SUMMARY
The Gedeo and the Guji ethnic groups inhabit neighboring, and in some instances the same, areas in southern Ethiopia. Historically, the two groups were allies; there was intermarriage between them and when necessary they fought together against common enemies. The cooperation was mainly due to two reasons. For one, the Gedeo and the Guji viewed themselves as blood relatives, with the founding father of the Gedeo considered to be the elder brother of the founding father of the Guji. Second, the two groups engaged in different but compatible economic activities and were dependent on one another for various products. The Gedeo, being agriculturalists, supplied the Guji with the cereal that they needed, whereas the Guji, who were traditionally pastoralists, in return supplied the Gedeo with cattle and cattle products. The relationship was not always harmonious, but it only deteriorated into fighting on extreme occasions. Furthermore, there were culturally regulated procedures for how to solve disputes that had gotten out of hand.
The nature of the Gedeo – Guji relationship started to change in the 1950s and 1960s, when the former began to push south- and westwards, into Guji areas. In a typical display of the difference between settled agriculturalists’ and nomadic pastoralists’ perceptions of ownership, the Guji regarded this as efforts to encroach onto their collective land while the Gedeo maintained that the land that they settled on was un-used no-mans land. The Gedeo expansion pushed the two groups towards each other, increasing the frequency of their contacts, while simultaneously creating tensions and grievances among the Guji. Despite this, there were only sporadic reports of clashes over land and water rights over the following decades.
The contested issues of right over traditional land and self-government came to a head and constituted an explosive mix in the post-1991 period. In late May 1991, the rebel forces of EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) succeeded in overthrowing the military regime ruling the country after 16 years of armed conflict. The new government soon began to convert the country into an ethnic federation, redrawing Ethiopia’s political map along ethnolinguistic divisions. Although not fully put into practice, the 1994 constitution granted ethnic groups ‘unconditional’ right to self-determination up to and including secession. However, only some areas of the country (present-day Afar, Amhara, Oromiya, Somali and Tigray) saw more or less homogenous ethnic groups that could determine the nationality of the regional state, whereas other parts were made up of a mosaic of different ethnicities.
The Gedeo and Guji areas had previously been under the same administrative province, the then Sidama Province. With the redrawing of the map, the two groups came to straddle the border between two new regional states: SNNP (Southern Nationalities, Nations and People’s) region and Oromiya. The Gedeo came to reside in the Gedeo Zone of the SNNPR, which forms a peninsular into neighboring Borana Zone, which is located in Oromiya region, and which is inhabited by among other groups, the Guji. However, a large number of Guji were cut off from their kin as the area they inhabited had been deemed to belong to the Gedeo and subsequently became part of the Gedeo Zone. This situation caused strong grievances, with the Guji in Gedeo Zone feeling that they were dominated by the Gedeo on what they considered to be rightfully Guji land. After heavy protests, two predominantly Guji-inhabited woredas (districts) of Gedeo Zone, Bore and Uraga, were transferred to Borana Zone in 1993. This led the Gedeo to, in turn, demand to have the adjacent Gedeosettlement areas of Uraga and Hagere Mariam woredas transferred to Gedeo Zone. The Guji strongly opposed this and upped the ante by demanding that all kebeles (the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia, similar to a neighborhood) where the Guji was in majority should be incorporated into the Borana Zone.
It was eventually agreed that a referendum was to be held in the disputed areas in order to solve the dispute and to break the deadlock. However, it soon turned out that even agreeing on a formula for the referendum was problematic. Tensions increased between the two groups amid claims and counter-claims for territories and accusations from both parties that the opponent was expansionist. The referendum was eventually carried out in the spring of 1995 and a total of 44 kebeles were given to Borana Zone, while Gedeo Zone received eight of the disputed kebeles.
Instead of solving the conflict, the referendum turned it violent. Fighting erupted first in Wonago woreda and then spread to other contested areas. The fighting was intense and caused around 1000 fatalities as well as the displacement of some 60 000 Gedeo, only ceasing when government troops intervened. However, even though the violence died down, the underlying tensions persisted and the Gedeo continued to push for a revival of the referendum. In 1998 the issue surfaced again and meetings were held in both Gedeo and Borana Zone to discuss it. Tensions increased again, and at a conference in Hagere Mariam town in Borana in July these erupted into renewed fighting. After a few days of fighting, leaving some 700 people killed, elders from the two groups as well as from neighboring ones, intervened and were able to reach agreement on a ceasefire. Even though fighting has not re-erupted since then, the underlying conflict issues remain and the situation continues to be tense.
The non-state conflict between the Gedeo and the Guji is first included in UCDP data in 1995. Sometime during the spring of that year fighting in Hagere Mariam woreda left more than 25 battle-related deaths.
