Peasants and the Ethiopian state

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This study investigates Ethiopia's recent agrarian reforms as reflected in Amharic oral poetry. Its innovative approach yields fascinating insights. Taking an Agricultural Producers' Cooperative in Yetnora, East Gojjam as an example, the author gives an informed and convincing account of peasant attitudes as reflected in oral poetry. The study of Amharic poems and songs reveals that, from a peasant perspective, the 1975 land reform and the subsequent legislation involved contradictory and self-defeating elements. Much of the disappointment with the Derg's agrarian policies can be attributed to poorly planned and high-handed "state-interventionism" which aimed to modernise rural society without taking peasants' feelings, attitudes, aspirations and views into due consideration.