The Italo-Ethiopian war, Italian colonial rule and ethnic relations in the Borana borderlands of southern Ethiopia, 1935–1941

Although the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935–1941 has received some attention in Ethiopian academic historiography, the existing studies exhibit several limitations. These include issues related to limited spatial coverage, focus on a limited range of issues and the deployment of the problematic ‘collaborator-resistor’ framework in examining people's varied responses to Italian rule. This article seeks to redress some of these shortcomings by focusing on developments in Ethiopia’s southern province of Borana. In particular, the article examines how Borana’s predominantly pastoralist population was impacted by Italian colonial rule and how pastoralists used the resources available to them in advancing personal, family and group interests. I argue that rather than being mere pawns of the colonial state and its representatives, Borana’s pastoralists were active agents who sought to advance their interests within the limits of colonial rule. The article is based on oral interviews in Borana and archival materials drawn from the British Foreign Office and the Kenyan National Archives.