Surviving the state: Resource tenure and conflict dynamics among the Guji-Oromo of southern Ethiopia

This study uses ethnographies of two ago-pastoral settlements, Burqitu and Finchawa, in the Guji-Oromo area of southern Ethiopia. Oral history and archival research methods reveal that there were dependence on a customary administration and a wide range of complex security networks based on kinship, friendship, and patronage on a greater extent in the pre-conquest period to sustain pastoralism in the region. The decline of pastoralism took root at the turn of the twentieth century following the great famine of 1889-92 and the Abyssinian conquest a few years later.; Customary institutions and practices in the arid and semi-arid ecology are unique mechanisms of social and cultural adaptations by pastoralists to the otherwise inhospitable environment. State policies that were put in place in the Guji area have affected the customary institutions of pastoralists, how the people relate to their environments and neighbors, and their livelihood practices. The study describes how these processes unfolded since the time of incorporation to the present and analyzes their impact on the Guji people. It links the environmental problems and conflicts faced by pastoralists and agro-pastoralists to policies and institutions engaged in environment and "development."; The feudal social relations and the development strategies of the socialist and current governments required the settlement of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists, negatively affecting their livelihoods, resource management, as well as group relationships. Under the imperial government, political incorporation introduced a tenancy/share cropping form of tenure, displacing those who refused to settle and farm to the south and pushing them into conflict with their neighbors. The socialist regime that replaced the imperial government tried to crash pastoralist resistance against its unfavorable policies by settling them under the pretext of security concern. And today, the development discourse of the government supports the settlement of pastoralists and private "investment" in their region. The interventionist policies of the Ethiopian government since the time of the conquest have changed the foundations of cooperation between groups and customary resource use systems.; Keywords: Political Ecology, Pastoralism, Resource Tenure, Conflict, Guji-Oromo...