Frontiers of Violence in North-East Africa: Genealogies of Conflict since c.1800

by Richard J. Reid

Overview

Northeast Africa has one of the richest histories in the world, and yet also one of the most violent. Richard Reid offers an historical analysis of violent conflict in northeast Africa through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, incorporating the Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands and their escarpment and lowland peripheries, stretching between the modern Eritrean Red Sea coast and the southern and eastern borderlands of present day Ethiopia. Sudanese and Somali frontiers are also examined insofar as they can be related to ethnic, political, and religious conflict, and the violent state- and empire-building processes which have defined the region since c.1800.

Reid argues that this modern warfare is not solely the product of modern political 'failure', but rather has its roots in a network of frontier zones which are both violent and creative. Such borderlands have given rise to markedly militarised political cultures which are rooted in the violence of the nineteenth century, and which in recent decades are manifest in authoritarian systems of government. Reid thus traces the history of Amhara and Tigrayan imperialisms to the nationalist and ethnic revolutions which represented the march of volatile borderlands on the hegemonic centre. He suggests a new interpretation of Ethiopian and Eritrean history, arguing that the key to understanding the region's turbulent present lies in an appreciation of the role of the armed, and politically fertile, frontier in its deeper past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199211883
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/12/2011
Series:	Zones of Violence
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Dr Richard Reid currently works on the history of warfare and militarism in Africa. He previously taught at the University of Asmara in Eritrea, and at Durham University in the UK. He is the author of several books, including studies of the Kingdom of Buganda and of warfare in pre-colonial eastern Africa, and a history of Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Dr Reid has also published numerous articles on various aspects of war and militarism in east and northeast Africa, particularly Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Past in the PresentPart I: Setting and Approach1. Interpreting the region2. The Shadows of AntiquityPart II: Violence and Imperialism: The 'long' nineteenth century3. States of Violence, to c.18704. Borderlands, Militarism and the Making of EmpirePart III: Colonialisms, Old and New5. Demarcating Identity: the European colonial experience, c.1890-c.19506. The Empire of Haile Selassie, c.1900-1974Part IV: Revolutions, Liberations, and the Ghosts of the Mesafint7. Revolution, 'Liberation', and Militant Identity, 1974-19918. New States, Old Wars: Violence, frontier, and destiny in the modern eraEpilogue: Armed Frontiers and Militarised MarginsBibliography

Editorial Reviews

"A comprehensive analysis and stimulating conceptualization of the complex history of the Horn of Africa...An excellent resource for major libraries because of its comprehensive analysis of the historical and contemporary aspects of a significant strategic region of Africa...Highly recommended."—CHOICE

From the Publisher