EISA OCCASIONAL PAPER NUMBER 19 April 2004 Introduction Realising effective and sustainable democratic governance in Southern This paper looks at the formation of Africa and beyond. ethnicity and ethnic conflict in the Horn of Africa with particular attention to the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Firstly, conflict in the Horn of Africa at large is mapped out. Ethnic and political ETHNIC CONFLICT IN THE groups within Ethiopia and Eritrea are HORN OF AFRICA looked at respectively so as to analyse the outbreak of war in the two countries. The extent of external role players' involvement in this conflict is examined. By Finally the essay also attempts to assess Victor Reatile Shale the social and economic consequences of the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Definitions Ethnicity According to Jenkins (1997:9) ethnicity or the word ethnic comes from the ancient Greek word "ethos" which is a situation in which a collectivity of humans lived and acted together. Another scholar, Eriksen (1995:251) defines ethnicity as an aspect of relationship between people or groups whose members believe that it is culturally distinctive. He indicates that ISBN: 1-919814-63-9 ethnicity is situational in that people can ISSN: 1811-7473 behave differently according to © EISA, 2004 situations. It is possible to make a distinction between ethnic groups that have culture and cultural groups. Ethnicity may not be adequately defined by cultural groups because they are not identical to ethnic groups. Cultural groups can only be used to reinforce ethnic identity. - 1 - EISA OCCASIONAL PAPER NUMBER 19 April 2004 Ethnic Group order enforcement institutions such as the police and the army. It also has the "Ethnic group is a group of people bureaucracy that administers day to day whose members belief that they are of a affairs of the people within such common descent but not unilateral" territory. (Jenkins 1997:13). It is not enough for a group to have certain common features Ethnic Conflict because it is the interaction of various ethnic groups which according to Following the definitions of ethnicity Eriksen (1995:251) creates ethnicity. He and ethnic groups given above, ethnic says that ethnic groups are not isolated. conflict may be defined as a conflict Ethnic groups can only know of their between two or more ethnic groups over existence by being in contact with resources, identity, borders or against others. The point about interaction can oppression. Burton (1990:137-138) be illustrated with an example of observes that multi-ethnic conflicts are someone who comes across a person usually violent and destructive to the lying dead in the street after a shooting societies they directly affect and often incident. The reaction of the onlooker expand to become international affair. becomes one of shock and sorrow. There Parties in conflict get external military would be a different reaction if it were a and financial support for strategic or dog lying dead in the street. The reason ideological reasons and these results in for the onlooker's reaction is that he costly and protracted conflict. identifies with the dead person as another human being. He sees his image CONFLICT IN THE HORN OF in the body of that dead person and AFRICA imagines that the same thing could happen to him. The reality of his Background dependence on others' existence and being in contact with them strikes his It is important that a general picture of mind. Similarly, as much as ethnic the conflict in the Horn of Africa is groups are different, they need others so portrayed before a specific conflict that they could have their own identity. between Ethiopia and Eritrea is Ethnic Boundary examined. This region referred to as the Horn of Africa consists of Somalia, Boonzaier and Sharp (1993:80) state that Djibouti, Ethiopia and Eritrea. John ethnic boundary is an area within which (1986:85) gives a physical description of people observe, learn and internalise the the region as the region where the Red rituals and habits of speech, dispositions Sea, the Indian Ocean and the African and dress of their bodies and modes of continent meet. He also adds that it is the thought to the extend that they become major link between the Middle East and entirely automatic. They further note Africa, situated close to oil supplying that these boundaries are created during points. Hansen (1987:87) says that the social interaction. Horn is potentially the second most explosive sub-region following Southern State Africa in the whole continent. He says Boonzaier and Sharp (1993:80) define a that war in this region has brought with state as a territory enclosed by borders it social dislocation and human with parliament, courts of law, law and suffering. According to him, out of about - 2 - EISA OCCASIONAL PAPER NUMBER 19 April 2004 five million refugees in Africa, more core now included the Somali Obo, the than one million refugees are found in Oromo and the Afars. the Horn and almost all of them as a consequence of drought and continued Ethnic Groups in Eritrea warfare. According to Tronvoll (1999:1042) there History were four ethnic groups that inhabited the colony of Eritrea. In the central Hansen (1987:88-89) attributes the highlands region, also called the Mereb origin of war in the Horn of Africa to Melash, lived the Tigrinya speaking three major reasons. Firstly, it is the people, comprising mainly orthodox ruling classes' attempts to create national Christians. This region was largely states within the international boundaries kinship. Within the same region lived a that were established by the European group of Saho-speaking agro-pastoralist colonialists. Another reason is the little Muslims and the Tigrinya-speaking economic surplus and weak economic Muslims. In the lowland areas were the base in this region. Lastly is the Barka and Cash-Setit regions inhabited nationalist ideologies of the regimes and by Tigre-speaking and Beni- Amer preservation of territorial integrity. He clans. These were mainly normadic states that towards the end of the pastoral groups. The Kunama and Nara nineteenth century there was a scramble hunters and gatherers, although smaller for the Horn of Africa. The British, the in numbers, were also in this region. The French and the Italians were the main third region was the coastal and internal competitors. areas north of Massawa that was dominated by Arabs and Muslims. The The British controlled the Somali fourth region was the Afar land that hinterland and called it the British covered the coastal and internal areas Somaliland. The French also had their from the Gulf of Zula down to Djibouti. own area around Djibouti and they This area is within the present Eritrea's called it the French Somaliland. The borders. The Afar clans in this region Italians on the other hand controlled the were independent and were never under area along the Red Sea Coast extending an external control until the arrival of the to the Tagrayan highlands. This area colonialists. was called the Italian Somaliland. Hansen further states that in 1896 the Political Groups in Eritrea Italians were engaged in war with Ethiopia and were defeated by Ethiopia. It appears that in Eritrea there were no The Italian ambition to expand its active political parties before its territory from the Red Sea to the Indian independence. After its incorporation Ocean could therefore not be realised. into the Ethiopian Empire, its people The Ethiopian victory was followed by began an armed struggle. The Eritrean demarcation of major international Liberation Front (ELF) spearheaded the boundaries in the Horn. As a result, the struggle although internal conflicts led to Somali population was split between the its split. The splinter group, the Eritrean French, the British and the Italian People's Liberation Front (EPLF) Somaliland. The Ethiopian Empire overpowered the ELF and pushed it out which consisted of the Amharic-Tigre of the country. - 3 - EISA OCCASIONAL PAPER NUMBER 19 April 2004 Ethnic Groups in Ethiopia ethnic groups are not isolated and must therefore interact with others in order for According to Hansen (1987:92) the ethic ethnicity to exist. This means that groups that lived within Ethiopian although it can not be denied that there Empire were the Tigrayans, the Oromo, were groups that inhabited the Horn of the Somalis and the Afars. Among these Africa for centuries, the formation of groups the Oromo constituted the largest ethnicity only happened upon the arrival ethnic group with 40% of the whole of the colonialists. This is the period population and as it will be shown later, where (as it has been said above) these this had an effect in the ethnic conflict in groups consolidated their efforts to this country. survive. They competed with each other for preservation of their values and for Political Groups in Ethiopia survival because none of the individual groups would want either to perish while A number of groups contested in the its neighbors survived or to lose its land, political arena in Ethiopia. According to culture and values while its neighbours Ledarach (1997:162-163) the Ethiopian maintained theirs. People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP), the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary ORIGINS AND THE OUTBREAK Democratic front (EPRDF), the Oromo OF WAR BETWEEN ETHIOPIA Liberation Front (OLF) and the Ogadeni AND ERITREA National Liberation Front (ONLF) were prominent. These groups were liberation Background movements such as the EPLF in Eritrea but also very active politically. The war between Ethiopia and Eritrea dates back to the pre-colonial era. The boundary demarcations in the Horn Historically, in the Horn as well as in by the colonialists concretised ethnic other regions of the African continent identity in the region.