Settlement and resettlement in Mettekel, western Ethiopia

Abstract

The material for this short study was collected in August 1985 during the University Resettlement Campaign (or Zemetcha, for short) which took place between June and September of that year. The writer, who along with students and staff from the main campus was deployed in Mettekel for the duration of the Zemetcha, was able to gain access to official sources of information regarding the resettlement and Mettekel atoarja in general. Files and documents from various branches of government in the awarja and woreda 0), as well as from agencies, located in the village of Pawie, directly concerned with the resettlement, provided some valuable information. This was supplemented by extensive interviews the writer held with broadly two sets of people: government agents and peasant resettlers, on the one hand, and on the other, individuals from the indigenous community. In the latter case, my interviewees included a number of officials of Peasant Associations, a traditional leader and elder (a Balambaras), a Shanqella member of the ESP based temporarily in the area, and several individuals from different walks of life. Most of my interviews about and archival information on the was obtained in Mandura ivoreda which has the highest concentration of people of this community.