Socio-political history of South Central Ethiopia (1870-1974)

By 1880s, the eve of the partition, the European penetration of Africa and of African states and peoples had taken a variety of new forms. Some rulers, mainly in the north, had fallen deeply into debt to European creditors. Others had become a prey to concession-seekers, who sought concessions to build railway lines, harbors, telegraph systems, and to conduct trade and import firearms to subjugate its neighbors. Many African rulers had decided to use Europeans to introduce modern administrative or military methods to their states and perhaps help them to establish power over their neighbors. This was true, for example, in Ethiopia where Emperor Menelik created links with the neighboring European powers to conquer the people of the southcentral region of the present day Ethiopia. This dissertation examines the history of south-central Ethiopia, a central region that straddles the strategic economic, social and cultural spheres of Ethiopia. Since its conquest by the Ethiopian imperial state in the late 19th century, central and its Oromo pastoral and semi-agricultural population have experienced major political, cultural, economic and ecological changes, including of conquest and assimilation of local people. The formation of state in south central part was accompanied by bitter wars and resistance against the forceful annexation to the Ethiopian empire. This dissertation seeks to understand how these major political, cultural and economic events and processes transformed the lives of Oromo and others and in what ways local people responded to these challenges. The analysis is based on oral interviews of the informants' narratives based on collective memory analysis aided by the secondary sources. The dissertation argues that the southcentral Ethiopia has been the home of independent people with their own history, culture and economic sources before they came under the Ethiopian empire from 1870s to 1974. In the pre-1908 period, the Shawan rulers allied with the neighboring European colonial powers participated in the colonization of the neighboring independent states. To facilitate government system the Shawan rulers used direct and indirect administrative systems until 1941. The indigenous people lost their political system, history and culture and thereby forced to accept the culture of the rulers. Some local people accepted the rule of the Shawan while others rejected and resorted to armed struggle led to some of the stiffest resistances between the Shawan army and the local leaders. In the post 1941 the Ethiopian administration policy of marginalization continued and this led to the outbreak of major armed struggles in the region. The Ethiopian state's policy towards the southcentral people significantly impacted the indigenous peoples in terms of economy, history and culture. This study has a broader comparative value since it illuminates the problematic of nation building in south-central regions of Ethiopia in African context and elsewhere in the world. Keywords: Ethiopia, Oromo, Arsi, South Central, Occupation