Access to Justice
Access to Justice |
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Back to Contents By Patrick Dowling, RDC Introduction The Danakil Depression in northern Ethiopia is considered “…one of the most desolate places on earth - a superheated expanse of desert, black basalt mountains, a turquoise lake ringed with blinding-white salt and, on the skyline, the silhouette of an active volcano”.[2] It is a region “…known as one of the hottest and most inhospitable places on earth: there’s little to see, nothing to do, and no great destination awaiting you at the other end. The journey is hot, tiring and demanding; very few travellers come here”.[3] This article focuses on those who visit the Danakil Depression, its inhabitants, and the future of the area. Danakil “There’s nowhere else quite like it on Earth. More like hell, say the very few who've made it there…The heat is intolerable and there is no shade. It's a place where rivers die, boiling water spurts out of rocks and smoke curls up from holes in the ground. The landscape is dotted with bright yellow sulphur fields, green crystal pools and sparkling salt beds. This is the Danakil Depression, a basin about the size of Wales or New Jersey in north-eastern Ethiopia, close to the Red Sea. Danakil is renowned for being the place with the highest average temperature on Earth. It tops 34 °C every day of the year and soars to 55 °C in the summer”.[4] The Danakil Depression “…descends to more than 130 m below sea-level and experiences some of the highest temperatures recorded on earth, frequently exceeding 50°C”.[5] Residing in “…the lowest part of Africa. The Danakil sits on a fragile part of the Earth's crust, a junction of three tectonic plates pulling apart from each other, which has created a landscape of volcanoes, old lava flows, desert and salt lakes”.[6] The Danakil is “…is a kind of inferno”.[7] “Why is Danakil so hot all the time? Largely because of its depth and thermal activity. Geothermal springs pump steam into the depression, and at 150 metres below sea level, the air is denser and so better able to retain heat, just as thin air at high altitude is poor at retaining heat”.[8] It has “…acquired a reputation as one of the hottest, most inhospitable places on earth…”.[9] In the Danakil “…people have perished within a matter of hours…”.[10] Most of the region is “…unsuitable for cultivation”.[11] Yet life persists. “Surprisingly, many animals and plants make Danakil their home. Thermophilic (heat loving) bacteria populate the hot springs. Hyenas and other canids, and even baboons are often seen. But long-term survival is inconceivable for humans, although the nomadic Afar people have perfected the art of staying alive as they pass through this hostile environment”.[12] And the Danakil Depression is also a receptacle of the past, where the remains “…of Australopithecus Afarensis, an early hominid dating as far back as four million years, have been found in an almost complete state in the Danakil Depression, which was not always the arid desert it is today. When the early hominids roamed the Afar region, it was a well-watered and wooded savanna country”.[13] In the present the Danakil is “…regarded with awe even by Ethiopians, who regard it as a dangerous place few would want to visit. The Afar, who live there, are seen as hostile and the Eritrean border, which runs through it, is one of Africa's most potent flashpoints. The only visitors are soldiers, salt-miners and a growing number of tourists, drawn to the extremes of the desert and its beauty. The road down from the prosperous Tigrean mountain capital Mekele is rough, and used by camel convoys which take the week-long return trip to fetch salt cut from the desert floor, a medieval scene.”[14] One Tigrayan camel-driver notes that the Afar are the only inhabitants of this desolate area, and an article in The Times goes on to précis travellers’ reaction to the Danakil. “"Nobody can live in the Danakil during the summer," a Tigrayan camel-driver had told us, "Only the Afar can stand the summer." When after sunrise we walked with the camels and men to their destination -the salt-encrusted edge of the lake, and turning-point of this journey -we saw what he meant”.[15] Afar Most of the Afar “…are nomadic herders. Some also trade in the salt that can be mined from the Danakil Depression…”.[16] Water is collected intricately such as by “…condensing the steam from fissures by passing it through rocks, and survive by building shelters from sticks and digging up the salt from the desert to trade for fish, grains and vegetables”. [17] They are solitary pastoralists who tend “…herds of goats, sheep, cattle in the harsh desert. They move from one waterhole to the next, eking a subsistence living from the barren soil. As the dry season advances, most Afar head for the banks of the river Awash, where they make camps. Because this is the only important river in the region, they compete for the best places and carefully guard the positions they take along the banks. The river Awash rises in the mountains and carries a great deal of water, but the heat is so great that it never meets the sea, ending instead in Kake Abbe”.[18] The unforgiving environment of the Danakil has forced the Afar to adapt. “Ecological crisis and shrinking pastures in recent decades have forced the Afar to adopt cultivation, migrant labor, and trade to survive”.[19] And the Afar are assiduously protective of their trade. “The Afar make sure that no one robs them of their salt by studiously overseeing the mines and caravans. Every merchant must stop at the salt-tax collector's hut in the dusty enclave of Hamed Ela on the edge of the salt flats and pay a fee for each camel, mule, and donkey in his caravan. At the mines, every job—from levering the salt from the earth to running the outdoor tea kitchens—is assigned and managed by an Afar. Theirs is a strict monopoly, and it has made them proud and dictatorial. They do not hesitate for a minute to let you know that once you set foot in their salt kingdom, you are subject to their commands”.[20] For centuries salt mined from the Danakil Depression has been “…taken up into Ethiopia's highlands by camel caravan. The Afars' hostility to outsiders is sharpened by their determination to defend their salt monopoly”.[21] Information is scant as to the genetics of the Afar. “Little is known about the origins of the Afar people, but linguists classify their language as Cushitic, deriving from an ancient tongue of the Ethiopian Highlands. Their wandering way of life has left no obvious archaeological record, yet scholars know from 2,000-year-old stone inscriptions in the highlands that nomads travelled with (and taxed and harassed) camel caravans in the Danakil Desert even then. Today the Afar regard themselves as one ethnic group, but geopolitically their population of about three million is divided among three countries: Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti. It is a territorial reality that has split clans and families…Regardless of which country they live in, the Afar share a general lifestyle, travelling across the desert with their livestock. "We are the people who move," one woman said. "From the beginning that has been our way" “.[22] For those Afar who reside in the Danakil, there remains wonder. “How the Afar people manage to live in this place, and why they choose to, puzzles the rest of Ethiopia as much as it does visitors. Any highwaymen will not be local Afar villagers, who depend upon the traffic of camels and men and look after them. They will almost certainly be wandering bands of bandits-cum-guerrillas and will seize adventitiously rather than in any premeditated way, for tourists are very few. On the Ethiopian side of the depression there is a strong military presence. Anyone trying to cross the desert and pan would be easy to spot and apprehend, for the only way over is exposed for a day in the white glare and baking sun. Only the Afar know this weirdly beautiful, desolate place, or move in it with ease”.[23] And it is an environment whose fierceness has been replicated by the Afar where “…the very harsh environment and difficult conditions in which the nomads live – in which survivors must compete fiercely for very limited resources – have given rise to a culture in which physical courage and individual initiative are exalted, pain is despised, suffering ignored, and death accepted with serenity”.[24] Weaponry for the Afar is both utilitarian and symbolic. “Possession of arms in Afar society is viewed as important in terms of security (self-defence) and as powerful heritage symbols”.[25] The history of the Afar has long been “…been a violent one marked by fighting with invading armies and, later, imperial and national governments”.[26] The Italian occupation of Ethiopia for example remained incomplete. “Many areas still remained out of the reach of the Italian government. In the Afar areas, it was the practice of the Danakil to kill any stranger on sight. They did so because “the natives understand perfectly that it is better no one should know their country – that this is the only safeguard to their independence” “.[27] The self-sufficiency of the Afar was also local and has invited an enduring reputation. “There is a long history of hostility between the Afar and the surrounding groups, and, as a result, the Afar are often considered fierce and warlike”.[28] The independence of the Afar has not left then immune from the vagaries of nature. “In the early 1970s these nomads suffered greatly from famine. In this arid semi-wilderness they had to use pasture over a wide area in order to support their herds”.[29] The Danakil is a harsh and unrelenting region and a peripheral area that has “…not attracted economic investment, and the Afar suffer from recurrent droughts, animal diseases, locust plagues, and a lack of investment in infrastructure, education, and economic development. Since the 1970s, traditional Afar pasture areas have been appropriated by the state for irrigation agriculture practiced by outsiders…”.[30] Elaborating on this issue helps to explain the belligerence of the Afar. “Development policies in the Afar region have historically reflected the governments’ political and strategic priorities, as well as foreign commercial interests. As a result, the Afar often lost access to their resource bases. For instance, in the early 1960s, large commercial cotton irrigation farms were established by displacing large pastoral groups from their communal land. Furthermore, the imperial government established the Awash Valley Authority (AVA), which was entrusted with full authority to administer and supervise the agricultural development activities of the fertile Awash River basin. The AVA denied the communal land rights of the pastoral Afar in the area. Under the AVA development scheme, a large part of the Afar’s dry-season grazing land was lost to commercial irrigation programmes run by foreign concessions, members of the royal family, and Ethiopian entrepreneurs (Ali, 1998; Markakis, 2002:447). This loss of resources meant that the Afar began to resent the involvement of ‘outsiders’, which eventually evolved into full ethnic conflict (Ibid)”.[31] The Ethiopian government has traditionally been slow responding with assistance to the Afar.[32] Indeed the Afar has been marginalised in not only in Ethiopia but in all three countries in which they reside, considered a “…distinct minority due to their peripheral geographical, political, and cultural status”.[33] The Afar, though dispersed, do “…maintain close physical contact, strong sentiments of kinship, and an inclusive Afar identity”.[34] And rebel groups have emerged “…calling for a separate state on territory straddling Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea”.[35] Despite this however the Afar remain separated. “They are very territorial, even between clans, and inward-looking, not outward. Although they're well known as determined fighters… who don't think twice about killing their enemies, they don't have a history of strong leaders, men capable of holding their clans together in some common cause, largely because of fierce rivalries among their clans”.[36] The ongoing humanitarian crisis facing the Afar is highlighted by UN OCHA. “The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that repeated droughts were decimating the livelihood of Afar pastoralists. With poor infrastructure, few schools and little access to health care, the Afar remain one of the most marginalized peoples of Ethiopia”.[37] Nevertheless the Danakil remains tempting for tourists and this in turn can be alluring for the Afar as “…more tourists are likely to venture into the Danakil depression, lured by the desert, volcanoes and geysers, by the Afar themselves, and by the lustre of danger. The worry is that kidnapping may become a new business, further destabilising a borderland already on a war footing”.[38] Those who do wish to brave the Danakil must “…must seek special permission from the Ethiopian government if they wish to visit the region; they must also travel with armed police guards. As strangers to the region, these guards may be as much a hindrance as a help, and their weapons offer little protection in a region where guns are common and there is little central authority”.[39] Tourists The area is “…known for frequent non-political banditry…”.[40] These armed groups engage in kidnapping and looting.[41] Travelling into the Afar region and into the Danakil Depression is testing.[42] But the Danakil Depression remains a lure. “The terrain and the temperatures in the "Land of Death" are lethal and few people travel there without serious intent. Perhaps that is why it is on a must-do list for adventurous travellers”.[43] One traveller describes a journey. “These lawless and trackless valleys of the shadow of death are an endlessly confusing, crumpled terrain and you must stick to the one atrocious track, where travellers would be a sitting duck for ambush. In only one place there did we find water, and, near it, a Tigrayan camel-driver with no camels. He and his train had been ambushed the previous year, kidnapped, and marched across the depression to the low mountains of Eritrea. Without their camels and almost dead from heat and thirst, they eventually wandered back, lucky to be alive. Now is the season when tens of thousands of camels and their Tigrayan drivers will be making their way down for, and back up with, blocks of salt, often travelling at night, and fearful themselves of attack. The camels drink only twice on their journey, walking often at night. There is no fodder down in the Danakil. None at all. They set out with mountains of straw piled high on their backs, which they deposit at the small villages they pass on the way down. Villagers keep them safe on their roofs for the camels' return journey. Their drivers bring only dry bread, sugar and tea. The journey is, by common consent in Ethiopia, one of the toughest trials a man can face”.[44] It is a region not only of interest to tourists but also to geologists. “The region is of huge geological and archaeological significance since three-million-year-old fossils of human ancestors were found in the area, is one of the most hostile environments on the planet”.[45] And indeed the danger to tourists from banditry and climate respectively, is mirrored by that to the region itself, from, in this case, its composition. Geology UN OCHA reports in August 2007 of a volcanic eruption in the Danakil Depression which “…led to the displacement of more than 2,000 people”.[46] The region “…stands at the junction of three tectonic plates, which form the outer shell of the Earth and meet at unstable fault lines. The Nubian and Somali plates run along the Great Rift Valley, which spreads south from Afar. Branching out like a funnel to the north is the Arabian plate. Tectonic plates across the globe are constantly shifting - though slowly, usually by a few centimetres a year - with the magma beneath the crust. The plates can collide, forcing the crust upwards and creating mountain ranges - as happened with the Himalayas. They can also slide past one another, as occurs along the San Andreas Fault, in California, a notorious earthquake zone. The plates can also pull apart causing continents to break up and oceans to form. Early in this process, at the plate margins, the Earth's crust stretches and thins in the manner of toffee. Magma rises up, eventually cracking the crust and helping the plates drift apart. Between the fault lines the crust, now heavy with cooled magma, sinks to form a valley and then allows water from a nearby sea to rush in. This is how the Atlantic was formed, separating Africa and Eurasia from the Americas. And this is what scientists believe is happening in Afar as the Arabian and Nubian plates pull apart. Parts of the region have already sunk to more than 100 metres below sea level, and only the highlands around the Danakil depression stop the Red Sea from rushing in”.[47] The Afar have not known what to make of recent geological changes. “The nomads were terrified. For a week the ground had shuddered violently. Cracks opened up in the soil swallowing goats and camels. Sulphur-laced smoke rose out of the dark slits. After retreating to the hills, the nomads saw chunks of obsidian rock burst through the Earth's crust "like huge black birds" and fly 30 metres into the air. A mushroom cloud of ash dimmed the sun for three days. At night the new crater breathed flashes of fire. "They had experienced earthquakes before but never anything like this," said Atalay Ayele, a seismologist at Addis Ababa University, who interviewed the Afar tribes people soon after the volcanic eruption 13 months ago in this remote corner of north-eastern Ethiopia. "They said that Allah must have been angry with them”.[48] But Dr Ayele, 37, and his colleagues wanted a scientific explanation. They knew the area was geologically unstable, but the number of earthquakes - 162 measuring more than four on the Richter scale in just two weeks - made them suspect that something extraordinary had happened deep underground. They asked a team of British-based scientists with access to satellite technology for help. When the results came back it seemed as unlikely as birds flying out of the ground. Here in the Afar desert, one of the hottest and driest places on earth, the tribe had witnessed the birth of a new ocean. Images from the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite showed that a huge rift, 37 miles long and up to eight metres (26ft) wide, had opened deep in the Earth's crust. The tear, the largest observed since the advent of satellite monitoring, was created by a violent lateral rush of molten rock, or magma, along the fault line separating the Nubian and Arabian tectonic plates. Tim Wright, a geologist at the University of Leeds who interpreted the satellite results, was astonished by the images and what they pointed to. "The process happening here is identical to that which created the Atlantic Ocean," said Dr Wright during a recent research expedition in Afar. "If this continues we believe parts of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti will sink low enough to allow water to flow in from the Red Sea." The findings caused a stir in the scientific community”.[49] Study of what is happening in the Danakil provides “…an insight into the role of magma injection in cracking the Earth's crust and the pace at which continental break-up occurs. The last big "ocean spreading" occurred in Krafla, Iceland, in the mid 1970s, along the boundary of the North American and Eurasian plates that forms the Atlantic's mid-ocean ridge. But it took nine years to achieve what has occurred in Afar in a few weeks. "We are looking at a huge open-air laboratory here," said Gezahegn Yirgu, a geologist from Addis Ababa University, as he peered out of a military helicopter swooping low over the Afar region. In recent months there has been more instability in Afar. After a series of earthquakes in June the rift widened by a further two metres. Hundreds of Afar nomads are still seeking refuge in a town 25 miles from the main fault zone, too afraid to go home. They may be wise; the scientists say there could be more violent earthquakes and eruptions. The new sea is predicted to be formed within about a million years. The separation of the Nubian and Somali plates along the Great Rift Valley could take 10 times as long. But that will be even more dramatic - for then Africa will eventually lose its horn. "Some people think that extreme natural phenomena happened only in historical times," said Cindy Ebinger, an American geologist leading the research in Afar. "But here we can see them happening right now”.[50] Conclusion And so the Danakil barren and dangerous, is also contradictorily vibrant and domed. It is “…a creative, hyperactive geologic wonder, its volcanoes, fissures, faults, hot springs, and steaming geysers all part of the birthing process of a new ocean. The Earth's crust is separating here, tearing apart along three deep rifts geologists call the Afar Triple Junction. One day in the very distant future (some scientists have calculated about a hundred million years), when the rifting is complete, the salty waters of the Red Sea will spill across Cafar-barro, erasing forever the camel trails of the Afar”.[51] Back to Contents |
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