The Concept of Land in Ethiopian Tradition: Land, Power, and Famine

Abstract

This chapter provides a historical account of the concept of land, subsistence farming, and vulnerability to famine in Ethiopia. It contextualizes the significance of land in the Ethiopian society and shows that low productivity in the agricultural sector has been exacerbated by the absence of a land market and the peasants’ mentality of subsistence farming. Further, it argues that subsistence farming, natural shocks, and dictator regimes, over the last 50 years, have collectively contributed to Ethiopia’s vulnerability to famine. Moreover, the top-down land development strategy that has been adopted by the current government has had negative consequence on the lives of thousands of peasant farmers, who have been forcefully evicted from their ancestral lands in the name of foreign direct investment in land.