The Horn of Africa as Common Homeland
126 pages
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126 pages
English

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Description

Contemporary states are generally presumed to be founded on the elements of nation, people, territory, and sovereignty. In the Horn of Africa however, the attempts to find a neat congruence among these elements created more problems than they solved. Leenco Lata demonstrates that conflicts within and between states tend to connect seamlessly in the region. When these conflicts are seen in the context of pressures on the state in an era of heightened globalization, it becomes obvious that the Horn needs to adopt multidimensional self-determination.

In Structuring the Horn of Africa as a Common Homeland, Leenco Lata discusses the history of conflicts within and between Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and the Sudan, and investigates local and global contributory factors. He assesses the effectiveness of the nation-state model to forge a positive relationship between these governments and the people.

Part 1 summarizes the history of self-determination and the state from the French Revolution to the post-Cold War period. Part 2 shows how the states of the Horn of Africa emerged in a highly interactive way, and how these developments continue to reverberate throughout the region, underscoring the necessity of simultaneous regional integration and the decentralization of power as an approach to conflict resolution.

Motivated by a search for practical answers rather than a strict adherence to any particular theory, this significant work by a political activist provides a thorough analysis of the regions complicated and conflicting goals.


Informations

Publié par
Date de parution 30 octobre 2010
Nombre de lectures 0
EAN13 9781554587278
Langue English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0080€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

The Horn of Africa as Common Homeland
The State and Self-Determination in the Era of Heightened Globalization
The Horn of Africa as Common Homeland
The State and Self-Determination in the Era of Heightened Globalization
Leenco Lata
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities. We acknowledge the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation s Ontario Book Initiative.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Lata, Leenco
The Horn of Africa as common homeland : the state and self-determination in the era of heightened globalization / Leenco Lata.
1. Self-determination, National-Africa, Northeast. 2 . Africa, Northeast-Politics and government- 1974 - I. Title.
Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-88920-456-X
DT367.8.L38 2004 963.07 2 C2004-905083-4
2004 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canada www.wlupress.wlu.ca
Cover photograph: Mogadishu, Somalia. Gunman on guard outside the offices of a new radio station, Horn Afrik, to protect it from looting bandits or militiamen from rival clans. A sign on the wall asks that visitors leave their weapons outside the compound. Photo Sven Torfinn/Panos Pictures.
Cover design by Leslie Macredie; text design by P.J.Woodland.
Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher s attention will be corrected in future printings.

Printed in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
Dedicated to Gunnar Hasselblatt for his solidarity and generosity at a time when the struggle of the Oromo people had very few friends.
Table of Contents
List of Figures and Maps
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I Self-Determination in History
1 Self-Determination as Popular Sovereignty
2 Decolonization in Africa: Aberrant Self-Determination
3 Post-Cold War Trends in the Nature of the State
4 Emerging Trends in Self-Determination
Part II Resonance of Conflicts in the Horn of Africa
5 Interactive State Formation in the Horn of Africa
6 The Uncertain and Interdependent Fate of Horn Entities
7 Nation-Building: Fitting States into National Moulds
8 Nation-Building in the Sudan
9 Unification and Nation-Building: Somalia s Sacred Mission
10 Imagining the Horn of Africa Common Homeland
11 Conclusion
References
Index
List of Figures and Maps
Figure 1 Graphic Representation of Community in Space and Authority
Map 1 Egyptian Lines of Advance
Map 2 French and Italian Lines of Advance
Map 3 Tripartite Partition: Kitchener Scheme of 1913
Map 4 Anglo-Italian World War I Partition Scheme
Map 5 Italian Administrative Divisions
Acknowledgements
I T IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MENTION all the people and institutions that assisted me while I was undertaking the study that led to this work. I would like to let all those whom I do not mention here know of my deep sense of gratitude. If this work contributes minimally to the promotion of justice, peace, and democracy in the Horn of Africa, I hope that will serve as their reward. Nancy and Ernie Regehr deserve a special mention because their friendship and generous donation of their time were decisive in enabling me to complete this book. Dr. Siegfried Pausewang read an early rough draft of this book and gave me valuable comments and advice. I am grateful for his encouragement. I am similarly grateful to Dr. Asafa Jalata, who gave me valuable feedback after reading an early draft. However, all the shortcomings of the work and the views it reflects are solely mine.
I would also like to thank Anna and Tony Luengo for their friendship and encouragement. Their assistance was critical in enabling me to find an appropriate publisher. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Brian Henderson and other staff members of Wilfrid Laurier University Press for guiding me through the process that led to the publication of this book. I admire the patience of Charles Anthony Stuart who did so much in making this writing more comprehensible. I am very grateful to him for his superb editorial work. To my soulmate, Martha Kuwe Kumsa, I say once again say thank you for serving as the sole source of my refuge and intellectual motivation.
Introduction
ORIGIN OF THIS STUDY
T HIS WORK ORIGINATED FROM READINGS I undertook merely to satisfy my curiosity and clarify my thoughts. The search for clarification was prompted by two events that occurred in the course of my participation in the Oromo people s struggle for national self-determination. These were the end of the Cold War and my exposure to the interrelatedness of conflicts in the Horn of Africa. Let me explain why both experiences impelled me to seek improved clarity of thought.
First, I participated in the formation of the Oromo Liberation Front ( OLF ) and in framing its agenda for self-determination in the early 1970 s when socialism was the most fashionable political ideology in the Horn region. Consequently, the Oromo struggle for self-determination was conceptualized as part of a worldwide process of ending both class and national oppression within the wider goal of bringing about a totally new world order. Despite the rising implausibility that I would witness the dawning of this new world order during my lifetime, its long-range feasibility remained comfortingly possible until the momentous year of 1989 . The initial rumblings of 1989 eventually resulted in the collapse of the Iron Curtain that stood between the pioneers of the promising future world order and their opponents, thus bringing the Cold War to an end and with it the political bearings that we as activists were accustomed to. Not only the neat left/right configuration of world political division but also the conception of movements as either forward or backward oriented went up in smoke. Furthermore, all such struggles for self-determination thereafter risked losing whatever universalist content they had had until then, at least theoretically. When the Cold War was unravelling I had no time to dwell on this emerging difficulty as I was busy reacting to one of its local repercussions: the overthrow of the Soviet-backed Ethiopian regime commonly known as the Derg. I could hence afford the time to reflect on and read about political developments emerging in the post-Cold War period only after my colleagues graciously demobilized me in late 1993 .
Let me now touch upon the second reason why I started the readings that eventually led to this work. During my participation in the Oromo struggle, particularly from 1978 to 1991 , I stayed for varying periods of time in Djibouti, Somalia, and Sudan. During this period I was able to interact with these countries common folk as well as their leaders, which enabled me to observe first-hand their similarities and differences. Much more importantly, I started to realize how quickly political developments reverberated throughout the Horn region. The Oromo people s struggle for national self-determination in particular had the peculiar misfortune of being negatively influenced by developments in Somalia and the Sudan. First, Oromia (the Oromo-settled areas of Ethiopia) stretches from edges of the Ogaden lowlands in the east to Ethiopia s border with Sudan. The first complication that the Oromo struggle faced was the redefinition of the area targeted for annexation to realize Greater Somalia. Mohammed Siad Barre s regime staked claim not only to the Ogaden but also to the Oromo-inhabited areas east of the Great Rift Valley, which constitutes almost half of the Oromo country. The rancour that inevitably ensued from this overlapping territorial claim had damaging consequences for both Somalia and the OLF . The Siad regime s ill-advised policy turned potential allies into enemies, thus prompting the OLF to resist the annexation of eastern Oromia. The perhaps understandable aspiration of gathering all Somali speakers into one state could have probably succeeded in the absence of this complication. When this aspiration, which once constituted the pillar of Somali national consensus and cohesion, started dimming, however, the course that led to the currently reigning chaos was set. At the same time, the same complication severely stymied the growth of the OLF . The fact that more members of its leadership were killed by Siad-backed fronts than by the Ethiopian Derg regime attests to the seriousness of the damage incurred by the OLF as the result of this unfortunate complication.
The second complication that interfered with the struggle of the Oromo for self-determination actually resulted from the steps the OLF took to avoid this initial one. Aiming to establish itself in areas free of conflicting territorial claims, the OLF launched a new area of operations in the districts bordering the Sudan in 1981 . Despite the usual problems involved in initiating guerrilla activities, the OLF s new area of operations slowly expanded until 1984 , when a new complication emerged. The Sudan Peoples Liberation Army ( SPLA ), evidently tasked by its host with the mission of expelling the OLF from its base area, started encroaching on OLF operational

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