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By: Adan Adar
The city of Dire Dawa (commonly known as Dirri Daba by the Somalis), which translated means “the real & true land”, is the capital of the Dire Dawa Administrative Council, a semi-autonomous city administration. It is an enclave surrounded mainly by the Shinile zone of the Somali National Regional State (SNRS). It is also the seat of the Shinile zonal administration; one of the nine zones the SNRS is composed of. Until recently (or prior to 1991), the City of Dire Dawa has been under the jurisdiction of the Gurgura district of the then Issa and Gurgura province. Geographically, it is located within the Great Rift Valley region. It has an excellent climate with no extremes. Summer temperatures rarely exceed 30 degrees Celsius.
The site in which the present city of Dire Dawa sit perched has been a vast camel grazing plains, much favored by the nomads, and cohabited by two pastoralist Somali clans: the Issa and Gurgura. The population of the Shinile zone is divided between the Issa and Gurgura clans. The majority of the Issa pursue a nomadic life, while the majority of the Gurgura are agro-pastoralists.
The walled city of Harar, which is located some 55 km southeast of Dire Dawa, has been a renowned seat of Islamic learning and culture and an economic and social nerve-center of the Horn region, famous for its centuries old remarkable handcraft. Harar’s prominence began to fade away at the end of 19th century, with the construction of a railway linking the Djibouti port city to Addis Ababa that passed through Dire Dawa, steering clear of Harar. A good deal of Harar’s trade and wealthy thus moved to Dire Dawa. The landscape of Dire Dawa has hence been transformed forever. From a camel grazing terrain, it has completely transformed into a melting pot – a bustling commercial city, where people of different backgrounds and ethnicity live together, symbiotically. From the onset, the city embraced a culture of tolerance and various religious denominations peacefully co-existed, ever since.
Owing to the 1977 war between Ethiopia and Somalia and the insecurity and stifling economic policies of the Derg regime that ensued, a sizeable French, Greek, Arab, Italian, Armenian and Indian population, who had owned most of the city’s lucrative business enterprises, have departed taking away with them the cosmopolitan identity of the city.
In the aftermath of the war, in what amounted to
an all-out ‘ethnic cleansing’, the Derg unleashed a campaign of terror
against the Somali population of the city. Many innocent civilians were
massacred and thousands of families forced to flee through systematic
displacement policy. Almost all the Somali owned properties were
subsequently confiscated precipitating a rapid transformation of the city’s
demography. The ethnic composition of the city changed dramatically within
short period. People of other ethnic origins who took possession of
properties taken away from them have supplanted the erstwhile dominant
Somali population.
Somalis are born business entrepreneurs with creative mindset conducive to
trade development. They are known for their ability to exploit all avenues,
their flexibility in transactions and resilience to economic instability.
Somali traders are also known for their risk-taking tolerance and
reliability. Having been denied the opportunity to engage on normal
commercial activities and having been expelled from the job industry, the
state-orchestrated marginalization pushed the Somalis to fringe survival
activities. Many turned to a risky black market trade based on illegal
cross-border traffic and on smuggled goods. The reality of being a
humiliated second-class citizen in what one regarded as a mother country,
where one’s umbilical cord rests in its soil, has been a bitter pill to
swallow. Sense of alienation prevailed, justifiably. Bloody but unbowed, the
majority of the skilled Somali workforce, businessmen and educated class
flocked in droves to the neighboring countries of Djibouti and Somalia,
subsequently.
Dire Dawa is currently the second largest city in Ethiopia with a
multi-ethnic population totaling 208,557. It has a mixed population of
Somali, Oromo, Harari, Amhara and Arabs. Hence, a perfect place for cultural
and linguistic cross-fertilization. The city has 2 hospitals, 2 Health
centers, and 22 clinics. Its education service coverage is 89.5%, one of the
highest in the country, with 28 elementary schools, 3 secondary schools, 1
technical vocational school and 14 kindergartens. The government is the main
employment provider. After the civil service, the government owned factories
that produce cotton textile, processed meat; beverages, oil, plastic bags,
cement and pasta engage the bulk of the semi-skilled workforce. However the
term equity is still striving hard to gain a firm foothold in the employment
lexicon. The much-vaunted equal opportunity employment concept is very much
in its embryo. Unfortunately, ethnic Somalis are still treated outcasts and
remain almost excluded, systematically or otherwise, from the rank and file
of the workforce of these factories.
Dire Dawa is an important commercial and transportation hub with wide
tree-lined streets and modern town plan. It maintains some of the biggest
storage facilities in Ethiopia. It is the center of operations for several
big transport companies who own large fleet of trucks. Several dry and all
weather roads connect Dire Dawa to Harar, Shinile, and Malkajabti towns, and
to Djibouti city. It is a good place to arrange travel to the Somali region,
Djibouti and Somalia. A railroad links Dire Dawa to Djibouti and Addis Ababa
and both the Ethiopian Airlines and Air Djibouti operate from its
international airport. Ethiopian Airlines operate 6 flights a week from Dire
Dawa to Gode, 5 to Jigjiga, 2 to Hargeisa, and 2 to Djibouti (only cargo
flights carrying Khat¨). Air Djibouti flies three times a week from Dire
Dawa to Djibouti carrying both passengers and Khat.
Today the city has a depressing look, with economic recession tightly
squeezing the growing population of poverty-stricken residents. A fierce
crackdown on trafficking of smuggled goods, the traditional source of income
for Somali petty-traders, has almost ruined the commercial life of the
Somali inhabited quarter of the city. Its economic development has been
relatively influenced, negatively, by the fact that it has been cut off,
administratively, from the vast rural resource of the encompassing Shinile
zone.
Since the positive change of government in Ethiopia in 1991, Somalis have
regained their pride and dignity. Their citizenship rights have been
recognized and their Somali identity respected. Confidence building measures
are showing desired results. But much needs to be done to alleviate their
economic hardship and develop an enabling environment for recovery.
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