / 1964.
77
Ibid.
78
National Archives,01/ 07. The Amharic version is not available in the folder.
79
Informant: Hussen Aleye Kӓdir.
21
Ministry of Finance, it was stated under this form of tenure, the person having restä-gult was
entitled to collect land tax from the landowners settled on the land at the rates prescribed by law.
Out of the land tax collected, he paid to the government treasury at a uniform rate of 3.50
Ethiopian birr per gaša for all classes of land and retained the rest with him.80
Bill for the abolition of restä-gult and siso was passed by parliament in the same year that was
serving in the whole parts of the country and so, as similar to Saguré district. The proclamation for
the abolishing of restä-gult and siso-gult was published in the Nägarit Gäzéta. Under this
proclamation, landowners who held land within restä-gult or siso-gult would pay the land tax as
well as education tax and health tax direct to the government. In the case where there were no
gäbbars (tenants), the gult owner would pay land tax at the normal rates of tax. 81 Gaša was a unit
of land measurement.
ጋሻ ማሇት በባህር ውስጥ ከሚገኝ ጉማሬ ከሚባል የአውሬ ቆዳ ተሰራ ነው፡ ፡ የዚህም አገልግሎት
በቀድሞው ዘመን የነበረው ጦርነት ጦር እየወረወሩ መውጋት ስሇሆነ ሇጦሩ መመከቻ የተሰራ
ነው፡፡ ከዚህም በቀር የፈረስ ጫዋታ ሲደረግ ሇሚወረወረውን ዘንግ መመከቻ የሚያገሇግል ማከላ
ከያ ጋሻ ነው፡፡…ይህንንም ሁለ መናገር ያስፈሇገው የጋሻን መሬት ምን ነት ሇመዘርዘር ስሇሆነ
82
ሇወታደር የሚሰጠው መሬት ሲዋጋ `በሚመክትበት ስም ጋሻ ይባላል፡፡
Gaša (shield) means a weapon made up from hide of hippopotamus. Its service was to
defend oneself from spears because in ancient times spear was the major weapon of attack.
In addition to this, gaša (shield) was used as defensive tool in games with horses. These all
descriptions are provided to explain why land is measured in gaša. Land given to a soldier
was named after the word gaša by which he defends him.
In Saguré, there were four main ways of access to the gult possession. First, when the person
justified that the land had passed down from his ancestry.Second, when the person had no
80
Informant: Adӓnӓće Fanetayé Gullilät.
81
Nägarit Gäzéta, Land Tax Proclamation No. 70 / 1964.
82
GäbräWäld EngdaWärq. Ethiopia„s Traditional System of Land Tenure and Taxation in
Ethiopian Observer.Vol.5 No.4. (Addis Ababa, 1956), p. 67.
82
Gétaććӓw, pp. 23-41.
22
hereditary right, but had used the land as madäriya. Third, when the area had been under his
lineage and finally, when he brought evidence that he was a patriot, returnee from government
military service or had been in government services.83
The presence of complex interconnections and relations between the two tenure systems, rest and
gult might make difficult to understand the two tenure arrangements and systems. Virtually every
resident of the district has rest rights which might lead to gult rights. Since the basis for
membership in the powerful local gentry is gult, in theory most residents of the district could
become part of those gentry. This potential for social mobility is important although it is rest,
which allows the use of land it has been gult which brings power and position.84
It is also difficult to exactly know the number of gult-owners and their domains. The system was
flexible and accommodating for new claimants. All these descriptions are provided to explain why
land is measured in gaša. Land given to a soldier was named after the word gaša by which he
defends himself. In Saguré, during the post-war period, the power, role and position of the gult-
holder weakened and eventually the gult system and the office were abolished.85
There were factors for the weakening of the gult system during the post-war period. To begin
with, the system weakened by the centralization and modernization process from the centre
against the power and the position of the gult governors. Secondly, there was a trend of decline in
the military importance of the gult-holder (gultañña) in the post-1941 period. Thirdly, there was
abolishment of payments in kind and service to the gult owner (holder).The introduction of the
monetized taxation system that was payable directly to the Ministry of Finance at district level had
a grave consequence to the power and status of the gultañña. Before, the gult-gäź was responsible
83
84
P.T.W Baxter, Jun Hultin and Alesandro Truilzi (ed.),“Being and Becoming Oromo”, A Historical and
Anthropological Inquires, In Nordiska, Africa Institute, (Uppsala, 1996), p.78.
85
Informant: Šellema Bӓdada Alӓmu.
23
for seeing taxes on his neighborhood were paid; and in return, he received some portion of the
money collected, but now he had no more power assessing and collecting of taxes. 86 Proclamation
number 90 of 1947, for example, established a system of local judges (atbiya-daññas) that
diminished the power of the gult-gäź. Before the proclamation, judicial powers were enjoyed by
the gult-gäź that was subject to financial limitation of 25 Ethiopian birr in civil cases and, 15
Ethiopian birr in criminal cases.87
According to the proclamation, the judicial powers were placed under the jurisdiction of the newly
created office of atbiya-dañña. This helped the local judges enjoy a marked degree of power and
prestige. Finally, the proclamation 1966 number 230 had removed the legal authority for the
existence of gult as a type of land tenure. The provision of proclamation number 230 which would
no longer permit rebates of tax money to gult-holders was, however, not strictly enforced in some
areas, like Saguré, where according to the report of the Ministry of Finance, their assistance in
enforcing tax payments was still essential.88
In Saguré, the gultañña had reportedly been made government officials in every case, and the
Ministry of Finance officials acknowledged that Saguré gultañña were rewarded with a proportion
of the tax collected for their services in inducing the peasants to pay tax. Thus, although the
formal tenure of gult was abolished in the study area, the local social, political and economic
position of the former gultañña seems to be little affected. Where this had happened, the long-
term effects within the area where the gult had existed was more significant. In any event, the
abolition of gult does represent simplification of Ethiopian systems of land tenure and taxation.89
86
Informant: Gӓbbisa Qӓnӓni Hundé.
87
Ibid.
88
Dӓssӓléňň Rahmato, Agrarian reform in Ethiopia, (Grafisko AB: Motala, 1984), p.18.
89
Dunning, p. 7.
24
Gult was usually linked to an office, and while the gult holders had a number of duties towards
the officers such as administration, maintenance of security in the district and military services,
gult-lords had the right to oversee other administrative personnel in the granted area. Gult rights
were not inheritable or not necessarily hereditary and since formal land ownership was vested in
90
the state. The gult right could be withdrawn by the officers at any time, but this did not
happen frequently. However, many local gult holders (local nobles) were at the same time rest
holders. Besides these gult rights, there existed a system of heritable restä-gult rights that vested
the gult lord with the right to independently exact taxes in cash, kind, and labor for the
landlords. This system increased the independence of landlords from the imperial power in
Saguré. Initially, only granted to the royal family and provincial nobles, the granting of heritable
restä-gult rights became the rule in the regions of the newly incorporated areas.91
The above taxation and tribute appropriation system reduced the productivity of agriculture by
retarding the potential of hard work among the peasants to improve their own lives. In the gult
system, the state and the gult holders enforced a sociopolitical system of surplus extraction and
redistribution in the form of geber. The system influenced the productive base of the peasant
economy to become preoccupied more with distribution than with production or accumulation.
Rest owners had retained full control over the process of production. The income rights (gult
right) over lands that were held by local and regional lords and mandated by the state hindered
the emergence of large, and innovative, landlord estates.92 Generally, in the study area the gult
system lacked a monopoly over access to land by gult holder mӓlkañña. In fact, the peasants
lacked not only the initiative to produce more but also capital for better inputs and innovations. 93
90
Ibid.
91
Ibid.
92
Mahetämä, Zekerä Nägär, p.108.
93
Ibid, p.110.
25
Peasants who had been rest owners before 1974, mentioned that their rests was very small and
they express it in Amharic as “የበሬ ግምባር የምታህል” yӓbӓrégembar yӓmetahel. Another informant
also describes this share as a worn out pair of shoes “የመጫሚያ እላቂ” while discussing the land
tenure system in Saguré district in the mid twentieth century. The nature of land distribution
depends on the diminished agricultural productivity of peasants, consuming their energy, time
and family labor by moving from one plot to the other particularly in districts where farms were
subjected to marauding animals such as monkeys and apes. The lands were in the hands of
peasants who were locked into those multi-faceted hindrances. On the other hand, the gultäññas
who did possess the interest and opportunity to accumulate a surplus exercised no control over
the land. Peasants with such living standards experienced no strong national feelings and could
not be patriotic in whatever aspect concerning their country. In the
mid twentieth century, the majority of the peasants faced such problems resulted in the
retardation of its economic development.94
According to informants, the socio-economic condition of the district peasants was not safe
during the period under discussion. The poor who were deprived of the basic necessities of food
and clothing had no reason to love their country. Thus, the state stood to lose if national wealth if
it is concentrated in the hands of a few. There is a great difference between the rich and the
poor.95
2.2. Gäbbar or Private property Rights
There is some misunderstanding regarding the meaning of the term gäbbar and the existence of
private property rights during the imperial rule. Prior to an imperial administrative reform in
1941, the gäbbar existed in the center. Later on, it was transferred to the newly incorporated
94
Informants: Täfarra Yeglätu, Hailu Dämissé, and others;
95
Ibid
26
regions. The southeast “tribute paying peasants” who were oppressed by the gult owners or
balabbat suffered from heavy tributes and services in the study area.96
Tenants held a particularly weak bundle of rights. Their rights are difficult to assess, not only due
to local variations in tenancy contracts, but also because tenancy referred to sharecropping
relations. Broadly speaking, the district land tenure system during the imperial rule was
dominated by extreme power imbalances between the landlords and the peasantry. During the
removal of the emperors and the nobility from political power, land policy was used as an
instrument of “divide-and-rule” The emperor reserved the sovereign right over all land with the
authority to grant and withdraw land rights at all levels, and this right was exercised to keep the
followers of war lords, governors, and nobles personally appreciative to the emperor.97
Land tenure system and land ownership in Saguré district in the post-liberation period is
characterized by private tenure. The private tenure was created when the monarchy confiscated
land conquered by its armies and granted vast blocks to a wide range of people and
institutions. Grants were made to soldiers and the northern civil servants who came to administer
the newly incorporated areas. Peasants were moving to south to hold land because of land
pressure in the north. Local village and clan chiefs want to get the support of landlords. Church
officials and institutions to facilitate the expansion of the Ethiopian Orthodox religion, there was
a great central and provincial elites close to the crown.98
In the district, the obligation of the mӓlkañña system began since Saguré was incorporated
into the central administration. The gäbbar had to provide firewood for his overload, the
mӓlkañña or the šalӓqa (representative commander). He also made available the mar (honey)
used to make tӓj (make hydromel) for the ruling class. Last but not least. The gäbbar was
96
Yéhägär-gizät mätshét, First Year publication, April 24, 1942.Addis Ababa, pp. 7-9.
97
Bahru, pp. 191-1`92.
98
27
expected to express his joy by contributing gifts when the new governor was appointed, promoted
or decorated or the birth of a child to him.99
2.3. Rest
The term rest is frequently found with the prefix aşem in most of the sources used for the study.
Aşem signifies skeleton or bone. Accordingly, aşemä-rest refers to land demonstrating some
association with one„s ancestors. It meant, the land inherited from ancestors. Similarly, among
the Oromo with their traditional beliefs, it was the land where ancestors were buried. It is the
nature of the transfer of land from father to sons or daughters that provides emphasis in
dictionary definitions of the term rest by Täsamma Habtä Mikaél. In the same vein, Fetha
Nägäst also gives emphasis to the possible means of inheriting rest.100
Rest is the form of land tenure that developed in the highlands of northern Ethiopia. But in
Saguré, the lands claimed to be effective possessions were much larger by the middle of the
twentieth century. Rest is a group right, in which the land is owned by the family. It is divided
and re-divided among the descendants of the founder of the land through time, and inherited
within the family for generations. Thus, the rest system is the right to land use that the members
of families and clans had in the area where their ancestors had settled and lived over long periods
of time. It is a kind of birth right to the land, a right enjoyed by members who were born on the
land and who belong to a particular family or clan settled on that land. It can also be explained as
a communal birth right to land, inherited from generation to generation in accordance with the
provisions of local customary law.101
99
Bahru, pp. 111-119.
100
Täsamma Habtä Mikaél, Käsatä Berhan: Yé-amariñña mäzegäbä qalat (Addis Ababa, 1959), p. 220; Täsfa Gäbrä
Sillasé (ed.), Fitaha Nägäst, (Addis Ababa, 2000), pp. 326-330.
101
Šefӓrraw Bӓqqӓlӓ, The evolution of land tenure in the Imperial Era (ED): An economic history of Ethiopia; The
Imperial Era (1941-74) (Dakar: Codesria, 1995), P.97.
28
Both the Amhara and the Oromo inhabitants of the region could claim rest land. There is myths
of settlement among the Amhara and the Oromo community throughout Saguré. In fact, the
Oromo were not able to enforce this right to their rest after their displacement or subjugation in
the twentieth century. The increasing role of identity politics among the Amhara has reinforced
the role of territoriality as a source of identity that of the rest owner. In this aspect, their control
of most of the district as their homeland with strong roots in the doctrine of primacy of the first
settler through reconstructing their myth of displacement was very important. 102
The claim to rest possession was based on belonging to a line of descent from the initial father
who happened to be the first to occupy the land as mentioned above. The rest land was
transmitted along both parents` line of descent. As mentioned above, there was a relatively well
established regulation of the rights and duties of the community who had access to the land. One
of them was the process of inheriting rest land. The discussion of this process becomes more
meaningful if one understands the different modalities of application among different owners of
the land in the region. The lands which were owned as rest were sub-divided among the members
of the community according to their different social, economic and political status and the
responsibilities they were required to discharge for the government. 103
Broadly, there were three different kinds of the community recognized as rest-owners and
gäbbars. The major means of accessing rest for the gäbbars was indeed by inheritance. The Fe
täha Nägäst describes the issue as follows. “The first step for the process was that of appointing
an aläqa (master).” For instance, if an individual had nine children, one of them would be
appointed as aläqa. This was done by dividing the rest of the individual into ten equal parts.
102
300Täsämma Habtä Mikaél, Käsatä Berhan Täsämma: Yé-amariñña mäzegäbä qalat (Addis Ababa, 1959), p. 220;
Täsfa Gäbrä Sillasé (ed.), Fitaha Nägäst, (Addis Ababa, 2000), pp. 326-345.
103
J. Hultin and Triulizi (eds), Being and Becoming Oromo, A Historical and Anthropological Enquires, (Uppsala,
1996), pp. 213-214.
29
Then each child take his/her own share by casting lots, and the aläqa is entitled to add the tenth
part. The extra share of the aläqa is not always determined by lot. In many cases children who
become aläqa are given title to specific plots, gulumma (private), while their parents were still
alive. The extra share of the aläqa was free from taxation.104
The gendäbäl who provided different services to the government for the rest land they inherited
from their ancestors were roughly identified as a fighter (zämać), bäqelo qälabi (mule man),
dingay fälaç (quarry man), ençät fälaç (firewood man), atäklet täkay (gardener), mädfäññä
mätaräyyés-çaññ (cannon and machinegun loader). The third categories of rest land owners were
known as mälmmals. Because of their exemption from other routine taxes, the mälmmals were a
tree free of bulky branches; these taxpayers were likewise free from many of the taxes. Some of
these provided the following items: different kinds of woven cotton cloths or togas and woven
cotton, bar nose or zettät (woolen local overcoat or blanket), qurbät (saddle, leather), endod (soap
plant), clay plate for making enjära, tägära (pieces of iron), charcoal, zäbbiya (hoe and axe
stick), leguäm (sickle, bit), stirrup, rein, were placed in the same category if they had their own
rest.105
All these items expected to be provided by the third group of rest owners were not purchased for
royal consumption or by the homes of different local officials. They were not abundantly
available on the market. On top of this, a cash economy had not been introduced in the Saguré
economic system during the period under study. The chiefs of Saguré during the early period and
the later kings introduced a system of obtaining provisions from the subjects. Besides offering
ways of accessing and inheriting territory, another related feature of rest land was that it was
104
Täsfa Gäbrä Sillasé (ed.), Fitahanägäst (Addis Ababa, 2000), pp. 326-329;
105
Fitaha Nägäst, p.330.
30
neither totally communal nor completely private landed property. It was barred from circulation
as a commodity that it stayed in the possession of the same kin group.106
It should be noted that the ancestors of the founding fathers of Saguré district owned the land as a
community. But individually they possessed the land. The rest land is, therefore, the weakest
form of private property as it has community rights and obligations that is to say that it was the
communal property of the descendants. Individuals are not the owners of the land. They only
have possession and the right of use, not the right of sale. Under this system, the rest owner had
the right to distribute his land to his sons and pass it on to his grandsons. 107
2.4. Private Tenure
During the period under discussion, the land types of the district were classified as cultivated,
semi-cultivated and uncultivated. The 1941 proclamation classified the land into lӓm (fertile),
lӓm-tӓf (semi-fertile) and tӓf (infertile). The proclamation also classified the land ownership into
108
rest, government land, mӓdӓrya and Samon land.
In Ethiopian, the major dominant land holding system in the post- liberation period was private
tenure. It covers 65% of the country`s population and affected 60% of Ethiopian peasants.
Grants were made in the study area to soldiers and northern civil servants who came to govern
the district. The Saguré village and clan chiefs supported the governor, church officials and
institutions to facilitate the Orthodox religion in the study area.109
106
Ibid.
107
Ibid.
108
Informant: Gӓlӓta Urgӓya Réba.
109
Desalegn Rahmato, “ Land policy in Ethiopia at the cross roads‟‟, proceedings of the second work shop of the land
tenure project, IDR/AAU, 24.
31
Land under private tenure was originally expropriated from peasants. Their lands were divided
into gašas and were mostly given to the Šäwan balabbat. Almost all of the people in the district
became tenants. Economically, their traditional life and semi-nomadic mode of pastoral life was
so tightly restricted, and that it was impossible for the Arsi peasants to pursue nomadic way of
life in the district after the conquest.110
All unoccupied land in the district was also considered as state property and it was
distributed to influential men in the state. Much of the land acquired was shifted into private
tenure and the imperial regime accelerated the process by its policy of the imperial land grants
by encouraging holders of state tenure to transfer them into free holding. In the district, land
under private ownership could be sold or exchanged without any limitation except those
provided by law. According to informants, 44% of land in the district was dominated by
landlords. More than thousand tenants cultivated the private land.111
2.5. Church Land

During the pre-revolutionary period, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church had a considerable
landholding in the district. However, the extent of church landholding was not clearly known. Gult
rights were one of the main features of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The church was the
beneficiary of the gult system.112 The state as the repository of rights over land and the emperor
as a dispenser of such rights granted land as gult to the church. The Ethiopian emperors had made
a great deal of land grant to churches and monasteries. There are evidences that some churches
and other religious institutions in Saguré had received a land grant from different emperors of the
110
Häbtamu Mängisté, “Lord-Zéga and peasant: study of properly agrarian relation in rural areas”, (Addis Ababa:
Addis Ababa university press, 2008), pp.6-8.
111
Informant: Käbbädä Säbboqa.
112
Tsägayé Tägänu,The Evolution of Ethiopian Absolutism; The Genesis and the making of the Fiscal Military state
1696-1913 (Uppsala; Sweden, 1996), P.54.
32
country. Emperor Menilek proclaimed the land of the empire divided among three entities:113
“One-third to the state, one-third to the soldiers and one-third to the church.” 114
The Ethiopian emperors exercised religious and political power. They were both heads of the state
and the church. The interdependence between the state and the church was strong that the church
ownership of land seemed to have had its origin in the emperor‟s right to grant land. The right of
the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to enjoy large land grants was also supported by the emperors.115
On the other hand, there are no adequate sources to substantiate the tradition and the view that the
Saguré churches had claimed no less than a third of all the land in the kingdom. Though the
church was one of the three entities of the Ethiopian state and society, it did not actually claim
what amounted to a third of the land nor was it acquired in a single massive grant as sources
maintain. For example, between 1961 and 1962, nationally, the amount of land tax and tax in lieu
of tithe paid to church treasuries on average was about 11 percent of the total tax of the state
collected.116
The 1965 Saguré Land Administration and Land Reform Report further substantiates this view in
the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, the source of income for a new church was obtained
from individuals of respective parishes or from those who changed their rest land into samon in
order to minimize tax and labor service. If we take the 1961–1962 statistics of the Ministry of
Finance, for example, the land revenue for the state was 15,383,709 Ethiopian birr, while that of
the church was 2,000,000 Ethiopian birr. This shows that the church revenue was 11.5 percent.117
113
114
National Archive, 62 /1/24/20.
115
Donald Crummey, Land and society in Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, From the Thirteen to the Twelfth centuries,
(Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa university press, 2000), p.42.
116
J. Derrick, Africa‟s Slaves Today (New York: Schocken Books, 1975), pp. 150-58.
117
Christopher Clapham, Haylӓ-Sellassé ‟s Government (New york; Fredrik A praeger publishers, 1969), pp. 15-26.
33
In Saguré, most churches and all monasteries had their own lands. Those lands were given to these
institutions and subsequently confirmed by the notables in the hope of getting a better life after
death. These lands had different names like samon-märét (land directly or indirectly controlled by
the church), yämäsqäl märét (land of the cross) and yäqés märét (priest‟s land). Proclamation
number 2 of 1942, for example, stated that samon land was originated and developed from the
government grant to the churches. The church, in its turn, provided this land to its priests and
deacons for their service. Those who served the church were not required to pay land tax.118
Although the district church lands were excluded from the rest system of inheritance, they were
under the disposal of the individuals who provided required services to the church. Mostly the
priests possessed samon lands. Samon lands were two types in the area: rest or gult. Gult was the
land granted by charters. This includes the right to collect a fixed annual tribute and payment or
the power to employ labors. In this case, the land was regarded as hereditary right. In some cases,
it was given to churchmen as madӓrya. The land was called madӓrya-märét while the person who
gets such land was balӓmadӓrya.119
If the descendants of the original priests became laymen and wanted to remain owners of the land,
they could employ a priest who would serve in the church on their behalf. In such a way, the land
would become rest land. Both types of church lands were prevalent in Saguré. The extent of land
allotted to persons who were in the service of the churches and monasteries varied in accordance
with their educational level and hierarchy: dӓbtara (untrained member of the clergy), gӓbӓz (vicar
or head of the church), qés (priest) and deacon. In some cases, there was a tendency among some
118
Crummey, 123-127.
119
Christopher, p. 15.
34
rest holders of changing holdings to samon land. This was because church lands were exempted
from land tax and labor services.120
In general, land was held by the churches individually obligated to provide clerical services for
the community or tenants who paid tribute to the church rather than taxes to the state. Samon
lands were lands used by the church itself in lieu of giving the clergy cash salaries and
appreciation of their services to the church in their respective regions, while gult land of the
church was the land which was given to church administrators and high priests for their use.In
addition to renting land, the church used to collect tribute and taxes.121 In principle, church lands
were not hereditary and hence every family who possessed them tried to keep for life by educating
one of their sons as a priest. Otherwise, they had to hire a priest in order to fulfill the obligation of
the church services. Monasteries and churches had the right to collect court fees, market dues and
tax in lieu of tithe from the areas under their jurisdiction.122
The relation between the Saguré church leaders and the other churches was essentially expressed
in terms of land. Land was the main source of income for churches and monasteries and their
functionaries. The relations were smooth and interdependent until the 1974 revolution which
made a fundamental change in the tenure relation as well as in the church-state relation. The
Ethiopian revolution ended the gult system. The land became the property of the state and the
people. The state made a sharp break from the past. All properties of the church, including its
buildings in towns were confiscated. With this, the long established history of interdependence of
the state and church and the hegemonic power of the Ethiopian Orthodox church , which shared
about 11 percent of land tax on the total of the state collected, came to an end. 123
120
Dӓssӓléňň, p. 126.
121
Donald, P.224.
122
P.T.W Baxter, Jun Hultin and Alesandro Truilzi (ed.), pp. 185-188.
123
Ibid.
35
2.6. Government Tenure
State land is one which is categorized neither as private rest nor church land. In the district
like the other land holdings, the amount of government land had never been determined
with precision.124 The Ministry of land reform suggested that 28.4% and 22.4% of measured and
unmeasured lands respectively were government lands. Desalegn Rahmato explains that 31% of
measured land in Ethiopia was state land. In the district, the state holdings composed of 44% of
the measured land.125 According to yähagär-Gezat Mäşhét, the peoples of the study area were
forced to provide labor service to the government without any payment. Thousands of peasants
cultivated state land.126
2.7. Land Privatization and Redistribution

The Imperial regime adopted modern laws to transfer both the diverse customary land tenure
systems and those state land tenure system compulsory in the southeastern territories in favor of
private ownership. In particular, in recompense for the expropriation of the military legal and
fiscal power of the provincial nobility, Emperor Haylӓ Sellasé tried to give them secure land
rights in the form of private ownership over the land, especially in the study area.127 Besides
privatization through fake purchasing paved the way for accumulation of land in the hands of
the upper class of the society. The process of privatization of land began since 1935. In1941, the
Emperor introduced new taxation proclamation in an effort to increase the amount of land tax.128
The Post-liberation period witnessed a remarkable growth in land sale. Particularly, at the
beginning of last quarter of the twentieth century and a half before the revolution of 1974.Large
124
125
Dӓssӓléňň, p. 121.
126
yä-hagär-gezat mäşhét,
127
Donald, p. 224.
128
Baxter, pp. 185-188.
36
land reform was prevalence in the southeast where the land reform process was most advanced
which is almost equivalent with the land reform process that the central government to increase
the revenue obtained from land. This involved the revenue stealing and gave the government
direct access to the source of revenue.129 In the district, all unoccupied land was belonged to
government tenure. Much of the land in the district was converted into private land and the
government accelerated privatization process by its policy of imperial land grants.130
Land Privatization along with the sale of land in the study area determined on the size and the
value of the land. Moreover, the preparation of the plan that would indicate the location and
ownership of the land whether government or private demanded land measurement. At the same
time, the government was working forcefully in order to increase its revenues.131 Between 1941
and 1961, the Emperor revised tax laws several times in an effort to increase the amount of state
revenues. This was being done so as to maintain the balance of expense with increasing
government everyday expenditure. The attempt to raise more revenues was carried out in various
ways including through the sale of lands at government`s dispositions. This was observed in Arsi
province where the government sold most of the lands at its disposal. 132
After the restoration of Haylӓ Sellasé`s regime, the government redistributed land according to
the wish of the people of the province of Arsi. The land grant was made taking the rank and
position of the feudal lords into consideration. Some gašas were then distributed as special
tenures called madӓrya and restӓ-gult (a slight modification of the old gult system) among the
officials and soldiers settled in the area. In return, the settlers performed judicial, military and
129
Ibid.
130
Ibid.
131
Bahru, pp. 191-192.
132
Informants: Bariso Sondi, 06 / 04/ 2021.
37
administrative functions. Some Land was also set aside for church use regardless of whether
there were churches in the locality or not.133
In the socio-political system of the imperial government, institutions did not have any
mechanism of redistributing land to the government officials. Land was distributed to soldiers,
priests, local administrators, judges and state servants at various levels for their service in Arsi
province. Therefore, in the district, land owned by the government was redistributed to different
people on the condition of their service to the state at different levels.134
2.8. Women and Land Rights in Saguré District
In the district, Women were affected in different ways. Impacts on women are familiar towards
the social status and attitude for the long period of time. In the study area, these activities were
135
considered as the cultural ways which came from the God. A married woman had the right to
work on the land of her husband and generate her wealthy with him until she would live with her
husband. But the wealth was controlled by her husband. Hence, landless women were common in
the district for many years and it degraded women‟s social hierarchy. Thus, women‟s
participation in productive activities was mostly limited to domestic tasks.136
Women in the district were engaged in bringing up children and household management. Some of
the main tasks of the women were preparing food, churning milk, collecting fire wood, and
fetching water. They were also caring children, making bed, milking cows and cleaning house.
There were also extra domestic tasks such as moving to the market to sell animal products and
purchase foodstuff and others.137
133
Bahru, pp. 192-194.
134
Informant: Arӓda Dirriba Kotu, 26/05/2020.
135
136
Bahru, p. 192.
137
Ibid.
38
However, the expansion of farming in the district increased women‟s work burden. There was
heavy gender bias between men and women. Women did not have their own land right. The
traditional land and the new land policy did not include women`s land right and they were
dominated by males.138 In the landholding system of the imperial regime, women were prevented
from land ownership and direct access to the land. The process of land administration had been
within the strong gender biased. Women were usually denied their right to own property and
inheritance.139
Women had no power to inherit land and other properties until the Dȁrg regime. Only men had
full right to inherit land from their families. Women had a little opportunity to improve their life
condition within the family and local communities. Women didn‟t know their wealth including
land equality.140 This situation much affected women especially in social issues. They were
economically dependent on males and had not chance to generate their own income as well as
support other persons. At that time, the policy of the government by itself affected women in both
social and economic aspects which helped only males. Hence, it forced women to be dependent on
men in terms of land right, inheritance and ownership of other properties.141
The right to manage land and control the income by women‟s was completely prohibited. The
previous land policy and the new one did not alleviate such problems.142 According to Sagurȇ
social tradition, women did not have their own land or property. Such traditions began from the
background of the Ethiopian earlier imperial regime.143 The imperial government encouraged the
138
139
Behru, pp. 112-114.
140
National Archives, 03/16.
141
Bahru Zewde, “Some Aspects of Post-Liberation Ethiopia 1941-1950”, In Eighth International Conference of
Ethiopian Studies, 1984 (vol. 1, p.21), Addis Ababa: Institute of Ethiopian Studies.
142
Ešetu Çolle, “Towards A History of the Fiscal Policy of the Pre Revolutionary Ethiopian State 1941-1974”. Paper
Prepared for the East African History Conference, Nazareth: Institute of Ethiopian Studies, 1982, PP. 234-236.
143
Proclamation No. 230 of 966. 143
39
traditional image towards such social and economic background. This development worsened
women‟s dependence on the land of men economically and psychologically.144
Women didn‟t acquire land by their own right before the revolution. Because of the absence of
land rights, females were enforced to work ordered by their husbands. Thus, male dominance was
the major problem over women‟s economy. They worked but not benefited from the economic
products.145
144
Ibid.
145
Informant: Taddӓsӓ Gӓbbisa Bonӓ, 30/01/2020.
40
CHAPTER THREE
LAND PROCLAMATIONS AND
MEASUREMENT AFTER LIBRATION
3.1. Land Proclamations and Measurement
Between 1941and1961, Emperor Haylȁ Sellasé made land tax proclamations; depend on the
fertility of the land and the number of people settled on it. For this purpose, the first proclamation
classified the land into lӓm (fertile), lӓmtӓf (semi-fertile) and tӓf (infertile). According to the Land
tax Proclamation of 1941/2, the amount of tax was to be 15, 10 and 5 Ethiopian birr per gaša
respectively. 146
A number of factors contributed to introduce the qalad system and land tenure reforms in Ethiopia.
To begin with there was privatization along with the sale of land in the southern and central parts of
the country. The process necessitated measurement as a prerequisite in order to classify and
determine the size and value of the land. Moreover, the preparation of the plan that would indicate
the location and ownership of the land whether government or private demanded land
measurement.147
The government was simultaneously working vigorously in order to increase its revenues. This was
being done so as to maintain a sort of balance with the increasing government expenses. The
attempt to raise more revenues was carried out in various ways, including through the sale of lands
at the government‟s disposition. This was particularly observed in Arsi Governorate-General where
the government sold most of the lands at its disposal. On 9 January 1952, the Ministry of Pen (the
146
Informant: Arӓda Dirriba Kotu, 26/05/2020.
147
Ibid.
41
Emperor‟s Secretariat) wrote to the Ministry of Interior and Finance about the need to sell
government lands.148 Yet in the mid twentieth century, land measurement was carried out very
inconsistently, which in turn resulted in enormous variations in fictitious land measurements. As a
result, it became a complex process to implement land reforms.149 The Ministry of Interior sent a
number of surveying groups to most of the provinces. The same is true for Saguré, to measure the
land and thereby make land taxation simple and efficient. However, in numerous areas the
measurement process for tax purposes was not carried out smoothly. There were a series of
conflicts and many intrigues. 150
Finally, as a part of land reform, there were land grants and land distributions in Saguré. Land
grants were continuously made to the tenants, exiles, patriots, government officials and the unem-
ployed. Land grants were one of the dominant features of the imperial regime made from 1941 to
1974.151 In 1952, Emperor Haylȁ Sellasé issued a proclamation that all landless Ethiopians were
entitled to land. To this end, it was decided that government lands should be identified in order that
they be distributed to those who deserved them. A demand was also made in the proclamation that
the measurement and accurate identification of government lands be carried out in order to
facilitate land distribution to eligible grantees.152
The second category comprised completely bad or infertile land, täf. This was twelve qalads wide
and twenty qalads long, or 801m by 1355m396. A similar classification of the size of gaša land,
depending on its grade, was undertaken by Berhanu Abbäba in a slightly different way. He did so
148
Informant: Jӓmanaše Ejӓrӓ Kӓbbӓbӓ, 28/05/2020.
149
150
Nägarit Gäzéta, No. 230 /1969.
151
Informant: Šubbé Balća Sobé, 27/04/ 2020
152
Mahtämä Sellasé Wäidä Mäsqäl. Zekrä Nägär. Addis Ababa. p.67.
42
in two phases, first climate based and then depending on fertility and configuration. Under the
former, he devised three categories, däga, wäyna däga and qolla, while under the latter he included
two within each climatic category. 153
Haylȁ Sellasé`s economic reform was intended to end the gäbbar-näftañña system. One of the
great achievements of the imperial economic reforms in Saguré district was the abolition of corvee
154
labor. The local officials continued exploiting the labor of the local people as their own
property. The lands of the balabbats were farmed by peasants for free. The peasants presented gifts
inkind. Their wives rendered different kinds of house services. Moreover, local officials abused
government revenue which was collected from the people in the form of land tax.155
In Saguré District, the qalad system was followed by land grants to the gult holders already settled,
balabbats and those settlers freshly attracted from the north by the prospect of the qalad system.
These land grants to the gult holding class conferred a conditional right in the sense that land title
was given to this class with the obligation to develop the land and to render administrative services
to the state and to pay taxes on their agricultural production directly to the state. To the gȁbbar,
qalad system resulted in the loss of any residual claims they may have had alienation.156
Economically, the peoples of the district were so tightly restricted to their traditional and semi-
nomadic mode of pastoral life, and that it was impossible for the Arsi Oromo to pursue nomadic
way of life in the district after the conquest.157
153
Ibid. P.96.
154
Informant: Hussen Aleye Kdir, 27/03/2020.
155
Tӓsӓma Habtӓ-Mikaél, Kasata Berhan: Yé-ӓmӓrañña-Mӓzgӓbӓqalat (Addis Ababa, 1985), p.85.
156
Tsägayé, P.226.
157
Ibid,.p223.
43
The land was measured in the district by the government officials sent out by the Emperor with the
assistance of local balabbats also known as qoro. Each qoro was responsible for the measurement
of the land in his territory. Before the land measurement, each balabbat had to report or identify the
extent of his territory. One of the motives of land measurement was to facilitate land taxation in the
study area. The people were ordered to pay taxes and tribute in cash and kind. This heavy
taxation made the gȁbbars‟ life extremely bitter particularly after 1941. The gȁbbar who had
settled either on the siso land or on the madӓriya land had to pay the new landowner a type of land
tax known as erbo (a fourth). This meant that the gȁbbar had to pay a fourth of his produce to the
new landholding class. But this was in theory. In practice, the gȁbbar paid more than half of his
produce to the new land owners.158
The gȁbbars who settled in Saguré district cultivated it. They also paid to the balabbats similar to
that of the mӓlkȁñña. However, like other parts of the country, in Saguré, an important difference
lay in the fact that some balabbats were kind to their gȁbbars and only took a third of the gȁbbars`
produce or could exempt them when their produce became poor. Besides, paying the compulsory
asrȁt, erbo, and other taxes as well as providing forced labor services to the mӓlkȁñña and the
balabats, the gȁbbar were exploited in several ways.159 The conquest of the Arsi Oromo by the
ŠӓwanAmhara resulted in long term consequences in their landholding system. Their lands were
divided into gašas and were mostly given to the Šӓwan balabats. Almost all of the people in the
district became gäbbars.160 The imperial government introduced qalad in Saguré in order to
158
File NO.17, 1, 8, 7, 03, (Arsi Tӓqelay gezat, different times Land Tax and Agricultural Tax collection), Säné
10/1962.
159
Yähägär-gizät mätshét, pp.7-9.
160
Ibid.
44
control land. Qalad aimed at the imperial state`s attempt to find the exact amount of land held and
cultivated by each land of gȁbbar holders and the seizure of land through the qalad system showed
the state interest to directly appropriate agricultural production.161 The government`s emphasis on
land measurement is well manifested in the following regulation.
A regulation dated 16 September1931 ordered the carrying out of a further set off land
measurements in the qalad provinces. This directive contained normalization in cases such
as land which had been appropriated by the users above the grants once apportioned and
also lands within the old grants which had not been cultivated. In accordance with the
regulation which had been inappropriate tax was to be imposed. However, during new
measurement uncultivated land was found then it should be divided. A quarter for the
landowner, a quarter for the land less tenant, a quarter for the balabbat, and a quarter to the
government.162
To improve state income, Emperor Haylӓ Sellassé increased land tax. The government avoided
intermediary tiers of income appropriation and gave the government direct access to the source of
income. It transformed tribute to tax. In the study area like many of the measures, the process of
tax reform had begun before 1935. But it was after1941 that the first land tax practically
accelerated. This ended the fixed tax rate which remained burden to the people for the past few
years on both measured and unmeasured lands.163
Economic policies were aimed more at improving the extractive capabilities of the state than at
development. Moreover, as a first step towards ensuring the continuity of government revenue,
Haylӓ Sellassé‟s government declared the 1941 land-grant and taxation reform.164 The imperial
regime also introduced another tax reform for the second time in the late 1944. A new declaration
was issued which increased the land tax on measured land to a total of fifty and fifteen Ethiopian
161
Ibid.
162
Nägarit Gäzeta, No. 230 of 1966.
163
Nägarit Gäzeta, No. 230 of 1966. .
164
Informant: Šellema Bӓdada Alӓmu, 10/06/2020
45
birr paid per a gaša, for grown and semi-grown land respectively Later on, the revised 1944
Land Tax Proclamation increased the amount of land tax to be paid.165
3.2. Land Tax after Proclamation

Taxes and tributes seem to be synonyms in the available pieces of evidence for the history of the region.
Frequently, both of them had been mentioned as geber in the local literature. The term geber takes several
meanings in different contexts. In one way or another it seems that tributes preceded taxes in the history
of the region. Conventionally, it is understood that both were parts of governmental systems in Saguré
during the period under study. But the transition from tribute to tax was gradual and both were
functioning simultaneously for a long period in the history of Saguré as mentioned above. Tribute was
wealth often in kind that an individual or group to another as a sign of respect, submission or allegiance.
Tax was a financial charge or other levy upon taxpayers by a state or the functional equivalent of a state
such that failure to pay was punishable by law. 166
In Saguré, the government exacted about five types of taxes and tributes from individuals, groups or
institutions who had access to land. These were ferégeber (main tax) and asrat (tithe) mostly of two
types. The first for the state and the second was for the church because church gives services: hospitality
for sick people, religious services (praying for peace, security, prosperity, plenty, along and comfortable
life for the king and his vassals and armies as well as other related services). However, the amount and
the variety of taxes expected from each were greatly different from one another. Of all the groups
and individuals as well as institutions, there were institutions and individuals exempted from one
form but expected to pay or provide one or two others. Gӓbbars were expected to submit the lion‟s
165
File No.17, 1, 8, 17, 03 (Arsi Tӓqelay gezat , different times Land and Agricultural Tax, Sӓne 10/1962 E.C.
166
Mahtämä, Zekrä Nägär. p.67.
46
share of the taxes in the study area by traditional units of measurement. Some of these units which
were used in Saguré during the period under discussion are listed below. 167
Traditional units Its equivalents

One qunna fifteen kilograms
One dӓwula twenty qunnas
One ladan four to five qunnas
One gurzňň two to three qunnas
One enqeb half dawula or ten to thirteen qunnas
One madega ten qunnas

One çan one hundred fifty qunnas or five qunnas times
thirty
One liter twelve Birr or three hundred grams
One wӓqét/séqél twenty eight grams
One fӓrasula seventeen kilograms (but varying from twelve to

twenty)
One korja twenty hides or twenty taqas for clothes
One taqa twenty seven meters
One tanika twenty liters
One gundo nineteen kilograms (but varying from ten to

nineteen in some cases)
Table 1 Traditional units of measurement in Ethiopia.

Source: - Mahtӓmӓ Sellasé Wӓlda Mӓsqӓl, Zekrӓ-Nӓgӓr. (Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa
printing press, 1972), p.123.
167
Ibid
47
As noted above, peasants who owned rest land in the district of the study were divided into
different traditional categories depending on the nature of the taxes and tributes they paid.
Gäbbar refers to a taxpayer or a peasant who possessed land for which tax was paid. Geber was
a payment in different forms to the upper officials. There were many kinds of gebers, which
were defrayed by a gäbbar. Conventionally, in the mid-twentieth century, a gäbbar who
possessed only one gaša of land had not been measured. He was obliged to pay numerous kinds
of tax and provided labor services to the government or government appointee. In fact, its size
varied from locality to locality depending on the fertility of the land and types of items available
in that locality. 168
In a case where there was no agreement between the taxpayers and tax collector to pay or collect
in kind, it was paid or provided in the form of labor. In such a case the gäbbar had to work for
the state or the local lord (his master). Alternatively, the gäbbar could take a fixed amount of
land (hudad) and work on it for the tax owner by his own schedule, from the beginning to the
end of every season. 169
The Regional chiefdoms and the mӓlkӓññas possessed hudad land, which was harvested by the
combined labor of all the gäbbars who lived nearby. In the study area, the third type of payment
in kind was asrat (tithe), paid both to the state and the church. Asrat or tithe was one-tenth of
their produce and included transporting it to the store.170 Besides this, the peasants were obliged
to grind grain since there was no modern water-mill or other machines to grind grains. The crop
was collected for governors in a form of tax, asrat, hudad in the
168
Mahtämä, Zekrä Nägär. p.110, Gäbrä Wäld, pp.17-18.
169
Ibid,p. 109.
170
Ibid.
48
hands of the peasants or in a nearby store for grinding. Another payment in kind was providing
firewood for the officials. This was because officials had no other source for fuel and the
peasants were obliged to meet these needs. The church as an important institution expected some
provisions from the peasants besides its possession of one- third of the land such as asrat.171
The gäbbars were expected also to construct the houses and fences of the local chiefs, churches
as well as storehouses for the produce that was collected from the locality, as well as to guard
those stores and prisoners in the locality for certain periods, taking turns. They also shouldered
the obligation of providing food and other provisions to officials who visited their locality.
Different types of payments in cash were expected from gäbbars.172
In the study area, providing labor also comprised another type of tribute paid by the peasants of
the area during the period under study. The following were well known provisions:
1) Cultivation of official land and carrying of produce to government stores.
2) Cutting of grasses on government lands.
3) Erection of houses and fences for provincial governors.
4) Looking after one or two mules for the local governors.
5) Bringing of flour and firewood to the palace.
6) Transportation of tithes to state granaries and repairing and guarding the granaries.
7) Transportation of baggage in times of war and other travels for officials.
8) Acting as prison guards and,
171
Nägarit Gäzéta, No. 230 of 1966.
172
Ibid.
49
9) Building and repairing of churches and payment of taxes in the form of craft works was
also expected from peasants. 173
Holders of siso or balabbats land (mӓlkañña) were also liable to a land tax payable in cattle or
goats, as well as tithe. The tax was based on the amount or the size of land (not on the number
of the pieces of land) which was decided by rulers of the area. Some local balabbats or the
mӓlkӓññas were given permission to defray all in the form of services. 174
The important objective of the land measurement proclamation was to regularize taxation in the
country and to ensure that taxes were paid by all people. Officials, soldiers, the clergy and so
forth lived on the backs of the society, the peasants, artisans and traders. The principal burden
of taxation, however, almost always fell on the peasantry. Sometimes, big landowners were
either taxed or exempted. With the exception of samon mӓrét or church land, taxes were levied
on all types of land. The church tithe should be paid in lieu of land tribute.175
Even the peasants who continued to graze a communal land existed in the form of siso land
were not free from landlord‟s burdens. For the purpose of taxation, the sisso land was registered
in the name of a senior member of the local lineage who collected contributions from his fellow
peasants and paid the annual dues on their communal land. Those who were given madӓrya-
mӓrét as well as the individuals who bought gezmӓrét were also accountable to pay the annual
tax to the state. In Saguré district, holders of madӓryamӓrét usually refused to pay tax and the
government did not force the issue.176
173
Pankhurst, p. 14.
174
Ibid
175
Derrick, pp. 150-58.
176
Donald, p. 42.
50
My informants told me about the rate of taxation imposed on the various categories of land.On
every gaša of lam (fertile land), land tax of 15 thalers was paid annually. For lӓm-tӓf, (semi-
fertile land), 10 thalers; and for tӓf, only 7 thalers were paid annually. For the majority of the
Oromo peasantry, those living on the siso-qabiyyee land, this rate proved heavy. Peasants who
were unable to pay were forced to abandon their claims. In such cases, the land was readily
taken over by local administrators or their relatives who were prepared to pay the tax which
177
automatically registered the land by their names .
Farmers who want to pay their taxes faced the difficulty of obtaining cash. The situation forced
the peasants to sell their cattle or grain at very low prices and their standard of living was low.
Many peasants went to officials to express their grievance, but their efforts did not bear fruit.
The peasants preferred to become landless just to avoid the burden of heavy taxation.178
The land tenure system of the district after Emperor Menilek`s incorporation private tenure.
Under private tenure, after collecting tribute, property owners handed over the tax to the
Emperor. In the tax collection a peasant pays five birr tax per year. When the peasant`s daughter
is getting married, he must pay five birr per year. If a peasant had farm laborers, he would pay
five birr per year. A peasant who had two oxen paid four birr for government. A peasant who
had only one ox paid three birr. A Peasant who had no ox paid one birr up to 50 cents.179
3.3. Effects of Land Measurement on Land Tenure
177
Informant: Hussen Aleye Kӓdir, 27/03/2020.
178
Ibid.
179
Ibid.
51
Land issue was complex and time consuming. Mostly, skill, time, money and influence were
important to be considered to win court cases during the imperial period. In Saguré, court cases
on land dispute would take two years. For whatever each hearing was short the plaintiff and his
witnesses as well as defendant would waste a whole day traveling to and from the rural areas of
Saguré or remote towns to the wӓrӓda or awrajja or provincial courts.180The other challenge of
land measurement in Saguré was absence of standardized unit of measurement during the period
under discussion. Historically, there was no uniformity in land measurement. The following
factors contributed to the inaccuracies of land measurement. These were irregular shape of plots,
the hilly nature of land surface and the variation in the length of the instrument of land
measurement. Qӓlad was used as a measurement while gaša denoted the area of a given piece of
land. In addition, since gaša was a very large unit, it was inconvenient as a measurement unit. In
1944, in order to have uniformity in the length of the instrument of land measurement, by the
order of the Ministry of Pen, a gaša of land was proposed to be equivalent to 40 hectares
(400,000 m2).181
In practice, however, variations continued. The worst happened when there were lack of skill
and loyalty among the surveyors. This could be particularized in the wӓrӓda where fictitious
measurements were reported. In later days, such reports were discovered. As a result, on 5
February 1941/2, the Director of Land Administration Department, in the Ministry of Land
Reform and Administration, wrote a strongly worded letter to all eighteen surveying groups of
the country. According to the letter, whenever fallacious statistical statement or reports were
made, two actions would be taken. First, the land would be re-measured at the expense of the
180
Pankhurst, p. 151.
181
Ibid.
52
surveyors themselves. Second, if the mistake was repeated, further disciplinary action would be
followed.182
During that period, there were also logistical problems in the course of land measurement. The
process was carried out under the instruction and administration of the central government. At
the national level, the demarcates were classified into 18 groups. There was continuous transfer
of surveyors from one province or wӓrӓda to another. This resulted in unnecessary expenses
and financial problems to the workers. The inefficiency of the bureaucracy and lack of
coordination among government offices made the problems worse in Saguré. Delay of salary
and absence of per diem was reported many times to the Ministry. Sometimes, they were
starved and lacked motivation. In addition, as they moved further into interior, in the absence of
modern transport service, more time was spent traveling from and to their center. There were
also health problems (particularly in malaria) infected areas.183
Sometimes local balabbats and other land owners were not cooperative in land measurement.
For example, landholders who knew their encroachment of government lands were against the
process. In other cases the surveyors themselves became the problem makers. In Saguré, there
was an attempt of measuring land in the absence of the balabbat and the mӓlkañña.
Procedurally, this was not correct in accordance with the new legislation. Thus, conflict
happened between the landowners and the surveyors. The opposition involved physical attack
and destruction of measurement instruments and register books by the peasantry.184
182
Šašӓmӓnné. No Box number /45: To Governor of Šašӓmӓnne December, 1961.
183
2189/2119: From 4th Surveyor Group to the Ministry of Interior 2 January, 1960.
184
2131/2200: From Šašӓmӓnné, A report on problems of land measurement.
53
The workers left the area. The measurement process was interrupted for some time. The case
was taken to court which settled the issue in favor of the peasants. Sometimes, assessor motive
to find excess land or hide land caused grievances among the local peoples. Peoples might fear
that re-measurement would result in heavy taxation or losing the ownership due to the
underestimated holdings against land measurement.185
There was a case when the surveyors attempted to measure the land which they were not
supposed to do so. This caused a conflict between the Alaba and Sidama (Saguré neighboring
peoples) against the local balabbats of Saguré. The letter of the local governor addressed to the
Director of the Department of Land Tenure has stated the situation in detail. According to the
letter, the surveyors, under the chief of Berhan Wӓldӓ Mӓsqӓl, were so corrupt that excess land
could not be discovered. Rather they became cause of conflict among different tribes of the
region. Therefore, the letter concludes that their salary was more than their contribution to the
government as they were working for their own benefit. Finally, the group was ordered to stop
measurement and left Saguré.186
In the other way, the round local balabbats and government officials did not want to see accurate
identification of government land. Both were the beneficiaries in the presence of excess lands.
Apparently, records about government land were often incomplete. There was a possibility of
deliberate bias on the part of the wӓrӓda officials in providing information. According to 2
October 1951 report to the Ministry of Interior from the chief of demarcators as they were
becoming nearer and nearer to discover excess land, the local balabbat, Gerazmać Tuki Urgessa,
185
Ibid.
186
2131/2206: From Šašӓmӓnne, To the Ministry of Interior, 1954.
54
backed by the wӓrӓda governor, forced them to stop the measurement. The balabbat claimed that
ten gaša of land was his proper holding.187
For the most part, land could be sold after identifying the type of land. The signature of the local
official should declare this. In Saguré, there were cases of failure to follow the procedure,
however. The selling of land without having accurate information regarding the type of land
tenure resulted in disputes. For example, land under the domain of the monarchy (madbet) was
sold. This caused dispute between the new holders and the azaź. The dispute was brought to the
court hearings which continued for a long period of time.188
The presence of such unending disputes became a problem in the process of the registration of
land ownership and distribution of bill. Similarly, in the wӓrӓda, there was boundary dispute
between the heirs of Dajjazmač Ambӓrber and the azaź of Princess Tӓnaňňӓwӓrq Haylӓ
Sellasé.189
The provisions of the 1942 decree aimed at standardizing tax structure. The unmeasured holdings
were made to pay the least due to landlord opposition. In Saguré, there were unmeasured lands in
the period under consideration and tax collecting was generally low as the report describes.190 But
it was not because of landlord opposition. In the district, there were no open rebellions against the
government. Rather the factor lies on other way round. In the context of the archives consulted, it
was the inefficiency of the bureaucracy and political system that made land tax low. The system
187
Informant: Adӓnӓće Fanetayé , 11/01/2020.
188
Folder number 3340/66, File number 3/66, Saguré municipal land disagreement case, sӓné 25/10/1966.
189
Folder number122/53, File number 3/53, Saguré land charge case, sӓne 25/10/1966.
190
Gӓbru Tӓrraqӓ, Ethiopia, Power and Protest: Peasant Revolts in the Twentieth Century, (Cambridge: Cambridge
University, press, 1991), p. 81.
55
made landlords to hide their lands during measurement. Bribery, for example, was one of the
methods for manipulating local officials.191
In Saguré, despite the 23 October 1952 proclamation, the procedure for obtaining land grant was
complex. It took many administrative and political procedures. Despite complications of the
procedure and system on land tenure, the government had showed little commitment to bring
transformation. The absence of an efficient and effective political structure made things more
distressing. Therefore, despite the imperial orders of land grant, it could not be effectual in the
wӓrӓda as it was thought to be.192
The grantee went years of ups and downs to receive the land. Sometimes, the governor gave deaf
ears to the applicant. The official even reported the presence of less madӓrya lands under
government control than supposed to have. This does not mean that there was no justice. There
was law and order. There was land grant not only to favorites but also to the poor Saguré
peasants. The district was characterized by an excess land grant by the Emperor himself in the
name of the state to the peoples. 193 “Despite the imperial order that all landless Ethiopians are to
have a half gaša of land, all Arsi tenants were not granted land up to 1974 194
This was not the case in Saguré as some, not all, peasants were granted land. Archives tell us
that justice was not blind. Yet, there were manipulations and biases. There were inconsistencies
in applying the rules and regulations. In Saguré, it was observed when an ordinary surveyor
incorporated one‟s legally purchased land to government land.195 For the owner, the process took
191
Ibid.
192
Ibid.
193
Dӓssӓléňň, pp. 17-18.
194
Pankhurst, p. 14. 55.
195
Dӓssӓléňň, pp. 123-125.
56
nearly three years to repossess his property because of an extended court proceeding. There was
also a case when the land of the crown (madbét) was sold and became impossible to get back.196
Therefore, it would be better to argue with all its limitations that those decisions were made in
accordance with the rules of law. For instance, as it is known, the state was the owner of land by
the fact of sovereignty and power. The state had the right to repossess one‟s land. This happened
in Saguré but through legal channels. The owner was given compensation that is land in other
areas with similar category was given. 197
Large amount of land tax was not collected in Saguré as correspondences among government
officials explained. Yet, no letter from what was seen raised the issue of land confiscation. The
state might be abided by customary rules. Senior officials were urging wӓrӓda officials to collect
taxes. For them, absence of uniform measurement and registration, lack of commitment among
tax collectors and ambiguity of some tenure types had made tax collection slow and low.198
In Saguré, the government stopped selling and granting land for some time. In 1959, the
Emperor made visit to different regions. The officials (ministers) focused on making further
provisions in the existing legislation on land registration and administration as well as the need
for more precise cadastral survey. Land measurement continued in the wӓrӓda and was
completed on 12 September 1971.199
196
Ibid.
197
Pankhurst,p.153.
198
Informant: Šellema Bӓdada Alӓmu, 10/06/2020.
199
Ibid.
57
3.4. Factors Affecting Land Measurement Initiation in Saguré District
It is believed that land measurement started during the Gondarine period. But it was in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries that land measurement reached its height and continued until
the collapse of the imperial regime in 1974. During the imperial period, a number of factors could
be mentioned for the necessity and expansion of land measurement in Ethiopia in general and
Saguré wӓrӓda in particular.200
To begin with, there was land selling in the wӓrӓda. The process of privatization of land
assumed to have reached its momentum there. This can be further substantiated in the letter
addressed to the Ministry of Interior from the Head of the Land Surveying in the wӓrӓda. This
process necessitated measurement as prerequisite in order to classify and determine the size and
value of the land. Moreover, preparation of plan that shows location and ownership of land
demanded the need for land measurement.201 Secondly, the government was working vigorously
to increase its income. This was done to hold a sort of balance with the increasing government
expenses. The attempt was made in different ways including selling of lands under its disposition.
This was particularly observed in Saguré where one thousand gaša of land was ordered to be sold
by the Emperor. Thirdly, in the first quarter up to 1925, land measurement was carried out very
inconsistently. It was crudely done. This resulted in enormous variations. As a result, it became
complex to implement land tenure reforms and administration.202
For this reason, in1949, the Ministry of Interior wrote to the wӓrӓda gezӓt,the need for land
measurement. The government wanted to have accurate, legally binding land measurement
200
Informant: Astér Ejӓrӓ Kӓbbӓbӓ , 28/05/2020.
201
It was memorandum presented to the emperor. It has no date and personal signature. It is headed by „Mastӓwašӓ‟.
Equivalent to M. ( or Memo).
202
Ibid.
58
system. This would provide certainty of statistical data and security of land tenure and thereby
reduce the possibilities of litigations and making land transaction easy. Fourthly, measurement
or/and re-measurement, particularly in the last two decades of the regime, was initiated in Saguré
wӓrӓda when dispute cases arose. This happened between private owners or between a private
owner and the state.203
Fifthly, there were also conditions when the pressure for re-measurement of land had come
from either land surveyors or landholders‟ themselves. In Saguré, there were reports that the
landowners requested the measurement of their land. They wanted the measurement in order to
204
pay taxes on an excess land if any. In such cases, discovering excess land was more likely.
The disposition of the excess was handled differently in different wӓrӓdas of the provinces. In
Saguré district, two actions were taken. In some areas the excess was simply taken by the
government. In other areas where the holder admitted the excess and because of the legislation,
he was allowed to keep the entire excess amount on the condition that he could pay tax and the
registration fee within six months.205
Sixthly, there was measurement due to a „land finder‟ who had certificate of eligibility for land
grant. Here, the motive behind the re-measurement was getting land. Yet, in Saguré the holder
denied the presence of excess land under his ownership. The process was brought to the court and
order was given for the re-measurement of the land. The land was re-measured. Excess land was
discovered. The state took part of the excess and the rest was given to land finder. 206
203
Ibid.
204
John Markakis, Ethiopia: Anatomy of a Traditional Polity (oxford:
Clarendron Press, 1974), p. 12.
205
2131/2200: A letter from Šašӓmӓnné to the Ministry of Interior, Phӓgumé, 1953.
206
Ibid.
59
Similarly, surveyor themselves took the initiative for re-measurement. Finding excess land
seemed to be part of their main objective in the wӓrӓda. There are a number of reports that
explain how they tried at most to discover excess. Moreover, the surveyors reported to the
respective officials that many holders had incorporated the excess with their actual holding by
destroying symbols they (surveyors) had made representing the boundary. Such things, irritated
them as they were mainly working for the purpose of getting an extra land and then to increase
government income by selling or taxing it. Accordingly, they urged the government for re-
measurement. Otherwise, according to the 4th surveying group report, they would regret that
effort was becoming fruitless as the owners continued to hold the excess or encroached upon
government lands by bribing local officials.207 Others, probably because of personal conflicts or
unhappy feelings of the better fortune of others, made known to the government officials the
presence of excess land at the possession of a certain individual. This can be further explained in
the letter addressed to the Imperial Government of Ethiopia from a certain individual of the
wӓrӓda. Finally, the person brought the case to the court and requested the court to give an order
of re-measurement.208
Seventhly, land was measured for the direct purpose of taxation. Owners would pay land tax
according to the size and fertility of their land. Yet, prior measurements were not accurate source
of information. This became a problem to facilitate land taxation and administration. The letter
from the Ministry of Finance to the provincial offices of the Ministry of Interior may elaborate
the statement. The Ministry described that unmeasured and unknown lands had created
difficulties for tax assessors. Accordingly, the Ministry of Interior was requested to send
207
Saguré District Culture and Tourism Development Office (SDCTO): Annual report organized 2016.pp.14-17.
208
Johannes Ruphal, Challenges of women on land rights in Ethiopia,(Addis Ababa,2000),p.11.
60
surveyors to Saguré to measure the land and thereby to make land taxation simple and efficient.
Surveyors were sent to measure the land and identify the type of tenure. 209
However, the re-measurement for a tax purpose was not done smoothly. There were series of
conflicts and intrigues. For instance, many times court order was requested in order to proceed
with re-measurement and classification because of the objection of the landholder. Thus, to
implement successful land tax reforms, an efficient system of land registration became a
necessity. This should include, according to the report of the Ministry of Land Reform and
Administration, a cadastral survey and larger scale maps. This was also explained in the 1959
letter of Keflé Ergӓtu, Vice-Minister, on the need for land measurement in Saguré wӓrӓda.210
Similarly, the letter from the Ministry of Finance to the provincial office appreciated the
preparation of the office to start land measurement in Saguré wӓrӓda. Further, the minister
recommended having measurement not only in Saguré but also in all other areas of the country
where “Qӓlad” had not yet taken place. In Saguré, there was no an efficient and effective taxation
system because of absence of modern land records. The amount of land tax was so
small. This was also true in other areas of the country and at different times as explained in
“Zekrӓ Nӓgӓr”; as a problem during the reign of Menilek II and his successors. Accordingly, the
government had tried many times to have an accurately measured and registered land.211
In Saguré wӓrӓda, it was also reported that the then system of classification of measured lands
had three categories: Infertile, semi fertile and fertile for the purpose that land taxation was crude,
209
Ibid.
210
Ibid.
211
Mahtӓmӓ, p. 12.
61
because of differences in the factors affecting land‟s potential in different parts of the district and
inaccuracies of measurement and classification. The Director of the Department of Rest and Wel
presented recommendation to the Emperor about the need for a wide categorization of land to
make the system of classification more equitable. The Emperor replied that the proposed
amendment was good, but ordered that it should not be enforced for some time, for different
reasons.212
Finally, there were land grants to the landless peasants, exiles, patriots, government officials and
unemployed. Land grant was one of the dominant features of the regime. In 1952, the Emperor
issued a proclamation that all landless Ethiopians were entitled to get land. Unlike what Bizuwӓrq
argues in Saguré, there was land grant to local peasantry upon their request. There was land grant
to more than 1,553 local people, ½ gaša of land for each, since 1946. It was the Emperor who
ordered land grant to the district peoples. In 1958, the local peoples requested further.213
There was also land grant to the „renowned Hӓmaséns (and is equivalent to mean Eritreans) in
Saguré and Šašӓmӓnne. There were two rationales for the eligibility of the Hӓmaséns for land
grant. First, there were Eritreans (Hӓmaséns) who came to Ethiopia opposing the colonization of
Eritrea in 1890. Second, during the 1935-1936, Italo-Ethiopian war and period of resistance,
a number of Eritreans deserted the Italians and joined the Ethiopians. Accordingly, there was
land grant to them or their families in the Šašӓmӓnne wӓrӓda. They were absentee
landholders.214
212
A report on land Tenure Survey of Ćhilalo province. Addis Ababa: August, 1959.
213
Bezuwӓrq Zӓwde, “Land Grant and Tenancy: A Case Study of Arsi” In the 12th International Conference of
Ethiopian Studies. Vo.1 (Michigan state University,1994).
214
2189/2106. From the ministry of Interior to the Governor General of Arsi 5 June,1958.
62
Initially, land grantees through manipulations and absence of standardization of measurement
were able to possess more lands than they were required to have. Gradually, however, the need
for land became acute because of the influx of land grantees. In this regard, in reference to a
letter of 3 June 1965 from the Ministry of Interior addressed to Ras Mӓsfen Selӓš concerning the
increment of request for land grant in Saguré. The Minister pointed out the need for more
accurate identification of government lands to facilitate land distribution to eligible
grantees.215In connection with government lands identification, Kӓtӓma wrote a thesis on Land
Tenure of Arsi. His explanation on the process of land grant and measurement coincides more or
less with archival materials. Likewise, Šifӓrraw, in his article, wrote that the expansion of grants
of government lands to individuals had been intensified during the 1941-1974. This by
implication led to land measurement.216
There were procedures of measurement of land to be granted. A would be beneficiary of land
grant was required to produce a certificate of eligibility before submitting an application for a
grant of land to the Ministry of land Reform and Administration. Once eligibility was proven,
the applicant had to locate a parcel of government land. The procedure is also explained in the
paper by Bruce and Zӓgaye. The authors have stated that once the grantee found the presence
and location of government land, he would write application for land grant to the Ministry or its
provincial offices. Government offices then would commence an inquiry to determine whether
the particular piece of land proposed was in fact government land available for granting or
occupied by other peasants.217
215
Ibid.
216
Kӓtӓma Mӓsqӓlӓ, “The Evolution of Land-ownership and Tenancy in Highland: A case Study of Goba, Sinana
and Dodola to 1974.” (M.A. Thesis, AAu, 2001), 123, Šifӓrraw,p.36.
217
John Bruce and Zӓgayyé Asfaw. P.110.
63
This was the legal constitution and process that some literature and archival materials are telling
us. However, there existed a conflict of information from Bizuwӓrq and Pausweang wrote; “All
land granted to patriots and others were not all in all empty lands, but fertile lands on which
218
indigenous farmers lived as government tenants.” Other works claim on the abnormalities
arisen in practice. The grantee might bribe the local balabbats who might not be honest and
sincere in their reports. This caused land disputes between the grantees and local people who
considered the lands they settled as part of their community‟s heritage. This resulted in
continuous court cases for which the court ordered measurement and re-measurement of land in
Saguré.219
In supporting the above paragraph, there is a report that in Saguré wӓrӓda land grant had been
taken place through „eye-guessing‟. Moreover, the register book of the wӓrӓda was lost. As a
result, land taxation was very low. The owners were paying only for their proper holding. But
the government wanted to increase its income. For such reasons, government lands should be
identified to distribute or sell to those who deserved it. On 9 January 1952, the Ministry of Pen
wrote to the Ministry of Interior and Finance the need to sell government lands to the people. 220
Generally, these were major factors for initiating land measurement or re-measurement in
Saguré in the period under discussion. 221
218
Bezuwӓrq Zӓwdé, “The problem of Tenancy and Tenancy Bills with Particular Reference to Arsi” (M.A Thesis,
AAU, 1992), 32.
219
2184 /211.The date is not legible. The file describes problems arose in the process of land grant in the absence of
accurate information about the type of the tenure.
220
Ibid.
221
2158/2206: From the Ministry of pen to the Ministry of Finance and Interior 9 February 1944.
64
CHAPTER FOUR
LANDLORD-TENANT DISPUTES
AND EFFECTS OF PRIVATIZATION ON TENANTS
4.1. The Nature of Landlord-Tenant Relation
In the landlord-tenant relation in Saguré, peasants had to pay an annual tribute and duty labor
service to landlords. The landlord-tenant relation was based on payment contract. Mostly the
payment was depending on treaty like erbo, ekul, siso, etc. The landlords had not respected the
promise. The use of all tenants‟ labor the Saguré district was common in the beginning of
1941.222
When disagreement created between land-lords and tenants, the tenants of Saguré appealed to the
imperial court like tenants of the other parts of the country. But their efforts did not bear fruit.
The people also appealed to the imperial court when disagreement created between family
members.223
In the post-liberation period, tenants under the land-lords in the district had cultivated land. But,
many landlords received a lion‟s share of the product of the tenants. The landlords grabbed
tenants product ranged from one-fourth or erbo to three-fourth and or two-third. There were big
differences between peasants and sharecroppers who were mainly local farmers. Tenants who
were mainly migrant peasants were working dependently on oxen for land-lords.224
222
Folder number 122/53, File number 3/53, Saguré municipal land charge case, sӓné 25/10 / 1966.
223
Ibid.
224
Informant: Bariso Sondi, 06/04/2020.
65
The legal position of a person of tenant or sharecroppers had been improved suddenly.
Moreover, my informants explain that the tenants were suffering from insecurity since the
landlords forced them to leave their place. Before 1974, the land reform of the imperial regime
had not been considered by many as to find the size, quantity, and so on of the land in standard
units that had eradicated the tenant-landlord relations in Saguré district.225 In Saguré district,
land owners treated tenants unfairly in the late 1940s. Some measures of the government became
bitter than before. All circumstances that were happening at a particular time and place such as
the place with no intention of returning of tenants‟ private services for landowners were taken
by the government, but these policies were not effective in all rural areas of the district..226
Since the1960s in particular, the process becoming better to the existing between the land
owners and tenants was one of the main pieces of writing to be making determined effort to deal
with a difficult problem or situation. In the place of the Ministry of Land Reform and
Administration (MLRA) in the position of authority efforts to create policies in the late1960s
and the early 1970s, a forceful written version of that are not yet essential form laws of tenancy.
Reform was not to pass a law because it faced opposition from great councilors; Orthodox
Churches and the district elite who were themselves land owners.227
The Amhara vassals evicted the Oromo peasants who did not pay the tenant rent. They soon
came back and cultivated the land again. So, most of the Oromo peasants were still tenants of
landlords. Some cultivated their own land for subsistence since the middle of the twentieth
225
Informant: Šellema Bӓdada Alӓmu, 10/06/2020.
226
Ibid.
227
Ibid.
66
century, while some portion of lands in Saguré district began to be invested by big landlords and
exploited exclusively with wage labor.228
4.2. Causes of Landlord-Tenant Dispute and Its Impacts on Tenants
The surrender of the district was accompanied by the introduction of a feudal land tenure which
was later changed to private ownership in favor of the elites who took part in the integration
process. The imposed land tenure was characterized by arbitrary taxation, forcible personal labor
service, public works, exploitative agricultural tenancy and dramatic rise in eviction. 229
In the 1960s and the early1970s following the introduction of commercial agriculture, there were
230
serious of landlord-tenant disputes. In the district, in the post-liberation period, the harsh and
repressive misrule of the governors made great effects on the district peasants. Private tenure in
the district led to civil disputes between landlords and tenants. The dispute included cases such
as the failure of the tenants to pay an amount of money that regularly paid.231
The unfair nature of landlord-peasant relation was also the direct cause for their disputes in
Saguré. The system was established after the incorporation of the district in which peasants had
to pay annual tribute and duty labor service to the imperial armies. 232 In Saguré for example,
when families failed to pay tribute or duty labor service, their members would be taken as
domestic slaves for soldier-settlers.233
228
Mohammed, pp. 90-93.
229
Yähägär-gizät mätshét, pp. 6-9.
230
Ibid.
231
Ibid.
232
Ibid.
233
Ibid.
67
4.3. The Major Effects of Private land Tenure System on Tenants in Saguré
District
Excessive political intervention in Saguré district that facilitated land grabbing by favoring
landlords, political authorities and the emerging of private ownership have had severe impacts
on the tenants in the district. These included tenancy, sharecropping, and eviction and labor
services.234
4.3.1. Tenancy
One of a number of negative effects of the politically imposed tenure or the tenants of the study
area was the emergence of widespread tenancy. Most of the peasants were reduced to the status
of a class of landless who were forced to work as tenants mainly for the northern landlords who
succeeded in incorporating the district. Most of the economic burdens had to rest heavily on the
shoulders of the tenants of the district. This was because they were to pay taxes and bribes and
were placed under the control of the district governors. The landless tenants had been extremely
insecure. The tenants had to live under the condition of uncertainty and excessive dependence
on the northern landlords and governors. 235
4.3.2. Sharecropping
Another impact of private land tenure of the study area was the emergence of the system of
sharecropping. In the district, sharecropping was a heavy burden which both economically and
politically exposed the tenants of the district to the exploitation of the landowners .This was the
234
Kätabo Abdiyo. “A Historical survey of Arsi, 1910–1974”,(M.A.Thesis), Department of History, Addis Ababa
University, 1999. 45.
235
Kätabo, “The Political Economy of Land and Agrarian Development in Arsi: 1941-1991”, (doctoral
dissertation), Department of History, Addis Ababa University, 2010, 88.
68
situation where the landlords received a lion`s share of the produce of the tenants. The amount of
the product that the landlords grabbed from the tenants ranged from one-fourth or erbo, three-
tenths‟ and or two third. Using their distinct social position, the landlords and the mӓlkӓñña
squeezed as much as they could from their tenants.236
Sharecropping was a manifestation of classical type of tenancy and a symmetrical power
relationship between the owners and non-owners of land. It was a vital source of exploitation
and domination of the tenants. Indeed, the experience of the district under the imperial regime
confirms the theoretical argument. Sharecropping was not just an economic institution which
subjected the tenant‟s exploitation by landlords. It was also a political instrument that provided
the landowners with the power to suppress the tenants and landless laborers.237
4.3.3. Eviction
Eviction of the peasants in the study area was another adverse effect of landlordism. Besides
exacerbating the sufferings of the tenants through exploitation, the landlord could discontinue
their relations with their tenants at discretion. The poor peasants had been subjected to
displacement that created further insecurity of tenure. The introduction of agricultural methods
in Saguré created a golden opportunity and incentives for the landlords to get rid of the poor
peasants who were helpless in face of the powerful landlords who were backed by the officials
of the Haylӓ Sellasé`s government.238 Furthermore, tenant displacement was affected where
there existed no adequate alternative means of employment for the landless peasants. Definitely,
236
Wӓliyi Tusa. “Muslim and Customary Marriage Practices among Arsi Oromo of Kofalé” (B.A. thesis) Addis
Ababa University, 2011, 78.
237
Temam Haji-Adam. “A History of Amiňňa”, (B.A. Thesis), Department of History, Addis Ababa University,
1996. 56-70.
238
Informants: Bariso Sondi.
69
the politicized land allocation in the district had created excessive tenure insecurity for the
majority of the peasants. This situation, in turn along with other effects of land privatization had
further agrarian contradictions and the associated conflicts between landlords, government
officials and peasants of the district.239
4.3.4. Labor Service
Labor service that rendered to the landlords was another form of exploitation and suppression.
A landlord had full power over tenants under him established guarantee on the plots that he
cultivated. An insecure person can hardly be expected to turn down the impositions of another
person on which he was heavily dependent for his subsistence. This is because there are little or
no alternatives to such a dominant subordinate pattern of relationships. To sum up, the pre-
1975 politics of land tenure generated asymmetrically patterns of production relation which
subjected them as peasants of Saguré to excessive dependence on the landlords and political
elites. Infarct the landless farmers of the district large, worked for others as they were
excessively dependent to have access to the farmland which was crucial for them and their
families livelihood Infarct the landless farmers of the district large, worked for others as they
were excessively dependent to have access to the farmland which was crucial for them and their
families livelihood.240
239
Wӓliyi,77.
240
Abas Haji. “A History of Arsi 1980-1935”, (B.A. Thesis), Department of History, Addis Ababa University,
1982. P.22.
70
Conclusion
The study gave due attention to examine a history of land tenure system in Saguré district from
1941 to 1974. The study has been conducted by employing different methods of data collection.
Secondary sources such as books, articles, senior essays and M.A thesis were consulted. 241
Various archival materials and oral sources were also extensively used. Primary sources were the
main sources of this work. Interview was administered with knowledgeable district elders. In the
post 1941, the imperial regime made major changes in the land tenure system. Land was the basic
economic, political and social issues. The main aim of land reform is to modernize land holding
system of the country and to increase the income of the government. New land reform and land
proclamation affected the life of peasants and farming. Land tenure system imposed in the
district.242
Before 1974 land tenure system characterized by feudal and more land in the study area was
possessed by a few landowning people. Poor peasants who had only small plots of land and rent
paying land lacked the spirit of individualism and self-motivation to cultivate cash crop or food
243
crops effectively. The tenant‟s labor was exploited both by landlords and governors of the
district in the period under discussion. For instance, failure to fight against enemy, of local
governors, failure to pay government tax, un balance land share, most peasants fail under corvee
labor and so on that led to confiscation of their land. 244
241
Abas,p.20.
242
Ibid.
243
Ayalneh Boggala,” Continuity and change, shifting rulers and the quest for state control,” (Benedict Korf:
university of Zurich, 2008), pp.7-12.
244
Ibid.
71
The thesis has four chapters. The first chapter deals with the geographical and historical
background of the study area. This chapter tries to look at the geographical features of the
district. It also describes a short history of Saguré and the land tenure system in Ethiopia as well
as the study area. The second chapter emphasizes on the land tenure system in the district. It
describes the pre-1975 land holding system, different types of crop farming and land alienation,
land redistribution, privatization of land, the types of land tenure in the district, and women‟s
land right in the district. Chapter three explains land proclamation and measurement in the
district, land tax after proclamation and effects of land measurement on land tenure. The last
chapter concentrates on the landlord-tenant disputes and effects of privatization on tenants. It
also tries to address the economic, political, and social effects of land tenure system on tenants
in the district.
The major finding of the thesis in the study area was to address the socio-economic impacts of
private land tenure system on peasants of the district. Moreover, the study attempted to assess
the land holding system and its effects over tenants in the study area. The major effects of
private land tenure system on tenants in Saguré district are tenancy, sharecropping, eviction and
forced labor Service. The study also uncovered the effects of land measurement and
proclamation on the peasants of the district and the types of land tenure system in the study
area.245
245
Ibid
72
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Fiscal Military state 1696-1913. Upsala, Sweden, 1996.
76
B. Articles, Newspapers, Occasional Papers and Reports
Abbas Haji. “The Dilemmas of Arsi Balabbats: A Study of Socio -Economic Positioning of
Local Chiefs, 1886-1935”. Proceedings To the 10th International Conference of Ethiopian
Studies.1994 (Vol. I). Paris, France, 1994.
Ayyalnӓh Boggalӓ. Continuity and change, Shifting rulers and the quest for State control”.
Benedict korf: University of Zurich, 2008.
_____________.“Land Policy in Ethiopia at the Cross Roads‟‟ Proceedings of the
Second International Conference of Studies, Michigan University, 1994.
Bahru Zewde. “Some Aspects of Post-Liberation Ethiopia 1941-1950”, In Eighth International
Conference vol. 1, p.21), Addis Ababa: Institute of Ethiopian Studies. 1984.
Berhanu Abägaz. Poverty Trap in a Tributary Mode of Production: The Peasant Economy of
Ethiopia in Working Paper. No.6. College of William and Mary,2004.
Baxter, P. T. W. “Ethiopia's Unacknowledged Problem: The Oromo”, African Affairs:
A Quarterly Journal of the Royal African Society. Published by:- Oxford University Press
on behalf of the Royal African Society. 77(308):283-296, 1978.
_____________ “Butter for Barley and Barley for Cash: Petty Transactions and Small
Transformations in an Arsi Market”. Edited by Sven Rubén son, In the proceedings of
the seventh International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, University of Lund, 1982.
Baxter, P.T.W, Hultin, Jun and Truilzi, Alesandro (ed.). “Being and Becoming Oromo”,
A Historical and Anthropological Inquires, In Nordica, African Institute, Uppsala, 1996.
Bezuwӓrq Zӓwdé. “Land Grant and Tenancy:- A case Study of Arsi” In 12th International
Conference of Ethiopia Studies., Michigan state University.Vol.1. (1994).
77
Braukamper, Ulrich. Oromo Country of Origin: A Reconsideration of Hypothesis. In the
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies,Vol. 1. Tel Aviva,
1980.
_____________. 1984. “The Islamization of Arsi Oromo”, in the proceedings of the Eighth
International Studies of Ethiopian Studies,Vol. I, p.767, Addis Ababa.
Cohen, John M. and Isakson, Nils-Ivar. ‟Villagization in Ethiopia's Arsi Region.’ The Journal
of Modern African Studies, 25(3):435-464, Published by: Cambridge University, 1987.
Dӓssaleňň Rahmato, “Agrarian Reform in Ethiopia: A brief Assessment,” Paper Presented at
the Seventh International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Lund: University of Lund,
1982
_________________ “Land policy in Ethiopia at the cross roads.‟‟ proceedings of the second
Workshop of the land tenure project, IDR/AAU.
Ešetu Çolle. “Towards A History of the Fiscal Policy of the Pre-Revolutionary Ethiopian
State 1941-1974.” Paper Prepared for the East African History Conference, Nazareth:
Institute of Ethiopian Studies, 1982.
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Population Census Commission: Summary and
Statistical Report of the 2007Population and Housing Census (Addis Ababa: Central
Statistical Authority, 2008.
Gäbrä Wäld Engda Wärq. Ethiopia„s Traditional System of Land Tenure and Taxation‖ in
Ethiopian Observer. Vol.5 No.4. Addis Ababa. 1961.
Habtamu Mӓngisté. “Lord–Zéga and Peasant study Property Agrarian relation in rural areas”.
Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press, 2006.
Henok Kiflé. „‟Investigation of Mechanized Farming and Its Effect on Peasant Agriculture.„‟
78
No.74. March, 1972, Assӓla, Ethiopia,1972.
Kӓtӓbo Abdiyo. “Villagisation in Arsi, was it an Agent of Development or
Impoverishment?” In the Proceedings of the Second Annual Research, Conference of
Jimma University. February 17-18, 2011.
Marcus, Harold. „‟Haylӓ Sellassié‟s Development Polices and Views (1916-1960)”, in the
10th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, V. I, Paris,1994.
Markakis, John. Ethiopia: Anatomy of the Traditional Polity. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974.
______________________.„„Nationalities and States in Ethiopia.‟‟ Third World Quarterly,
1989.
Pankhurst, Richard. “Tribute, Taxation and Government Revenues in Nineteenth and Early
Twentieth Century Ethiopia (Part I)," Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. 5 No 2(1967).
Tӓšoma Kӓbbӓddӓ. “Some Aspects of Feudalism in Ethiopia”, Edited by Sven Robinson, in the
proceedings of the seventh International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, University of
Lund, 1982.
Täsamma Habtä Mikaél, Käsatä Berhan: Yé amariñña mäzegäbä qalat (Addis Ababa, 1959),
Yä-hagär-gezat mäşét. First year publication: Yé-hägär-gizät Minister; Addis Ababa,
April 24, 1942.
Yilma Kӓbbӓdӓ. “Çilӓlo Awrajja”, Ethiopian Geographical Journal, Ethiopian
Mapping and Geographical Institute, Addis Ababa. 5 (1):25-36, 1967.
79
III. Websites
Abbӓbӓ Haylӓ Gӓbri‟él. “Generating Marketed surplus of food through state farms: A critical
evaluation of the Ethiopian experience”. (Published M.A. thesis) Master thesis.1990: The
Hague Institute of Social Studies, Hague, Netherland. (1990.),
<<http repub.eur.nl/res/pub/ 18915/wp72.pdf >> (Accessed on May11, 2012).
Anonymous. Market Potential Assessment and Road Map Development for the
Establishment of Capital Market in Ethiopia, (2011),
<<http://www.ppesa.gov.et/PublicEnterpriseProfile.aspx?PEID=23>> (Accessed on
May 1, 20130).
Anonymous. Land reform in Ethiopia, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, (2009),
<< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Land reform in Ethiopia>> (Accessed on January
4, 2013).
Anonymous. Resettlement and villagization in Ethiopia, from Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia. (n.d.),<< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ResettLӓment and vilagization in
Ethiopia>> (Accessed on March 12, 2013).
80
Lists of Informants
NoNaName of informant Age Place and

date of
interview
N0 Remarks
1. 1 Gӓlӓta Urgӓya 77 Tijo, Longtime resident of Tijo, A worker in the
Reba (Ato) 6/04/2020 government and history teller.
2. Dӓbӓ Dӓbal Abbo 70 Saguré, He Was an influential peasant in Saguré and
(Ato) 10/03/200 longtime resident: A useful informant
regarding the land tenure system of Saguré
district.
3. Astér Ejӓrӓ 60 Digӓlu, A potato farmer born in Digӓlu, A useful
Kӓbbӓbӓ (Wӓyzӓro) 15/04/2020 informant regarding to the land.
4. Feqadu Mammo 50 Digӓlu. He is a merchant and knows much about the
Bӓdada (Ato) 18/2/2020 land Tenure system of Saguré.
5. Dӓjӓné Gӓmmačču 66 Arsi, He is a merchant and Personally devoted to
Lugo (Ato) 09/03/2020 the study of the history of Arsi and
knowledgeable about the land.
6. Haylé Bӓdada 60 Saguré. A famous cattie merchant and history teller
Alӓmu (Ato) 2/3/2021 of Saguré town.
7 Tӓsfayé Dirriba 63 Saguré, A famous farmer and knowledgeable
Kotu (Ato) 10/12/2019 informant about land.
8. Berehanu Šellema 51 Tijo, A Farmer and a longtime resident in Digӓlu
81
Bӓdada (Ato) 8/12/2019 town. He is a good informant about the land.
9. Aduňňa Šellema 40 Bokoji, He is civil servant in Saguré town and a
Bӓdada (Ato) 1/12/2019 valuable informant particularly for land
holding system.
10. Adӓnӓće Fanetayé 36 She was born in Tijo She is a merchant and
Gullilat (Wayzaro) Digӓlu, knows much about the land holding system
11/01/2021 of the district.
11. Hussen Aleye 82 Tijo, A longtime resident in Tijo. He is a merchant
Kӓdir (Ato) 27/3/2020 and knows more about land holding system.
12. Wӓrqenӓh Dirriba 75 Bokoji, A worker in the court of Bokoji district and
Kotu (Ato) 28/05/2020 knowledgeable informant about the land.
13. Lénsé Lugo 82 Digalu, Government worker women in Saguré and

Mӓkuriya
18/11/2019 history teller.
(Wӓyzӓro)
14. Jitu Tsӓggayé Tijo, She lived in Saguré and knows about the
Gӓmmӓdӓ 39 09/10/2019 land holding system of Saguré District.
(Wӓyzӓro)
15. Taddӓsӓ Gӓbbisa Saguré, A famous merchant in Saguré town and
Bonӓ (Ato) 58 30/1/2021 knowledgeable about the land holding
system.
16. Adӓm Kӓdir Saguré, He was religious teacher at Bokoji Mosque.
(Sheik) 64 27/1/2020
82
17. Kӓbbӓdӓ Lӓggӓsӓ Agaro, He was religious teacher at Tijo St. church.
(Qés) 66 3 /10/2019
18. Liqӓdӓmos Akelilu, Tijo, A potato dealer, born in Saguré. He is
(Qés) 58 19/2/2019 famous history teller in the town.
19. Wӓrqenӓh Bӓdada Agaro, He is a merchant in Tijo and Knows much
Alӓmu (Ato) 70 9/3/2019 about the development of land tenure system
in the district.
20. Kuma Qӓnӓni Tijo, He is a merchant in Saguré and Knows
Hundé (Ato) 47 14/1/2021 much about the Saguré district land holding
system.
21. Wӓrqu Dӓbӓli Bokoji, He is a farmer and lived in Digalu knows
Abo (Ato) 66 13/4/2020 the land tenure system of the district.
22. Dӓjӓné Gӓmmačču Saguré, A famous grain farmer and history teller of
Lugo (Ato) 44 8/4/2020 Digӓlu.
23. Saguré, He lived in Saguré. He Served as a soldier
Šubbé Balća Sob é 70 27/4/2020 during imperial regime and history teller in
(Ato) the town.
24. Arӓda Dirriba Kotu 64 Bokoji, He is a merchant and lived in Bokoji. He is
(Ato) 26/05/2020 also a useful informant about the land. .
25 Šellema Bӓdada Saguré, A famous teff merchant in Saguré and history
Alӓmu (Ato) 66 10/06/2020 teller.
26. Wӓynešet Mammo 40 Digӓlu, She lived in Digӓlu and history teller in the
83
Bӓdada (Wӓyzӓro) 23/05/2020 town.
27. Yonas Lӓggӓsӓ Saguré, He was serving in Saguré Orthodox church
(Qés) 33 10/2/2020 and history teller.
28. Šuker Biyya 68 Digӓlu, He has been serving at Tijo health center
(Ato) 23/07/2021 and the most important informant related to
land holding system.
29. Guta Lugo Saguré, He is a merchant in Saguré and

Mӓkuriya (Ato) 53 14/2/2020 Knowledgeable person on the history of land
holding system in the district.
30. Zӓrihun Asӓffa Digӓlu, He was a History teacher and longtime
(Teacher) 55 08/06/2020 resident in Saguré. He knows much about
land Tenure of Saguré district.
31 Tӓšoma Dӓbӓli Tijo, A farmer in Tijo, and knows much about the
Abbo (Ato) 48 09/07/2020 land Tenure of Saguré district.
32. Fӓyyisa Dӓba Bokoji, A government worker in Saguré and knows
Dӓbӓli Abbo (Ato) 35 08/05/2021 much about the land of Saguré.
33. Šambӓl Lӓmma Digalu, He is a merchant lived in Digalu and Knows
Bӓdané (Ato) 52 09/01/2020 much about the development of land tenure
system in the district.
34 Astér Zӓwdé Saguré, She is informed merchant and well elite Who
(Wӓyzӓro) 32 28 /06/2020 knows much about development of land.
84
Appendix 1
A letter from emperor Haylȁ Sellasé to Arsi Tӓqelay gezat written on 10/031949, about land
proclamation (a photocopied letter ).
85
Appendix 2
A letter from Saguré District to Wӓji Qӓbӓlé written on 28/05/1956, about land tax decree
(a photocopied letter ).
86
Appendix 3
A letter from Arsi Tӓqelay gezat to Gommӓ Wӓji Qӓbӓlé written on 10 /03/1966, about land tax
collection (a photocopied letter ).
87
88

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WOLLO UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES COLLEGE OF SOCIAL

SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND HERITAGE

A HISTORY OF LANDTENURE SYSTEM IN SAGURÉ DISTRICT

BY: ZERIHUN MAMO BEDADA

ADVISOR MELAKU ABATE (PhD)

BY: ZERIHUN MAMO

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO SOCIAL SCIENCES COLLEGE

HISTORY DEPARTMENT WOLLO UNIVERSITY INPARTIAL

FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER

WOLLO UNIVERSITY, DESSIE

KEY TO THE TRANSLITERATION SYSTEM ..............................................................................V

LIST OF MAP ................................................................................................................................. VII

LIST OF TABLE ............................................................................................................................VIII

PREFACE ........................................................................................................................................ XII

CHAPTER ONE ................................................................................................................................. 1

GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ............................................................. 1

1.1.GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND .................................................................................................. 1

CHAPTER TWO .............................................................................................................................. 17

LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN THE DISTRICT (1941-1974) .................................................... 17

LAND PROCLAMATIONS AND MEASUREMENT AFTER LIBRATION............................... 41

3.1. LAND PROCLAMATIONS AND MEASUREMENT ............................................................ 41

3.2. Land Tax after Proclamation……………………………………………………………..…45

CHAPTER FOUR ............................................................................................................................ 65

LANDLORD-TENANT DISPUTES AND EFFECTS OF PRIVATIZATION ON TENANTS ... 65

4.1. THE NATURE OF LANDLORD-TENANT RELATION ................................................................. 65

III. WEBSITES ............................................................................................................................. 80

LISTS OF INFORMANTS .............................................................................................................. 81

of this work up to the final work.

Mamo is unforgettable and my thanks to them are beyond words.

acknowledged by means of footnotes and bibliography.

Name: Zerihun Mamo Signature: Date: 27/05/2021

The seven sounds of the Ethiopic alphabet are represented as follows:

Vowels symbol Amharic examples English examples

1st order (ge‟ez) ä ከበደ Käbbädä

2nd order (ka‟eb) u ቁርጥ Qurţ

3rd order (sales) i ሲሶ Siso

4th order (rabe) a ሳጉሬ Saguré

5th order (hames) é ቄስ Qés

6th order (Sades) e እሼቱ Ešétu

7th order (Sabé) o ኦሮሞ Oromo

Amharic symbol Amharic examples English examples

ጠ ţ ጠቅላይግዛት Ţӓgelay gezat

AZRADO Arsi Zone Rural and Agricultural Development Office.

FAO Food and Agricultural Organization.

FDRECC Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopian Census Commission.

MLRA Ministry of Land Reform and Administration.

NALA National Archive Library Agency.

OUPI Oromia Urban Planning Institute.

SWAO Saguré Wäräda Agricultural Office.

SWCTO Saguré Wäräda Cultural and Tourism Office.

SWURLDO Saguré Wäräda Urban and Rural Land Development Office.

1. The Modern Geographical Map of the study area (since2010) _______________________16

Table.1. Traditional units of measurement Ethiopia……………………….………………..47

explained in the part of the thesis.

Afän Oromo terms

Abbaa Owner of the horse-name of prominent figures.