“Annexation” and “Assimilation” of Ethnic Groups

Inter-ethnic Relations around the KOEGU, Southwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

In this paper I present an account of contemporary inter-ethnic conflict in the Lower Omo Valley based on my own experience of KOEGU society. There exist almost ten small-scale ethnic groups in this area which have a population of no more than fifteen thousand. For some centuries, being disunited and generated repeatedly through migrations, conflicts, and contacts, they have formed their own culture and society. Ethnic identity of the KOEGU is also determined by some interethnic relations around them.
The KOEGU have been living under the KARA domination. Both of them were recognized as one group, the KARO, by neighbouring people and Ethiopian highlanders because of their close connection. The bond-partnership between them made these two groups one; however, they have some taboos on drinking and sexual relations and marriage. The KARA have been placing the KOEGU socially inferior position as the “others”, in order to dominate them and get ivory and leopard skins for trade. Their relationship maintaining the ethnic-boundary between them can be called “annexation”.
In 1988, the KOEGU and the KARA quarrelled with one another about the cultivated lands. The KOEGU broke off the connection, or “annexation” with the KARA, instead of that, the KOEGU entered into a new alliance with the NYANGATOM. This relation is different from the former one in terms of the ethnic-boundary between two groups. The NYANGATOM would not treat the KOEGU as the “others”, that means its boundary will be removed through the intermarriage and the relations with no taboos. This relation is named “assimilation”.
These two patterns, “annexation” and “assimilation”, are useful for understanding the practical process of expansion and migration, as well as the dynamism of ethnic groups in the network of inter-ethnic relations.