Continuity and Change in Egalitarian Governance Among the Sidama of Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The Sidama are one of the indigenous peoples of Ethiopia. They have developed their socio-political institutions and ethos on the basis of indigenous; egalitarian, democratic, customary moral codes with predictable mechanisms of enforcement. This article tries to investigate the continuity and change associated with indigenous egalitarian governance of the Sidama in light with its compatibility with emergent structures of formal governance. The study used one of the emancipatory methodologies –Indigenous Research Framework. Findings of this study revealed that the pattern of governance in Sidama has shifted from “egalitarian to hierarchical governance” over the last 125 years. This transformation is attributed to three sets of forces. First, the incorporating forces since the arrival of Basha Aboye in 1890s and the attendant government structures have strained the old order; second, large scale proselytism from 1940s to date has completely undermined the traditional foundations of the egalitarian governance system; and third, the interaction between the first and the second sets of forces has created a ‘peripheral state’ whereby indigenous system of governance took a back seat while a predator state with a leviathan proportion became a norm in Sidama for a century. In sum, it is the opinion of this paper that to forge a system of government based on consensus and legitimacy, there is a need for a conversation of narratives between the two tales of governance in Ethiopia: ‘the organic old’ and ‘the imported new’ systems.

Keywords: indigenous, egalitarian, governance, emancipatory methodology, proselytism