Personally, I don't agree with Seth's view on 'expulsion' or 'forcible clearing' of local people from land in Ethiopia. The statement that 'Nobody is talking about using force... many of their members leave voluntarily, or out of economic necessity'' is not right.
Currently, there is a serious land grabbing in the country both by foreign and national private investors and even the state itself. Government officials and experts play central role in ensuring smallholder farmers are dispossessed and land resources are controlled by non-local forces without adequate compensation to the locales. The processes of land grabbing in Oromia (Yayo) , Benshangul, Gambella (Godere) and SNNPR suggest that displacement of farmers was involuntary and forcible.
There was a recent resistance movement in the South West Ethiopia where some farmers in Gambella protested the land grabbing and killed foreign nationals working for a private agricultural investment company (https://www.ethiomedia.com/2012_report/3750.html).
Many of those displaced by powerful corporates from their ancestral lands are now facing serious challenges and have become unable to support their families.
Personally, I don't agree with Seth's view on 'expulsion' or 'forcible clearing' of local people from land in Ethiopia. The statement that 'Nobody is talking about using force... many of their members leave voluntarily, or out of economic necessity'' is not right.
Currently, there is a serious land grabbing in the country both by foreign and national private investors and even the state itself. Government officials and experts play central role in ensuring smallholder farmers are dispossessed and land resources are controlled by non-local forces without adequate compensation to the locales. The processes of land grabbing in Oromia (Yayo) , Benshangul, Gambella (Godere) and SNNPR suggest that displacement of farmers was involuntary and forcible.
There was a recent resistance movement in the South West Ethiopia where some farmers in Gambella protested the land grabbing and killed foreign nationals working for a private agricultural investment company (https://www.ethiomedia.com/2012_report/3750.html).
Many of those displaced by powerful corporates from their ancestral lands are now facing serious challenges and have become unable to support their families.