From Berlin’s Borders to Bloodied Horns: Colonial Legacies Fuelling Africa’s Perpetual Proxy Wars

Getahun Assefa

Without a doubt, Abiy Ahmed Ali, bloodthirsty Ethiopian Prime Minister, stands as a profound curse upon Ethiopia, the broader Horn of Africa, and citizens at large. His leadership is a toxic legacy of war, devastation, devastation and despair. Through his tenure, he has not only perpetuated relentless war and widespread destitution but also steered the nation’s economy into a persistent quagmire of stagnation and collapse, where once-vibrant prospects have withered under the weight of mismanagement, corruption and conflict. He has fractured Ethiopia along ethnic lines, sowing seeds of division that have erupted into violence and reduced once-thriving communities to rubble-strewn wastelands of ruin. In this grim tableau, a select cadre of ethnic entrepreneurs has flourished, amassing wealth and influence at the direct expense of the masses plunged into massive, soul-crushing destitution, their livelihoods shattered while the elite feast on the spoils of favouritism. Yet the true horror extends far beyond the present agony; future generations, innocent heirs to this catastrophe, will inherit the bitter fruits of his failed policies—rooted in ruthless extortion, arbitrary expropriation, and a corrosive cult of personality that exalted one man above the nation’s soul. Ethiopia’s wounds, self-inflicted under his watch, will fester for decades, a sombre testament to how moronic idiocy, empty arrogance and division can unravel the fabric of a people.

A mélange of ugly history with Abiy Ahemed Ali’s miserable failures.

Africa’s conflicts, from the Cold War’s ideological clashes to today’s ethnic infernos and resource scrambles, are not isolated eruptions but deep-rooted outgrowths of colonial machinations. The late 19th-century Scramble for Africa, formalized at the 1884-85 Berlin Conference, saw European powers—Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, Germany, Italy, and Spain—carve up the continent with rulers’ markups, ignoring ethnic, linguistic, and cultural realities. Arbitrary borders partitioned homogeneous groups, lumped rivals together, and created fragile states primed for instability. This “partition” sowed seeds of resentment, fostering weak institutions, economic exploitation, and dependency that exploded post-independence. In the Horn of Africa and beyond, colonial extraction of resources—rubber in the Congo, diamonds in Angola, slaves and ivory across the Sahel—left economies hollowed and societies fractured. Independence in the 1950s-60s promised liberation but delivered power vacuums exploited by Cold War superpowers, turning local grievances into global battlegrounds. Today, as petrodollar rivalries and incompetent leadership reignite these fault lines, the Horn teeters on the abyss, echoing the enduring scars of empire. In all these, Ethiopia stands out as the country that defended itself and served as model and motivation for other African countries until todays ugly ethnicization of the country’s political, social, and economic governance under the brutal dictatorship of Abiy Ahmed Ali.

 The Colonial Crucible: Arbitrary Lines and Enduring Divisions

 The Scramble was less about “civilizing” missions than raw imperialism. Belgium’s King Leopold II turned the Congo Free State (later Belgian Congo, now DRC) into a personal fiefdom, where forced labor killed millions through mutilations, disease, and starvation. Portugal clung to Angola and Mozambique until the 1970s, enforcing brutal assimilation policies that suppressed indigenous identities and fueled liberation fronts like MPLA and FRELIMO. In the Horn, Italy colonized Eritrea (as a naval base) and parts of Somalia, while Britain controlled northern Somalia and Sudan (jointly with Egypt), drawing lines that severed Somali clans and Ethiopian highlanders from their kin. Ethiopia, Africa’s only uncolonized major power (save a brief Italian occupation from 1936-1941), nonetheless absorbed Eritrea post-World War II under Haile Selassie’s federation, igniting irredentist fires.

These borders weren’t mere lines on maps; they engineered ethnic tensions by confining diverse groups into artificial states without mechanisms for equitable power-sharing. Colonial “divide and rule” tactics—pitting tribes against each other, favoring minorities for administration—amplified divisions. Post-colonial leaders inherited extractive economies geared toward exporting raw materials, not building resilient nations. The result? Fragile states vulnerable to coups, secessionism, and external meddling. As decolonization swept the continent, the power void invited superpowers to fill it, transforming anti-colonial struggles into ideological proxies.

Cold War Shadows: Superpowers Exploit Colonial Faults

With independence, Africa’s battlegrounds shifted from anti-colonial wars to Cold War theatres, where U.S. and Soviet blocs tested resolve on fractured soils. Colonial legacies provided the perfect canvas: weak militaries, ethnic militias, and resource-rich terrains ripe for arming. In Angola, Portugal’s 1974 Carnation Revolution led to hasty withdrawal, plunging the country into civil war. The Soviet- and Cuban-backed MPLA clashed with U.S.- and South Africa-supported UNITA, prolonging a conflict that killed over 500,000 and devastated infrastructure inherited from colonial neglect. Mozambique mirrored this: FRELIMO’s victory over Portugal birthed RENAMO insurgency, fueled by Rhodesian and apartheid backing, with communist aid propping the government—another proxy quagmire exploiting Portuguese-era divisions.

Zaire (DRC), Mobutu’s kleptocratic realm, hosted Shaba invasions by Cuban-backed Katangese exiles, countered by U.S.-Franco-Moroccan interventions, all amid Belgian-extracted mineral wealth. Ethiopia’s 1974 revolution ousted Emperor Haile Selassie, but the Ogaden War saw Somalia—cobbled from British and Italian colonies—invade for Somali unification (an ambitious project of establishing Greater Somalia), only to face Soviet flips to Ethiopia’s Derg regime. These wars amplified colonial sins: partitioned ethnic groups like Somalis became pretexts for irredentism, while resource curses (diamonds, oil) funded endless fighting. Africa’s “hot” soils tested missiles and doctrines, but at the cost of millions, embedding militarism and dependency that outlasted the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately, Ethiopia, the nation proudly and gallantly defended itself from colonial machination and rule, has become the direct victim of Cold-War induced instabilities, protracted wars and untold destruction for more than three decades. 

 Modern Echoes: Ethnic Clashes and Petrodollar Proxies in the Horn

 Decades on, colonial ghosts haunt the Horn, where artificial borders and ethnic mosaics fuel renewed carnage. Ethiopia’s ethnic federalism—meant to redress Amhara-Tigray-Oromo imbalances rooted in centuries of centralization—has instead ignited clashes. Under Abiy Ahmed Ali, reforms spiraled into the Tigray War (2020-2022), with drones and jets—echoing colonial aerial pacification—claiming civilian lives amid millions displaced. Broader unrest and open wars in Amhara and Oromia revive, compounded by Ethiopia’s landlocked plight after Eritrea’s 1993 secession from Ethiopia.

Enter Gulf petrodollars, repurposing Cold War proxy logic for economic dominance. Sunni rivals Saudi Arabia and UAE vie for Red Sea control, exploiting Sudan’s gold rush—a chaos born from Anglo-Egyptian condominium borders that ignored Darfur’s peripheries. Sudan’s generals perpetuate warlordism akin to Mobutu’s, with revenues arming factions. Alignments pit UAE-backed Ethiopia against Saudi-leaning Eritrea and Somalia, where clan fractures from Italo-British partitions invite foreign ports and bases. Djibouti, a French colonial remnant hosting myriad global military powers, navigates neutrality amid refugee tides and skirmishes, but colonial-era ports like Assab (lost to Ethiopia-Eritrea wars) symbolize enduring border curses.

 Incompetent stewardship—Abiy’s divide and rule zeal, Sudan’s feuding brass—adds tinder to this Molotov cocktail. Colonial underdevelopment left scant institutions for dialogue, allowing leaders to weaponize ethnicity and resources, much as post-independence elites did during Cold War meddling.

 Breaking Chains: Toward African Agency

Africa’s wars—from Berlin’s drafts to drone strikes—underscore a continuum of external predation and internal frailty. Yet, colonial legacies aren’t destiny; they demand African-led reckoning. Inclusive governance, border revisions via diplomacy, and diversified economies could heal fractures. The Horn’s abyss beckons devastation, but learning from history—arbitrary lines birthing proxy hells—offers a path to sovereignty. As global eyes shift to new scrambles, Africa’s soils cry for respite, lest echoes of empire drown out hopes for peace. Ethiopia’s shameful interethnic bloodshed, genocide and cleansing of Amharas – all remain a blackspot in the history of international relations. All the grime suffering, devastation and destitution happen under the watchful eyes of the international community.

Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com  

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