SOCIO – ECONOMIC HISTORY OF DEGEM WARADA, NORTH SHEWA ZONE OF OROMIA REGIONAL STATE, 1941 -1991

Abstract From the point of view of the philosophy, perspective and methodology, historical investigation and research in Ethiopia has been tuned by a general national theme (mega history). It is not exaggageration, to say that thehistory of Ethiopia will remain in complete and cannot be written until the Ethiopian historians connect it with the geographical and cultural contexts of the local history of the multi-ethnic society as a yardistic or benchmark. Nevertheless, until very recently, though much is written about the political orientation as a national history of Ethiopia, by comparison, little has been written about the socio-economic life of the communities across the country. The Salale /North Shawa) in general and Degem in particular is one of such marginalized areas, is still a mysterious issue to those who study or specialize in it, hence viewed as “people with history”. Therefore, the purpose and the rational of this thesis is therefore to fill the gap by researching and reconstructing this kind of Socio –economic history and contribute to the foundation and framing of the Ethiopian socio economic history to 1991 a real and total picture of the country as a whole. From this stand point one can safely argue that since the history of the Salale Oromo (Shawa Oromo) of Degem is part and parcel of the general history the Oromo as a whole and Ethiopian people in general, the study of early modern and modern history of Ethiopia may serve as a critical conceptual framework and as a linking attributes to formulate paradigms as a tool to interpret and reconstruct the modern socio-economic history of Degem warada. Based on this the study attempted to chart the correct interpretation, perspective and methodological scholarship to reconstruct the history that reflect the real socio- economic image of the warada in question by confining the research frame to a manageable and tangible frame of time and space to a period between 1941 and the 1991 In this context of a geographical and time perspective the study cover virtually the most significant and the most imaginative historical issues that assist in providing theories, that perceive more tenuously, a possible explanations in special reference to the fantastic stories aboutthe socio- economic developments that the warada had experienced just after the establishment of the fascist occupation. The study presented a scheme for analysis of the general change of fashion in the restored imperial tax reforms, the feudalexploitation and the condition of peasantry are the main themes of analysis for the period between 1941 and 1974.Moreover, the reforms of Darg such as Rural Transformation and land reform, the establishment of peasant Associations, producers, cooperatives, villagization and. In addition to these the infrastructure such as Road construction, water, health, educational Facilities, Telecommunication, postal Service, Eletricity, Livestock breading, Bee - keeping and Trade and market, hand crafts. Inaddition saving and social net work and others in generally included; our conception of the Degem warada cannot adequately mirror a total picture of the then community. Hence, the study made a particular progress in the analysis of the socio economic history.