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INTRODUCTION TO THE AFAR REGION                                                                                         

HISTORY

"when we think  about afar people, in every ones mind there is some thing which will come,.................. that is about Lucy."

Lucy, the most complete fossilized specimen of the species Australopithecus afarensis. Discovered at Hadar, Ethiopia, in 1974 by Donald Johanson, an American palaeoanthropologist, she is estimated to have lived between 2.6 million and 3.6 million years ago. Probably the most famous fossil hominid, Lucy gained her name from of the lyrics of the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.

Lucy has a skeleton that is 40 per cent complete, consisting of both cranial and post-cranial (the part of the skeleton that excludes the head) bones, including her pelvis, from which it was deduced that she was female. She was a very small hominid, at most 1.2 m (4 ft) tall. Other finds from Hadar, and Laetoli, in Tanzania, indicate that the male Australopithecus Afarnesis was much larger, up to 1.5 m (5 ft) in height. Lucy has a very ape-like skull, and a small brain size, although her post-cranial skeleton is much more human-like. She was certainly bipedal, although differences in her pelvis, femur, and foot bones indicate that she may have had a different walking style to modern human beings. Furthermore, her long arms, arboreally adapted shoulder joint (that is, adapted for climbing trees), and long, curved fingers and toes indicate that she probably spent a lot of time in the trees.
 

Contributed By:Catherine Key
Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2003. © 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 

BACKGROUND

The Afar Region occupies a large geographical area and has a substantial and varied natural resource base.  But those exploitable resources are grossly under-developed or undeveloped at all.  Consequently, the Afar people remain to be impoverished living under difficult conditions and exposed to constant threat of famine, mal-nutrition and disease.  Socio-economic services are insufficient or even totally unavailable in some areas of the region.

Amelioration of this situation would require formulation of an appropriate development strategy, policy measures and proper exploitation of the resources with the ultimate aim of industrializing the region.   To formulate this strategy, it is essential to quantify the region’s potentially exploitable resources.

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 SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT

a)         Physical Features of the Afar Region

The Afar Region is located in North-East Ethiopia between 8^o40^’13^” to 14^o27^’29^” N latitude and  39^o 51^’13^” to 42^o23^’ 03^” E longitude, and has an estimated area of about 85,410 km^2.

The topography of the region varies from hilly escarpments in the western and southern edges with an altitude of 1000-1500 meters above sea level  to lowland plains that fall in the altitude range of 0-100 meters.  Most of the land is exposed rock and  sandy while the soil surface can be divided into desert, semi-desert, thorn savana and gallery forest.  Vegetation is sparse and is composed of mainly  grass, bushes and scrub.

The region has a large number of perennial and seasonal rivers that have the potential for irrigation and hydroelectric power generation.

The climate of the region is arid and semi-arid.  It has  an extremely variable and low rainfall that is distributed by-modally.  The annual rainfall ranges from about 561 mm to 225 mm.  The temperature in the region is usually high and ranges from over 18^oC to 45^oC and over in some areas of the region.

b)         Socio-Economic Settings of the Afar Region

Administratively, the region is divided into 5 zones and  29 weredas and has 28 towns and 326 farmers’ associations.  With a population density of 13  persons per km² , considering a total population of 1,106,383 and a total area of 85,410km²  ,  the region is one of the sparsely populated areas of Ethiopia.  The rural population, pastoralists, are nomadic or semi-nomadic although there are sedentarists in some pocket areas.  Settlement points are chosen in reference to grazing and water availability and the pattern is structured along clan or tribal lines.  The local community lives in a cluster of 8 to 10 huts in one place which are temporary settlement points.

Two principal forms of social organizations appear to operate among the Afar society, i.e., extended household or local community based social organization and traditional rural authority based social organization.  While the former is an important source of labour, the latter is concerned with socio-cultural as well as economic affairs.

The population of the Afar Region, as of July 1996, excluding two Farmers’ Associations (FA), i.e., Adaitu FA in Zone 1 and Gedamitu FA in Zone 3, has been   over 1.1 million and  is estimated to grow at an annual rate of 2.4%.  Of the total  population, about 92% live in rural areas while the remaining 8% live in urban centres.  Sex composition of the population shows excess of males over females, and the youth population below the age of 15 years constitute  46.1% of the population.

Zone 1 has the largest population with a share of about 30% while zone 4 has the smallest population (about 11% of the total population).   Out of the 28 towns in the region, only 12  have a population of 2000 or more.

There are 5 major ethnic groups in the region.  Of these the Afar are the dominant ethnic group constituting about 92% of the total population of the region.  About 98% of the population is Muslim.

The dominant economic activity in the region is livestock rearing.  About 95% of the surveyed population in rural areas are pastoralists.  Agriculture (cropping) is practiced by the population in only a few areas of the region.  Besides animal husbandry and a limited scale of agriculture,  rural households are engaged in marketing of livestock and by-products, salt production and marketing, and making of traditional crafts for own use and sale.  The urban population is mainly engaged in trade and services.   Participation in government services is small, engaging only about 6.7% of the population.  Unemployment is about 11.1% in urban areas while it is below 1% in rural areas.

   [This  information is taken from the research which had been  done by: Industrial Project Service [IPS], Ethiopia, ]

   Project no.013(158)-89, © All rights reserved

   March 1998