Awsa

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The flag of the Sultanate of Awsa was just as red as the flags of the neighboring Sultanates of Tadjoura and Goba'ad, which were dependent on Awsa
Sultanate of Awsa and the other Afar sultanates around 1860
Sultanate of Awsa and the other Afar sultanates (light green) between Egypt and Ethiopia 1880

Áwsa (German also Aussa ) has been a Muslim sultanate of the Afar people and a historical region of Ethiopia since the 18th century . The sultans have the title Amóyta (Arabic: sultân ).

geography

The core area is in the Danakil Depression in northeast Ethiopia. In the north, the sultanate reached in part to the coast, where several smaller Afar states (Biru / Girifo, Raheita , Tadjoura , Goba'ad) existed, some of which were dependent on Awsa. In the west it bordered the Abyssinian highlands , in the east on Somali areas . In the southeast was the emirate of Harar (formerly this together with Awsa formed the Muslim empire of Adal ).

It lies in a hot lowland; its population consists almost entirely of Afar nomads; some farm in the Awsa Lake District. The country is traversed by the river Awash coming from Shewa , which was the basis of the economy of the Sultanate in addition to the important salt trade with salt bars ( amole ), which were previously used as a means of payment.

Awsa enjoys a semi-autonomous status within Ethiopia. Until 2011, Sultan Ali Murach ruled Hanfari .

history

The Sultanate of Awsa was not subjugated until the 20th century due to the harsh living conditions in the hot lowlands. Awsa has concluded several international treaties with Italy and France, on the basis of which the Italian "Colonia di Assab " (origin of the later colony of Eritrea in Eritrea ) and the French colony of Obock (later Côte française des Somalis et dépendances, from which the state of Djibouti was created) was created.

At the Battle of Arraddo in the border area to Wollo in January 1896 the Sultan Mahammad "Illalta", son of Hanfadhe, suffered a defeat against Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia. However, since the Ethiopian troops were unable to occupy the country, only a mutual non-aggression pact was concluded. The sultan received an Ethiopian military nobility title from the emperor of Ethiopia , which affirmed the emperor's claim to exercise suzerainty over Awsa. Until the early 20th century, however, this claim essentially only existed “on paper”. This only changed with the death of the Sultan, when the successors entered into closer relations with the ruling house of Ethiopia. Internally, however, the sultans retained complete autonomy until 1944. The occupation of the region by Italy and the establishment of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana) did nothing to change this. Awsa formally recognized Italy's sovereignty, but the Awsa Sultan ruled independently internally. He supplied the Italian army with meat, which he also contributed to the fact that Mussolini's troops could subdue the Ethiopian highlands in the Italo-Ethiopian war . After the reconquest of Abyssia by Haile Selassie and the British forces allied with him in 1941, the Ethiopian army took until 1944 to march into Awsa. The sultan was arrested and his cousin Ali Mirah installed in his place. He, in exile from 1975 to 1991, held the title of sultan until his death in 2011.

The ruler of Ethiopia, deposed in 1916, Lij Iyasu V. , who married the descendant of a leading Afar family in 1916, found asylum with the Sultan of Awsa. Since the new Ethiopian coup government under Ras Teferi (later Haile Selassie ) had no access to Awsa, the deposed ruler could only be arrested when he went to the highlands in 1921.

See also

literature

  • Didier Morin: Dictionnaire historique afar (1288–1982). Editions Karthala, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-84586-492-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. Musa Mohammad Omar: Ethnic groups and nation states in the Horn of Africa. Somalia and Eritrea (= cultural identity and political self-determination in world society. Vol. 9). Lit, Münster et al. 2002, ISBN 3-8258-5905-3 , p. 57 (At the same time: Münster, Universität, Dissertation, 2001).