Yä-Ingiliz Gizé or British Paramountcy in Dire Dawa (Ethiopia), 1941–1946: Notes toward a History

Inauspicious Beginnings

In a lightning campaign in 1940–41, supported by Ethiopian patriots rallying to their emperor, the British liberated Ethiopia from Italian rule. On 29 March 1941, the eastern town of Dire Dawa (see figures 1 and 2 for this and other places mentioned in this article) fell rather peacefully following the crumbling of the Italian positions in the Horn to the south and east.¹ The Italian army had already retreated westward toward the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa by train when British forces moved in along the southeasterly road that connected the town with the provincial capital of Harar.² Thus, the British found themselves in control of the whole town until the beginning of 1942, at which point the Ethiopian government assumed full authority, except over those parts that, in accordance with Article 3 of the Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement and the "Schedule" attached to the Military Convention signed on 31 January 1942, continued to be part of the British-administered reserved areas in Ethiopia. Among others the reserved areas included the cantonments of Addis Ababa and Harar, the Ogaden, and a continuous belt of territory running along the Franco-Ethiopian railroad and adjoining the border with what was then Vichy-ruled French Somaliland (now Djibouti).³

Less ephemeral and longer-lasting than in other places, the British presence in parts of Eastern Ethiopia and the Ogaden became so much a part of the post-liberation history of the region that the period has gone down in the local lore and historical imagination as Yä-Ingiliz Gizé, "the time of the English."⁴ With all its administrative, economic, and social implications, Yä-Ingiliz Gizé in Dire Dawa was to last until the final British withdrawal from the town on 31 July 1946,⁵ a withdrawal that had been provided for and anticipated by paragraph 4 of Article 5 of the Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement of 19 December 1944.⁶

Figure 1.

Ethiopia and surrounding regions, ca. 1942–46.

It was not until three days after the Italian army had evacuated Dire Dawa and begun retreating in the direction of Addis Ababa that the British arrived in the town.⁷ In the brief interlude there was some looting of public premises and homes of Italians and other expatriates, which the remnants of the Polizia Coloniale (the Italian colonial police) who were still around were apparently unable to stop.⁸

Figure 2.

Dire Dawa town quarters and other landmarks, ca. 1942–46.

With the bulk of the British army continuing its advance in pursuit of the Italians, it was, therefore, a small contingent, mainly composed of members of the South African King's African Rifles, that was left behind in the town.⁹ It had established its main camp at the former Italian air force base by the old air terminal northeast of Käzira.¹⁰ Very soon the British authorities had enlisted Ethiopian members of the Polizia Coloniale, and, together with a contingent of their own, set them to policing the town.¹¹

In the meantime, the reestablishment of some form of Ethiopian authority in the town appears to have been somewhat delayed and seems not to have predated the arrival of Šaläqa Mär'ed Mängäšä¹² as abägaz¹³ of Dire Dawa wäräda.¹⁴ This was after the reestablishment of the imperial government in Addis Ababa on 10 May 1941 and the subsequent appointments to governorships,¹⁵ and some time before 13 September 1941, when some of the first post-liberation municipal land grants in Dire Dawa were authorized by the abägaz.¹⁶ Given the advent of the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (OETA),¹⁷ which had literally turned the whole of Ethiopia into a protectorate, the newly established Ethiopian administration had to carry out its duties in very difficult circumstances. It was claimed that the Ethiopian governor of Dire Dawa was in continuous communication with his provincial superiors at...