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A CONTESTED CUSTOM AND RENEGOTIATIONS OVER LAND-GIFT AND INHERITENCE IN THE COURSE OF LAND FORMALIZATION PROCESS IN ETHIOPIA: THE CASE OF DANNO DISTRICT [Abstract ID: 0703-20]
Custom-based land access (e.g. gift-giving and inheritance) is contested of land-titling in the Danno district, Ethiopia. Based on ethnographic research, this paper analyzes the effects of state-driven land formalisation programs on custom-based land access and their consequences for the social organisation of the Oromo society at the local level. According to customary norms of the Oromo, access relations with respect to land is embedded in the social structure of the society and is mediated by such social relations as marriage and descent. The field data in Danno district shows that custom-based land gift-giving (e.g. argaa) and inheritance (dhaala) are widely recognised forms of gaining access to farmland. Disregarding the complexities and social relations involved in custom-based regime of access, since over the last decade, the ruling Ethiopian government has introduced land-titling programs in order to consolidate the state’s law-based control of land access. Despite this legal centred move, gift-giving and inheritance of land through customary norms continue to operate, but often in contradictions with state structure-based arrangements. This contradiction not only destabilises the prevailing regime of access, but it has also implications for the social relations of the society through triggering land based conflict (e.g. family dispute), while opening a new pace for renegotiation between normative orders. Drawing on a legal pluralist approach, this paper illustrates the effect of the land formalisation program on custom-based land gift and inheritance, which has an implication for the social system of the Oromo society in the Danno district.