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| East Africa Afrika ya Mashariki | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Largest city | Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
| Area | |
• Total | 6,667,493 km² |
| Population | |
• 2026 estimate | 527,369,514 |
• Census | UN |
East Africa is a region of the African continent spanning the easternmost states, typically including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti.[1] The region spans approximately 6.2 million square kilometers and has over 450 million people as it is the most populated region in Africa. It is bordered to the east by the Indian Ocean, to the north by the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea, and to the west by the Great Lakes region and the Nile Valley. East Africa is also considered the origin of the human species and the oldest continuously inhabited area in the world. [2]
The Great Rift Valley, spanning the Red Sea south through Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, is the most notable geographical feature of the region alongside the great lakes, Victoria, Tanganyika, and Malawi along the gigantic mountain ranges of Ethiopia and the volcanic peak of Kilimanjaro.[1] East Africa is rich with natural resources i.e. oil in South Sudan and Uganda, natural gas and gold in Tanzania with vast agricultural potential in the rest but remain the most impoverished on earth as a result of imperialism which continue till this day: centuries of colonial plunder, the subjugation of the region's economies to the satisfaction of international capital, and the post-independence consolidation of comprador bourgeois who continue the extraction for the imperial core. [2]
We have been engaged in drawing lines up maps where no white man's foot ever trod; we have been giving away mountains and rivers and lakes to each other, only hindered by the small impediment that we never knew exactly where the mountains and rivers and lakes were.
— Lord Salisbury, British Prime Minister, 1890
History[edit | edit source]
East Africa has been inhabited for 2.8 million years, the Swahili coast, spanning from present-day Somalia to Mozambique maintained an mercantile civilization since the 9th century with states such as Kilwa, Mombasa, Zanzibar, and Mogadishu trading across the Indian Ocean with Arabia, Persia, India, and China. [2] Meanwhile the interior was dominated by diverse social formations such as the powerful kingdoms of Buganda, Bunyoro, and Rwanda in the Great Lakes region, the Ethiopian Empire with their uniquely ancient Christian monarchy but also the pastoralist sultanates among the Somali with the Maasai forming decentralized pastoralist societies. [1]
The Ethiopian Empire, under the Solomonic dynasty, was one of the oldest continuously existing states in the world, having defeated Italian colonialism at the Battle of Adwa in 1896 and was the first major defeat of a European imperial power by an African force.[2] The subjugation of East Africa to European imperialism proceeded in stages from the mid-19th century. British penetration of the region was driven by their desire of controlling the sea route to India which they achieved by occupying Aden, Yemen and later by occupying and establishing a protectorate over Zanzibar in 1890. [1]
The Suez Canal’s opening in 1869 increased the Horn of Africa’s strategical value in which French, Italian, and British inter-imperialist rivalries were formed over it.[2] The Berlin Conference was formed as a result of inter-imperialist rivalry over Africa and so despite no Africans being present at the negotiating table, Africa was partitioned among the imperial core. The partition of East Africa proceeded rapidly. Britain seized the East Africa Protectorate (present Kenya). In 1895 and the Uganda Protectorate in 1894. [1]
Germany seized Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi as part of German East Africa. Italy colonized Eritrea and most of Somalia, while Britain occupied northern Somalia (present Somaliland), while France took Djibouti.[2] The Anglo-German Agreement and the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty settled the inter-imperialist rivalry between Britain and Germany by exchanging the East African colonies. Ethiopia was the only one to retain its independence after defeating the Italians in Adwa but they were temporarily occupied by the fascist Italy under Mussolini for 5 years. [1]
East Africa was subjugated under systems of violent extraction. In Kenya, British imperialism established an European settler colony in the "White Highlands," seizing the most fertile land from the Kikuyu, Maasai, and Kalenjin peoples and forcing the African population as a reservoir of cheap labour through hut taxes, forced labour ordinances, and the kipande passports.[2] The Uganda Railway built by indentured Indian servants as they were facing brutal conditions, connected Mombasa to Lake Victoria, this railway became the infrastructural foundation of the colonial extraction. [1]
In Tanzania, the German colonial rule was enforced through a campaign of extermination against the Maji Maji rebellion in which estimated 250,000 to 300,000 Africans were murdered.[2] Within East Africa, the colonial economies were designed around the export of coffee, tea, sisal, cotton, and minerals to the western world. This design or pattern of dependent, export-oriented economies that sends their resources to the west was dictated by imperialism and laid the foundation that has persisted through despite independence till this day. [1]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 (“Африка — Большая советская энциклопедия”) - (Africa - The Great Soviet Encyclopedia,) - https://gufo.me/dict/bse/%D0%90%D1%84%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Marcus, Harold G. 1998. “Eastern Africa | Countries, Maps, History, & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica. July 20, 1998. https://www.britannica.com/place/eastern-Africa/The-Horn-of-Africa.