Eritrea, Somalia, Somaliland and the Horn of Africa

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Eritrea, Somalia, Somaliland and the Horn of Africa

From Eritrea and Ethiopia - From Conflict to Cooperation,

Amare Tekle (ed.), pp.139-168

(Red Sea Press, 1994)

Reprinted by permission

 

Eritrea, Somalia, Somaliland and the Horn of Africa

 

 

 

•"The traditional chiefs are ignored, sometimes even persecuted. The makers of the future nation's history trample unconcernedly over small local disputes, that is to say, the only existing national events, whereas they ought to make village history - the history of traditional conflicts between clans and tribes - a harmonious whole, at one with the decisive action to which they call on the people to contribute. The old men, surrounded by respect in all traditional societies and usually invested with unquestionable moral authority, are publicly held up to ridicule." (emphasis mine) . Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth..

 

I. Introduction

The relationships of the peoples and countries of the Horn of Africa have always been complex, and more often than not, have been analyzed from the point of view of the Somali Ethiopian conflicts and Ethiopian-Eritrean conflicts. Our perspective focuses on actual and potential reconciliations and cooperation. This chapter outlines Eritrea-Somali relations historically before going on to analyze contemporary aspects and offers informed speculations about future possibilities. Eritreans and Somalis, should they wish to do so, can best strengthen their solidarity and cooperation within the context of a "Common Market" or/and a Commonwealth of Independent Horn of African States.

 

II. Historical Links

Eritrea is located along 1,000 kilometers on the west coast of the Red Sea on the Horn of Africa. The Italians adopted the name Eritrea from the Greek Eritrea, literally meaning "red." Positioned along this strategic body of water which has attracted invaders for centuries, Eritrea is bordered on the north and northwest by the Sudan, on the southeast by the Republic of Djibouti (formerly French Somaliland), and on the south by Ethiopia's Tigray Province. Eritrea's modest land surface offers a splendid and unique variety: highlands, deserts, the forests of Equatorial Africa and the severe volcanic ecology of South Arabia and the Djibouti zone.

Historically, Eritrea has been invaded by races related to those found in all the parts of the Horn of Africa. Languages spoken in Eritrea are related to other languages spoken in the Horn. The highland Tigrinyans, for example, are culturally linked to the Ethiopian Tigrinyans and they both profess Coptic Christianity. The southern stretch of the Coastal Plain and the vast desert lying about it in Ethiopia and ex-French Somaliland are inhabited by the Afar (European books refer to them as Danakil), a Muslim people whose language is Cushitic in origin, and are culturally and linguistically related to the Eastern Cushites, the Oromo (so-called Galla) and Somalis. Afars live in Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia. These are but a few examples of diversity in Eritrea.

 

Around the sixteenth century, for example, "the Danakil (Afar) and other Hamitic (Cushitic) tribes were welded into a loose unity by the Afari or Sultans of Aussa, dependents of the Somali Kings of Adal. The shape of Eritrea's partition between Ethiopians, Turks, Fung, and the Sultans of Aussa, though fluid at first, congealed into a recognizable shape (1). There is a legend that states that the famous Ahmed Gurey, who led Somali and other Muslim forces from Adal to battle against Abyssinian kings, came from the Muslim Bejas of Eritrea. The Turks intervened and after acquiring Massawa, exercised some form of control over the northern coastal stretch including Somaliland. The history of foreign interventions is going to provide another link between the Eritrean, Somali, and other peoples of the Horn.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Read more here

 

http://www.oocities.org/halgame_2000/history7.html