Legal Pluralism in Ethiopia

Susanne Epple, Getachew Assefa (eds.) Legal Pluralism in Ethiopia Culture and Social Practice Susanne Epple (PhD), born in 1968, is a social anthropologist and research affiliate at the Frobenius Institute in Frankfurt/Main. She has undertaken extensive fieldwork in Southern Ethiopia for 25 years, and has taught and published extensively on issues related to gender and age in agropastoral societies, cultural contact and change, heredi- tary status groups, and legal pluralism. Getachew Assefa (PhD), born in 1973, is associate professor of law at Addis Ababa Uni- versity. He has published widely on issues related to minority rights, federalism and constitutional litigation, and legal pluralism. His areas of interest include comparative constitutional law and federalism, human rights, traditional governance and justice systems, as well as law and religion. Susanne Epple, Getachew Assefa (eds.) Legal Pluralism in Ethiopia Actors, Challenges and Solutions Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbiblio- grafie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (BY) license, which means that the text may be be remixed, transformed and built upon and be copied and redistributed in any medium or format even commercially, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons license terms for re-use do not apply to any content (such as graphs, figures, photos, excerpts, etc.) not original to the Open Access publication and further permission may be required from the rights holder. The obligation to research and clear permission lies solely with the party re-using the material. First published in 2020 by transcript Verlag, Bielefeld © Susanne Epple, Getachew Assefa (eds.) All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or ret- rieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cover layout: Maria Arndt, Bielefeld Cover illustration: Bashada elders and government officials during a meeting (photo: Susanne Epple 2016) Proofread by Kay Celtel Printed by Majuskel Medienproduktion GmbH, Wetzlar Print-ISBN 978-3-8376-5021-1 PDF-ISBN 978-3-8394-5021-5 https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839450215 Printed on permanent acid-free text paper. Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................. 9 Introduction Susanne Epple ............................................................................ 11 I. The interplay of international, national and local law Towards widening the constitutional space for customary justice systems in Ethiopia Getachew Assefa ......................................................................... 43 The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and African Societies Karl-Heinz Kohl .......................................................................... 63 Understanding customary laws in the context of legal pluralism Gebre Yntiso .............................................................................. 71 II. Cooperation and competition between legal forums The handling of homicide in the context of legal pluralism Cooperation between government and customary institutions in the Gamo highlands Temechegn Gutu ......................................................................... 97 The interplay of customary and formal legal systems among the Tulama Oromo Cooperation and competition Melaku Abera ............................................................................ 115 Federal Sharia Courts in Addis Ababa Their administration and the application of law in the light of recent developments Mohammed Abdo........................................................................ 139 Use and abuse of ‘the right to consent’ Forum shopping between shimgilinna and state courts among the Amhara of Ankober, northcentral Ethiopia Desalegn Amsalu........................................................................ 163 III. Emerging hybridity of legal institutions and practices Local strategies to maintain cultural integrity The vernacularization of state law among the Bashada and Hamar of southern Ethiopia Susanne Epple .......................................................................... 187 Legal pluralism and Protestant Christianity From fine to forgiveness in an Aari community Julian Sommerschuh .................................................................... 213 Kontract: A hybrid form of law among the Sidama Muradu Abdo............................................................................ 235 Legal pluralism and emerging legal hybridity Interactions between the customary, state and religious law among the Siltie of southern Ethiopia Kairedin Tezera ......................................................................... 263 A matter perspective: Of transfers, switching, and cross-cutting legal procedures Juridical processes among Oromo and Amhara, East Shewa Andrea Nicolas.......................................................................... 283 IV. Incompatibilities and conflict When parallel justice systems lack mutual recognition Negative impacts on the resolution of criminal cases among the Borana Oromo Aberra Degefa ........................................................................... 311 Combatting infanticide in Bashada and Hamar The complexities behind a ‘harmful traditional practice’ in southern Ethiopia Susanne Epple .......................................................................... 339 Clashing values The 2015 conflict in Hamar district of South Omo Zone, southern Ethiopia Yohannes Yitbarek ...................................................................... 371 Glossary.............................................................................. 399 Contributors......................................................................... 409 Acknowledgements This volume is part of the results of a research project on ‘The negotiation oflaw in the peripheries of southern Ethiopia’. It was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and hosted at the Frobenius Institute at the Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main. Susanne Epple – a social anthropologist – was the principal investigator of the project and did her own research in the very south of Ethiopia. In order to widen the scope of the research and get an interdisciplinary perspective, she invited Getachew Assefa – a lawyer and expert on constitutional law and legal pluralism in Ethiopia – to cooperate. Together they organized two interdisciplinary events: an international conference organized at Jinka University (JKU) in Jinka, southern Ethiopia in January 2018, and a panel at the 20th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (ICES) at Mekelle University, northern Ethiopia in October 2018. Both were titled ‘Legal pluralism in Ethiopia: The interplay of international, national and customary law’. Most of the papers in this volume are results of these events; some joined the group at a later stage. We are grateful to the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the generous funding of the project, the conference and panel, and most of the publication costs. We would also like to take the opportunity to thank the staff at Jinka University for their great support in making the conference in Jinka possible, and express our gratitude to the organizers of the ICES 20 in Mekelle. We are also indebted to the Frobenius Institute, which hosted the project from 2016–2019. The institute has a long history of research and has shown continued interest in the ethnic diversity and cultural complexity of Ethiopia. Since its expe- ditions into Ethiopia in the early twentieth century, numerous well-known pub- lications have come out of the institute, by authors such as Adolf E. Jensen, Eike Haberland, Helmut Straube, Werner Lange, Elisabeth Pauli and Ulrich Braukäm- per, to mention only a few.1 Professor Karl-Heinz Kohl, the then director of the Frobenius Institute, offered to host the project in 2016. We would like to thank him, 1 ForanoverviewoftheengagementoftheFrobeniusInstituteinEthiopiaseeDinslage,Sabine and Sophia Thubauville (eds.), 2017 Seeking out wise old men: Six decades of Ethiopian studies at the Frobenius Institute. Berlin: Reimer 10 Legal Pluralism in Ethiopia and the current director, Professor Roland Hardenberg, as well as the staff of the Frobenius Institute for their welcoming and indefatigable cooperation, and also for co-financing the publication of the book. Special thanks go to Sophia Thubauville, a colleague at the Frobenius Institute and a co-researcher in Ethiopia, who has been very helpful throughout in many different ways. To address the complexity of customary law and legal pluralism in contem- porary Ethiopia from an interdisciplinary perspective, the editors invited experi- enced scholars from both of their disciplines – social anthropology and law – to contribute. We wish to thank all the authors for their great efforts and the patience they have shown in the course of publishing this volume. Finally, we are grateful to the many informants in the field, both private people and government officials. Through their trust and openness to discuss partly very sensitive topics

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