Villagization (Ethiopia)
Land reform stood as one of the Derg's foremost priorities, and villagization occurred within the context of broader policies of resettlement and the collectivization of agriculture.
[1][2] Villagization policy immediately followed the Famine of 1983-85, and attempted to increase food production, expand social services, and further extend state control over rural populations through a systematic relocation of people into planned communities.
[3][4] Opponents of the Derg saw villagization programs as thinly-veiled efforts to address security concerns in rural areas, particularly those where support for the Oromo or Western Somali Liberation Fronts was strongest.
[5] Rural populations often met villagization campaigns with skepticism or resistance, and in many areas officials relocated groups hastily and violently.
Prior to the 1974 revolution, an entrenched and complex land-tenure system severely restricted peasants' rights to agricultural land and freedom of movement.
[11] While Selassie's regime made some effort to redress overpopulation by resettling groups from the Highlands region, the Derg was able to gain significant support with a pledge to abolish the land-tenure system, calling for "land to the tiller."
Poor planning and negligence often meant that resettled groups were left without proper food, shelter, or services, leading to thousands of deaths from starvation and disease.
[6] While record low rainfall and severe drought were the most immediate cause of the famine, rapid land reform, misguided policy, and years of underproduction created a disproportionate crisis.
[17] Furthermore, international humanitarian organizations such as Oxfam and Human Rights Watch have alleged that Mengistu Haile Mariam's regime intentionally weaponized the famine in its fight against rebel insurgencies during the Civil War, withholding food aid from Tigray and Welo regions.
In an interview with the German journalist Hannelore Gadatsch on December 16, 1986, Mengistu stated that the regime had intended to carry out villagization in stages over a longer period of time, but the drought necessitated a rapid implementation of the program.
By relocating dispersed communities and nomadic groups into larger, planned villages, the state could more easily supply modern services such as clean water, clinics, schools, and electricity.
[14] Villagization also directly targeted political tensions in the Shebelle valley, where new state farms had displaced a large number of smallholding farmers.
[8] Because peasant associations often lacked personnel and administrative capacity, the Derg recruited over 60,000 high school and university students--the so called zemacha--to help organize rural communities and assist with villagization.
At times student groups attempted to implement changes on a more radical level than the regime's villagization policy, undermining government legitimacy in rural areas.
[8] Peasants were particularly resistant to villagization in Gojjam and western Shewa, where traditional practice remained strong, and faced severe government retaliation.
The rapid, haphazard nature of its implementation severely disrupted farmers' daily lives, impacting their ability to tend to their crops.
[23] Mengistu however claimed that poor production levels were the result of a social structure still rooted in individualism and a petit bourgeois capitalist mentality, and the regime did not immediately abandon villagization.
[14] Observers of the food crisis in Ethiopia feared that the policy would only further disrupt agricultural production, and criticized the Derg for ignoring actual local concerns.
[8] Many foreign donors suspended aid flows to Ethiopia, as they were unwilling to support a collectivization drive resemblant of dekulakization and the creation of Soviet state farms.
[15] Peasants themselves resented the loss of their property and the militarized feel of the new villages, which lacked any places of worship or traditional cultural institutions.
