Enderta Province - Democratic Tradition in Enderta

Democratic Tradition in Enderta

Tradition holds that seventy elders are elected from each woredas of 70 Enderta to serve as mediators and peace-makers among the inhabitants of the many districts (woredas) of Enderta in case of rivalries, uprising and disputes that might arise within Enderta (Erqi Enderta, as it is still called in Tigray). These seventy elders were also bestowed provincial authority by the governor of the province to legally represent Enderta and its people in a provincial level with neighboring districts, counties and provinces. This is a form of old age democratic process through which elected and assigned elders are representing their constituency in social, political, and governmental affairs within the empire of Ethiopia. In a communal or individual level, individual Endertans enjoyed self representation within the district, county and even the provincial level; in Enderta, jural independence included the right to claim farmland and to represent oneself in community councils and in court. In a household level, Endertans had a strong ethos of individualism and that households were more political than kin units, with non-kin recruited on a contractual basis for their labor. Important to this ethos of individualism was a man's construction of a Hidmo as a material statement of his ambition to be someone of consequence in his community, an ambition that could not be expressed through an inherited house which was (and often still is) destroyed. Within villages and major towns throughout Enderta during the monarchy time, many individuals became 'big men' by accumulating great wealth and acquiring a following of poorer households that were dependent for food and oxen, a debt repaid with labor and loyalty.