Borders and borderlands as resources in the Horn of Africa, edited by Dereje Feyissa and Marcus Virgil Hoehne, Woodbridge, James Currey, 2010, 244 pp., £40.00 (hardback), ISBN 9781847010186
Arising from a conference in 2006, this book seeks to challenge the conventional view that borderlands, especially in the Horn, are inconvenient trouble spots, sources of ethnic conflict, instability and havens for a variety of armed groups in opposition to governments of neighbouring countries. Rather, it is argued that their very artificial nature, determined as they usually are by local and international conflict and negotiation, provides economic and political opportunities for border communities. Where a traditional precolonial trade route has been disrupted by new boundaries and controls, for instance, then informal cross-border trade, taking advantage of arbitrage opportunities which had not existed before, can compensate for the inconveniences of formal trade.
The coverage of the book is wide, as it needs to be when looking at a region such as the Horn where there are now at least 11 internationally recognised borders. There are chapters on the border regions of Ethiopia–Sudan (the Anywaa) by Dereje Feyissa; Ethiopia–Kenya by Fekadu Adugna; Ethiopia–Eritrea (Tigrinya speakers) by Wolbert Smidt; Ethiopia–Djibouti (Afar and Issa) by Yasin Mohammed Yasin; Somaliland–Puntland by Markus Hoehne; Ethiopia–British Somaliland by Cedric Barnes; Kenya–Somalia by Lee Cassanelli; Kenya–Uganda by Peter Wafula Wekesa; and one on a different concept of boundaries which explores links between the Zigula (Somalia Bantu) and Tanzania, by Francesca Declich. The importance of understanding historical roots is evident in that seven of these nine case studies either begin with a review of their historical antecedents or are about a particular period in the past which retains contemporary relevance, such as the magendo trade between Kenya and Uganda in the 1960s.
The book opens with a more conceptual overview by the editors, in which they ‘offer an analytical framework for researching the resourcefulness of state borders as institutions and borderlands as territories’ (p. 1) before leading in to the central chapters which analyse and describe the way in which examples of different borders in the Horn have functioned as resources for the people of the borderlands. Conceptualisation is quite a challenge. In a number of instances, such as the informal cross-border livestock trade from Ethiopian pastoralist border communities into Somaliland, it is difficult to say that this is because of border opportunities rather than despite them, though one contemporary factor is the absence of animal disease controls and official monitoring. On the other hand, the reverse informal traffic in imported consumer goods – especially electronic – benefits from avoidance of formal import duties in Ethiopia. The authors point out the somewhat paradoxical similarities between the demotion of state borders in the globalisation process and the ease with which they can often be bypassed informally by small-scale merchants and traders operating at the local level. Where the similarities fall down, of course, is in the reinforcement of borders, particularly around Europe, as devices to exclude inward migrant labour, and in the exclusive nature of corporate globalisation.
Much is made in the wider literature of the ‘artificial’ character of many borders, particularly in Africa where most contemporary national borders are colonial in origin. As the authors point out, however, this can be a misleading generalisation given that state borders, old and new, are always socially constructed, even those which may appear ‘natural’. They refer to a number of cases where the appearance of European colonial powers created an opportunity for local chieftains or sultans to consolidate their own power base against neighbouring internal threats by entering into what they believed was a mutually beneficial ‘protection’ agreement, rather than the one-sided colonial ‘protectorate’ which they became. The chapter by Barnes, for instance, also explores how the Gadabursi were able to take advantage of the ambiguity of their position in the borderlands between British Somaliland and Ethiopia in the 1920s, giving them greater influence than if they had fallen under the sole jurisdiction of one of these powers.
The case for borders as a resource takes various forms, not always purely economic. For example, the Anywaa in Gambella region of Ethiopia see the border with Sudan as an identity determining political resource in their relationships with the Nuer, while the Borana, the Garri and the Gabra, which all exist on each side of the Ethiopia–Kenya border, can each draw on cross-border support from their kinsfolk to strengthen their own local political advantage. The chapter on Tigray is less on this theme than an interesting exploration of the nature of boundaries where a common language can hide long-standing historical subgroups and their local boundaries, with reflection on how boundaries have frequently changed over time. In the case of the Afar and Issa, Yasin Mohammed Yasin argues that it is the support from the Issa-controlled state in Djibouti that has been key to the expansion in recent years of the Somali Issa to the banks of the Awash in Ethiopia's Region 2, at the expense of the Afar, whereas the imprecise character of the boundary between Somaliland and Puntland allows fluidity of allegiance by members of the two administrations, even at senior official levels, for individuals from the Dhulbahante and Warsangeeli clans that inhabit the border zone.
In a brief concluding overview, which he entitles ‘Putting back the bigger picture’, Christopher Clapham recalls the role of ‘natural’ or ecological borders in the Horn and traditional trade patterns, particularly to the sea, and that the boundaries between and within these have always been contested. The question of the degree to which trade takes advantage of borders or continues despite them raises the issue of the difference between short-term opportunities for economic or political arbitrage and longer-term prospects for the wider benefits of uninhibited border movements of people and trade. In commenting on what he terms the collection's ‘instrumental’ approach to the affordances which a border offers to the communities that live nearby, Clapham suggests that this may well distract attention from the longer-term, more general economic implications of the multiplication of borders in the Horn, whether between the likes of Somaliland, Puntland, Southern Sudan and their neighbours, or even those of ethnic federalism within Ethiopia, that have been created since 1991.
In summary, the book works better than many edited collections, combining current and historical detail on a sufficiently representative range of examples not only to inform and contribute to a wider understanding, but to confirm, under prevailing contemporary circumstances, the significance of borders and border regions in the Horn as conduits through which not only formal and informal traders pass, but which also witness a stream of pastoralists, migrant workers, traffickers, armed combatants, and refugees seeking safety, survival opportunities or a number of more nefarious objects. As they do so they create a demand for a variety of services such as money exchange, accommodation, food, fuel (wood, charcoal, paraffin), and simple consumer goods from which local populations derive income. In some instances, as in north-east Kenya, the flow of refugees from Somalia plus incoming international aid, on top of the more traditional overland livestock trade, has generated a substantial regional economy, albeit with a precarious future and containing major inequalities. The broad pattern is not unique to the Horn, but its link to conflict and survival and any potential for regional security is deeply embedded in the troubled historical specificities of the region, leaving an organic legacy which is capable, in the opinion of the editors, of offering ‘affordances of state borders in the Horn’ to the various communities who live on either side.