Ethiopia Peasant Associations
"Cash for Work" project sponsored by United Nations
Children's Fund and the Ethiopian government.
Courtesy United Nations Children's Fund (Bert Demmers)
Peasant association meeting.
Courtesy Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (F. Botts)
During its thirteen-year existence (1974 to 1987), the Derg
worked to spread administrative reform down to the lowest
echelons of regional administration. To this end, it took
several important steps in 1975.
With its Land Reform Proclamation in March 1975, the Derg
abolished the lowest level of rural administration, the
balabat
(see Glossary), and called for the formation of
peasant associations that would be responsible for the
implementation and enforcement of the land reform measures.
Later in the year, the Derg issued Proclamation No. 71,
which gave peasant associations legal status and authorized
them to create "conditions facilitating the complete
destruction of the feudal order." It also empowered the
associations' executive committees to draft internal
regulations that would, in theory, devolve more power to
local communities. These associations were to be guided
initially by students in the Development Through Cooperation
Campaign (commonly referred to as
zemecha
--see Glossary),
who were expected to teach peasants about the revolution's
goals. Students were also supposed to help local communities
plan and implement development programs in their areas.
Initially, it was not clear how much power, authority, or
autonomy the regime intended to devolve to local
institutions. Consequently, state agents often came into
conflict with local organizations under the guidance of
students who were often more radical and politically astute
than government functionaries. By 1976, to bring local
communities under tighter central control, the Derg
introduced laws spelling out the rights and obligations of
peasant associations and kebeles.
To the extent that peasant associations maintained some of
their initial autonomy, they did so almost exclusively with
regard to local issues. On national issues, the regime,
through the party and other agencies, manipulated peasant
associations to suit its purposes. After 1978, for example,
production cadres and political cadres of the National
Revolutionary Development Campaign (and later the WPE)
played important roles in motivating peasant production and
in political indoctrination. State control of local
associations was also a natural by-product of the
villagization and resettlement programs of the mid- to late
1980s (see
The Politics of Development, this ch.;
Government
Rural Programs, ch. 3).
By 1990 there were more than 20,000 peasant associations
throughout the country. They represented the lowest level of
government administration and, in collaboration with the
local WPE office, were responsible for processing and
interpreting national policies, maintaining law and order,
and planning and implementing certain local development
policies. State control grew further in 1975 when the Derg
promoted the formation of the All-Ethiopia Peasants'
Association (AEPA), a national association having district
offices responsible for overseeing the activities of local
associations. Before the WPE's formation, AEPA district
representatives exercised supervisory powers over the
associations under their jurisdiction. The management of
elections, investigations into allegations of mismanagement,
changes to association boundaries, and organization of
political meetings all came under the purview of the AEPA
district representative. However, by 1989 WPE cadres were
active in monitoring and providing guidance to local peasant
associations.
Data as of 1991
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