SUMMARY
The Ari (sometimes spelled Aari) are a group of mixed farmers, numbering around 160 000. They inhabit the northern part of the Mago National Park, as well as the highlands around the towns Jinka and Key Afer, located in Ethiopia’s SNNP (Southern Nationalities, Nations and Peoples) region. Recently Ariland was reorganized into two woredas (districts): Debub Ari and Semen Ari.
Ariland includes both highland and lowland areas, and the subsistence economies of the two are quite different. Nevertheless, all land is relatively fertile, allowing Aris in both areas to have several types of plantations, growing crops like grains, coffee, cardamom and fruits. They also produce honey and keep livestock, such as sheep, chicken and some cattle.
Historically, the Ari were divided into nine autonomous territorial groups who were each led by a local leader – the babi. The babi was in turn assisted by councils of elders (galta), chiefs of sub-divisions (ganna), ritual specialist (godmi) and information agents (tsoyki). These nine entities were often engaged in boundary conflicts with each other.
With the incorporation of Ariland into Imperial Ethiopia in the late 19th century, the prevalence of intra-Ari conflict decreased as the Ari set aside their internal problems to fight Emperor Melenik’s troops. They were soon defeated, however, and over the following years the traditional organization and leadership structure of the Ari was eroded, as the group became part of the feudal social structure. Among the Ari, this period is remembered as a time of powerlessness and the group compared its relationship to the state to that of a marital relationship where the husband assumes a dominant status in relation to his subordinate wife. Some Ari even compare it to a serf-master relationship. Although Emperor Haile Selassie was ousted from power in 1974 and replaced by the Derg (a military council ruling the country until 1991), the situation remained the same for the Ari. However, when the present EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) regime came to power in 1991 and restructured Ethiopia as an ethnic federation, the Aris’ situation was transformed. Under this at least nominal decentralization, the Ari now have a stake in the political structure with several group members having positions of responsibility in the local administration.
The Ari are surrounded by semi-nomadic peoples who traditionally raid each other’s’ cattle and are categorized as “warlike” by anthropologists. However, due to the Aris’ agricultural, non-warlike lifestyle, these groups do generally not consider it an act of bravery to kill an Ari, and group generally lives at peace with most of their neighbours.
The Ari have been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.
