The Myth and Reality of Empire Building: Italian Land Policy and Practice in Ethiopia, 1935-1941.

Apart from being Italo-centric, the vast majority of scholarly work on the short-lived period of Italian occupation of Ethiopia is mainly preoccupied with political events and particularly with their repercussions on international diplomacy. With the exception of a few pioneering studies, Italian rule and its impact on Ethiopia is given marginal importance. The present thesis confines itself to one specific key area of Italian policy - land. Search for an outlet to settle Italy's excess population and deploy its surplus capital, had sustained Italian imperialist ambitions from the 19th century and justified the conquest of Ethiopia against quasi universal international opposition. With the conquest of Ethiopia, Italy claimed to have become one of the 'satisfied' nations. Unlike the older Italian colonies that were described as a useless "collection of sand", Ethiopia, with its varying climate and fertile soil, was portrayed as an El Dorado where Italy's long-standing imperial aspirations could be effectively fulfilled. Yet impressive land colonization programmes, aiming at settling Italian colonists with a mission to transform, within a short time, the agricultural sector into "the granary of Italy" and the Ethiopian Empire into an extension of a Magna Italia, were an unmitigated failure. The building of the Empire proved extremely difficult, largely because realities on the ground had vastly hampered practical results. Nevertheless, the attendant policies accelerated the process of change already set in motion and had a lasting effect on traditional Ethiopian social structure. Each chapter discusses key aspects of these policies, highlighting the forces contributing to the great contrast between their formulation and their actual achievement and, particularly in the conclusion, their impact on an independent Ethiopia

The Political Ecology of Cereal Seed Development in Africa: A History of Selection

Agricultural history and the history of seeds in sub?Saharan Africa are an aggregate effect of individual day?to?day decisions by farmers. The role of seeds within an agricultural system can be a valuable indicator of both social and natural time since farmers' seed selections indicate both natural conditions – moisture, pests, soils – and short?term, season by season farm decisions about labour, potential yield vs risk and market potential. In the immediate future, international donors and African governments are planning that African farmers will receive their seeds from a global political structure that anticipates, perhaps wishfully, economic and political stability. Those expectations of development specialists are ones that failed at the end of the twentieth century. Will seed selection by African farmers in the twenty?first century take place in an ideal free market of infinite choice or in real?world conditions fraught with uncertainty of supply, climate fluctuations and unintended consequences within complex local ecologies

Livelihood Diversification Increasing in Importance or Increasingly Recognized? Evidence from Southern Ethiopia

Drawing on research from southern Ethiopia this article presents evidence that non-farm and off-farm activities are carried out by a significant proportion of adults and make an important contribution to livelihoods. It shows that there is a high involvement of women in diversification and that the contribution of diversification activities to cash incomes is particularly important for poorer households. The single most important activity is trading, while labouring for others is also important. The paper also shows that need for greater historical depth in the understanding of livelihood diversification. In highland Wolayta non-farm activities (particularly trading and labouring for others) have a long history. In the case of the latter people worked as labourers as part of a set of arrangements that enabled them to gain access to key resources. These arrangements were deeply embedded in complex social relations. As these institutional arrangements have changed, so 'diversification activities' have become more visible. Consideration of the historical and social contexts is thus critical for a firm understanding of livelihood change and the changing role and importance of diversification activities