Beyond the Council of Elders: Gendered and Generational Exclusion and the Legitimacy Paradox in Afar Customary Justice

Afar Makaabanna; customary justice; gendered exclusion; youth participation; procedural legitimacy; legitimacy paradox; inclusive legitimacy

1*Ahmed Humed Abdella
PhD scholar, Department of Political Science;
University of Hyderabad, India.
Email: [email protected]
ORCID: 0009-0000-6909-2909

Received:10-06-2026
Revised:17-07-2026
Accepted:07-08-2026

European Journal of Prosthodontics and Restorative Dentistry (2026) 34 (7s), 1216–1225

Beyond the Council of Elders: Gendered and Generational Exclusion and the Legitimacy Paradox in Afar Customary Justice

The Afar Makaabanna is a culturally embedded customary justice institution that remains important for reconciliation and social order in pastoral communities of northeastern Ethiopia. Its continuing authority, however, coexists with restricted participation by women and younger people. This article examines how gendered and generational exclusion shapes the institution’s procedural and representational legitimacy and considers the implications for institutional continuity. It presents a focused reanalysis of a broader qualitative doctoral dataset generated through 57 key-informant interviews, six focus-group discussions involving 36 participants, six nonparticipant observations of naturally occurring mediation sessions across six zones involving 60 observation entries, and documentary and archival analysis. Method-specific figures are reported separately because participant overlap across methods was not recorded. None of the interviewed women held formal Makaabanna leadership or adjudicative positions, and recognized decision-making authority in all six observed sessions remained concentrated among senior men. Male-relative advocacy could facilitate access and protection while limiting women’s control over how claims were framed and settled. A mixed 12-person familiarity item indicated substantial knowledge of customary practice but cannot be interpreted as a youth-only result. The findings also reveal informal and uneven pathways from observation to recognized responsibility. The article conceptualizes the coexistence of cultural and perceived outcome legitimacy with procedural and representational weakness as a legitimacy paradox and proposes inclusive legitimacy as an interpretive framework linking cultural authority and restorative value with meaningful voice, representation, and intergenerational participation.

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