Center and periphery in imperial Ethiopia: governing the north-western border in the lowlands of Gondar

Abstract

The paper analyses the process of state building of imperial Ethiopia at the
northwestern frontier with the Sudan between 1941 and 1972. The case study deals with an agricultural development project financed by the World Bank Group and the United Nations in the Setit Humera district. Methodologically, the article relies on primary sources collected in the archives of the United Kingdom, Ethiopia, Banco di Roma and the World Bank, complemented by oral interviews and grey literature. The revision of Ethiopia’s ruling strategies did not stem out of a linear process, however, but it was the outcome of ongoing negotiations between different layers of government that performed statecraft in the lowland.
The analysis of the internal dynamics within the Ethiopian state apparatus is
useful for a more critical understanding of the center-periphery paradigm.