ABSTRACT
The border area between Ethiopia and Kenya around Moyale has witnessed the recent political turmoil and military conflicts in Ethiopia in a number of direct and indirect ways. There was a steady influx of refugees from the Mengistu regime, including draft dodgers from his incessant wars in the north of his disintegrating empire. With the end of the Cold War on the global scale North East Africa lost some of its strategic interest; with the Gulf War which showed the possibility of direct interference in the Middle East rather than just keeping it within missile range from somewhere else, it lost yet more of it. From being a hot spot of world politics the area suddenly changed into a backwater, not a quiet one, but one which was left alone with its turbulence. With the withdrawal of military aid which had kept them alive, the oppressive regimes of the area crumbled and states which fought bitter wars about contested territories just dissolved and no longer existed as territorial units. ‘Nation’-states, ideological imports from Europe (a continent where they had not done much good either), suddenly disappeared like a bad dream to be replaced not only by other nightmares but also by new hopes and possibilities, including that of a nationalism of the old type though on a smaller scale.
