Abstract:
This thesis deals with Land Tenure System in Limmu Kossa District, Jimma Zone: Ca.1890s-1974. The
objective of the thesis is to reconstruct the history of Land Tenure System in Limmu Kossa District
from about 1890s-1974. The year 1890s was taken as the starting point because of the fact that it was
the period when Limmu Kossa came under the conquest of Menelik II. 1974 was taken as mark years
because it was the time when the issue of land tenure system transformed from feudal system to
landnationalization.Thethesisemployedmainlyqualitativeresearchmethod.Datawascollectedbothfrom
primary and secondary sources using Key Informant Interview and document analysis. This Thesis has
investigated A History of Land Tenure System in Limmu Kossa District, depending on the field data
that were generated from key informants and supplemented by archival materials. The Thesis
considers the land tenure forms, land ownership right, continuity and changes in the landholding
system and the relations between land lords and peasants. The research also considers issues of land
alienation, land privatization and Qälad institutions in the situation where the main relevant
perspectives argue for the abolition of the people's ownership right. The people„s land owner shape
regime in Ethiopia has enabled the land owners to use excessive exploitation of human labor contrary
to the principles of land holding right. Moreover, this land ownership regime has aggravated the
problems the country faces in its lack of technological inputs. Finally, the thesis concluded that the
landlessness of the peasants resulted in the economic dependency that affected large number of the
community which laid its base for today„s problems
