Horn of Africa - Monstrous Colonial Plans Unveiled

Before 3 weeks a conference was held in Sweden that deserves to shed some light on; the Horn of Africa Conference was held for the sixth time in Lund University, Sweden, 23 - 26 August, 2007. The conference could be the meeting point of specialists and experts, dedicated to the research of all aspects of life related one way or another with the Horn of Africa region, either taken in its narrowest scale or viewed within its widest scope. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

In its narrowest extent, the Horn of Africa corresponds to the internationally unrecognized state of Puntland (www.puntlandgovt.com) that spans over 212,510 km2 and is inhabited by about 2.5 m people; with official name Puntland State of Somalia, the country, heavily afflicted by the disastrous Sumatra tsunami, does not seek international recognition, expecting the civil conflicts and the illegal ‘Ethiopian’ invasion in Southern Somalia to terminate, and the differences with the neighbouring Somaliland to be resolved, so that national unity be resumed again in Somalia.

The Horn of Africa itself is a promontory directed to the SE in the Indian Ocean; known in the international navigation as Cape Guardafui, and widely called Ras Asir among the Somalis, it corresponds to the historically famous Akroterion Aromaton (Cape of the Perfumes) of the Ancient Greek texts, like the Periplus of the Red Sea.

Perceived within a wider scope, the Horn of Africa can comprise as many ingredients as one can imagine or as many constituents as one’s benevolent or malignant plans necessitate. In this there are no limits, simply there have to be minimal restrainers. You cannot include Egypt in the Horn of Africa, and exclude Yemen or Tanzania. Last but not the least, a historical approach must prevail over the political needs of colonial leaderships or unrepresentative dictators. Useless to state it, Human Rights must be a matter of concern and respect.

In the light of the aforementioned, it becomes clear that any effort to organize conferences and promote plans related to the Horn of Africa region, while specifically including Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti, represents a very strange approach that one should examine carefully with focus on the possible intentions.

Horn of Africa viewed as Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti

Including Sudan in addition to the rest seems very bizarre, particularly if a conference wants to bring together “civil society groups, scholars, political leaders and business communities” under a much promising “wonderful concept of generating constructive dialogue”.

Point 1 – Why Sudan is in and Kenya is out?

Sudan does not share a border with Somalia; viewed through one standpoint there are two countries to separate Sudan from Somalia (Djibouti and Eritrea), but seen from another viewpoint, only one but sizeable (so-called ‘Ethiopia’) is between Somalia and Sudan.

This creates the question why Kenya that shares common border with Somalia is excluded! Kenya is far closer to the Horn of Africa region, being an indispensable element of our Conception of the Horn of Africa, an integral part of the History of the Horn of Africa, a primary ingredient of the Horn of Africa related Culture, and a fundamental component of the Horn of Africa Economy.

If we go back at the times of Roman Egypt, we read in the Periplus of the Red Sea, an Ancient Greek text written by an Alexandrian Egyptian around 70 CE, that from Akroterion Aromaton (Cape of Perfumes), the Horn of Africa itself, down to Rhapta in the area of today’s Dar es-Salam in Tanzania there was one single political unit: the entire country was named Azania, and it was colony of the King of Sheba.

We learn – always through the same text – that Yemenites, Sabaeans and Himyarites had been merged by that time, colonized extensively the entire coast, learning the local language and marrying with local female population. We know a great number of details about cities, towns, ports of call, harbours, markets, merchandises of the area, as well as techniques and practices of navigation up to that farthermost known point in SE Africa, and thence back to Arsinoe (Suez) and Alexandria – always thanks to the same text.

All the area encomassing Ras Hafun, Mogadishu, Kismayo, Mombasa, Zanzibar and Pemba islands, and Dar es Salam is an entire cultural – historical entity that recent colonial decomposition failed to divide decisively. In this regard, it has to be understood that local divisions of tribal and political character did not imply cultural divisions, as the area had progressively over the centuries got islamized.

The conclusion to draw is that, if one wants to include Sudan among the Horn of Africa countries, one has to imperatively encompass Kenya, Tanzania, and also Mozambique, Madagascar, and Uganda. Thanks to the expansion of the Red Sea navigation in the Antiquity, Ptolemy the Geographer, writing approximately 80 years after the anonymous author of the Periplus of the Red Sea, knew the Eastern African coast and ports of call as far in the south of Rhapta as Sofala.

Ibn Majid and other Islamic Ages’ Geographers have been the rightful heirs of this tradition that highlighted the cultural and historical unity of the Horn of Africa, and Eastern African Coast.

Point 2 – Why Sudan is in and Yemen is out?

Yemenite island Soqotra and three other adjacent minor islands are closer to Somalia than to mainland Yemen; off the Horn of Africa itself (Cape Guardafui), Soqotra was integral part of the ancient Yemenite Kingdom of Hadhramawt (Socotra – Dioskouridou Island as multi-cultural society, according to the Periplus of the Red Sea /http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/8-10-2005-74609.asp). Socotra lies about 350 km from the Yemenite coast (more than 500 km from Aden!), but less than 250 km from the Horn of Africa.

If Yemen is so close to Africa at this point, it is even closer in the Bab el Mandeb straits whereby Ras Menheli (in the West of Aden) is separated from Ras Siyan by only 30 km. Even closer to the African shore is the Yemenite island Perim in the middle of the straits.

The interconnectedness between Yemen and the Horn of Africa is highlighted by a multitude of historical data, archaeological and textual evidence, plus a great number of migrated populations in either directions. The Bnaadiris in Southern Somalia and the Kenyan coast are Yemenites who have lived for centuries in the Horn of Africa region, therefore continuing the 2500-year old Yemenite ‘colonialism’ in Africa.

Comparing Sudan’s relationship with the Horn of Africa to that of Yemen’s would be an aberration; although on a different continent, Yemen is the closest and more interrelated land and country with the epicentre of the Horn of Africa area. If talking about Somalia, Yemen is as much interconnected with that African country as Djibouti, Eritrea and ‘Ethiopia’ are, viewed historically.

The conclusion to draw is that, if one wants to include Sudan among the Horn of Africa countries, one has to imperatively encompass Yemen.

Forged Groups, Amalgamated Nations, Oppressed Peoples

At this point, we should approach the subject differently; what would an average Sudanese of Darfur, Kordofan, Nubia or South Sudan feel if he learnt that a conference took place somewhere in which his/her country was included as related to the Horn of Africa region?

Probably, anyone originating from these varied provinces of the Sudanese West (Darfur, Kordofan), North (Nubia) and South (already independent and self ruled, South Sudan will be internationally recognized before 2011) would laugh!

That person would feel completely unrelated to the Horn of Africa, and this is the only truth in this regard.

Why merging and regrouping countries that are historically unrelated?

This pertains to financial and political plans, not to Culture, History and Human Rights. It has to do with potential financial interests of great powers or with secretive political agendas of tyrannical regimes that illegally exploit the natural resources of invaded peoples and occupied lands.

Africa is crossing a very critical period of its History; the traditional colonial powers that prevailed after the WW I and WW II, France, England, and Portugal, have seen their grip on African natural resources tremendously diminished. America and Russia have not managed to enter in force, as they may have wished, as Germany, Japan and Italy managed to get involved to some extent. More recently, China and to lesser extent India and Brazil expanded business throughout the Black Continent, whereas Turkey started being more and more interested. With Canada, Australia and Malaysia also present, the new race for Africa seems set to start.

For economic purposes, great countries are a primary target; even in cases of underdeveloped countries, like most of the African countries, the size of a market consists in a primary concern for the expansion plans of a company. Who could compare Nigeria and Eritrea as markets? Is it not normal for Egypt to attract more foreign direct investment than Mauritania? When countries are multi-divided, like for instance the former French Western Africa, companies hesitate to even make an expansion plan, as the cost will certainly be higher. To lower the expansion cost of companies willing to invest and exploit the resources of an Eastern African country, countries ‘should merge’; the neo-colonial needs of the global economy match particularly well with secretive plans and agendas of the Old European Colonial Guard. We will expand on this in the future; however, here we will focus on Africa’s current situation.

Merger and Unions: not a Present Need in Africa – particularly in the Horn of Africa region

The ground political situation in Africa contradicts absolutely the plans for further mergers, and wider unions of states; this does not that they must be forgotten forever. Eventually, in several parts of Africa, independent nations and states will shape federations, con-federations, and unions. However, this must reflect really democratic societies where knowledge and understanding of the national identity and cultural heritage will be matched with a genuine interest for the Other, and the respect of the neighbour.

This did not occur overnight in Europe; it took many European wars, two World Wars, and a long lasting Cold War to help create 27-member European Union.

Interconnection – through education, publications, mass media, entertainment, sports, package holidays, cultural and academic exchanges, and financial – political relations – between Greece and Sweden, to cite an example, is a multifaceted phenomenon that took more than 50 years to develop.

Every European Union member state presents a remarkably high level of interconnectedness – certainly not with all the rest but definitely – with many among the other member states; this situation in today’s Africa is practically speaking impossible.

Democratic, interconnected societies: the Litmus Paper for Unions of Peoples, not Dictators

Can one compare the number of Italian foreign workers in Germany with that of Egyptian foreign workers in South Africa?

Can one compare the number of Portuguese students in France with that of Eritrean students in Morocco?

Can one compare the number of Italian books translated in Greece with that of Oromo books translated in Fulani?

And what about the number of Danish tourists in Spain, if compared to that of Senegalese tourists in Tanzania?

All this shows emphatically that there cannot be merges and unions in Africa over the next 10 to 20 years. Anyone pressurized to get it done fast contributes to havoc, totalitarian regimes’ survival, and further disasters of all sorts.

How is it possible to accept that countries with tyrannized minorities and totalitarian governments - that should merge (according to some) to facilitate foreign direct investment - will have the possibility to defend the national interests and to protect the natural environment of regions that mean nothing to their rulers, as they are unrelated to them, whereas at the same time there are no genuine representatives voted by the people of these regions and elected to parliament, who would defend their place from deforestation, chemical waste, and carbon dioxide emissions?

Democracy, Freedom and Independent Nations: Prerequisite for Unions

Not only interconnectedness does not exist in Africa, but elementary democratic culture was never practiced by colonial and postcolonial regimes. Although many African peoples had developed cohesive traditional democratic systems of social and political organization, these very systems became the object of colonial hysteria and primary target for destruction.

The shameful conference at Lund University should have been cancelled as it shamefully promotes - on Swedish soil - totalitarian ideas, hopes and concepts. The organizers and the participants, with whom we will extensively deal in forthcoming articles, should have better studied the example of Sweden itself.

The urgent issue in Africa is not to unite; the pressurizing need is to split. Correct nation-building necessitates to go down to the cell; in the same way Czech Republic and Slovakia split first, and found themselves a few years later within the same state (European Union), most of the African states will have to split down to pieces, so that every people, every nation shapes an independent state in which genuinely elected representatives materialize the nation-building effort that they adopt.

Before merging many tyrants, in Africa, and more particularly in the Horn of Africa, one must liberate all the invaded peoples and occupied lands. Before the rise of a union, the demise of a tyranny will be obtained at all costs.

The monstrous, colonial and tyrannical construction ‘Ethiopia’, the fakest of the African racist and despotic regimes, will encounter its final, most deserved, ultimate Death.

To the sublime exultation of its numerous oppressed and tyrannized peoples, who will get rid of the Amhara and Tigray, Abyssinian contamination!

Note

Ruined Palace of Sayed Saaid Ben Sultan at Mtony - Zanzibar