Mereja.Forum

[justo]

Recent Ethiopian history can be divided into a pre and post መሬት ላራሹ era.
Before መሬት ላራሹ there was only Mesfin Sileshi in Jimma, after መሬት ላራሹ, we also got Abiy Ahmed.
Do Ethiopians know why there was no መሬት ላራሹ movement in Eritrea? Why መሬት was always ያራሹ?

[Abdisa]

I didn't know there was no መሬት ላራሹ movement in Eritrea. Very intriguing. Perhaps that was the reason why we've never heard of an Eritrean king or queen. The Eritrea people seem to have governed themselves throughout their history. I believe, the Greeks call that democracy.

[justo]

I didn't know there was no መሬት ላራሹ movement in Eritrea. Very intriguing. Perhaps that was the reason why we've never heard of an Eritrean king or queen. The Eritrea people seem to have governed themselves throughout their history. I believe, the Greeks call that democracy.

You got that right, bro!

[euroland]

Land was never owned by a powerful and a few feudals. In Eritrea, land is a communal property, not individuals. Furthermore, the law of ደይሳ (rotation of ownership every few years) also made it sure that one family doesn’t hold to a fertile land for extended period of time while others stuck to the less fertile land.

Anyone wonder also why Eritreans never had kings and queens like their neighbors Ethiopians? This is one of the many differences between the two countries; it is also one of the many reasons why merging or confederating to extremely society couldn’t work and never will. Oil and water can’t mix; two different characters

[Naga Tuma]

Recent Ethiopian history can be divided into a pre and post መሬት ላራሹ era.
Before መሬት ላራሹ there was only Mesfin Sileshi in Jimma, after መሬት ላራሹ, we also got Abiy Ahmed.
Do Ethiopians know why there was no መሬት ላራሹ movement in Eritrea? Why መሬት was always ያራሹ?

justo,

That is a very important question.

As a young person, there was some odd sounding word that I kept hearing in Ethiopia’s government radio: ኣቆርቋዥ።

It painted people in my mind.

About two years ago, I met someone who personally knew and worked with Ras Mesfin Sileshi.

Remembering the painting in my mind at a young age, I quickly asked what kind of person he was, if he was cruel to people who worked on his farm. I don’t know if the person who knew him is generous but he said he was a good person.

Since then, I have been asking: What is the difference between Ras Mesfin Sileshi of Ethiopia and Warren Buffett of America?

[Naga Tuma]

Very intriguing.

Really?

[Fiyameta]

We had written Customary Laws in Eritrea dating back to the 14th century. I think that has a lot to do with the extremely low crime rate in Eritrea compared to other developed nations.

https://shabait.com/2021/06/09/customar ... f-eritrea/

[justo]

Recent Ethiopian history can be divided into a pre and post መሬት ላራሹ era.
Before መሬት ላራሹ there was only Mesfin Sileshi in Jimma, after መሬት ላራሹ, we also got Abiy Ahmed.
Do Ethiopians know why there was no መሬት ላራሹ movement in Eritrea? Why መሬት was always ያራሹ?

What is the difference between Ras Mesfin Sileshi of Ethiopia and Warren Buffett of America?

Naga, there is huge difference. Mesfin Sileshi was more like the robber barons who got rich off Native American land. Warren Buffet made his money the old fashioned way, he earned it. The ቀማኛ prince Sileshi made money by taking it from its rightful owners. He came, he saw and he took it.

[justo]

We had written Customary Laws in Eritrea dating back to the 14th century. I think that has a lot to do with the extremely low crime rate in Eritrea compared to other developed nations.

https://shabait.com/2021/06/09/customar ... f-eritrea/

Simon Woldemichael is a really really interesting thinker, down to earth to the core, in truly Eritrean fashion

[Mesob]

Thanks to my proud and progressive Bahre Negasian Habesha ancestors, the land reform was accomplished more than six hundred years when they wrote and documented Our Laws, aka, Higi Endaba. In this case, the Minabe Zerai's and the Logo Chewas were the original documenters and the others shortly added and wrote their own. Documenters does not mean the creators. The village elders and the heads of the monasteries had been practicing and living with it here and there for long.
But the other part of current Eritrea with the exception of the Kunama and the Afar were living in Arab Muslim cast system or feudo-slavery and the land reform took place first under the British in Bogos Anseba region, and later under the EPLF in the 1970s in Sahel and part of eastern Gash Barka.
Sadly, the Arab slaves in Jebha leadership, that is, the backward tribal leaders of BeniAmir, opposed all land reform and the use of Eritrean languages, then and as now in their deathbed in diaspora.

[Abere]

I am very doubtful of this story. Was land redistributed per household members during the Derg era in Eritrea? Given farming is the main stay of many households large enough plots are most sought after as a result equity in holding size are expected to be common issues. If there were no issue of inequality then Derg might have not redistributed land per head. Also, did Derg confiscate urban houses as well. For most agrarian communities ( often Christian farmers) unlike herds men, a unilineal evolution or chronology of transformation is expected .

[kebena05]

I am very doubtful of this story. Was land redistributed per household members during the Derg era in Eritrea? Given farming is the main stay of many households large enough plots are most sought after as a result equity in holding size are expected to be common issues. If there were no issue of inequality then Derg might have not redistributed land per head. Also, did Derg confiscate urban houses as well. For most agrarian communities ( often Christian farmers) unlike herds men, a unilineal evolution or chronology of transformation is expected .

The Derg did confiscated houses, large businesses, industries and so forth from an individual Eritrean owners, however, in the countryside, the story other Eritrean stated above is accurate. There was no farmland to confiscate since land is owned by the community. Lands were rotated among farmers every few years. This tradition is from thousands of years, no government could override that.

[Fiyameta]

For over 800 years farm land has been redistributed equally among all Eritrean citizens on a rotational basis every 5 to 7 years. This customary law eliminated a sense of land ownership, as the land belongs to the people, not to the individual. The Ottoman empire, the Khedivate of Egypt, and the Italians, have all tried to remove this customary law that is woven into the Eritrean heart, but failed.

To his credit, Mengistu Hailemariam tried to imitate the Eritrean land tenure system in Ethiopia, albeit with a disastrous outcome, for there was no cultural equity in Feudal Ethiopia to embrace equality among citizens. It is one of those things that you cannot force on people that it must take its natural course to be effective. Rome Asmara wasn't built in a day.

[Abere]

_____Thanks for the information! When you say "Lands were rotated among farmers every few years" do you mean let's say farmer x farms Plot 1, Plot 2 for a defined year and farmer y farms plot 5, Plot 2 and they will swap later per the tradition?
If this is the case, it implies this changing of hands (given no framer skips a farming season) deters conflict avoids litigation at court. However, how does this allow farmers to practice fallowing and allow the land to recover fertility?

____ As in the case of Northern Ethiopia Amhara and Tigray significant noble men and their ranks are associated with land. Such as ግራዝማች፥ ቀኛዝማች፤ ፊታውራሪ፤ባላንባራስ ወዘተ although military titles are also distinguished by land ownership. Were these titles present in Eritrea and how were they rewarded, given they were not salaried.

____ I will further explain about this - feudalism is not bad. It avoids land fragmentation. Had Derg not unwisely intervened in it it would allow society to large scale farming and transformation of society from agrarian to industrial. It is typical feature of stable and mature society. That was how Europe transformed and under went.

I am very doubtful of this story. Was land redistributed per household members during the Derg era in Eritrea? Given farming is the main stay of many households large enough plots are most sought after as a result equity in holding size are expected to be common issues. If there were no issue of inequality then Derg might have not redistributed land per head. Also, did Derg confiscate urban houses as well. For most agrarian communities ( often Christian farmers) unlike herds men, a unilineal evolution or chronology of transformation is expected .

The Derg did confiscated houses, large businesses, industries and so forth from an individual Eritrean owners, however, in the countryside, the story other Eritrean stated above is accurate. There was no farmland to confiscate since land is owned by the community. Lands were rotated among farmers every few years. This tradition is from thousands of years, no government could override that.

[kebena05]

_____Thanks for the information! When you say "Lands were rotated among farmers every few years" do you mean let's say farmer x farms Plot 1, Plot 2 for a defined year and farmer y farms plot 5, Plot 2 and they will swap later per the tradition?
If this is the case, it implies this changing of hands (given no framer skips a farming season) deters conflict avoids litigation at court. However, how does this allow farmers to practice fallowing and allow the land to recover fertility?

There is a law of the land aka HIGGI ENDABA in the Eritrean highlands, in the countryside. Every ten years or so, The community chosen "judges" take over the ownership of ALL farmlands for a few days and distribute lands to the community members based on the family's size, previous land type (if the particular family had not so fertile land in the last ten years, on the new distribution, it would be compensated with better plot). This distribution is done outside the farming season so there is no interruption to the farming.

____ As in the case of Northern Ethiopia Amhara and Tigray significant noble men and their ranks are associated with land. Such as ግራዝማች፥ ቀኛዝማች፤ ፊታውራሪ፤ባላንባራስ ወዘተ although military titles are also distinguished by land ownership. Were these titles present in Eritrea and how were they rewarded, given they were not salaried.

Those titles are long existed in Eritrea since the 18th century, but those men who hold higher title do not have much privilege than the average citizen. Their title has to do what they had achieved during the Italian and other previous wars. Someone could be a ፊታውራሪ and still be a farmer who work on his land without employing the poor. My grandfather had a very high title, but a farmer next door has no title but well-off interns of property ownership. If they meet in the road, the next-door farmer would greet my grandfather by kissing his hand to show respect for his title. In Eritrea, there is litterarly no class division, the culture doesn't endorse it. Our parents carry that culture over to next generation. It is highly taboo to have your domestic employee to give food in a seperate plate and away from the family; it is shame to do that. Eritrean parents eat in the same plate and type of food with their servants while in the feudalistic culture Ethiopia, one would feed different food and away from the family.

[Dark Energy]

Abere,

Here is an excellent piece written on the land tenure of Eritrea. Though the Italian colonization affected the egalitarian land division among generations, it remains to this day very much the same. In the high land of Eritrea, land was distributed in three different ways. 1. Rsti System. 2. Desa system. 3. Gulti system. But the Gulti system was less democratic, it was rarely applied. The desa system was very much egalitarian. In the highland, the districts of Hamassien and Akeleguzay used the both the rist and desa system. The desa system was more prevalent. The rist system was finally fazed out. . In the Serae district, it was all desa. Meaning, in every generation, land was apportioned according to the family size. The rest of Eritrea was very much democratic.
Read this excellent article on the subject.
https://www.fig.net/resources/proceedin ... s_7442.pdf

[Abere]

Thanks for sharing an informational source. Just like you said some degree of hetreogeity in land holding system is expected in any larger society - 1. Rsti System. 2. Desa system. 3. Gulti system. In Ethiopia too land tenure system shows variation. The Resti system and the Gulit system are found in Ethiopia as well. In the distant past, most localities were not in short supply of arable land. There were swath of vacant lands in North and central Ethiopia. People could move freely and can own any land as far as eyes can see, where as those limiting for what they think just enough to farm left with limited plots. Few becomes landlords and others becomes simple farmer. Resource created power and social structure. Given also the presence of vast vacant lands those who fought for the sovereignty of their country were awarded farm lands from the vacant ones. This process created a defined power structure. As far as I could recall in the North these የመሬት ወይም የዕርስት ስሪት ይዞታ ገባር መሬት፤ ጋላ መሬት፤ ልዩ ማደሪያ የሚባል እንደነበር ሰምቻለሁ። ለምሳሌ አብዝሃኛው ባላገር ገባር መሬት ይኖረው እና ለመሬቱም ለመንግስት ግብር ይከፍላል፤፤ የጋላ መሬት የሚሰጠው ለወታደር ወይም ነጭ ለባሽ ሲሆን ግብር ሳይሆን ወታደራዊ ግዳጅ እና ዘብ ጥበቃ ነው። ልዩ ማደሪያ ግን ለባለስልጣናት (ባላበት) ቀኝ አዝማች፤ግራአዝማች ወዘተ የሚሰጥ ግብር የማይከፍሉበት ይዞታ ነው። የቤተ ክህነት ትምህርት ጨርሶ ቅስና ያገኜም የቅስና መሬት ያወጣ።በአጠቃላይ ግን መሬት የግል ሃብት ወይስ የጋርዮሽ ይዞታ የሚለው እንደ አካባቢው እና የይዞታው ችግር ፈችነት የሚሆን ይመስለኛል። የፊውዳል ስርዐት ግን ጤናማ የማህበረሰብ የዕድገት ደረጃ ሂደት ነው። ሂደቱ ቢቀጥል አገሪቱ ወደ ካፒታሊስት እና ኢንዱስትሪ ትሸጋገር ነበር። ምክንያቱም ሰፋፊ የግል ይዞታዎች ለዘመናዊ እርሻ ይጠቅማሉ። መሬት የግል ሃብት መሆን ለመሸጥ ለመለወጥ ወይም እንደ አንድ የንግድ ዕቃ በመሆን ዘመናዊ የገበያ ስርዐት ይከተላል። ሆኖም ግን the system depends on the availability and scarcity of arable land.

Derg redistributed land and consequently redistributed poverty to each and every household almost. The feudal sytem should have followed its natural course to give birth of industrial and market capitalist economy. We all know it took mankind thousands of years to reach the agrarian or feudal society. Still to this day Africa has many pastoralist/nomads wandering across countries and boundaries , fruit gatherers and hunters. What fits to the future generational need and economy will be quite interesting - poor African nations fighting on plots while the developed world is conquering other planets so as claiming post over there.

Abere,

Here is an excellent piece written on the land tenure of Eritrea. Though the Italian colonization affected the egalitarian land division among generations, it remains to this day very much the same. In the high land of Eritrea, land was distributed in three different ways. 1. Rsti System. 2. Desa system. 3. Gulti system. But the Gulti system was less democratic, it was rarely applied. The desa system was very much egalitarian. In the highland, the districts of Hamassien and Akeleguzay used the both the rist and desa system. The desa system was more prevalent. The rist system was finally fazed out. . In the Serae district, it was all desa. Meaning, in every generation, land was apportioned according to the family size. The rest of Eritrea was very much democratic.
Read this excellent article on the subject.
https://www.fig.net/resources/proceedin ... s_7442.pdf