161. State and Politics in Ethiopia's Somali Region since 1991
- Author:
- Tobias Hagmann and Mohamud H. Khalif
- Publication Date:
- 07-2006
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- When asked by an interviewer whether he felt more Somali or more Ethiopian, Sultan Korfa Garane Ahmed, a federal member of parliament representing part of Ethiopia's Somali Region, diplomatically responded: “I am an Ethiopian-Somali.” The MP's self-description as an Ethiopian-Somali highlights two crucial implications for the analysis of contemporary politics in what was formerly known as the Ogaden and is today referred to as the Somali Regional State or simply Region 5. For the first time in the history of the Ethiopian empire-state or, more precisely, since the forced incorporation of the Somali inhabited Ogaden into Ethiopia at the end of the 19th century, the Somalis are officially recognized as one of the country's “nations, nationalities and peoples.” Since the accession to power of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in May 1991, attempts to forge a distinct “Ethiopian-Somali” or “Somali-Ethiopian” identity have superseded the former regimes' patronizing attitudes toward the country's “subject nationalities.”
- Political Geography:
- Ethiopia and Somalia