“What Makes Our Land Illegal?": Regularization and the Urbanization of Rural Land in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the world’s least urbanized nations, with less than a fifth of the population being classified as urban. However, the country is rapidly urbanizing. The current urbanization rate (2.2% for the 2010-2030 period) is greater than the global, continental and regional average growth rates (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [UN DESA], 2018). Ethiopian urban population growth is not only attributed to the classical causes (i.e. natural population growth and migration) but also annexation (Kinfu, Bombeck, Nigussie & Wegayehu, 2019). A longitudinal study of 20 rural areas in Ethiopia has shown that rural areas themselves have been urbanizing and the socio-economic and spatial characteristics have been urbanizing (Pankhurst, 2017). This chapter explores how these processes impact rural residents and their rights. This question is particularly important for Ethiopia, as the majority of its population consists of smallholder farmers who only have usufruct land rights (user rights), not ownership rights. Since the state owns all the land, and the governance system has restricted individual freedoms under the guise of development (Dejene & Cochrane, 2019), questions have been raised about who benefits from the political and legal decisions regarding rural land, and what implications these decisions have for the rights of rural residents.