Abstract:
Mačakel is one of the twenty-one Wäräda found in East Gojjam zone under the recent Amhara
regional administrative structure. It is one of the largest and prosperous regions, endowed with
abundances of natural and man-made resources, believed to be the most comfortable area for
human settlement. An attempt to control such natural resources among different social forces in
the Wäräda exasperated serious turbulence, forced the community to look for a robust mediating
body to manage their relation through time. This endless effort resulted in the birth of what we
call the traditional justice system with its promiscuous social institutions based on the consent of
the people to perform a specific function in a given setting and culture. Traditional justice refers
to a system of customs, norms and beliefs that are conventionally exercised by member of a
particular group for longer period as a binding law among the community. This system has by
far emerged as an alternative way of settling enormous disputes in a given area since 1941.
Therefore, the main focus of this paper is to explore a history of traditional justice system and
examine major sources of conflict in Mačakel Wäräda from 1941-1974. The paper succinctly
discusses the nature of traditional dispute resolution mechanisms and its effort to tranquilize
social order in the Wäräda. The researcher consulted available documents found in the national
archive and library agency, Däbrä Marqos University Archive center and east Gojjam zone
police archive office. Moreover, unstructured interview with different elderly informants living in
the study area has been conducted to collect a range of information about the trend of practicing
informal justice. Qualitative research design was preferred to present the data. This research
proved the traditional justice system has developed the capacity of restoring the broken social
bond between the offender, the victim and member of their family thru conciliation, by erasing
culturally accepted traditions of taking revenge to show manhood in the community. These
ethical rules and customary institutions were primary instruments which would help the
community to maintain the balance of justice and execute elder-based judicial verdicts against
the aberrant. This oral code of archaic laws were made by the consensus of public gathering,
transferred by word of mouth from fathers to sons for generations, operated at managin