Nationalism and Secession in the Horn of Africa a Critique of the Ethnie Interpretation
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Nationalism and Secession in the Horn of Africa A Critique of the Ethnie Interpretation Dominique Jacquin Thesis submitted for the PhD in International Relations London School of Economies and Politicai Science University of London 2 Abstract This thesis seeks to assess the relevance of existing theories about the origins of nationalism and investigate more specifically the claixn that nationalism is rooted in ethnicity. It does so by examining the cases of Eritrea and Somaliland, which proclaimed their independence in May 1991 after seceding from the states to which they were formerly united. Having explained in the introduction why International Relations needs to take a closer look at the causes of nationalism, the second chapter proceeds to review some of the main theories about the origins of nationalism. It retraces the history of the primordialist-modernist debate, discusses the main contentions of the ethnonationalist approach and presents some of the factors singled-out by recent scholarship as propitious for the emergence of nationalism. Given that most of the theories about the origins of nationalism presented in chapter two centre on Europe, chapter three surveys the literature on the rise of nationalism in Africa in order to determine whether any additional factors need to be considered before analysing Eritrea and Somaliland. Chapter three also includes a discussion of the anthropological literature on ethnicity in Africa and questions the ethnonationalist claim that ethnie groups are pre-modern. Using as a framework the factors identified previously, chapter four offers a historical account of the emergence of nationalism in Eritrea. Chapter five does the same for the case of Somaliland. As the analysis provided in chapters four and five illustrate, the claim that nationàlism and secession have ethnie roots is not empirically substantiated by the cases of Eritrea and Somaliland. The thesis concludes by discussing the practical implications of these findings with regard to the righi of secession and proposais for boundary adjustment in Africa. It also highlights the ways International Relations may contribute to our understanding of the causes of nationalism. 3 Acknowledgements My first and foremost debt goes to Professor James Mayall, who thoughtfully and enthusiastically supervised this thesis. I would also like to thank the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada and the Overseas Research Scheme Award, UK, who provided me with indispensable funding. In Ethiopia, I greatly benefïted from the assistance kindly provided by Professor Bahra Zewde and the librarians at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University, as well as from the help provided by Jacques Bureau. My deepest gratitude goes to Tadesse Wolde and Seged D. for enabling me to discover some of the beauties and complexities of Ethiopia's countryside. Fratello Ezio of the Pavoni Centre in Asmara made available to me many of the documents he had salvaged from the war and his intermediary skills enabled me to meet most of the people interviewed in Eritrea for this thesis. My gratitude to him is immense as it is to Amsale Shibeshi and to the librarians of the Research and Documentation Centre in Asmara. I would also like to thank Mark Bidder and Matt Bryden of the UNDP-Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia, for sharing with me their insights and documents on Somaliland. Much of the material in this thesis was first presented in the Africa Workshop, chaired by Professor James Mayall at the LSE, and in the Nationalism Workshop, chaired by Professor Anthony Smith at the LSE, and benefited greatly from the judicious comments and criticisms raised by the seminar participants. I would like in particular to thank David Styan for all his helpful suggestions. I would finally like to express my deepest gratitude to Marie Ciechanowska and Jeremy Larkins for their insightful comments on earlier drafts of this thesis and for all their support, better friends one could not hope for. No words can express my indebtedness to Mats Berdal and I will simply say thank you. 4 Table of Contents ABSTRACT 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION 5 1.1- FOCUS AND SCOPE OF THE THESIS 6 1.2 - NATIONALISM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 10 1.3- SECESSION AND NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION 16 1.4- STRUCTURE AND ARGUMENT OF THE THESIS 29 CHAPTER 2 - THEORIES OF NATIONALISM 33 2.1- THE PRIMORDIALIST-MODERNIST DEBATE 34 2.2 - THE ETHNIC ROOTS OF NATIONALISM 44 2.3 - WHATMAKES A NATION?..... 54 CONCLUSION 73 CHAPTER 3 - NATIONALISM AND ETHNICITY IN AFRICA 76 3.1- THE EMERGENCE OF NATIONALISM IN AFRICA 78 3.2 - EIHNICITY IN AFRICA: A COLONIAL INVENTION? 91 CONCLUSION 115 CHAPTER 4 - THE FORMATION OF ERITREANIDENTITY 119 4.1 - ERTIREA: A CASE OF ETHNIC SEPARAHSM? 121 4.2 - THE LEGACIES OF ITALIAN COLONISATION 133 4.3 - THE BRIUSH LEGACY: FIRST STAGES TOWARDS POLITICISATION 140 4.4 - WAR AS CATALYST OF ERITREAN IDENTITY 152 4.5 - INDEPENDENT ERTIREA 175 CONCLUSION 184 CHAPTER 5 - NATION-FORMATION IN SOMALILAND 189 5.1- WHO ARE THE SOMALI? 191 5.2- THE BRITISH PROTECTORATE OF SOMALILAND 200 5.3 - THE REPUBLIC OF SOMALIA FROM UNIFICATION TO DIS INTÉGRATION 211 5.4 - THE ROOTS OF DISCONTENT 225 5.5 - INDEPENDENT SOMALILAND 236 CONCLUSION 245 CHAPTER 6 - CONCLUSION 251 6.1- ERITREA AND SOMALILAND: PRIMORDIAL OR MODERN? 252 6.2 - SECESSION RECONSIDERED? AFRICA'S BOUNDARIES READJUSTED? 261 6.3 - THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS OF NATIONALISM 266 6.4 - IMPLICATIONS OF OUR CRITIQUE OF THE ETHNIC INTERPRÉTATION 273 BIBLIOGRAPHY 278 5 Chapter 1 - Introduction In May 1991, Eritrea and Somaliland proclaimed their independence after seceding from the states to which they were formerly united.1 In the wake of events that accompanied the end of the Cold War, the birth of these two new states may have gone somewhat unnoticed. Yet this was a momentous event, not only for Africa, but also for international society more broadly. At décolonisation, African states had pledged their commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the states inherited upon achieving independence.2 In doing so, they were reaffirming the prevailing interprétation of national self-determination that had granted them their independence and which was understood to apply only to overseas possessions.3 In accordance with this interprétation, and as tragically illustrated by the failed attempts of Katanga and Biafra, secessionist movements were forcefully quelled. And, with the exception of Bangladesh in 1971, no clear-cut example of state création by secession occurred during the Cold War period.4 Such intransigence stemmed from the fear that granting récognition to secessionist movements would prompt similar demands elsewhere and would thus eventually lead to the disintegration of states. 1 While Eritrea's secession from Ethiopia was formally acknowledged in 1993, Somaliland's secession from Somalia has not been recognised by the international Community of states. Eritrea and Somaliland are considered here as secessions because they conform to the definition given below. 2 This was formally enshrined in article 3.3 of the Organisation for African Unity's Charter and was more forcefully reiterated at the Cairo Summit of 1964. See: Brownlie, Ian (ed.), Basic Documents on African Äffairs, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1971, pp. 3 and 360. 3 As expressed in the United Nations General Assembly Resolutions 1514 (XV) and 1541 (XV). For the füll text of Resolution 1514 (XV), see: Brownlie, Ian (ed.), Basic Documents in International Law, 3rd Edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989, pp. 298-301; and for Resolution 1541 (XV), see: Brownlie, 1971, op. cit., pp. 368-71. 4 Mayall, James, Nationalism and International Society, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990, p. 61. 6 It is against this background that the watershed events of the early 1990s must be considered. Since the end of the Cold War, a number of new states have been created as a resuit of the dismemberment of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia and Somalia. Does this new surge of state création indicate that international society is now succumbing to the pressures of ethnie separatisi movements? Are these expressions of the ethnie tidal wave that is said to be sweeping the world? These are the underlying questions this thesis seeks to address by examining more specifically the cases of Eritrea and Somaliland. Insofar as secession is considered to be the 'logicai conclusion' and 'purest expression5 of nationalism, closer investigation of these two cases should indeed yield valuable insights as to the causes of a phenomenon that is forecast to become 'the most common reason for war in the post-Cold War era'.5 Given their implications for international order and stability, it only seems appropriate, for International Relations scholars in particular, to under stand what motivâtes nationalist demands and prompts a people to secede. 1.1 — Focus and scope of the thesis Strictly defïned, secession is the formal act by which a territory and its inhabitants withdraw or separate from an already existing state with the aim of establishing themselves as a distinct, independent and sovereign state.6 Several attempts have been made to identify the circumstances under which secession is more likely to 5 Mandelbaum, Michael, 'Is Major War Obsolete?' Survival, Vol. 40, No. 3, Winter 1998-99, p. 31. 6 For similar définitions see, Heraclides, Alexis, The Self-determination of Minorities in International Politics, Frank Cass & Company Limited,