Abstract:
Eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa refer to a zone of countries stretching
from Eritrea and Djibouti in the north to Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and Sudan
in the west, Tanzania in the south and fragmented Somalia and Kenya on the east.
Ethiopia is in the middle surrounded by Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, and Kenya. All
these countries were defined and shaped by European powers who had engaged
in prolonged imperial ventures in which they had rewritten the past and created
myths of their greatness that are still perpetuated in post-colonial Africa (MartinMarquez
2008:12-16; Bessis 2003:12-14). They had also produced an imperial
offspring, the United States of America. Together, Europeans and the North
Americans are the Euro-powers, for short. The Euro-powers were full of socioideological
contradictions between the professed ideals of liberty for white men
and the reality of enslaving Africans (Duffield 2007:228).
Beginning in the later part of the 19th century, the Euro-powers considered
Africa to be a rich source of needed raw materials and a potential market of last
resort for manufactured goods that no one else wanted. This had led to the
imperial urge for territorial colonization, and hence, the Euro-powers turned to
Africa (Tuathail 1996:38) to create new empires. The English, the Italians, and the
French led the way in eastern Africa in imposing colonialism through terror while
claiming they were doing it for humanity and civilization (Cesaire 1970:9-12; Young
1994:165-166; Munene 1995:228).
In general, Euro-powers believed they had rights to enslave and reshape the
Africans to suit imperial whims (Mbembe 2001:28-29; Bessis 203:16). This included
forcing Africans to ‘disremember’ their past and to imbibe the conqueror’s heroism.
