Gambela

Gambela
Symbols
	flag
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Basic data
Country	Ethiopia
Capital	Gambela
surface	25,802 km²
Residents	396,000 (2014)
density	15 inhabitants per km²
ISO 3166-2	ET-GA
politics
Head of government	Omud Ojulu Obub
Political party	Gambella Peoples' Democratic Movement

8,267 34,565Coordinates: 8 ° 16 ' N , 34 ° 34' E

The Baro River in Gambela

Gambela (also written Gambella , Ethiopian script : ጋምቤላ ) is one of the nine administrative regions of Ethiopia . It is located in the far west of the country on the border with South Sudan . Its capital is the eponymous town of Gambela on the Baro River . Geographically, Gambela belongs to the Sudanese lowlands.

Gambela is one of the regions where the Ethiopian government leases land to foreign investors. The Malaysian company Petronas is looking for oil in the region . Plans for a Gambela National Park have not yet been realized.

geography

The rivers Baro (Upeno, Opeeno), Akobo , Gilo and Alwero run through Gambela and flow into the White Nile via the Sobat . The region belongs geographically to the Sudanese lowlands and lies at around 500 m above sea level, while the highland areas of Ethiopia are at 2,000 m and higher. The climate is hot and humid.

The largest city is Gambela (with around 31,000 inhabitants in 2005), other larger towns are Itang (3,600), Fugnido (2,800) and Abobo (2,100).

There are different details about the administrative breakdown into zones and woredas : In documents of the Central Statistics Agency of Ethiopia from 2005 four zones are named Zone 1, Zone 2, Zone 3 and Zone 4 , in 2007 the three zones Agnewak (Anuak), Nuwer (Nuer) and Mezhenger (Majangir) as well as the Etang Special Zone are listed. In addition to zones 1, 2 and 3, a Godere zone appears as a fourth zone on maps .

population

According to the 2007 census, the region had 306,916 inhabitants. Of these, 70.1% were Protestants , 16.8% Ethiopian Orthodox , 4.9% Muslim, 3.8% followers of traditional religions and 3.4% Catholics; the proportions of Protestants and Catholics were thus higher than in all other regions of Ethiopia. 25.2% of the population lived in urban areas, which is above the national average.

In 2005, 42.2% of the children in Gambela (39.2% of the boys, 45.9% of the girls) attended primary school, 24% (30% boys, 15.9% girls) went to secondary school. The proportion of women who are circumcised is 27.1%, lower than in any other region.

ethnicities

The most important indigenous peoples are the Nuer and Anuak , who belong to the Nilotes . Both ethnic groups live in even greater numbers in neighboring South Sudan. The Anuak live mainly as arable farmers on the rivers, while the Nuer are traditional cattle breeders. The smaller groups of Opo , Komo and Majangir make a living from shifting farming , hunting and gathering. The Gambela Nuer belong to the eastern branch of the Jikany .

The Anuak made up the majority of the population until the Ethiopian government settled tens of thousands of people from other parts of the country in Gambela in the mid-1980s. In Gambela the Habescha ( Amharen and Tigray ) from the north, but also Oromo , Kambaata and others from the southern highlands are collectively referred to as "highlanders". They now form the third largest population group after Nuer and Anuak. Because of the war in South Sudan , Sudanese Nuer also came to Gambela as refugees, so that the Nuer are now outnumbered the Anuak.

According to the 2007 census, officially 46.65% of the population (143,189) are Nuer, 21.17% (64,959) Anuak, 8.42% (25,856) Amharen, 5.05% (15,487) Kaffa , 4.83% (14,828) Oromo, 4% (12,277) Majangir, 2.27% (6973) Shekicho, 1.44% (4410) Kambaata and 1.32% (4050) Tigray. 1,708 people (0.56%) were classified as Sudanese foreigners.

languages

In 1994, according to the census, 39.72% of the population spoke Nuer as their mother tongue, 27.47% Anuak , 8.44% Amharic , 6.45% Oromo and 5.75% Majang , 12.17% spoke other languages such as Opo and Komo.

The indigenous languages belong to the Nilo-Saharan languages : Nuer and Anuak are Nilotic languages , Opo and Komo are Koman languages , and the Majang is the surmischen languages assigned. Amharic, Oromo, Kaffa, etc. a. on the other hand, like the vast majority of languages in Ethiopia, belong to different branches of the Afro-Asian language family .

Amharic serves as the working language in the region. As in the other regions, however, candidates for political office must be able to speak a local language. This provision is intended to protect the interests of the local ethnic groups.

history

Like the Benishangul-Gumuz region , Gambela is historically closely linked to the neighboring areas of Sudan and South Sudan , and to a lesser extent with the Ethiopian highlands . These regions served as slave hunting grounds since the Aksumite period, and their Nilo-Saharan-speaking inhabitants were disparagingly called Shanqella (Šanqəlla, also Shanqila, Shankella) by the highland Ethiopians .

In contrast to the highlands, Gambela is infested with malaria and tsetse flies . For a long time this fact prevented the immigration of Ethiopians from the highlands or a stronger connection of the area to Ethiopia.

It is not known exactly when the Anuak immigrated to the area and who had lived there before them. Their migration and development as an ethnic group is related to the West Nilotic Luo language group. Their settlement in Gambela was possibly in the 17th century.

The Nuer expanded in the 19th century from their core area in South Sudan at the expense of the Dinka and the Anuak. By the end of the 19th century, the fighting with the advancing Nuer and a resulting famine had decimated the Anuak in Gambela.

Incorporation in Ethiopia

Gambela was incorporated into Ethiopia in the 1890s, which under Menelik II conquered large areas in the south, west and east. The main interest of Ethiopia was in the trade in slaves and ivory from the region. Administratively, Gambela was attached to the Illubabor province .

Great Britain, the colonial power of neighboring Sudan, was interested in trading with the western Ethiopian highlands via Gambela. With the Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1902, which established the border between Ethiopia and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan , Gambela came under British administration and was used as a British trading post.

The Anuak exchanged ivory for firearms from the highlands and were able to gain considerable political and military power. Both Great Britain and Ethiopia saw this power as a threat and therefore took action against the Anuak.

When Sudan became independent in 1956, Gambela fell completely to Ethiopia. It remained a peripheral region within Ethiopia until people from other parts of the country were relocated here in the 1980s and interest in possible oil deposits arose later.

Resettlements, civil war in Sudan

In the 1980s, the communist Derg regime under Mengistu Haile Mariam settled over 60,000 drought and famine- stricken farmers from the highlands in Gambela, which was considered a fertile area with plentiful land reserves. For this purpose, land was expropriated from the Anuak.

In addition, the civil war in South Sudan affected Gambela. The Derg regime supported the SPLA rebels against the Sudanese government and allowed them to set up bases in Gambela, where they also committed a number of human rights violations against the Anuak. In the mid-1980s, around 300,000 refugees from South Sudan were living in Gambela, most of them Nuer who supported the SPLA. Itang camp was at times the largest refugee camp in the world.

The simultaneous influx of “highlanders” and Nuer triggered fears of marginalization or even complete displacement among the Anuak. Anuak therefore founded the Gambella People's Liberation Movement (GPLM).

With the reform of the administrative structure of Ethiopia in 1987, Gambela was separated from Illubabor as an independent region. Politically, the Mengistu regime preferred the “highlanders” and the Nuer, whom it viewed as more loyal and reliable.

Politics since 1991

After Mengistu was overthrown and the coalition of the Revolutionary Democratic Front of the Ethiopian Peoples (EPRDF) came to power in 1991, Gambela became one of nine ethnically defined regional states under the new administrative structure of Ethiopia . As in Benishangul-Gumuz, the local ethnic groups were politically strengthened, while the immigrant highland Ethiopians lost their influence. The Anuak organization GPLM became the regional partner of the EPRDF and thus assumed a dominant role.

In the further course, however, the EPRDF also recognized the Nuer party Gambella People's Democratic Unity Party (GPDUP). The Nuer called for more participation, as they were now the numerically largest group, while the Anuak invoked their status as the indigenous people of Gambela to justify their claim to political supremacy. In 1998 the GPLM and GPDUP merged to form the Gambella People's Democratic Front (GPDF). An Anuak opposition party that formed was weakened by the arrest of its leaders before the 2000 elections. In 2003 the central government forced the dissolution of the GPDF and replaced it with the Gambella Peoples' Democratic Movement (GPDM), which has since governed as the new regional partner of the EPRDF. The GPDM won all three Gambela seats in the national parliament ( House of Representatives ) in both the 2005 and 2010 general elections .

In 2005, 81 out of 82 seats in the regional parliament went to the GPDM, one seat went to the opposition coalition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD / Qinjit). In 2010 the regional parliament was expanded to 156 seats, all of which were won by the GPDM.

The office of regional president has been reserved for the Anuak since 1991, while the Nuer provide the vice-president and the Majangir the secretary. In the regional parliament from 2005 to 2010 there were 84 MPs each, 33 Anuak and Nuer, 13 Majangir, two Opo and Komo each (previously both groups had one seat each), and the “highlanders” were represented by one MP for the first time. The electoral law provisions, according to which candidates for political office must speak a native language of the respective region, put the "highlanders" at a disadvantage compared to the native ethnic groups.

The conflicts between Anuak, Nuer and "highlands" are also violent. Anuak militias have attacked “highlanders” civilians on various occasions. On December 13, 2003, "highlanders" and Ethiopian soldiers killed over 400 Anuak in the city of Gambela . Anuak regard this massacre as genocide on the part of the Ethiopian state.

economy

So far, the region has hardly generated its own tax revenue and therefore receives 90% of its budget from the central government.

With abundant fertile land and sufficient rain, Gambela has significant agricultural potential. However, there is currently a food shortage in the region. The spread of tsetse flies and malaria, the inadequate infrastructure, the long distance from the economic centers of Ethiopia and Sudan and the uncertain political situation are hampering economic development.

The government wants to lease around 42% of Gambela's area to foreign investors. She hopes that this will make better use of the agricultural potential. In addition, around 225,000 of the 300,000 inhabitants of Gambela are to be relocated to new villages by 2013. Implementation of this program began in 2010. According to Human Rights Watch , relocations are often forcible and are used to expropriate the people's land in order to lease it. According to the official account, however, the resettlement program has no connection with the land leases, the aim is rather to provide better infrastructure in the new villages.

The Gambela Basin is one of five areas in Ethiopia suspected of having oil reserves . The Malaysian company Petronas is exploring these deposits.

As in many regions in Africa, the infrastructure in the region is very poor. South Sudan and Ethiopia have proposed to jointly build a road from the oil fields in South Sudan through Ethiopia to Djibouti . Oil from South Sudan could be brought to Djibouti by tanker truck and loaded onto oil tankers there. South Sudan is planning this expensive type of oil transport because of the ongoing disputes with Sudan over the amount of pipeline transit fees.

literature

Dereje Feyissa: Conflict and Identity Politics: The Case of Anywaa-Nuer Relations in Gambela, Western Ethiopia , in: Günther Schlee, Elizabeth E. Watson (ed.): Changing Identifications and Alliances in North-East Africa: Ethiopia and Kenya , 2009 , ISBN 9781845456047 (pp. 181–204)
Dereje Feyissa: The Ethnic Self and the National Other: Anywaa Identity Politics in Reference to the Ethiopian State System , in: Bahru Zewde (Ed.): Society, State, and Identity in African History , African Books Collective 2008, ISBN 9789994450251 (p . 123–153)
Dereje Feyissa: The Experience of the Gambella Regional State , in: David Turton (Ed.): Ethnic Federalism: The Ethiopian Experience in a Comparative Perspective , 2006, ISBN 9780821416976
John Young: Along Ethiopia's Western Frontier: Gambella and Benishangul in Transition , in: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Vol. 37/2, June 1999 (pp. 321–346)
Douglas H. Johnson: On the Nilotic Frontier: Imperial Ethiopia in the southern Sudan, 1898-1936 , in: Donald Lewis Donham, Wendy James: The Southern Marches of Imperial Ethiopia: Essays in History and Social Anthropology . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1986, ISBN 9780521322379 (pp. 219–245)

Web links

Commons : Gambela - collection of images, videos and audio files

Gambela Today
Map of Gambela at UN-OCHA ( PDF file; 109 kB)

Individual evidence

↑ Population Projection of Ethiopia for All Regions At Wereda Level from 2014 - 2017. ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Central Statistical Agency, August 2013

↑ ^a ^b Human Rights Watch: "Waiting Here for Death". Forced Displacement and "Villagization" in Ethiopia's Gambella Region , 2012

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q Dereje Feyissa: The Ethnic Self and the National Other: Anywaa Identity Politics in Reference to the Ethiopian State System , in: Bahru Zewde (ed.): Society , State, and Identity in African History , African Books Collective 2008, ISBN 9789994450251 (pp. 123–153)

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Dereje Feyissa: Conflict and Identity Politics: The Case of Anywaa-Nuer Relations in Gambela, Western Ethiopia , in: Günther Schlee, Elizabeth E. Watson (ed.): Changing Identifications and Alliances in North-East Africa: Ethiopia and Kenya , 2009, ISBN 9781845456047 (pp. 181–204)

↑ Philip Briggs: Ethiopia , Bradt Travel Guide Series , 2009, ISBN 9781841622842 (pp. 549, 577)

↑ ^a ^b Central Statistics Agency (CSA): 2005 National Statistics, Section – B Population ( Memento of the original dated February 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Table B.4 (PDF; 1.8 MB) @1@ 2

↑ ^a ^b ^c CSA: Summary and Statistical Report of the 2007 Population and Housing Census Results ( Memento of March 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.7 MB), (pp. 19, 81, 100–102, 112 )

↑ Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency: Administrative Region and Woreda Map of Gambela ( Memento of the original of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 2006 (PDF) @1@ 2

↑ Central Statistics Agency: Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey, 2005, pp. 20, 253

↑ CSA: 1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Gambela Region, Vol. 1 ( Memento of the original dated November 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 47.1 MB) @1@ 2

↑ Information about Gambela on the website of the Ethiopian Parliament ( memento of the original from September 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved June 7, 2010.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f John Young: Along Ethiopia's Western Frontier: Gambella and Benishangul in Transition , in: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Vol. 37/2, June 1999 (pp. 321–346)