Emirate, Egyptian, Ethiopian: Colonial Experiences in Late Nineteenth-Century Harar by Avishai Ben-Dror (review)

Turco-Egyptian imperialism in the Horn of Africa is an important but neglected component of both Northeast African history and the history of the Ottoman Empire. It is therefore welcome news for scholars in both disciplines that Avishai Ben-Dror has written an interesting, engaging, and well-researched book on this topic. Taking as its focus the decade-long Egyptian colonial administration of Harar in modern-day Ethiopia, the author explores the implications of this short-lived but influential episode on the colonized and the colonizers. Using a wide range of sources, the study weaves a compelling narrative account of this little-known colonial encounter, and situates the episode within wider questions about the nature of colonialism in the Horn of Africa.

The central focus of Ben-Dror's book is whether the effects of colonial encounter in Harar were transformative or superficial for the many groups involved in the process. In arriving at an answer, he leads the reader over the course of the Egyptian colonial project in Harar. The book begins by setting the scene of preconquest Harar, and by charting the processes which preceded Egypt's seizure of the city and the events that constituted the conquest itself. The second section of the book explores the main facets of the Egyptian colonial regime in Harar. The first part of this section dissects the intellectual foundations of the Egyptian colonial project: integrating the Harar episode within the "ethnographic moment" of Egypt's imperial thrust under Khedive Ismail, Ben-Dror explores the processes by which "colonial bodies of knowledge" were constructed by the colonizing power. These included mapping, geographical research, and anthropological research. This acquisition of knowledge, Ben-Dror argues, formed the basis of Egyptian colonization and wrought significant effects on the self-conception of Egypt as an imperial power. Ben-Dror goes on to briefly detail the nuts and bolts of Egyptian administration—building work, taxation, administration, and education. This section is of great value to scholars of imperialism in Africa, as it offers a highly detailed picture of the workings of a non-European colonial administration.

The next section of the book explores the decline of the Egyptian regime in Harar, and treats it as a distinctive episode in its own right, lasting from 1878 to 1882. The first chapter in this section is a detailed account of the processes and events that made up this discrete period. The second chapter is a fascinating look at an important development that began during this period: the settlement of European merchants in Harar, under the protection of the waning Turco-Egyptian regime. Although Arthur Rimbaud is of course the most famous of these settlers, Ben-Dror explores the activities and impacts of other groups, including Capuchin missionaries. The final chapter in this section deals with the mechanics of the withdrawal itself, and does a good job of situating the process within the wider imperial context of growing European interest in the Horn of Africa during this period. The final section of the book begins with an examination of an intriguing but neglected element of Harar's history: the "Abdullahi emirate," which lasted for the three years between the end of Egyptian occupation and the beginning of Ethiopian occupation. The book ends with a brief afterword in which the author situates the Egyptian occupation of Harar within the subsequent century of Ethiopian history.

This book has several merits. The first is that, as the first detailed and published study of this topic, it opens up a new area of Northeast African history—an area, moreover, that also serves to shed light upon better-known aspects of this region's past. Perhaps the biggest contribution of the book in this respect is its expansion of the narrative of colonialism in the Horn of Africa. It will certainly stand as a significant point of comparison for European colonialism in the Horn, and more...