Ogaden (clan)


The Ogaden is one of the major Somali clans in the Horn of Africa.

Overview

Members of the Ogaden clan primarily live in the central Ogaden plateau of Ethiopia, the North Eastern Province of Kenya, and the Jubaland region of Southern Somalia.
According to Human Rights Watch in 2008, the Ogaden is the largest Darod clan in Ethiopia's Somali Region, and may account for 40 to 50 percent of the Somali population in Ethiopia. The Ogaden clan "constitutes the backbone of the Ogaden [National Liberation Front|ONLF]". In particular, the ONLF operates in Ogaden areas.

History

Pre-colonial era

The Ogaden were the principal force behind a series of Somali expansions that led to expulsion of the Wardey from west of the Jubba River and displacing the Boorana in parts of the North Eastern Province in the 19th century.
Frank Linsly James, one of the first Europeans to travel deep into Ogaden territory while being accompanied by Lord Philips and armed with Martini–Enfield rifles, describes his first encounter with Ogadens in 1884.

Huwan era

The Huwan era constitutes the period of the Scramble for Africa when the Ogaden area and people were known as the Huwan. The easternmost parts of the Huwan had negligible to no influence by emperor Menelik II's or by Zewditu, depending on time period. Somali literature also refers to the territory subjected to Abyssinian expansionism, i.e. the Ogaden, contemporaneously and traditionally known as the Huwan:
In the subsequent period, during and after the second World War, the area of the Huwan region began to be referred to as Ogaden by the British, or simply British Ogaden in the aftermath of the East African Campaign in 1941.

Groups