ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter 1 examines the process of state formation in the Horn of Africa in a comparative perspective through looking at large-scale and long-term social changes in relation to precolonial social formations, various forms of migration, colonisation, religious and racial/ethnonational factors, and the development of markets in regional and international contexts. A critical and comprehensive understanding of state formation processes in this region requires that these chains of factors be explored in relation to the larger world. First, the chapter focuses on precolonial state formation processes and political identities, and explains how the processes of Abyssinianisation/Christianisation, Arabisation/Islamisation, and Africanisation/marginalisation affected the processes. Second, it comparatively explores the features of these states and their policies. Third, it examines the impact of international trade and capitalist penetration on these states and political identities. Fourth, it identifies and addresses the major reasons why ‘modern’ Horn states have failed to resolve fundamental contradictions both within the respective societies they control and among themselves. Through exploring the dynamic interplay of social structures and human agencies that facilitated the process of state formation and political identities in the regional context, the work employs interdisciplinary, multidimensional, historical and comparative methods, and critical approaches.
