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  • Living Terraces in Ethiopia: Konso Landscape, Culture and Development
  • Girma Kebbede
Elizabeth E. Watson . Living Terraces in Ethiopia: Konso Landscape, Culture and Development. London: James Currey, 2009. xii + 242 pp. Maps. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $90.00. Cloth.

Elizabeth Watson is the rare scholar who has mastered the disciplines of anthropology, ethnography, geography, and history. She has synthesized these methodologies in her informative study of the cultural construction of landscape among the Konso of southwest Ethiopia, a work that goes beyond previous studies which have focused on material and climatic processes and neglected the importance of the cultural, social, and political dimensions of landscape construction.

The book contains seven chapters and an introduction that summarizes the research: its objectives, its methodology, and its structure. The first chapter describes Konso's production of a terraced landscape, including how intensive agriculture required a huge "landesque capital" (14) and a high degree of labor. Watson then explains in detail how the landscape is socially produced, focusing on the importance of social networks. In the center of many of the social networks are the poqallas, or lineage heads, who often held large plots of especially productive land. The poqallas used these large landholdings to access even more labor to produce and maintain the landscape. The poqallas also served as spiritual leaders or priests, and in Konso society their spiritual and economic functions were inseparable. The extra labor they received was seen as a form of payment or tribute for their role in keeping the spiritual order. Thus they formed the center of a moral economy, which both served the public good and sustained the produced landscape.

Watson also analyzes the political role of the poqallas in the early history of the Konso. The poqallas "accumulate[d] symbolic capital" (118) in the form of reputation and prestige, as well as by inheriting it through their [End Page 167] office. Such "symbolic capital" was transformed into labor when people worked for the poqallas as a type of payment for their spiritual role in maintaining moral harmony, performing rituals, and consecrating the people. The poqallas thus gained both symbolic and economic capital, both of which were used to access labor. After the incorporation of Konso into the Ethiopian Empire, the poqallas were made "customary authorities" (127) by the new rulers because of their notable lineages, and this new position afforded them extra land and tax exemptions. Even though their roles as intermediaries for the state changed their position, they continued to be instrumental in producing the landscape and controlling agricultural life.

In chapters 5 and 6 Watson discusses the impact of the post-1974 revolutionary military regime as well as the changes brought by Protestant Christian missionaries. The missionaries and the regime viewed Konso's traditional practices as backward and oppressive and worked to undermine the poqallas' power. The 1975 land reform, which nationalized the nation's land, hit the poqallas especially hard. Without access to large amounts of land, they were unable to access labor, and the military regime also made it difficult for them to fulfill their ritual roles. Both of these changes had the effect of weakening their position and power.

Watson's final chapter focuses on the changes in Konso society that took place after the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front replaced the military regime in 1991. The post-1991 government promoted decentralization based on ethnic lines and encouraged individual groups to adhere to their traditional culture. As a small ethnic entity, Konso was afforded the status of Special District within a larger southern regional state. In this context, the poqallas acquired renewed importance and began to exercise their traditional roles. This process was not without a challenge, however. Past equation of the poqallas with negative representations still lingered, and authorities were reluctant to support this particular institution, which was still linked with oppression. This and other new changes made the reinstatement of the poqalla system rather difficult.

In her conclusion, Watson sees opportunities for development initiatives in Konso that will use traditional practices of land maintenance to revive a productive agricultural system and maintain a sustainable landscape. Such initiatives, however, will have to find ways to mobilize the people...

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