Land Titling and Power Building in the Three Regimes of Ethiopia: The Last Empire, the First Republic, and the Second Republic

Abstract

Land is not a mere physical resource in Ethiopia; rather it has a strong tie with social values and political power. Apparently, scholars in this particular area have largely focued on the residual effects of land dispossessions and the harsh incursions into the communal sanctities. Moreover, they paid an enormous attention to the effects of land grabbing on the economic, social and human rights of individuals. However, this article argues that less attention has been given to the role of land titlting in buiding the power of political elites in Ethiopia. In order to explore this, the article attempted to anlyze the three regimes in Ethiopia-the Emperial, Derg, and EPRDF-and their land entitlment strategies as a means of power making and legitimization of the establishments. The artilce, thus, concludes that there have been a strong connection between land and power in the three regimes of Ethiopia and it maintains that land tilting strategies have been extensively used for the political interests and power grabbing objectives of the regimes.