Capitalism or feudalism? the famine in Ethiopia

Bibliographic Data

ID11905152
AuthorsLionel Cliffe (0000-0001-7111-5575, corresponding author)
Year1974
Volume1
Issue1
Publication date1974-08-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReview of African Political Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0305-6244 • E-ISSN: 1740-1720
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03056247408703236
OpenAlexW2073654221
LanguageEN
Citations received18

The famine in Ethiopia, as in the Sahel, is not simply a ‘natural’ disaster but has social and economic origins. Moreover, the suffering is not simply the compounding of the effects of food shortage by the harsh burdens borne by tenant formers. While southern Ethiopia, where famine is now beginning to strike, had a feudal land system imposed in the 19th Century, the northern provinces where the famine first hit has a system where there were lords of the land but no landlords and peasants had the security of access to land even though they paid ‘tithes’. The commercialisation and mechanisation of agriculture in the last generation has eroded those rights. Landlords are becoming capitalist farmers and a landless class is growing. The famine is accelerating these processes, just as it is exacerbated by them

Agriculture · Archaeology · Capitalism · Development economics · Economic shortage · Economics · Famine · Feudalism · Geography · Political science · Politics · Wage labour · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Land Rights and Reforms · Law

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access