Change and Continuity in Traditional System of Local Governance

This book is about traditional local governance found among people of the south Ethiopia. It tries to explore Ye-Gordena Sera system of Kistane-Gurage traditional local governance and its development over time. In Ye-Gordena Sera, elder's councils stand at the apex of the system at various levels of territorial and lineage segmentation. The incorporation of the Kistane in the Ethiopian state in the late 19th century deprived the institution its independent control over its internal and external relations. However, the declining role of the Sera as the highest political institution among the Kistane did not led to the compete breakdown of the whole system. The book examines the interrelationship between the political system and the socio-economic life of the people. The incorporation and the subsequence modernization process of the state through new judiciary and bureaucratic institutions; large-scale migration of the people; and the process of urbanization, are major factors for the transformation in the traditional institution. However, the system continues to be the people's favored system in conflict resolution and their day- to-day life.