The Great Game In The Horn Of Africa
The deadly game has been ongoing for centuries. Mediterranean powers pushed south, deep into Africa with dreams of conquest, or at least of treasure – gold, wild animals, slaves. The ancient Egyptians did so, as did Roman legions, until stopped by a warrior queen in what is now Sudan. With the coming of Islam, armies of Arab slavers again pushed south along the Nile, destroying local pagan and Christian kingdoms.
By the 16th century, Northeastern Africa was part of the global struggle of empires. A great Islamic conqueror, the Somali Ahmed Ibn Ibrahim Al-Ghazi (also known as Ahmed the Lefthanded) all but crushed Christian Ethiopia. Imam Ahmed's forces in 1529 included Turkish (or Yemeni) matchlock-men and this was reportedly the first time the Ethiopians had faced guns and artillery in battle, an innovation that was initially devastating. The Ethiopians appealed to Portugal, also a rising power, and an expedition was sent from India led by Cristóvão da Gama, the fourth son of the famous navigator. Although da Gama was killed in battle, the Portuguese and Ethiopians were able to defeat and kill Imam Ahmed at Wayna Daga in 1543. The Portuguese had come with their own guns and primitive cannon to match those of the Turks.
Foreign intervention in the Horn of Africa would continue with a British expedition sent from India in 1867 actually invading and defeating Ethiopia's Emperor Tewodros II, who had taken Western hostages. The British did not stay. A decade later, it was Egypt that sought to conquer the region with the Ethiopians emerging triumphant against an invading Egyptian Army (whose chief of staff was an American, a former Confederate general). Egyptian hegemony over Ethiopia's coast would be replaced by Italy, while the French, British, and Italians would parcel among themselves the Somali coast (what are today Djibouti, Somaliland, and Somalia).
The 20th century saw further colonial and imperial adventures in the region. Such efforts probably reached their height during the Cold War when the Americans and Soviet Union essentially switched sides in the ancient confrontation between Ethiopia and Somalia. The overthrow of pro-Western Emperor Haile Selassie by leftist army officers in 1974 would lead the Soviet Union to abandon their support for Somali dictator Muhammad Siad Barre. The leftist Siad Barre would then become a collaborator of the Americans (and the Chinese) while the Soviets relied on a Cuban expeditionary force to maintain control in Ethiopia. When Siad Barre invaded the Ethiopian-ruled Ogaden in 1977, he would be defeated by the Cubans.
It was the overthrow of Siad Barre in 1991, an event that would lead to the destructive Somali Civil War and famine in the Horn of Africa, that would trigger the next spate of regional and superpower interest. UN peacekeepers would be augmented by an elite American taskforce sent in by President Clinton in 1993 leading to the infamous "Battle of Mogadishu" in October 1993. The image of dead American helicopter crew members stripped naked and dragged through the streets would electrify Jihadists worldwide, including a young Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden would write of the Americans in Somalia in a 1996 fatwa: "You left the area carrying disappointment, humiliation, defeat, and your dead with you."[2]
The subsequent 30 years would see repeated international attention, interventions and peacekeeping or humanitarian operations in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Strategic Djibouti would welcome American, Chinese, French, Japanese and Italian bases. Ethiopia would invade Somalia in 2006, removing an Islamist regime and leading to the rise of an Islamist insurgency. UN and African peacekeepers (some of the peacekeepers are Ethiopian) would come and go. American interest would wax and wane. And new players would emerge.
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The deadly game has been ongoing for centuries. Mediterranean powers pushed south, deep into Africa with dreams of conquest, or at least of treasure – gold, wild animals, slaves. The ancient Egyptians did so, as did Roman legions, until stopped by a warrior queen in what is now Sudan. With the coming of Islam, armies of Arab slavers again pushed south along the Nile, destroying local pagan and Christian kingdoms.
By the 16th century, Northeastern Africa was part of the global struggle of empires. A great Islamic conqueror, the Somali Ahmed Ibn Ibrahim Al-Ghazi (also known as Ahmed the Lefthanded) all but crushed Christian Ethiopia. Imam Ahmed's forces in 1529 included Turkish (or Yemeni) matchlock-men and this was reportedly the first time the Ethiopians had faced guns and artillery in battle, an innovation that was initially devastating. The Ethiopians appealed to Portugal, also a rising power, and an expedition was sent from India led by Cristóvão da Gama, the fourth son of the famous navigator. Although da Gama was killed in battle, the Portuguese and Ethiopians were able to defeat and kill Imam Ahmed at Wayna Daga in 1543. The Portuguese had come with their own guns and primitive cannon to match those of the Turks.
Foreign intervention in the Horn of Africa would continue with a British expedition sent from India in 1867 actually invading and defeating Ethiopia's Emperor Tewodros II, who had taken Western hostages. The British did not stay. A decade later, it was Egypt that sought to conquer the region with the Ethiopians emerging triumphant against an invading Egyptian Army (whose chief of staff was an American, a former Confederate general). Egyptian hegemony over Ethiopia's coast would be replaced by Italy, while the French, British, and Italians would parcel among themselves the Somali coast (what are today Djibouti, Somaliland, and Somalia).
The 20th century saw further colonial and imperial adventures in the region. Such efforts probably reached their height during the Cold War when the Americans and Soviet Union essentially switched sides in the ancient confrontation between Ethiopia and Somalia. The overthrow of pro-Western Emperor Haile Selassie by leftist army officers in 1974 would lead the Soviet Union to abandon their support for Somali dictator Muhammad Siad Barre. The leftist Siad Barre would then become a collaborator of the Americans (and the Chinese) while the Soviets relied on a Cuban expeditionary force to maintain control in Ethiopia. When Siad Barre invaded the Ethiopian-ruled Ogaden in 1977, he would be defeated by the Cubans.
It was the overthrow of Siad Barre in 1991, an event that would lead to the destructive Somali Civil War and famine in the Horn of Africa, that would trigger the next spate of regional and superpower interest. UN peacekeepers would be augmented by an elite American taskforce sent in by President Clinton in 1993 leading to the infamous "Battle of Mogadishu" in October 1993. The image of dead American helicopter crew members stripped naked and dragged through the streets would electrify Jihadists worldwide, including a young Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden would write of the Americans in Somalia in a 1996 fatwa: "You left the area carrying disappointment, humiliation, defeat, and your dead with you."[2]
The subsequent 30 years would see repeated international attention, interventions and peacekeeping or humanitarian operations in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Strategic Djibouti would welcome American, Chinese, French, Japanese and Italian bases. Ethiopia would invade Somalia in 2006, removing an Islamist regime and leading to the rise of an Islamist insurgency. UN and African peacekeepers (some of the peacekeepers are Ethiopian) would come and go. American interest would wax and wane. And new players would emerge.
The Great Game In The Horn Of Africa
The deadly game has been ongoing for centuries. Mediterranean powers pushed south, deep into Africa with dreams of conquest, or at least of treasure – gold, wild animals, slaves. The ancient Egyptians did so, as did Roman legions, until stopped by a warrior queen in what is now Sudan. With the...
