Ethiopian Egyptian peasant Essay Example for Free

Ethiopian Egyptian peasant Essay I. Introduction In any civilization the peasants are always the backbone of the economy. They were the ones who produced the food needed for survival and commerce and lend labor to build great empires. By the sweat of their brow they toil and labor in the land unceasingly. The fruit of their labors not only sustain the economy but also enabled the ruling monarch or leaders to live, if not luxurious, then at least comfortable lives. However, in spite of the peasants’ backbreaking labors and the importance of their job in any civilized society, the royalty or appointed rulers did not reward their efforts accordingly but sadly down through the centuries subjected the peasants to so many abuses and neglect. This paper will specifically discuss the relationships existing between the rulers/ government to the Ethiopian and Egyptian peasants before the 1800’s. It can be seen that the relationship was more on dictatorship made possible through religious, physical and intellectual enslavement. Naturally, such a relationship subjected the peasants to poverty  Ã‚   and hardships. II. The Egyptians Peasants Like the rest of the ancient world, the Egyptian people lived an agricultural life. Such a life seemed so far removed from the common stories heard about Egypt; the glory of its treasures and pyramids. Egypt’s glorious past connotes an image of ancient Egyptians living more advanced, luxurious lives, as if all they do was to gather treasures   and eat in abundance; well, in some sense they are true, but only for their rulers, noble families, and priests. The rest of the Egyptian population of long ago, especially before the 1800’s, were poor peasants who have to rely on the predictability of the Nile flooding to plant and harvest crops. The peasants (fellahin) however, were very much connected to the glories of Egypt for it was their â€Å"constant, persevering, unacknowledged, often despised, and always ill-rewarded toil as tiller of the land that made possible all the achievements of Egypt ensuring for it a leading position among the nations of preclassical antiquity.† Needless to say, it was the sweat of the fellahin that   produced the great pyramids, jewelry and treasures to Egypt, that   provided the luxurious living of their Pharaoh and ruling families and that made possible all of   Egypt’s military conquest, commercial expansion and influence and prestige abroad( Donadoni 1). III. Relationship of the Fellahin to their Pharaoh / government The relationship of the Fellahin to the Pharaoh/ government was more of a dictatorship; a religious, physical and intellectual enslavement that was carried on for almost three historic centuries. Like other early civilizations, Egypt had their own specific class system. At the top of the class stood Pharaoh and his royal family, then directly next to him were the priests and priestess, and then below them were the nobles who fought Pharaoh’s war. A small percentage of merchants, artisans and scribes made up the next rank. Then occupying the bottom of the ladder is the majority of the population, the fellahin. In ancient Egypt, Pharaoh was regarded as both a god and leader. Belief in the Pharaoh’s divinity and immortality developed during the reign of Menes around 3100 B.C. who by then establishes the first dynasty of rulers. Since then providing for their Pharaoh’s present and afterlife increasingly became the business of his subjects. This belief had become a tool to religiously enslave the fellahin, who paid their taxes without much complaint and  Ã‚   were then always called upon to build tombs and pyramids for the next life of their Pharaoh. The fellahin of the past thought it rather unseemly to disobey their Pharaoh in view of his divinity (Perry 46). It is very amusing to note that the Egyptians correlate the Pharaoh’s divine power to the flooding of the Nile River. They believed that the Pharaoh had the power to control the flooding of the Nile, that it was him who was responsible for the regular floods that would water Egypt’s land and make it possible to have a prosperous agriculture. A prosperous agriculture increases the Pharaoh’s popularity among the fellahin for it  Ã‚   means that they have food to eat. No one then dares to anger their â€Å"divine† Pharaoh for it would mean famine (Butler 2007). Then to ensure that their Pharaoh will have a comfortable journey in the afterlife the fellahin built enormous tombs and pyramids for him (Perry 47). Some historians argued that the building of these enormous monuments was done through unpaid labor; others believed that they were paid in doing this task. Whichever is the case, it could not be denied that the Egyptian peasants were expected to perform the job during the time when Egypt’s land was flooded and the labor was exacted through a religious persuasion. In view of most ancient civilizations, leading the people to believe that their rulers were of divine origin was an effective way to make them obey their ruler’s rules, whether it was justifiable or not. It was a form of religious enslavement, taking advantage over the subjects fear or reverence of a Divine Being. After a religious enslavement, it would then be fairly easy to enslave the fellahin physically. For three historic centuries, the fellahin sustained the economy of Egypt. Practically from birth to death, they spend their whole lifetime in tilling the land irregardless of who the owners were (more often than not there was always a change in land ownership in certain periods of their life span). In theory, the Pharaoh owned all the land in Egypt but in practice he allowed them to be looked after by temple priests and landlords. Nevertheless, taxes were compulsory. The fellahin were assigned a plot of land from which to grow barley and wheat. Before harvest the season tax assessors would dutifully inspect the ripening crops. They would routinely measure the fields every year, comparing yields for each time interval. They would then calculate the area under cultivation, test the samples of the grain and based from the issue of the receipts of the seeds being utilized judge the quality of the crop, whether it yielded as was expected. The tax collector would then proceed to make an estimation of the outcome of the harvest and then imposed a 20% tax. With them using such technique, it would be impossible for the fellahin to fool them. And at the same time it provided an added pressure for the part of fellahin to attain such an expected calculated yield. When harvest time came, the winnowed grain was measured into baskets or sacks, and the scribes then enters the picture, ever ready and eager to count and record the quantity of the baskets or sack before they were stored in the granaries. Afterwards, the scribes and granary officials’ mathematical mind began to work by â€Å"calculating the capacity of a granary and hence the value of the grain stored within it, and the comparative values of bread and beer based on the cost of their ingredients†. Those who were unable to pay or were delayed in their payments were subjected to capital punishment. Such ancient information was gleaned by historians through the paintings on the walls of the tombs of the kings. Farmers were seen being beaten because of their failures to comply in taxation (Parson 1995). Another example of fellahin physical enslavement was attained through the corvee. While waiting for the harvest, the peasant men were expected to do the corvee. A corvee is â€Å"a system of forced, unpaid state service, exacted from the peasants for specific tasks such as construction and maintenance of roads, irrigation canals, dikes and sluices, the erection of large buildings, temples, pyramids, army duty, and mining or stone working in the quarries†( Parson 1995). Pyramid building was the most physically taxing of all for it involved the hard labor of excavating stone blocks, hauling stones to the site and setting them, masonry work, painting and sculpting (Perry 47). It is pretty obvious that the reason why it was easy for the rulers to religiously and physically enslave the fellahin was because of their illiteracy. In most, if not all civilizations, illiteracy was the greatest tool of the powerful rulers for intellectual enslavement for they were able to hide reality and truth from their subjects. The proof of the illiteracy of the fellahin can be observed by their inability to leave no written records of themselves; their thoughts, aspirations, cares and dreams. Knowledge about them were made possible only through the vivid portrayal of epigraphic sources such as paintings, reliefs and texts found in the walls of the tombs of their wealthy rulers or Pharaohs .Some passages that tell about their lives were written sometime in the Middle and New kingdoms in literary compositions of the scribes and also by classical authors such as Herodotus (Parson 2005). The teaching of reading and writing was exclusively reserved for the children of wealthy families who were expected to take on political responsibilities in adulthood. Most teaching was performed by scribes, whose work was hereditary (Perry 47). A prime example of intellectual enslavement can be illustrated by how the priest fooled the fellahin with their scientific knowledge. The priest knew that the year consisted of  Ã‚   365 and  ¼ days,   through it they can predict with accuracy the flooding of the Nile River. They hide this knowledge from the rest of the Egyptians, specifically the illiterate fellahin. They pretend to warn the fellahin of an impending flooding a few days before it actually occurred. The priest would then offer to perform certain rites (with payments of course!)   while the illiterate fellahin stood ready to temporarily remove their homes, equipment and cattle from the area that would be flooded. The priests must have a good laugh when the fellahin would admire them for their â€Å"divine powers†, of having the ability to know in advance the flooding of the Nile. The knowledge of the priest in science and the ignorance of the fellahin enabled the priests to exploit the illiterate peasants for three centuries (Perry 49). The plight of the ignorant fellahin was a good lesson to learn from through the eyes of history. Knowledge is indeed very important for it enabled the literate one to detect and avoid the pitfalls of  Ã‚   exploitation and abuses. III. Ethiopian peasants Like the rest of the ancient world, the economy of Ethiopia was based on subsistence agriculture, with an aristocracy that consumed the surplus. Due to number of causes (which is going to be discussed later) the peasants lacked incentives to either improved production or to store their excess harvest; as a result they lived from harvest to harvest. The Ethiopian peasants in pre-1800 were largely engaged in agricultural and pastoral jobs under a feudal landowner or nobility. The   poor plight of the peasants were being made   worse by the fact that their country was vulnerable to outside invasion, primarily because   Ethiopia is situated in the path of the Islamic and Christian conquest to Africa. Moreover, they had to contend with civil conflicts. As result, there life was not stable and development was virtually absent. Aside from arm conflicts, they were also faced to battle periodic droughts. Nevertheless, the peasants can be counted upon to support the state to battle any outside opposition even at the cost of their own lives. IV. Relationship of the Ethiopian Peasant to their Rulers / government Ethiopia’s long history of foreign and civil wars had established a tyrannical dictatorship relationship between the Ethiopian peasants and their rulers. Dictatorship was brought about by religious, physical and intellectual enslavement. Like most ancient civilization, the Ethiopian Empire emerged in the same way as the ancient empires throughout the world which was through feudalism or serfdom. In feudalism, landowners allowed peasants to work in their land and then exact tributes or taxes from them. The beginning of the Ethiopian feudalism was in 600 A.D upon the establishment of Aksumite Kingdom. The largest landowner of all was of course the imperial family, and then next to him were the high nobility, then down to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Extensive ownership of lands was also based on kinship or tribes (Lipsky 238). Peasants at times can claim lands but they were not recognized as its rightful owners. More often than not, the Emperor or rulers will confiscate these lands to be awarded to thousands of civil and military bureaucrats in gratitude to their loyalty and service (Marcus 3). Tributes and taxes were exacted by the wealthy landowners or nobility from the peasants on their estates. Payment of taxes was through in kind and in labor, as well as in gold and primitive money, such as cloth and salt. When the Emperor allowed the tribute or tax to be given to nobilities, the nobles in turn must pay the Emperor through provision of military aids. It was a known fact in the ancient world that an Ethiopian Emperor can gather a vast army out of the peasants (Pankhurst 179). In order to exercise a strong hold on the peasants the nobility burdened the peasants with debt that can only be repaid by forced labor. In this way, it can be literally said that the nobility controlled the lives of the peasants. Control can be described in such a way that the peasants cannot kill a cow (even though it is his own) unless he informs the landowner. Aside from that the nobles or landowners so ill-treat the peasants that the latter purposely did not maximize the production capabilities of the land. They only produce what was needed for survival. Still, the end losers were the peasants because thy continued to live in abject poverty while the landowners and nobles continued to live comfortable lives because of the never ending extraction of taxes and tributes (Pankhurst 230). The nobility retained also their strength by making it a duty for some men to enlist in his military service. This is especially crucial at times when the Emperor would seize his land to be given to another. In times of war, the taxes increased in order to support the needs for warfare. The taxes can be so high and unreasonable that they can be described as â€Å"taxing the peasants to death†. In other words, it is the peasants who had to bear the burden of the military activities. Ironically, in spite of their hard labors the Emperor or rulers had the guts to confiscate the land owned by the peasants in order to be given to thousands of civil and military bureaucrats.   This state of affairs continued for centuries, so that it was not surprising if thousands of peasants lost their land and subsistence. With the decline of the dynasty in the 1700’s, Years of the Princes sets in characterized by a very unstable political condition in Ethiopia. The nobility fought each other to claim the throne. At this time, in most countryside, most individuals could claim but not own land, and one’s holding depended on personal position, age influence, soil fertility, competing claims, and the political situation. If there was a smart noble who can could contrive a genealogy convincing enough to acquire land on the basis of descent, then the poor peasant would be in danger of losing his prized plots. In other words, there was no security for land tenure for the peasant. In view of the instability of the political system of Ethiopia at this time, even the nobles can lose their lands. The peasants were then plunged into much deeper poverty for neither peasant nor the nobles was willing therefore to invest or improve the land (Marcus 1986). Before 1800’s as Europe was on its way top building an empire through colonization, Ethiopia was forced to create modern army and transportation system to help deploy it. The costs associated with such improvements could only come from increased â€Å"tribute† from the peasants. Another dictatorship on Ethiopian peasants was achieved through religious enslavement. Religious wars between Moslems and Christians from 1300-1700 AD had placed the peasants in a very pathetic state, amidst a ruined country they were pushed back and forth across the land like pawns. The Ethiopians had always been proud of their ancestry of which they traced back to King Solomon, the King of Israel. They have always adapted a Christian religion some sixteen centuries ago, and this religion was safeguarded by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The clergy of this church had been careful to instill to the Ethiopians that they were the â€Å"chosen ones†. They have rallied the peasants to fight against any form of religious aggression, especially by the Islamic conquerors and even inspired them to subdue the Islamic neighboring countries. This could only mean of course that the peasants had to engage in military warfare. By their sweat and their blood they had to defend their religious causes. It is not hard for the Emperor or their rulers to enlist them to military service as they themselves were consumed of their supposed Messianic purposes. Because of ongoing external and internal conflicts, the peasants had come to place a high value on personal courage, independence, self-reliance and self-assertiveness; they were lead to believe that the man who possesses those virtues had a divine favor. It must be remembered however, that the peasant’s loyalties were based on personalities rather than in any form of political ideologies. They believed that at the highest political level all political authority â€Å"has religious sanction which endows the ruler with divine status. Government was only instrumental to back up their claim (Lipsky 323). The last tyrannical dictatorship was done through intellectual enslavement. Like Egypt, the inhabitants of Ethiopia comprise a group of illiterate individuals. For a pre-1800 Ethiopia, two reasons can be pointed out why this was so. First, there were many languages and dialects in existence in Ethiopia and for most of them they have no written alphabets. And aside from that the clergy and the nobility had tried to put them in the dark so they were not keen on educating the peasants lest they lose their religious and political hold on them (Lipsky 89). V.Conclusion The history of the Ethiopian and Egyptian peasants at the hands of their ancient rulers is a sad one. In spite of their loyalties and hard work, they were treated unfairly and taken advantage of. Instead of gratitude, the rulers opted to adopt a dictatorial attitude towards them. Dictatorship was effectively carried out through religious, physical and intellectual enslavement. In other words, because of their ignorance, the nobility tricked them into believing that they were divine and as a consequence it was only fitting for the mortal peasants to serve them by means of provision and labor.