State and society relations from 1974 to 1991: a case of southwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

ABSTRACT The need to study the relation between state and periphery in the past is one of the means to understand the socioeconomic and political history of the local people in Africa. Hence, this paper is principally geared to examine the issues of relation between the Ethiopian state (center) and peoples lived in southwestern Ethiopian from 1974 to 1991. Southwestern Ethiopia is a very broad region found in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Regional State of Ethiopia consisting of many cultural groups. Thus, the study mainly focuses on the relation between the central government and the peoples in southwestern Ethiopia such as Surma, Dizi, Me’en, Bench, Zilmamo and Sheko. The area was incorporated into the central government in 1898. From that time onwards, the gebar (tax payer) system, labor exploitation and slave trade instituted in most parts of the region. During the Derg regime (1974–1991) the relation between the aforementioned peoples and the center (state) has relatively changed. The gebar system, labor exploitation, and the slave trade were abandoned from the region. The central government instituted different national reforms which included distributing land to the landless, providing basic education, establishing peasant associations, clustering people through villegazation and resettlements, and organizing the people through cooperatives. However, the Surma people who shared border with Sudan resisted the government reforms. Thus, the government did not successfully implement the reforms in Surma and in some parts of the Me’en and Dizi area.