Historical region comprising the present Somali Region, Ethiopia
This article is about the geographical area. For the Somali clan, see
Ogaden (clan)
.
Place
Ogaden
Ogaadeen
???/????
|
---|
![Map of the Ogaden region with Somali-inhabited land shaded in red](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Ethiopia%2C_the_Ogaden_Region._LOC_91682434.jpg/250px-Ethiopia%2C_the_Ogaden_Region._LOC_91682434.jpg) Map of the Ogaden region with Somali-inhabited land shaded in red
|
Region (non-administrative)
| Ogaden
|
---|
|
? Total
| 327,068 km
2
(126,282 sq mi)
|
---|
ISO 3166 code
| ET-SO
|
---|
Ogaden
(pronounced and often spelled
Ogad?n
;
Somali
:
Ogaadeen
,
Amharic
:
???/????
) is one of the historical names used for the modern
Somali Region
which forms the eastern portion of
Ethiopia
and borders
Somalia
. It also includes another region in the north known as
Haud
.
[1]
The region is an arid area, and encompasses the desolate plain between the border of Somalia and Ethiopia, extending towards the eastern
Ethiopian Highlands
where larger cities like
Harar
and
Dire Dawa
are located. The primary river in the region is the
Shebelle
, which is fed by temporary seasonal streams. Towards the southwestern edge of the Ogaden is the source of the
Ganale Doria
river which joins
Dawa river
to become the major
Jubba
) river on the Somali border.
The region has a low population density and is predominantly inhabited by
Somali people
. The Ogaden is known for its oil and gas reserves,
[2]
although development efforts have been hindered by the instability prevailing in the area.
Etymology
[
edit
]
The origin of the term
Ogaden
is unknown, however it is usually attributed to the Somali
clan of the same name
, originally referring only to their land, and eventually expanding to encompass most parts of the modern
Somali Region
of eastern
Ethiopia
.
[3]
[4]
An alternative (possibly
folk
) etymology analyses the name as a combination of the
Harari
word
?ga
("road")
[5]
and
Aden
, a city in
Yemen
, supposedly deriving from an ancient caravan route through the region connecting
Harar
to the
Arabian Peninsula
.
[6]
During the new region's founding conference, which was held in
Dire Dawa
in 1992, the naming of the region became a divisive issue, because almost 30 different ethnic Somali clans live in the region. The
ONLF
sought to name the region ‘Ogadenia’, whilst the non-Ogadeni Somali clans who live in the same region opposed this move. As noted by
Abdul Majid Hussein
, the naming of the region where there are several Somali clans as ‘Ogadenia’ following the name of a single clan would have been divisive. Finally, the region was named the Somali region.
[7]
[8]
People
[
edit
]
The inhabitants are predominantly ethnic
Somalis
, of almost 30 clans. The
Ogaden clan
of the
Darod
constitute the majority in the region,
[9]
[10]
and were enlisted in the Ogaden National Liberation Movement, That is why the region is associated with the Ogaden clan. However, this is disputed.
[11]
Other Somali clans in the region are
Sheekhaal
,
Marehan
,
Isaaq
,
Geri Koombe
Gadabuursi
,
Issa
, Massare, Gabooye, Degodia and Jidle and
Karanle
clans of the Hawiye.
[12]
Somali-inhabited region within Ethiopia shown as part of
Greater Somali territory
History
[
edit
]
There are few historical texts written about the people who lived in what is known today as the
Somali Region
, sometimes referred to as "The Ogaden” region of Ethiopia. What formerly was known as
Rauso
in
Late Antiquity
could potentially correspond with this region.
[13]
The vast majority of the inhabitants today are Muslim and ethnically homogenous.
[14]
In its early history, the Ogaden was inhabited by
Harla
, a now extinct people.
[15]
[16]
Harla are linked to the
Harari
and Somali
Ogaden clan
.
[17]
Ogaden served as capital of the
Makhzumi Dynasty
.
[18]
The region became one of the earliest footholds for the spread of Islam into Africa.
[19]
At the time, rivalries between the established Muslims in the Ogaden were recurring with those of the littoral in Zeila.
[20]
Ogaden was part of the
Ifat Sultanate
in the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries AD. The borders of the sultanate extended from the northern seaboard of
Somalia
to the interiors of Ethiopia. The Ifat Sultanate was succeeded by the
Adal Sultanate
. There was an ongoing conflict between the Adal Sultanate and the
Ethiopian Empire
throughout this time. During the first half of the 16th century, most of
Abyssinia
was conquered and came under the rule of Adal when
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi
, the Imam of Adal, took control.
[21]
A regional successor to Ifat and Adal,
[22]
the Somali ruled
Ajuran Sultanate
governed its territories from
Qalafo
along the upper
Shabelle river
in the eastern part of the Ogaden, until its decline over the
17th century
.
[23]
1800s
[
edit
]
1873 cartography by
John Bartholomew
designating “Ugaden” east of
Harar
The region during the pre-colonial era was neither under Ethiopian rule, nor
Terra nullius
, as it was occupied by organized Somali communities.
It has been observed that
geographers
mapping out regions of Africa for the British government in the mid to late 1800s made no reference of any Ethiopians in the Ogaden, and maps from before 1884 drew the Ethiopian Empire’s domain as confined by the
River Awash
. Sir
Richard Francis Burton's
famous 1856 exploration book
First Footsteps in East Africa,
makes no mention of an Ethiopian presence while describing his time in the Ogaden.
Independent historical accounts are unanimous that previous to the penetration into the region in the late 1880s,
Somali clans
were free of Ethiopian and
Shewan
control.
Menelik's invasions (1887-1897)
[
edit
]
In the 1890s Ethiopian raiding parties led by Ras Makonnen made incursions into the Ogaden based on the supposed historical lands of Ethiopia which stretched from
Lake Victoria
to
Khartoum
according to Emperor
Menelik
. Ethiopian victories in these raids were largely due to the large amounts of firearms they received through the French port of
Djibouti
, whereas the
European powers
barred the Somalis from receiving any type of firearms.
[27]
British colonial administrator
Francis Barrow Pearce
writes the following concerning the Ethiopian raids into the Ogaden:
The Somalis, although good and brave fighting men, cannot help themselves. They have no weapons except the hide shield and spear, while their oppressors are, as has already been recorded, armed with modern rifles, and they are by no means scrupulous concerning the use of them in asserting their authority…The Abyssinians themselves have no more claim (except that of might) to dominate the wells than a Fiji Islander would have to interfere with a London waterworks company.
[28]
However the Ethiopian aggressors were also defeated numerous times by poorly armed Somalis such as in 1890 near
Imi
where Makonnen’s troops had suffered a large defeat to Reer Amaden warriors. A British hunter Colonel Swayne, who visited Imi in February 1893, was shown "the remains of the bivouac of an enormous Abyssinian army which had been defeated some two or three years before."
[29]
In 1897 in order to appease Menelik’s expansionist policy Britain ceded almost half of the British Somaliland protectorate to Ethiopia in the
Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1897
. Ethiopian authorities have since then based their claims to the Ogaden upon the 1897 treaty and the exchange of letters which followed it.
[30]
I.M. Lewis
argues a subtly different interpretation of this treaty, emphasizing that "the lost lands in the
Haud
which were excised from the Protectorate [i.e.
British Somaliland
] were not, however ceded to Ethiopia".
[31]
Legal scholar and former
President of the International Court of Justice
,
Abdulqawi Yusuf
, has argued citing the
Island of Palmas Case
that since the British government had no title to the land which it had ceded during the treaty that such cession was null and void.
[30]
A similar interpretation was put forward in parliament by British MP
Fred Willey
in 1955 in regards to the legality of the treaty
At any rate there was a case that the 1897 Treaty did not succeed in doing what it purported to do and that it was not within the power of the British Government to transfer these territories.
[32]
As Emperor
Menelik II
carried his campaign of indiscriminate raiding and attacks against the Somalis of the Ogaden region between 1890 and 1899, Somali clans residing in the plains of
Jigjiga
were in particular targeted. The escalating frequency and violence of the raids resulted in Somalis consolidating behind the Dervish Movement under the lead of Sayyid
Mohamed Abdullah Hassan
.
[33]
1900s
[
edit
]
As the Ethiopian Empire began expanding into Somali territories at the start of the 1890s,
Jigjiga
came under intermittent
military occupation
until 1900. At the start of the year, Abyssinian troops occupied the town with the construction of a fort built in the outskirts.
[34]
Subsequently, the anti-colonial
Dervish Movement
led by Sayid
Mohamed Abdullah Hassan
had its first major battle when it
attacked the Ethiopian forces occupying Jigjiga
to free livestock that had been looted from the local population.
[35]
Statue of
Mohammed Abdullah Hassan
in
Ethiopia
, legend from the early 1900s
The Ethiopian hold on Ogaden at the start of the 20th century was tenuous, and administration in the region was "sketchy in the extreme". Sporadic tax raids into the region often failed and Ethiopian administrators and military personnel only resided in
Harar
and
Jijiga
.
[36]
Attempts at taxation in the region were called off following the massacre of 150 Ethiopian troops in January 1915. Due to native hostility the region was barely occupied by Ethiopian authorities, who exerted little presence east of
Jijiga
until the Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in 1934 and the
Wal Wal incident
in 1935.
[38]
Only in 1934 as the boundary commission attempted to demarcate the border, did Somalis who had been transferred to the Ethiopian Empire during the 1897 treaty realize what was happening. This long period of ignorance about the transfer of their regions was facilitated by the lack of 'any semblance' of effective administration of control being present over the Somalis to indicate that they were being annexed by Ethiopia.
In the years leading up to the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War
in 1935, the Ethiopian hold on the Ogaden remained tenuous.
[40]
After the Italian
conquest of Ethiopia
in 1936, Ogaden was attached to
Italian Somaliland
, becoming the
Somalia Governorate
within the new colony of
Italian East Africa
. Following the
British conquest of this colony
, the
Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement
placed Ogaden under
temporary British control
. The British sought to unite Ogaden with
British Somaliland
and the
former Italian Somaliland
to realize
Greater Somalia
which was supported by many Somalis.
[41]
Ethiopia unsuccessfully pleaded before the London Conference of the Allied Powers to gain the Ogaden and
Eritrea
in 1945, but their persistent negotiations
[42]
[43]
and pressure from the
United States
eventually persuaded the British to cede Ogaden to Ethiopia in 1948. The last remaining British controlled parts of Haud were returned to Ethiopia in 1955.
Post-Somali Independence
[
edit
]
During the
1963 Ogaden Revolt
the first major armed resistance by Somalis to Ethiopian rule post independence began in the region after imperial authorities had attempted to tax the population. The revolt and brutal
counterinsurgency
campaign that followed resulted in the deterioration of
Ethio?Somali relations
and lead to the
first war between the two nations during 1964
.
Western Somali Liberation Front
(WSLF) fighters in the Ogaden
In the late 1970s, internal unrest in the 'Ogaden' resumed. The
Western Somali Liberation Front
used guerilla tactics to resist Ethiopian rule. Ethiopia and Somalia fought the
Ogaden War
over control of this region and its peoples.
1980s to 1990s
[
edit
]
During the new region's founding conference, which was held in
Dire Dawa
in 1992, the naming of the region became a divisive issue, because almost 30 Somali clans live in the
Somali Region
of Ethiopia. The ONLF sought to name the region ‘Ogadenia’, whilst the non-Ogadeni Somali clans who live in the same region opposed this move. As noted by
Abdul Majid Hussein
, the naming of the region where there are several Somali clans as ‘Ogadenia’ following the name of a single clan would have been divisive. Finally, the region was named the Somali region.
[44]
[45]
2000s
[
edit
]
Street scene in
Jijiga
,
Somali Region
In 2007, the
Ethiopian Army
launched a
military crackdown in Ogaden
after Ogaden rebels killed dozens of civilian staff workers and guards at an Ethiopian oil field.
[46]
The main rebel group is the
Ogaden National Liberation Front
under its Chairman Mohamed O. Osman, which is fighting against the Ethiopian government. Some Somalis who inhabit in the 'Ogaden' claimed that Ethiopian military kill civilians, destroy the livelihood of many of the ethnic Somalis and commit crimes against the nomads in the region.
[47]
However, testimony before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs revealed massive brutality and killings by the ONLF rebels, which the Ethiopian government labels "terrorists."
[48]
The extent of this war can't be established due to a media blockade in the 'Ogaden' region. Some international rights organizations have accused the Ethiopian government of committing abuses and crimes that "violate laws of war,"
[49]
as a recent report by the
Human Rights Watch
indicates. Other reports have claimed that Ethiopia has bombed, killed, and raped many Somalis in the Ogaden region, while the
United States
continues to arm Ethiopia in the United States' ongoing
War on Terror
in the
Horn of Africa
.
[50]
[51]
[52]
Geography
[
edit
]
The
Somali Region
, the second largest in Ethiopia is around 300,000 square kilometres (120,000 sq mi), and borders
Djibouti
,
Kenya
and
Somalia
.
[53]
Important towns include
Jijiga
,
Degahbur
,
Gode
,
Kebri Dahar
,
Fiq
,
Shilabo
,
Kelafo
,
Werder
and
Danan
.
Ecology
[
edit
]
The Ogaden is part of the
Somali Acacia?Commiphora bushlands and thickets
ecoregion. It has been a historic habitat for the endangered
African wild dog
,
Lycaon pictus
;
[54]
However, this canid is thought by some to have been
extirpated
from Ogaden.
The Ogaden is a
plateau
, with an elevation above sea level that ranges from 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) in the northwest, falling to about 300 metres (980 ft) along the southern limits and the
Wabi Shebelle
valley. The areas with altitudes between 1,400 and 1,600 metres (4,600 and 5,200 ft) are characterised as
semi-arid
, receiving as much as 500?600 millimetres (20?24 in) of rainfall annually. More typical of the Ogaden is an average annual rainfall of 350 millimetres (14 in) and less. The landscape consists of dense shrubland, bush grassland and bare hills.
[55]
In more recent years, the Ogaden has suffered from increasingly erratic rainfall patterns, which has led to an increasing frequency of major droughts: in 1984?85; 1994; and most recently in 1999?2000, during which pastoralists claim to have lost 70?90 percent of their cattle.
[56]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
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.
Encyclopedia Britannica
. Retrieved
2021-10-10
.
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.
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on 2007-12-24
. Retrieved
2024-01-29
.
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Gerard Prunier; Eloi Ficquet (2015).
Understanding Contemporary Ethiopia
.
Oxford University Press
. p. 36.
ISBN
978-1-84904-261-1
.
- ^
Paolo Billi (2015).
Landscapes and Landforms of Ethiopia
. Springer. p. 324.
ISBN
978-94-017-8026-1
.
- ^
Leslau, Wolf (1959).
"An Analysis of the Harari Vocabulary"
.
Annales d'Ethiopie
.
3
: 292.
doi
:
10.3406/ethio.1959.1310
. Retrieved
20 March
2019
.
- ^
Eshete, Tibebe (1994). "Towards a History of the Incorporation of the Ogaden: 1887?1935".
Journal of Ethiopian Studies
.
27
(2): 69?70.
JSTOR
41966038
.
- ^
Adegehe, Asnake Kefale (2009).
Federalism and ethnic conflict in Ethiopia : a comparative study of the Somali and Benishangul-Gumuz regions
(PDF)
(Thesis).
Leiden University
. p. 135.
- ^
Billi, Paolo (2015).
Landscapes and Landforms of Ethiopia
. Springer.
ISBN
9789401780261
.
- ^
Carment, David (2006).
Who Intervenes?: Ethnic Conflict and Interstate Crisis
.
Ohio State University Press
. pp. 75?76.
ISBN
9780814210130
.
- ^
Abramowitz, Sharon; Panter-Brick, Catherine (2015-09-17).
Medical Humanitarianism: Ethnographies of Practice
.
University of Pennsylvania Press
.
ISBN
9780812247329
.
- ^
Markakis, John (2011).
Ethiopia: The Last Two Frontiers
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ISBN
9781847010339
.
- ^
Marcus, Harold Golden; Hudson, Grover (1994).
New Trends in Ethiopian Studies: Social Sciences
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ISBN
9781569020159
.
- ^
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ISBN
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.
- ^
Markakis, John (2011).
Ethiopia: The Last Two Frontiers
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ISBN
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.
- ^
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- ^
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ISBN
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.
- ^
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ISBN
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.
- ^
Østebø, Terje (2011).
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ISBN
978-9004184787
.
- ^
Ahmed, Hussein (2001).
Islam in Nineteenth-Century Wallo, Ethiopia: Revival, Reform and Reaction
. BRILL. p. 62.
ISBN
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.
- ^
Ahmed, Hussein (2001).
Islam in Nineteenth-Century Wallo, Ethiopia: Revival, Reform and Reaction
. BRILL. p. 62.
ISBN
978-90-04-11909-3
.
- ^
A History of the Ogaden (Western Somali) Struggle for Self-Determination
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- ^
Njoku, Raphael Chijioke (2013-02-20).
The History of Somalia
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ISBN
978-0-313-37858-4
.
The Ajuuraan state is regarded as the successor to its more influential and resilient predecessors such as the Adal and Ifat
- ^
Cassanelli, Lee V. (1975). "Migrations, Islam, and politics in Somali Benaadir, 1500-1843". In Marcus, Harold G.; Schoonmaker, Kathleen M. (eds.).
Proceedings of the First United States Conference on Ethiopian Studies, Michigan State University, 2-5 May, 1973
. African Studies Center, Michigan State University. pp. 101?115.
- ^
Lewis, I.M. (1962).
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- ^
Pearce, Francis Barrow (1898).
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. London. pp. 176?177.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
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,
2
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- ^
a
b
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.
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- ^
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James Currey
, 2002), p. 59
- ^
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.
www.parliament.uk
.
- ^
Laitin, David D.; Samatar, Said S. (1987).
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- ^
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ISBN
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.
- ^
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- ^
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ISBN
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.
- ^
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- ^
Woodward, Peter; Forsyth, Murray (1994).
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. Dartmouth: Aldershot. pp. 105?106.
ISBN
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- ^
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- ^
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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- ^
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(PDF)
(Thesis). Leiden University. p. 135.
- ^
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. Springer.
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.
- ^
Ethiopian Rebels Kill 70 at Chinese-Run Oil Field
- ^
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. Retrieved
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.
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. Foreignaffairs.house.gov. 2007-10-02. Archived from
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. Hrw.org
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. Sudantribune.com. Archived from
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- ^
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Bibliography
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Ogaden
.
7°17′N
44°18′E
/
7.28°N 44.30°E
/
7.28; 44.30
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