Description
Book SynopsisBorders offer opportunities as well as restrictions, and in the Horn of Africa they are used as economic, political, identity and status resources by borderland peoples. State borders are more than barriers. They structure social, economic and political spaces and as such provide opportunities as well as obstacles for the communities straddling both sides of the border. This book deals with the conduits and opportunities of state borders in the Horn of Africa, and investigates how the people living there exploit them through various strategies. Using a micro level perspective, the case studies, which include the borders of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, focus on opportunities, highlight the agency of the borderlanders, and acknowledge the permeability but consequentiality of the borders. Dereje Feyissa is Africa Research Director at the International Law and Policy Institute and Adjunct Professor at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Markus Virgil Hoehne is a Lecturer at the Institute of Anthropology at Leipzig University.
Trade ReviewI would recommend reading the book to anyone who is interesting in understanding the human interactions that revolve around borders. * LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS BLOG *
A rich and focused volume [which] opens up a crucial debate that nobody interested in African political and social issues can ignore. * JOURNAL OF MODERN AFRICAN STUDIES *
This insightful new book looks at borders and borderlands from a quite different perspective. In a series of fascinating case-studies, it provides insights into the experience of people living in the borderlands of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan. [...] For those seeking to engage with the politics of the Horn of Africa, it is essential to grasp the extraordinary complexity of identity and identity choices. This collection of case-studies, creatively combining the insights of social anthropologists, political scientists and historians, makes a real contribution to such an understanding. * INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS *
Table of ContentsPreface by Gunther Schlee - Günther Schlee Preface by the Editors State Borders & Borderlands as Resources: An Analytical Framework - Dereje Feyissa and Markus Virgil Hoehne More State than the State? The Anywaa's Call for the Rigidification of the Ethio-Sudanese Border - Dereje Feyissa Making Use of the Kin Beyond the International Border: Inter-ethnic Relations along the Ethio-Kenyan Border - Fekadu Adugna The Tigrinnya-speakers across the Borders: Discourses of Unity & Separation in Ethnohistorical Context - Wolbert G.C. Smidt Trans-Border Political Alliance in the Horn of Africa: The Case of the Afar-Issa Conflict - Yasin Mohammed Yasin People & Politics along and across the Somaliland-Puntland Border - Markus Virgil Hoehne The Ethiopian-British Somaliland Boundary - Cedric Barnes The Opportunistic Economies of the Kenya-Somali Borderland in Historical Perspective - Lee Cassanelli Magendo & Survivalism: Babukusu-Bagisu Relations & Economic Ingenuity on the Kenya-Uganda Border 1962-80 - Peter Wafula Wekesa Can Boundaries Not Border on One Another? The Zigula (Somali Bantu) between Somalia & Tanzania - Francesca Declich Conclusion: Putting Back the Bigger Picture - Christopher Clapham
