From the Editor/Publisher

Jideofor Adibe

In the November/December 2006 issue of the journal, we focused on African culture and philosophy and their possible relationship with the current crises of governance and development in the continent.  We posed a number of crucial questions: Are the current crises of governance and development in the continent facilitated by African culture and philosophy of life? Or are they the result of lack of, or insufficient incorporation of these into the models of development and governance imported into the continent from outside? Are these largely imported models of governance and development culturally and philosophically neutral?

In this edition, we focus on the Horn of Africa- (also known as Northeast Africa or the Somali Peninsula)) - a peninsula of East Africa that juts for hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea, and comprising  Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti. While the lead theme is on the Horn of Africa, the special focus is on the two dominant players in the region – Ethiopia and Somalia. We look at the region, the problems of conflicts, dictatorships, wars, weapon proliferation, identity, and development trajectory. We ask some key questions: What political agendas, if any, do the competing historical narratives of ethnic identities serve in the region? How has the Cold War era super power rivalry affected the political configuration in the region? And how have all these affetced the form of development thoughts, and development trajectory in the region?

Daniel Aremu argues that European construction of Ethiopian historiography has largely rested on the hypothesis that the Ethiopian state and civilization were built by immigrants from South Arabia who colonized Ethiopia in the first millennium B.C. He notes that this thesis has percolated into  Ethiopian politcs in the last few decades through such notions as ”indigenousness” and ”alieness”, in which groups like Amhara and Tigreans, said to be “the children of Arab immigrants and Africans” are viewed by some Ethiopians as ”aliens”, and therefore colonisers of indigenous groups like Oromo and Eritrea (before its independence).

Osman Farah and Mammo Muchie reflected on the 2006 Christmas war by Ethiopia on Somalia, noting that the two countries have had two wars since Somalia’s independence, the first being in 1964, which “.started because of the Somali irredentism and claim of the Ogaden region.” They argue that some Somalis see Ethiopia as “a sort of substitute of ‘colonial power’”, and that this perception coloured Somali’s perception of the recent Ethiopian intervention in the country, with American backing.

Berhanu Gutema Balcha discuses ethnicity and federalism in Ethiopia, which have “become the major factors in organizing the political and territorial space in Ethiopia since 1991,”  noting that “the ‘ethnic- federal’ experiment of devolving public sector powers to ethnic groups goes against the centralized nation-building project of the previous regimes.” He accuses the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which claims to represent the Tigray province and the Tigray people, of hegemonistic tendencies, despite accounting for only six percent of Ethiopia’s populations.

Mohamed Haji Mukhtar discusses the collapse of the Somali state, the various peace conferences and efforts at reconstituting the failed state and the recent Ethiopian military intervention. He argues that the fall of “Mogadishu on New Year’s Eve to the allied forces of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and Ethiopia won’t hurt the Union of Islamic Court’s (UIC) jihad in Ethiopia, nor will it automatically bring stability to war- torn Somalia.” He however believes that “the outcome of the Ethiopian interventions and the eventual empowerment of the TFG should be looked at by both Somalis and the international community as a potential blessing in disguise.”

Abdurahman M. Abdullahi discusses the history of Somali’s women’s political participation over four decades, noting that that although “Somali women gained full political rights before independence in 1960, it nonetheless took 40 years for them to receive a constitutionally sanctioned quota in the National Assembly.”. He posited that the “landslide victory of Somali women in the Somali Reconciliation Conference of 2000 should be understood as a product of 40 years of cumulative struggle by local and international actors.”

Jesiah Selvam analyses the privatisation programme in Ethiopia, which began in the 1990s, noting that the country’s “national debt is perennially at the centre of economic policy debates”. Fekadu Fullas discusses the role of indigenous medicinal plants in Ethiopia’s healthcare, noting that “there are anywhere between 650 and 1,000 medicinal plants in Ethiopia, comprising about 10 per cent of the entire flowering plants found in the country”. He argues that the key challenge in Ethiopia is “how to streamline this resource for the benefit of not only those people who do not have access to modern medicines, but also for those who fail on conventional medications, or those, who for economic reasons opt for local products which can potentially be as effective.”

Besides articles in the lead theme, we also brought together various other contributions, from Professor Ali Mazrui’s  LIVING LEGEND AWARD, 2007, acceptance speech  to a tribute to music superstar James Brown's, who rested in the Lord on December 25, 2006.

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Dr Jideofor Adibe is the Editor of African Renaissance, and Publisher,

 Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd, London.

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