Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T07:19:22.220Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘This pasture is ours since ancient times’: An ethnographic analysis of the reduction in conflicts along the post-1991 Afar-Tigray regional boundary*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2014

Lutgart Lenaerts ,
Mark Breusers ,
Stefaan Dondeyne ,
Hans Bauer ,
Mitiku Haile  and
Jozef Deckers
Lutgart Lenaerts*
Affiliation:
P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432, Aas, Norway. Department of International Environment and Development Studies (NORAGRIC), the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway)
Mark Breusers
Affiliation:
P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432, Aas, Norway. Department of International Environment and Development Studies (NORAGRIC), the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway)
Stefaan Dondeyne
Affiliation:
P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432, Aas, Norway. Department of International Environment and Development Studies (NORAGRIC), the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway)
Hans Bauer
Affiliation:
P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432, Aas, Norway. Department of International Environment and Development Studies (NORAGRIC), the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway)
Mitiku Haile
Affiliation:
P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432, Aas, Norway. Department of International Environment and Development Studies (NORAGRIC), the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway)
Jozef Deckers
Affiliation:
P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432, Aas, Norway. Department of International Environment and Development Studies (NORAGRIC), the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway)
*
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The role of post-1991 ethnic-based federalism on conflicts along regional boundaries has been a topic of great dispute in Ethiopianist literature. This article sheds new light on the on-going debate based on original ethnographic material from the Afar-Tigray regional border zone. Contrary to other studies, conflicts appear to have reduced in that area. Two key questions are addressed: how do different groups lay future claims to land; and which role does the post-1991 government play in those claims to land and in reducing conflicts? The case study reveals that people materialise religion to lay future claims to land and that conflicts have reduced with increased involvement of the state over the past two decades, but that this reduction has come at a high cost and may therefore not be sustainable in the long term.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 25 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This research was funded by the University of Leuven (Belgium) and hosted by the MU-IUC project (Mekelle University – Institutional University Cooperation, funded by the Flemish Interuniversity Council). We are most grateful to all informants and to Mr Shiferaw Abraha for his assistance during fieldwork. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this article.

References

REFERENCES

Abbink, J. 1993. ‘Ethnic conflict in the “tribal zone”: The Dizi and Suri in Southern Ethiopia’, Journal of Modern African Studies 31, 4: 675–82.Google Scholar
Abbink, J. 2011. ‘Ethnic-based federalism and ethnicity in Ethiopia: Reassessing the experiment after 20 years’, Journal of Eastern African Studies 5, 4: 596–618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adugna, F. 2011. ‘Overlapping nationalist projects and contested spaces: the Oromo–Somali borderlands in southern Ethiopia’, Journal of Eastern African Studies 5, 4: 773–87.Google Scholar
Banks, M. 1996. Ethnicity: Anthropological constructions. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bariagaber, A. 1998. ‘The politics of cultural pluralism in Ethiopia and Eritrea: trajectories of ethnicity and constitutional experiments’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 21, 6: 1056–73.Google Scholar
Bauer, D.F. 1972. Land, leadership and legitimacy among the Inderta Tigray of Ethiopia. The University of Rochester, doctoral dissertation.Google Scholar
Bekele, M. & Leykun, B.. 2001. State of forest genetic resources in Ethiopia. Prepared for The sub-regional workshop FAO/IPGRI/ICRAF on the conservation, management, sustainable utilization and enhancement of forest genetic resources in Sahelian and North-Sudanian Africa (Burkina Faso). Forest Genetic Resources Working Papers.Google Scholar
Benjaminsen, T.A., Maganga, F.P. & Abdallah, M.. 2009. ‘The Kilosa killings: political ecology of a farmer–herder conflict in Tanzania’, Development and Change 40, 3: 423–45.Google Scholar
Beyene, F. 2009. ‘Collective action in water-point management: the case of pastoral and agropastoral communities in Eastern Ethiopia’, Natural Resources Forum 33: 175–88.Google Scholar
Bernard, H.R. 2006. Research Methods in Anthropology: qualitative and quantitative approaches. Oxford: Altamira Press.Google Scholar
Bohannan, P. 1963. ‘“Land”, “tenure” and land-tenure’, in Biebuyck, D., ed. African Agrarian Systems. Oxford: International African Institute, 101–15.Google Scholar
CSA (Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia). 2007. Population and Housing Census Report: Country, Addis Ababa.Google Scholar
Clapham, C. 1996. ‘Boundary and territory in the Horn of Africa’, in Nugent, P. & Asiwaju, A.I., eds. African Boundaries: barriers, conduits and opportunities. London: Printer, 237–50.Google Scholar
Donham, D.L. 2003. ‘Concluding comments: collective identities in a complex world’, Africa 73, 3: 456–60.Google Scholar
Flynn, D.K. 1997. ‘“We are the border”: identity, exchange, and the state along the Benin-Nigeria border’, American Ethnologist 24, 2: 311–30.Google Scholar
Glaser, B.G. & Strauss, A.. 1967. The discovery of grounded theory. New York, NY: Aldine.Google Scholar
Gupta, A. & Ferguson, J.. 1992. ‘Beyond “culture”: space, identity, and the politics of difference’, Cultural Anthropology 7, 1: 6–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagmann, T. & Mulugeta, A.. 2008. ‘Pastoral conflicts and state-building in the Ethiopian lowlands’, Afrika Spectrum 43, 1: 19–37.Google Scholar
Haile, M., Witten, W., Abraha, K., Fissha, S., Kebede, A., Kassa, G. & Reda, G.. 2005. Research report 2: Land registration in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. London: International Institute for Environment and Development.Google Scholar
Hultin, J. 2003. ‘Rebounding nationalism: state and ethnicity in Wollega 1968–1976’, Africa 73, 3: 402–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hundie, B. 2008. Pastoralism, Institutions and Social Interaction. Explaining the coexistence of conflict and cooperation in pastoral Afar, Ethiopia. Aachen: Shaker Verlag.Google Scholar
Hussein, K. 1998. Conflict between farmers and herders in the semi-arid Sahel and East Africa: A review. London.Google Scholar
Kassa Negussie, G. 1999. ‘Development interventions and privatization of land and its implications in land and natural resources tenure, use and management practices amongst the pastoral Afar of the Middle Awash Valley’, in Aspects of Development Issues in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa: Institute of Development Research, AAU, 243–78.Google Scholar
Kassa Negussie, G. 2001. Among the pastoral Afar in Ethiopia. Utrecht: International Books.Google Scholar
Kefale, A. 2010. Federal restructuring in Ethiopia: renegotiating identity and borders along the Oromo–Somali ethnic frontiers, Development and Change 41, 4: 615–35.Google Scholar
Lentz, C. 2003. ‘“This is Ghanaian territory!”: Land conflicts on a West African border’, American Ethnologist 30, 2: 273–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lund, C. 2006. ‘Twilight institutions: public authority and local politics in Africa’, Development and Change 37, 4: 685–705.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, D.S. 1998. ‘Subaltern struggles and the politics of place: remapping resistance in Zimbabwe's eastern highlands’, Cultural Anthropology 13, 3: 344–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mulugeta, A. & Hagmann, T.. 2008. ‘Governing violence in the pastoralist space: Karrayu and state notions of cattle raiding in the Ethiopian Awash valley’, Afrika Focus 21, 2: 71–8.Google Scholar
Nyssen, J., Descheemaeker, K., Zenebe, A., Poesen, J., Deckers, J. A. & Haile, M.. 2009. Transhumance in the Tigray highlands (Ethiopia), Mountain Research and Development 29, 3: 255–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olivier de Sardan, J.P. 2005. Anthropology and development: understanding contemporary social change. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Pratt Ewing, K. 1998. ‘Crossing borders and transgressing boundaries: metaphors for negotiating multiple identities’, Ethos 26, 2: 262–7.Google Scholar
RLUDP (Regional Land Use Planning Division). 2000. Report of environmental protection, land administration and use authority of Tigray. Addis Ababa: RLUDP.Google Scholar
Schlee, G. 2003. ‘Redrawing the map of the Horn: the politics of difference’, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 73, 3: 343–68.Google Scholar
Scott, J.C. 1998. Seeing like a State. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Tavory, I. & Timmermans, S.. 2009. ‘Two cases of ethnography: grounded theory and the extended case method’, Ethnography 10, 3: 243–63.Google Scholar
Turner, M.D., Ayantunde, A.A., Patterson, K.P. & Patterson, E.D.. 2011. ‘Livelihood transitions and the changing nature of farmer–herder conflict in Sahelian West Africa’, Journal of Development Studies 47, 2: 183–206.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vaughan, S. 2003. Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia. University of Edinburgh, doctoral dissertation.Google Scholar
Van Velsen, J. 1979. ‘The extended-case method and situational analysis’, in Epstein, A.L., ed. The Craft of Social Anthropology. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 129–49.Google Scholar
Walker, P.A. & Peters, P.E.. 2001. ‘Maps, metaphors , and meanings’: boundary struggles and village forest use on private and state land in Malawi’, Society and Natural Resources 14: 411–24.Google Scholar
Yami, M., Vogl, C. & Hauser, M.. 2011. ‘Informal institutions as mechanisms to address challenges in communal grazing land management in Tigray, Ethiopia’, International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 18, 1: 78–87.Google Scholar
Young, J. 1999. ‘Along Ethiopia's Western frontier: Gambella and Benishangul in transition’, Journal of Modern African Studies 37, 2: 321–46.Google Scholar