Political and Social Conditions: Changes and Continuities in Western Ethiopia, ca. 1930-1974
Modernisation of the state apparatus under the consecutive regimes would evolve differently in different regions. The relation between the people and the state in various localities deserve case to case scrutiny. With the expansion of the state apparatus the state became a “specifiable third player” in the inter-ethnic relations. 1 The peripheral people, usually seen as marginal to the state making project, were vitally linked to it via the rural economy, providing labour and manpower. Often politically overlooked, they were directly associated to the centre, forming the bottom of a power pyramid that connected the centre with the periphery. The predatory state that built the nucleus of future Ethiopia was inherited with all its features by Lij Iyassu and later by Emperor Haile Selassie.
With a short interruption during the Italian invasion between 1935 and 1941 the reign of Haile Selassie was mainly marked by a strong push towards modernisation of the administration, bureaucratisation, and military reforms. The attempt to build a unified nation, a project that involved the promotion of Amharic as a national language and the expansion of Orthodox Christianity as the state religion, was pushed at the expense of local culture, religion, and languages.
Western Ethiopia, like any other region, felt the effects of centralisation in several ways. First, the whole area was put under a more regular taxation system, with the local administration put in the hands of central authorities, while the landlords were
1 Dereje Feyissa, Playing Different Games: The Paradox of Anywaa and Nuer Identification Strategies in the Gambella Region, Ethiopia (New York-Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2011), 119.
retaining their hereditary position and areas of control. Modernization often meant further marginalization. But large parts of the borderland communities came under a tighter grip of tax collection with the land tax proclamation of 1942. The Mao and Komo experienced the state mostly as an extractor and collector of revenue. 2 The relations between state and the peripheral subjects went from slavery, to tribute enforcement, to modern taxes.
After the Italian War, the area was also territorially reorganized. Benishangul was incorporated into the province of Wallaga as the Asosa-Benishangul awrajja. It included also Begi and remained under the balabbat-ship of the family of Sheikh Khojali.
The whole of western Ethiopia continued to be politically marginal but clearly economically important for the empire. It was a motor of trade and commerce, tribute and taxes. From an administrative point of view, the centre had a largely formalistic view of the periphery: subjects had to be ruled, the provinces had to be pacified and developed; they provided pay-offs to the central elite and in some cases had to be
“mollified by concessions of one kind or another”.3
Also, from a strategic point of view, controlling and securing the borders was an important factor in regional history. Among other incidents, the late 1950s were marked by the beginning of the Sudanese Civil War and the Anya Nya I revolt (1956), which had severe effects on the border population. In its course, the influx of refugees and cross border insurgencies became a recurring pattern in the region that significantly affected the borderland population.
2 Although slavery was one of the main concerns of the new administration of Haile Selassie, the question how slavery was eventually abolished or whether it was abolished at all has to be analyzed on a case to case basis. For the peripheral areas, and from the perception of the interviews I will present later on, it seems, that the gäbbar system resembled slavery and at the same time expanded and was institutionalized in the periphery. This meant an overlap of the bureaucratization and exploitation.
3 Clapham, ‘Centralization and Local Response in Southern Ethiopia’, 75.
The Italian Occupation
The short-lived Italian occupation of Ethiopia between 1935/36 and 1941 brought to light various fault lines within the regional power structure.4 Despite a relatively wellestablished narrative of a unified and patriotic struggle of all Ethiopians against colonialism, the Ethiopian social contract proved to be fragile, if it was existent at all.
Most prominently in this regard was the formation of the Western Oromo Federation:
under pressure of growing instability and the uncertain outcome of the evolving confrontation between Ethiopia and Italy, between 1935 and 1936, several local rulers of western Ethiopia established links with Britain, or, like the ruler of Jimma, made preparations to join the Italians and to oust the Amhara settlers from their territory.
This alliance shift showed the fragility of imperial overrule. In many areas the memories of the conquest and the loss of autonomy were still fresh and grievances against the forceful incorporation into the Ethiopian state ran deep. As Ezekiel Gebissa prominently put it, “when Italy invaded Abyssinia, Oromos seized the moment to reclaim their lost freedom and sovereign existence”.5
Eventually with the defeat of the Ethiopian army and the beginning of the occupation of Addis Ababa, the nucleus of the Western Oromo Federation was established. Its leaders, Habte Mariam of Näqämte in alliance with the Gidami rulers Yohannes Jote and Hossana Jote (two sons of Jote Tullu, who both were in Addis Ababa under house arrest), and in coalition with Sheikh Khojali of Benishangul,
“agreed to unite their people and to offer themselves to the League of Nations as a mandate territory with a view to establishing a future Oromo government”.6 Hossana Jote declared himself ruler over Wallaga as soon as the Italians had conquered Ethiopia. He ruled briefly over the western province on behalf of the Italians before they reached western Ethiopia.7 The rift between the Amhara overlords and the local nobility was thoroughly exploited by the Italians during their occupation of western Ethiopia in order to undermine the local power system. Especially the employment of
4 Charles McClellan, ‘Observations on the Ethiopian Nation, Its Nationalism, and the Italo-Ethiopian War’, Northeast African Studies 3, no. 1 (1996): 57–86.
5 Ezekiel Gebissa, ‘ The Italian Invasion, the Ethiopian Empire, and Oromo Nationalism: The Significance of the Western Oromo Confederation of 1936’, Northeast African Studies 9, no. 3 (2002):
76.
6 Ibid., 81.
7 Gidada Solon, Jenseits der Dunkelheit, ed. Gerd Röhm (Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2003), 52.
lower Oromo chiefs and nobles aimed at raising local support for the Italian rule.
Furthermore, reforming the land tenure system and land policies was an aim of Italians. In order to get the backing of the rural population the gäbbars were given land ownership and the Italian administrators began to tax livestock and land plots.8 In some areas of Wallaga and Gambella large-scale economic cotton production was started which did not turn out to be very successful.9
For the Italians who approached western Ethiopia with a Fascist racial mind set, the Mao and Komo were at the bottom of the racial spectrum. While Oromo, Arabs and Amhara were seen as ‘civilizable’, the Nilotic groups were seen to be ‘savage’ and
‘culturally inferior’ to their neighbours. From a military point of view, the Italians had several smaller posts and stations in western Ethiopia. These posts were mostly operated with the help of only a few Italian soldiers and more locally recruited irregular troops as well as askaris from other parts of Italian East Africa.10 Their main interest was in the exploitation of the gold resources, and the local population continued to work in the gold mines. The following statement brings out the painful memory of the Italian occupation very clearly:
The Italians invaded and sent Haile Selassie into exile. The Italian rule of the time oppressed us and extremely exploited us. For mining they took people from Kellem to Yubdo. They forced the people to work on mine fields.
Thousands of individuals lost their lives when mine fields collapsed leaving them trapped inside. The Italians did untold harm. For gold mining, they ordered ten individuals from each koro [i.e. qorro] for a month-long service.
After a month, other tens replace them. When the soil collapsed it killed 50-80 people.
8 Etana Habte, ‘Adminstration of Wallagga under the Dergue (1974-1991)’ (M.A. thesis, Addis Ababa University, 2007), 14.
9 Haile M. Larebo, ‘The Italian Background of Capitalist Farming in Ethiopia: The Case of Cotton’, Northeast African Studies 2, no. 1 (1995): 31–60.
10 González-Ruibal carried out archaeological excavations on three sites in Benishangul; these are Afodu, Was’i and Gubba (cp. González-Ruibal, ‘Fascist Colonialism’).
When the Italians took over, the assigned individuals as “Kabo” [capo A/M], like the sons of Khojali. Abdulrahim Khojali was assigned to Wabera. Here on this side [referring to Begi/Tongo] al-mak Soso was administering.11
The statement also shows that the Italians were not particularly interested in the local population. Instead they were interested in accessing their labour force and thus kept intact the rural administration through qoros. The local elite were retained in power. A statement by the British forces made on the situation in Benishangul during the War of Liberation praised the local cooperation and described the resentment of the Italian:
The local inhabitants and notables have given our forces invaluable assistance by supplying agents, who have brought in accurate information; also they have supplied labour whereby roads have been cleared. 12
That “nobles” also cooperated might be an indicator for the ambivalence of interests.
Seeing the end of the Italians in sight, many nobles might have shifted their alliance again. The same report though, criticised the resistance of parts of the Khojali family against the emerging British forces.
In retrospect, the Italian presence “aggravated the political and ethnic rifts that crisscrossed the local societies and the resulting situation turned out to be more ambivalent and complex in the frontier than in other parts of Ethiopia”.13 Confronted with a new power, the ruling elite had to negotiate their loyalties. Today, in several interviews the Italian time remains relatively obscure. Portraying one’s own group as openly pro-Italian is today seen as unpatriotic, but presenting them as Patriots is seen too pro-monarchist (or pro-Ethiopian for that matter), and aligned to a system of regional elitism. The historical account on Khojali can help to illuminate the empirical problems: From his earliest engagement with the Western Oromo Federation we can assume that he was ready to abandon his links with the Ethiopian crown. In 1938 Khojali regained control over Begi, was named sultan and given administrative control over the Benishangul Commissariato.14 In 1938 he was compelled to mediate between
11 13/2010: Interview with Tongo elder, 29 September 2010.
12 WO 106/2618: “Situation Report 16th – 24th February 1941Troops Upper Nile Area, Northern Sector”.
13 González-Ruibal, ‘Fascist Colonialism’, 568.
14 Adinew Abtew, ‘Political and Socio-Economic History of Asossa Wäräda, 1941-1991’ (M.A. thesis, Addis Ababa University, 2011), 98.
the Italians and groups that were still openly resisting. Among those who resisted the occupation were the rulers of Khomosha and Bela Shangul. According to one source, a rebellion erupted in Bela Shangul, demanding the release of Däjjazmatch Mustafa, the hereditary ruler of Khomosha, who was then an Italian prisoner and detained in Asmara.15 Other sources spoke about a campaign Khojali led against the Gumuz.16 Many Gumuz though were fighting with the Italians.17 According to Perham, on the other hand, a revolt broke out with the Italian invasion in which Oromo and “local Muslims combined to attack the Sheikh” [Khojali]. 18 It seems established that he was fatally wounded during this campaign and was flown to Addis Ababa where he died in the Ras Desta Hospital.19
In Gambella, according to interviews, the Komo were more inclined to fight the Italians. Nonetheless, there were balabbats like Abdu Rahim (see below for more information), a Kiring, descendant of the Kutu family who had migrated to Bure and later made it to the position of administrator in Gambella. Also, a certain Mukukullu, a balabbat of the Komo, fought against the Italians. After the return of the emperor these men were bestowed with the kabba (the “clothes of leadership”) and the “people started farming for them”.20
As Charles McClellan remarked, the Italian occupation bore the chance to re-examine the cohesion of the Ethiopian empire, but he concluded that “the opportunity was not fully used, since in the aftermath of the war, Ethiopians ignored many of the war’s fundamental lessons and merely replaced old mythology with new”.21 Instead of re-organizing Ethiopia along more decentralized lines, the lessons from the occupation and the local dissent against imperial rule were largely ignored. The post-war period led to a very strong (re-)centralisation of Ethiopia in the years to come.
15 “Some Berta Songs from Asossa-Bela Shangul, Wallagga”, manuscript, collected and compiled by Alessandro Triulzi.
16 12/2014: Berta elder, Kushmangel, Asosa zone, 10 October 2014.
17 González-Ruibal, ‘Fascist Colonialism’, 568.
18 Margery Perham, The Government of Ethiopia (London: Faber and Faber, 1948), 327.
19 His wife, who nursed him in the hospital, later would claim he was poisoned. This became part of the local Berta lore, collected by A. Triulzi. “Some Berta Songs from Asossa-Bela Shangul, Wallagga”, manuscript. According to this information Khojali died on 21st of March 1938 at the age of 113.
20 8/2013: Interview with Komo elder, Gambella town, 11 November 2013.
21 McClellan, ‘Observations on the Ethiopian Nation, Its Nationalism, and the Italo-Ethiopian War’, 57.
Abolition of Slavery
Slavery, the most destructive of the exploitative relations between the centre and the periphery - and the regional elite and the border people - was a matter of much international concern. It was a major preoccupation of the domestic organisation of the Ethiopia already before the Italian war. Slavery had been a main obstacle in the negotiation of Ethiopia’s access to the League of Nations, and was a leading propaganda issue during the Italian preparation for war. Lastly it became an obstacle in the Emperor’s post-war reorganisation attempts.22
In the 1920s the colonial forces in neighbouring countries used the diplomacy of abolition for their own ends. Britain, which was highly opposed to Ethiopia’s admission to the League of Nations, and France, which was supportive of it, lay in squabbles over the issue. France eventually wrote a memorandum to support Ethiopia’s admission describing the benign character of the Ethiopian slave systems.23 For the Ethiopian crown membership in the League, so it was thought, would “ensure continued independence”, check the British claims on the Tana basin and overall contain the territorial ambitions of the Italians stretching out from Eritrea.24 Despite all diplomatic agitation Ethiopia had become a member of the League of Nations in 1923. The slavery matter now became an issue of the League and the Ethiopian government undertook various measures to further suppress it. The situation in the peripheral provinces remained unsatisfactory to abolitionists. The state apparatus in the provinces was weak. The local governors were themselves involved in the business of slavery. The governors of the provinces lived of the unpaid labour of the peasants and despite the efforts of the anti-slavery commission “took bribes and showed more zeal in punishing those who stole slaves from their masters than in meting out justice to slave dealers.”25
The Italians were very vocal about the slavery issue themselves and used it as a background to defend their “civilizing mission” by praising the settlement of freed slaves in their colonial territory and the total suppression of the slave trade in the
22 Sterling Joseph Coleman, ‘Gradual Abolition or Immediate Abolition of Slavery? The Political, Social and Economic Quandary of Emperor Haile Selassie I’, Slavery & Abolition 29, no. 1 (2008): 65–82.
23 Suzanne Miers, ‘Britain and the Suppression of Slavery in Ethiopia’, Slavery & Abolition 18, no. 3 (1997): 267.
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid., 272.
Eritrean area. At the beginning of their rule the Italians set up so-called “freedom villages”, in which they settled and supported freed slaves.26 Plenty of propaganda material appeared praising the humanist mission and forecasting the wellbeing that would be bestowed upon the suppressed by the Italian presence.27 While, as we have seen earlier, the Italians were very interested in exploiting regional discontent, their factual interest in the “natives” of the borderlands was limited and their interest in the gold reserves huge. The Italians relied on forging links with established local rulers, who were able to ensure the supply of gold during the occupation.
From a Komo perspective the Italian invasion brought little effects. A Komo elder once stated that: “When the Italians came they didn’t reach the Komo”.28 This was his conclusion on the question whether the Italians had changed anything concerning slavery in western Ethiopia.
A British memorandum on the status of slavery in Italian-occupied Ethiopia in 1938 concluded:
Slavery has been definitely abolished in Ethiopia, and whilst the natives may be forced to work on the construction of roads, they receive payment. Efforts have been made to provide liberated slaves with the means of making their own living, and villages of liberated slaves have been founded.29
Italian presence may in some parts of Ethiopia actually have led to abolition, especially due to the ousting of local governors and neftegna, who were the staunchest enemies of the abolition before the invasion. The Italians were insistent on their achievements, because due to their land reform and the return of land ownership to gäbbars it looked like the Italians had actually ended serfdom.30 How important the Italian impact has
26 Timothy Derek Fernyhough, Serfs, Slaves and Shifta: Modes of Production in Pre-Revolutionary Ethiopia (Addis Ababa: Shama Books, 2010), 224.
27 Baravelli’s pamphlet is a good example for how wide-spread the slavery discussion was in that time.
Cp.: G. C. Baravelli, Das Letzte Bollwerk Der Sklaverei: Abessinien (Roma: Società Editrice di Novissima, 1935).
28 1/2011: Interview with Komo elder, Gambella town, 11 August 2011.
29 FO/C.P. 288 (38): Ethiopia. Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
30 Fernyhough, Serfs, Slaves and Shifta, 223. The claims of the Italians to have abolished it seem oversimplified and somewhat overstated. It might be true that slavery was already heavily declining before the occupation (Cp. Fernyhough, Serfs, Slaves and Shifta, 221).
been or what other economic factors affected the decline of slavery has been a matter of much debate.31
In spite of the concerns of the anti-slavery society, that after the restoration of Emperor Haile Selassie the system of slavery would return to Ethiopia, the official end of slavery is usually dated to the year 1942. A decree was issued which proclaimed heavy fines as well as imprisonment for the trade in slaves. Regarding factual slaves, the law provided for a gradual emancipation or voluntary turnover of slavery into wage labour.32
Despite this, in the given case the deeply entrenched system of slave labour seems to have lived on. In the areas occupied by the Mao and Komo, notwithstanding the increasingly modernized administration and bureaucratic system of taxation, the lines between serfdom and slavery remind blurry, but emancipation was certainly not achieved with the official end of slavery.
The system of slavery died slowly in Ethiopia and even slower in the western parts of the empire. Thus for the Mao and Komo the legacies of slavery, marginalization and exploitation loom large, both in relation to the state and to their political neighbours.
Much of the memories are rooted in the experience of the 1960s as we shall see now, contrary to official historical claims about the end of slavery.
Provincial Administration
After the Italian occupation, the reign of Haile Selassie continued uninterrupted from 1941 to 1974. Eventually, in 1974, the Emperor was deposed by a military coup.
During his reign the government was marked by a push towards modernization, the inauguration of a first constitution (1931), a revised constitution (1955), the attempt to realize a tax and land reform (1942, 1966) as well as the official abolition of slavery (1942/43). The Mao and Komo were connected to the events of the centre by the rural economy and on the lower end of the social spectrum.
31 Jon R. Edwards, ‘Slavery, the Slave Trade and the Economic Reorganization of Ethiopia 1916-1935’, African Economic History, no. 11 (1982): 3–14; James C. McCann, ‘Children of the House:
Households and Slavery in Ethiopia, 1900-35’, in The End of Slavery in Africa, ed. Suzanne Miers and Richard Roberts (Madision, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988), 332–56.
32 Fernyhough, Serfs, Slaves and Shifta, 234.