Ogaden (clan)

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The Ogaden (Somali: Ogaadeen, Arabic: أوغادين) is a Somali clan part of the Darod.^[2][3][4]

Overview

Ogaden ruler Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, leader of the Dervish movement

Members of the Ogaden clan primarily live in the central Ogaden plateau of Ethiopia (Somali Region),^[5] the North Eastern Province of Kenya, and the Jubaland region of Southern Somalia.

According to Human Rights Watch, the Ogaden is the largest Darod clan in Ethiopia's Somali Region, and may account for 70 to 80 percent of the Somali population in Ethiopia.^[6] The Ogaden clan "constitutes the backbone of the ONLF".^[7] In particular, the ONLF operates in Ogaden areas^[8]

History

Pre-colonial era

The Ogaden were the principle force behind a series of Somali expansions that led to expulsion of the Wardey clan from west of the Jubba river and displacing Borana in parts of the North Eastern Province in the 19th century.^[9] 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.

After marching for six hours, we were joined by two Ogadayn natives, who said they would show us the wells, which were close at hand. They pointed to our guns and asked their use. When we said, "for killing men and beasts," they laughed, and replied " they would be no use against sticks, let alone swords and spears." A Hornbill was sitting on a tree listening to this conversation, and echoed the natives' laugh with an assenting croak of scorn. Lord Phillips raised his despised firearm, and down fell the lifeless hornbill. Down, too, fell the Ogadayn natives, and remained for some time with their faces pressed against the ground, invoking the protection of the great Allah. ^[10]

ONLF separatist rebels fighting for the right to self-determination for Somalis in the Somali Region of Ethiopia.

Traditional territory inhabited by the various Somali clans shown^[11]

Huwan era

The Huwan era constitutes the period of the Scramble for Africa when the Ogaden area also known as kilinka shanaad or Somali Galbeed was commonly 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 as the Huwan:^[12]

In the subsequent period, during and after the second World War, the area of the Huwan region began to be referred to as the British Military Administration in Ogaden, or simply British Ogaden in the aftermath of the East African Campaign in 1941.^[13]

Groups

• ONLF, a sociopolitical movement seeking self-determination
• Ragxun, was a minor segment of the 13 Darawiish administrative divisions, and was half Ogaden, half Cali Geri Dhulbahante.
• Miinanle, was a major Darawiish administrative divisions, and was one third Ogaden, one third Cali Geri Dhulbahante, one third Odala/ Bahgeri Dhulbahante^[14]

Notable persons

• Cabdirahman Ali Dis, mentioned in the Geoffrey Archer's 1916 important members of Darawiish haroun list
• Mataan Cabdi, mentioned in the Geoffrey Archer's 1916 important members of Darawiish haroun list
• Cartan Mullo, mentioned in the Geoffrey Archer's 1916 important members of Darawiish haroun list
• Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, the Sayyid, Mad Mullah; leader of the Dervish movement
• Sheikh Abdulkani Sheikh Ahmed (Buraale) Aw Adam, Minister of Justice and Religion^[15], Somalia from 1970 to 1972
• Mahamoud Mohamed Former Chief of General Staff of the Kenya Defence Forces from 1980 to 1998.
• Admiral Mohammed Omar Osman, current ONLF chairman
• Bashir Bililiqo, leader of the anti-Barre Somali Patriotic Movement
• Asli Hassan Abade, first Somali female pilot
• Farah Maalim, former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Kenya
• Aden Duale, the majority leader of the Kenyan parliament
• Hassan Abdullah Hersi al-Turki, Islamist leader in Somalia and military leader in the Islamic Courts Union
• Mohamed Yusuf Haji, former Minister of Defence and acting Minister of Internal Security and Provincial Affairs in Kenya
• Nuruddin Farah, renowned writer and winner of the 1998 Neustadt International Prize for Literature
• Ahmed Madobe, President of Jubbaland, chairman of the Raskamboni movement
• Mohamed Dheere, Fighter in Juba River, and mentor of Ahmed Madoobe.
• Hassan Abdillahi, founder and President of Ogaal Radio
• Aden Duale, current Majority Leader in the Kenyan Parliament
• Abdirahman Ali Hassan, Wajir county senator and the deputy minority leader in the senate house from 2013-2017, assistant minister of trade 2005-2007, Wajir south constituency MP, 2002-2013
• Aar Maanta, a Somali-British singer-songwriter, actor, composer, instrumentalist and music producer.
• Ahmed Gurey
• Kaladi Madlay, head of part of the Huwan region and highest ranked avowed Ogaden in the Darawiish in the early 1900s
• Huseen Dhiqle, Sayid's successor at Iimey and chief memorizer of his poems
• Hamed Sultan, an important disciple of the Sayid and teenage ruler of part of the Huwan
• Xuseen Dalal Iljeex, governor of Huwan; ally of emperor Menelik II and opponent of Diiriye Guure

References

• "Collective Punishment: War Crimes and crimes against Humanity in the Ogaden area of Ethiopia's Somali Regional State" (pdf), Human Rights Watch Report (2008)