BY Dr. JORDAN GHEBRE-MEDHIN
THE RED SEA PRESS, INC.
556 BELLEVUE AVENUE
TRENTON, NEW JERSEY 08618
FIRST PRINTING 1989
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number:
88-62294
ISBN: 0-932415-38-5 Cloth
0-932415-39-3 Paper
THE CHURCH AND LAND
The Coptic is intimately bound up with land ownership in the highlands, which are predominantly Christian. In the villages and in the towns people wear strings around their necks to signify that they are members of the Church. Out of highland
population that was conservatively estimated at 524,000 in 1949, only 37,000 were Moslems and over three quarter of them lived in the urban areas. Indeed in the rural areas, the villages are entirely dominated by adherents of Coptic Church.
The rural areas are made up of thousands of villages, each of which has at least one Coptic Church. In addition, in different parts of the highlands are found holy areas, monasteries, convents, all belonging to the Coptic Church. Prior to Italian colonization of Eritrea, the Church was one of the most powerful landowning institutions in the country.
Politics and religion reinforce each other in the highlands is simply the pillar and custodian of feudal high culture.
As a result the “main source of acquisition of church land was grants made by charters from the kings and rulers. In the area like Serae, where monasteries own extensive tract of land, land is granted in this manner by the ruling nobility and emperors. Such land is the private property of the Church, and Church officials administer it. In some cases clergy and members of the parish till the land, while in other cases the Church rents it to local peasants. Some of the most choice lands in Eritrea, like the Medri Bahri in Kebesa, “where fertile soil and near perennial rains combined to produce the most favored agricultural land in the country,” were Church property.
On the other hand, in many villages the Church did not own land apart from where the church was erected. In addition an open space close to the church was left for use by the villagers for gathering during church festivities and a fenced are is reserved for the exclusive use of burial purposes. Beyond this, however, by consent of the villagers, certain plots of land are reserved for exclusive use of the church and its clergy membership. Such land allotted for the Church and the maintenance of the clergy members “many not be disposed of by sale, gift, inheritance or mortgage and remains church property irrespective of the change in its actual holders.
The Church is the privileged sector of the society. In Serae area, the Church and the member priest own land, which is tribute-free. Similarly in area where the DIESA system of land tenure is dominant, land is allotted to the village priest an, unlike village land, it is not subject to periodic redistribution. Furthermore, the village priest, unlike the village peasant, is “exempted from all communal labor and from tribute, and has, moreover, the right of choice where the village land comes up for redistribution.” In areas where village ownership of land exists, it is common to see village priests holding on to choice lands for decades. In addition, custom demands that the villagers offer the priests “crops, animals, money.” Most villagers also “contribute food and drinks to the priests during religious holidays, and invite priests to their homes regularly.” The priests are entitled to these privileges as long as they do not openly challenge the canons of Coptic law, for example by divorcing or by remarrying when widowed. The privileges are such that rarely do priests openly break Church laws that endanger or forfeit these rights.
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TRADITIONAL POLITICS IN THE HIGHLANDS
In the highlands of Eritrea communal life revolves around the ENDA, which encompasses and also unites the different social institutions together with the economic base. The ENDA is a large kinship group whose members vary in numbers but all claim common ancestry. To distinguish line of descent, the word ENDA is prefixed to a name (e. g., ENDA DEKETISHIM), denoting thus the founding ancestor. Because of time and growth, the ENDA has spilt into many units. In turn each founder of a community becomes the ENDA from which a generation articulates its descent. In short, ENDA is the collective crystallization of individual families.
Each family is a living, laboring economic unit. This unit is in turn organically linked with the ENDA. This unit is in turn organically linked with the ENDA. The economic, political, or social right of the individual family is overshadowed by the ENDA. The ENDA is the point from which descent is traced, by which the territorial unit is defined, through which the land tenure system is arranged. In fact, “the hereditary, absolute land right of resti, is bound up with the ENDA group. Even where the individual right of land ownership exists, this right is part of resti. Viewed in this manner the collective has the ultimate right over land property. Thus right over land is derived from the vested interest of the ENDA by “virtue of first occupation of land without the total consent of the ENDA. Further, the most vivid implication of the ENDA can be observed during land disputes and litigation, where, on almost every occasion, the corporate conception of land ownership is revived by the explicit reference to the first founding ENDA.
Whereas there is a direct link between the social and economic unit (i.e., between the ENDA and resti) and whereas the legal right over land in resti is derived from the ENDA, political
and class distinctions are closely tied with the territorial unit on which the foundation of hereditary land right is based.
The most basic distinct concerning social stratification stems from the definition of residence. Two types of residents are recognized. First are those who, qualifying as members of the original ENDA by virtue of their kin relationship, claim an absolute right to heritable land. They are known as RESTENJATAT (the term means resti owners). The restenjatat are also known as BALLABATS, meaning the hereditary have the exclusive and absolute right over heritable land. Those who do not form part of the BALLABATS are a second category of residents, known as MAKELAI- ALIET. These newcomers, or foreign residents, make up what amounts second-class citizens. Since they are outside the original ENDA they have no right to heritable, no rights over resti, and can only operate as tenants or WERKENJATAT.
The resti reflected the process of descent and procreation, generally defined socioeconomic distinctions, and was the criterion for institutional differentiation and class distinctions. This was in turn the dialectical basis for the definition of political units and units of power relations. Both at the village and the district level, those entitled to powerful and influential political offices could only come from BALLABATS. Economic, social, and political influence was intimately intertwined with and was dependent on the ENDA. In pre-Italian times the village chief (THE HALEKA) owed his leadership primarily to the fact that he was a member of original kin group. In some cases “the leaders of powerful ENDA groups could obtain recognition as feudal chiefs of villages and districts. While clear class distinctions existed between the BALLABATS and MAKELAI-ALIET, subtle but real fractional differences were observed among the BALLABATS. Some BALLABATS held hereditary village or district offices and with their position came privileges. This group could hold choice communal land for more than three decades without the obligatory land rotations. These silent contradictions among the ruling BALLABATS will be much clearer when we discuss class struggle in rural modern Eritrea in Chapter 8.
The ideological basis for the economic and political distinction accorded to the BALLABATS was furnished by the COPTIC CHURCH. The Coptic Church, owner of valuable estates, present in every village, in every locality, was in fact the carrier of high culture from the center to the periphery.
The influence of the Coptic Church over the lives and behavior of the Eritrean Tigrinyan cannot be overstated. In Eritrea, which for ecclesiastical purposes is included in the diocese of the ABUNA BISHOP OF TIGRAI, as many as twenty or thirty priests, deacons, and acolytes minister to the spiritual needs of each villages and, scattered about the Plateau and its periphery, several exercise a powerful and reactionary influence in their support.
Indeed the Coptic Church extended beyond the Eritrean highland and linked the highland section of Ethiopia with Eritrea. The Church’s hierarchical ruler, its privileged priesthood, and the economic and social inequalities that prevailed in the Kebesa highlands all were rationalized and justified by the Church through its preaching. The position of the Church- tied to both the peasants and the ruling classes of Eritrea as well as the highland feudal lords of Ethiopia – was thus profoundly affected by the struggle for independence, especially after 1940.
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The early years of British rule were also marked by serious conflicts in the rural areas, which added to the overall instability. This was true both in the Kebesa region and in the lowlands, as will be shown below.
In 1935 the population of Asmara was a mere 15,000. By 1941 it had risen to 90,000. Most of the increase in population was due to the immigration of peasants seeking employment in the cities. Secondarily, the increase was due to the return of Eritrean ex-soldiers after the end of the Italian war in 1941. In addition Ethiopians, Italians, and Arabs came to settle in Asmara during this period.
The rural population of the Southern Plateau, which was 23,000 in 1910, is 400,000 in 1948. The apparent paradox has risen because landless groups, often immigrants from ETHIOPIA, were sometimes accepted bt villages communities to make good the loss of manpower caused by military conscription and exodus to the towns.
Immigrants from Ethiopia to the rural areas of the Eritrean highlands had increased during the war. The immigrants belonged by faith to the Coptic Church and spoke basically the same language as the people of Kebesa. By and large immigrants – MAKELAI-ALIET—were at the bottom of the rural class structure. After 1941 and the return of the ex-soldiers, the village population increased.
The British, as the new ruler, felt that they had no right or jurisdiction over the Crown land. It remained the property of the state and of those Italians who farmed it. In the most cases where there was extra land at the disposal of British, it was allocated, not to the Eritreans, but “to those best qualified and equipped to use it, namely, the Italians. Between 1942 and 1944 many instances of actual conflict between the peasants and the Italians were recorded. In 1942 peasants destroyed a fruit garden, which was cultivated by Italians. In 1944 two Italians farmers were killed. Italophobia became vivid in the rural areas during this period, and the contradictions between the Eritrean peasantry and the British authorities became acute.
As we frequently mentioned, the Kebesa people were primarily Christians and agriculturalists, Since, for most part, only Christians are entitled to land rights, professions other than tilling the land were regarded as occupations for outsiders. The moneylenders, the shop owners, the traders – in short, the financial wizards of the rural areas were Muslims, especially JEBERTI MOSLEMS. During this critical period the peasantry…
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The Jeberti, and Saho, and Massawa intellectuals who felt betrayed by the Christian politicians withdrew from Kebesa politics. Led by Berhanu Ahmeddin, they joined Ibrahim Sultan in founding the Muslim League.
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ካብ ሽሕ ዓመት ብውርደት፡ ሓንቲ ዓመት ብኽብረት ምንባር ይበልጽ