Chiguraf Goses: An Evolved Land-Share Land Tenure System in Enderta Province
Contrary to the general perception, customary rules are not static but continually changing as a result of diverse factors such as economic, cultural, ecological, social and political. In the late of nineteenth century, important changes had been taken place in Enderta economies and societies, including human relocation and cultural interactions. These developments had significant implications for the customary land tenure system. In the process, they changed the lineage-based land tenure system into a land-share land tenure system known as Chiguraf Goses. This customary institution had brought some sort of modification in relation to distribution, inheritance and transfer of land. It was equally distributed and managed by parish residents, whose representatives allocated it in the interest of the land holding groups. Under the Chiguraf Goses land tenure system, members of the parish were able to gain control land on the principle of equal shares regardless of their genealogical ties to the founding fathers. In such parishes, individuals with a whip (some say with an ox) had a right to own and cultivate of the land. Broadly speaking, under the Chiguraf Goses, land devolved neither through the male line nor through the female line but generally gained and controlled under the principle of membership rights. This study intends to capture some of the factors that had brought changes to the customary land tenure system and its implication for gender and inter family relations. Oral, archival and published sources are used. The sources are critically collected, scrutinized and analyzed. The validities of the sources are crosschecked one against the other.
Abraha Weldu
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