Society And Environment In Mtkl Northwestern Ethiopia 1880s To 1990s

This dissertation is an environmental history of Mätäkäl, a region located along Ethiopia’srnnorthwest, from the late 1880s to the early 1990s. The late 1880s forms an importantrnwatershed in the environmental history of Mätäkäl since it witnessed a majorrntransformation in the demographic structure and environmental features of the region duernto the conjuncture of a major cattle epizootic, locust invasion and failure of the rains. Thesernecological shocks were played out against the backdrop of major political disturbances andrnlocal and regional and cross-border warfare that deepened the vulnerability of thernpopulation to these disasters. The early 1990s, on the other hand, marked the end of arndecade of intensive projects of social and ecological engineering initiated by the Dergrnsocialist government that primariy consisted of the resettlement of tens of thousands ofrnagrarian populations from the southern and northern highlands in the lowlands of Mätäkälrnas well as its large-scale socialist agrarian projects that depended on the operation of largernstate farms. The dissertation demonstrates that in the decades since the end of the GreatrnFamine in 1892 or so the populations of the region reconstituted the livestock and farmingrneconomy of the region through trading and raiding. On the other hand, the populations ofrnlowland Matakal and especially the Gumuz and their environment suffered as a result ofrnthe slave raids conducted against them to acquire agricultural labor for the highlands ofrnnorthern Ethiopia. Over the same period, the wildlife sector also witnessed depletion inconsequence of its integration into the global trade in ivory and other wildlife resources andrnthe transformation of the technology of hunting through the easier and widespreadrnacquisition of modern rifles. During the post-1940s period the tempo of environmentalrnchange accelerated as a result of the expansion of plow agriculture in the forest zone wherernlivestock herding was extensively practiced as well as in the lowlands which had been thernsite of mostly shifting agriculture based on the hoe. The dissertation argues that while inrnthe pre-revolution period the major agents of environmental change in Mätäkäl were selfsponsoredrnsettlers who were encouraged by local officials to settle in the region, during thernpost-revolution period the key actors of environmental change were the state and thernpeasants it settled in the region under the large scale resettlement projects of the Dergrngovernment.rnKeywords: Environment, Society, Disease, Hunting, Agriculture, Resettlement

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