Shimglina Customary Conflict Resolution Mechanism for Rural Land Disputes in Ethiopia: The Practice and Challenges

Rural land disputes were instigated due to various factors like the increases in population number, scarcity of farm land, poverty, increase in rural land value, and weak rural land administration system, which were the indirect causes and manifested in the forms of boundary disputes, inheritances disputes, transfer of land disputes, access, and ownership disputes. This study indicates that different variants of Shimglina customary conflict resolution mechanisms are playing a significant role resolving in rural land disputes. Shimglina prevents violence too. The social capital and social solidarity of the community is functional under the umbrella of Shimglina and vice versa. Shimglina is vital to resolving conflict and disputes in terms of its attachment with the living God, value of perpetual peace, reduction of time to decide on the issue, resource and its accessibility to all members of the community, and restoring peaceful interaction. This study reveals that Shimglina faced many challenges that hinder its effectiveness in the resolution of rural land disputes. Unless the underlying challenges of Shimglina are solved, the effectiveness of the mechanism in the resolution of rural land dispute is difficult. Thus, the absence of clear legal and policy framework in the practices of Shimglina, lack of support and encouragements to the Shimglina culture of peace by the government, the absence of strong enforcement mechanism for the decision of elders, the influence and intervention of government bodies and politicization of Shimglina culture are the challenges in the practices of Shimglina in rural land disputes resolution. The local and regional governments should work to advance Shimglina peace culture for rural land disputes settlement, peaceful co-existence, and community solidarity.