The Quest for Empowering D'irasha Indigenous System in Local Governance

The main purpose of this book is to describe indigenous governance system of the D¿irasha people of southwestern Ethiopia and to suggest possible ways of integrating it with the existing local government. In the effort to produce this book D¿irasha governance system is viewed as an African original social organization. Methodologically qualitative approach was employed. Interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis were used to collect data. In the course of data analysis the impacts of the Abyssinian cultural hegemony, the outcome of the brief Italian occupation (1936-1941), the influence of the protestant missionaries since 1950s, the effects of the introduction socialist ideology following the 1974 revolution and the consequence of the post 1991 ethnic based political discourse are examined.