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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Authority and leadership in Surma society (Ethiopia)
Author:Abbink, JonISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:Africa: rivista trimestrale di studi e documentazione
Volume:52
Issue:3
Pages:317-342
Language:English
Geographic term:Ethiopia
Subjects:Suri
chieftaincy
External links:https://hdl.handle.net/1887/9127
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40761151
Abstract:This article examines recent developments of local authority and 'leadership' among the Surma of southern Ethiopia, where the author carried out field research over the years 1990-1995. The intention is to analyse the nature of 'authority' in a non-State social formation, in which 'chiefs' in the proper sense of the word are absent. The author gives an overview of the three different political systems which have succeeded each other in Ethiopia since the late 19th century: Haile Selassie's feudalist monarchy (until 1974), the Dergue's centralist republic (1974-1991), and the present ethno-regional federal republic, and examines to what extent these different types of governance have had a transformative impact on traditional forms of local leadership. He argues that southern Ethiopian local administration has always been characterized by an uneasy alliance of two types of leaders: imported highland rulers and local, indigenous 'chiefs' or ritual leaders ('komoru'). The Surma 'komoru' have generally remained outside the political arena. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French and Italian.
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