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ABSTRACT
Ethiopia has a long history of economic relations in its borderlands. Since the early 1990s, the Ethiopian state began to earnestly entrench its authority in the Ethiopia-Somaliland borderlands. This study examined the governmentalization of the Ethio-Somaliland borderlands in the post-1991 period. Drawing on official data and key informant interviews, the study identifies several techniques of governance that the Ethiopian state instituted to govern and control economic activities in these borderlands. The analysis reveals that the manner in which economic relations are governed is directly shaped by the exceptional nature and logic of borderlands in general and the Ethiopia-Somaliland borderlands in particular. The Ethiopian state has sometimes used ‘informal’ mechanisms and this particular way of governing economic activities in the border region is analyzed in this paper, which highlights five prominent techniques, but also looks at how people in the region circumvent some of these government techniques. There is a mutation of governance in which the distinction between what is formal and informal is often blurred.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Danish Consultative Research Committee for Development Research (FFU) under the Governing Somali East Africa (GOVSEA) project. For helpful comments and criticisms, the authors would like to thank Finn Stepputat, Jason Mosley and Tobias Hagmann and the two anonymous reviewers.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Addis Fortune, 26 October 2017.
2 Reporter (Amharic biweekly newspaper), 14 June 2017.
3 Herbst, States and Power.
4 Ferguson and Gupta, “Spatializing states,” 994.
5 Dobler, “The Green, the Grey and the Blue,” 154.
6 FCITPTF, “The 2009 Annual Plan.”
7 Asnake, “Shoats and Smart Phones.”
8 Scott, Seeing like a State.
9 Baud and van Schendel, “Toward a Comparative History,” 219.
10 Lithwick and Gradus, “Introduction.”
11 Herbst, States and Power.
12 Korf and Raeymaekers, “Introduction.”
13 Ayimpam, “Informal Trade,” 2.
14 Martinez, Border People.
15 Machado et al., “Building Walls.”
16 Howitt, “Frontiers, Borders, Edges,” 235
17 Ibid.
18 Korf and Raeymaekers, “Introduction,” 5.
19 Machado et al., “Building Walls.”
20 de Herdt and de Sardan, Real Governance and Practical Norms.
21 Herbst, States and Power.
22 Abraham and van Schendel, “The Making of Illicitness.”
23 Titeca and Flynn, “‘Hybrid Governance’,” 73.
24 Bevir, Democratic Governance, 1.
25 Scott, Seeing like a State, 2.
26 Hagmann and Korf, “Agamben in the Ogaden.”
27 Ibid.
28 See Mosley and Watson, “Frontier transformations” on how state interventions are changing frontier landscapes in southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya.
29 Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier.”
30 Hagmann and Korf, “Agamben in the Ogaden”; Korf et al., “Geographies of Violence and Sovereignty.”
31 Kopytoff, “The Internal African Frontier.”
32 Clapham, “Ethiopia.”
33 Asnake, “Federalism.”
34 By the Somali territories, we are referring to the Somali-inhabited areas in the Horn of Africa. These include the Ethio-Somali Region, Somalia, Somaliland, Northern Kenya, Djibouti and Puntland.
35 Eid, “Jostling for Trade”; Little et al., “Formal or Informal.”
36 Scott, “Transboundary Cooperation,” 146.
37 Eid, “Jostling for Trade”; Little et al., “Formal or Informal.”
38 Jones et al., “An Introduction.”
39 Mann, “The Autonomous Power,” 189–90.
40 Hagmann, “Punishing the Periphery.”
41 Hagmann, “Challenges of Decentralisation,” 450.
42 Abdullahi, “The Ogaden National Liberation Front”; Asnake, “Federalism.”
43 Interview with ESRS Road Authority worker, 17 May 2017.
44 Interview with ESRS Road Authority worker I, 17 May 2017.
45 Mann, “The Autonomous Power,” 192.
46 Interview with ESRS Road Authority worker, 17 May 2017.
47 Baker, “Developments in Ethiopia’s Road”; Tibebe, “A History of Jijjiga.”
48 Herbst, “States and Power.”
49 Ciabarri, “Biographies.”
50 Ibrahim Worku, “Road Sector Development.”
51 Ibid.
52 Ibid.
53 Ibid.
54 Interview with ESRS Road Authority worker II, 17 May 2017.
55 Interview with ESRS Road Authority worker II, 17 May 2017.
56 Interview with ESRS Road Authority worker I, 17 May 2017; Interview with ESRS Road Authority worker II, 17 May 2017.
57 FDRE, “Commercial Registration.”
58 Interview with SRS Trade Bureau worker I, 6 March 2017.
59 Interview with SRS Trade Bureau worker II, 9 March 2017.
60 Humphrey and Hugh-Jones, 1992: 5; cited in Pankhurst, “The Logic of Barter,” 156.
61 Pankhurst, “The Logic of Barter,” 156.
62 Interview with SRS Trade Bureau worker III, 7 March 2017.
63 Interview with SRS Trade Bureau worker III, 7 March 2017.
64 Interview with ERCA-Jijgiga Branch worker I, 7 March 2017.
65 Interview with SRS Trade Bureau worker I, 6 March 2017.
66 Eid, “Jostling for Trade,” 10.
67 Interview with SRS Trade Bureau worker I, 6 March 2017; Interview with SRS Trade Bureau worker II, 9 March 2017.
68 Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, “Franco valuta license,” http://www.combanketh.et/InternationalBanking/TradeService.aspx (accessed on 27 April 2017).
69 FDRE, “Importation of Machinery”; FDRE, “Revised Regulation.”
70 Eyasu Mekonen, “Contribution of imported goods through Franco-Valuta as capital under Ethiopian law,” https://www.flslegalservices.com/2019/12/04/contribution-of-imported-goods-through-franco-valuta-as-capital-under-ethiopian-law/#:~:text=Franco-Valuta%20privilege%20is%20basically,Bank%20of%20Ethiopia%20(NBE).&text=(the%20Regulation).,repealed%20the%20previous%20Regulation%20No (accessed 16 September 2020).
71 MoFED, “Franco-Valuta Regulation.”
72 Ibid.
73 Abdullahi, “The Ogaden National Liberation Front.”
74 Human Rights Watch, “Collective Punishment,” 7.
75 Little et al., “Formal or Informal.”
76 This was so in 2017. At that time Abdi Illey was the President of the Somali Region. In a calamitous event, Abdi was removed from power in August 2018. Currently, the regional government is headed by Mustefa Muhumed Omer.
77 Interview with a local informant (RM), 13 March 2017.
78 Devereux, “Better Marginalised than Incorporated,” 682, 693.
79 Addis Fortune, 10 December 2018.
80 Interview with a local informant (RM), March 13, 2017.
81 Addis Fortune, 10 December 2018.
82 Reporter (Amharic biweekly newspaper), 8 October 2017. The anti-contraband command post is different from the state of emergency command post. As Ethiopia was under a state of emergency in 2016–17 and later in 2018, a separate command post was established to oversee its proper implementation.
83 Interview with ERCA-Jijgiga Branch worker II, 10 March 2017.
84 Lund, “Twilight Institutions,” 699.
85 FCITPTF, “The 2009 Annual Plan.”
86 Ibid.
87 Ibid.
88 Ibid.
89 Interview with ERCA-Jijgiga Branch worker I, 7 March 2017.
90 Baker, “Hybridity in policing.”
91 Hagmann, “Talking Peace in the Ogaden.”
92 Human Rights Watch, “Ethiopia: No Justice in Somali Region Killings,” https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/05/ethiopia-no-justice-somali-region-killings (accessed 24 August 2018).
93 Addis Standard, 26 October 2017.
94 Human Rights Watch, “Ethiopia: Probe Years of Abuse in Somali Region,” https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/08/20/ethiopia-probe-years-abuse-somali-region (accessed 20 August 2018).
95 Raleigh, “Pragmatic and Promiscuous.”
96 Interview with SRS Trade Bureau worker I, 6 March 2017.
97 Ibid.
98 Interview with SRS Trade Bureau worker I, 6 March 2017.
99 Interview with a local informant (CM), 20 May 2017.
100 Interview with a local informant (CM), 20 May 2017.
101 Interview with ERCA-Jijgiga Branch worker III, 10 March 2017.
102 Ibid.
103 Jones, “Spaces of Refusal,” 687.
104 Korf et al., “Re-spacing African drylands,” 896.
105 FCITPTF, “The 2009 Annual Plan.”
106 Eid, “Jostling for Trade.”
107 Interview with ERCA- Head Office worker II, 15 February 2017.
108 Interview with a local informant (TZ), 11 March 2017.
109 Interview with a local informant (TZ), 11 March 2017.
110 Interview with an anonymous local informant, 11 March 2017.
111 Interview with ERCA-Head Office worker II, 15 February 2017.
112 Interview with an anonymous local informant, 11 March 2017.
113 Mann, “The Autonomous Power.”
114 Tezera, “The Internet.”
115 By bush roads, we are referring to the rough roads that cut through the bush and along the desert.
116 Habtamu and Wubeshet, “An Inquiry into the Nature.”
117 Interview with a local informant (RM), 13 March 2017.
118 Dobler, “The Green, the Grey and the Blue”
119 Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, xix.
120 Interview with a local informant (KT), 11 March 2017; Interview with a local informant (RM), 13 March 2017.
121 The Economist, 24 August 2013.
122 Interview with a local informant (RM), 13 March 2017.
123 Interview with ERCA Jigjiga Branch worker III, 10 March 2017.
124 Michele and Lenore, “Smuggling cultures,” 91.
125 Interview with a local informant (RM), 13 March 2017.
126 Eid, “Jostling for Trade,” 5.
127 Scott, Seeing like a State, 2.
128 Scott, Seeing like a State.
129 Jones, “Spaces of Refusal,” 687.