Ogaden is identified as a Somali-speaking region in eastern Ethiopia and as one of the territories brought into the Ethiopian state during the expansion associated with Emperor Menelik II. Its brief appearance in the account links that history of territorial consolidation to the later opposition faced by the Derg regime.

Location and Political Context

The book places Ogaden in eastern Ethiopia, alongside Eritrea and Tigray, which lie to the north. These territories were incorporated into a larger Ethiopia during the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century expansion led by Menelik II, described as the victor of the Battle of Adwa.

Ogaden and Opposition to the Derg

After the Derg seized power, its increasingly authoritarian rule helped provoke resistance in different parts of the country. Independence movements emerged in Eritrea and Tigray; in Ogaden, the conflict took the form of an invasion by the Somali army. The account situates these challenges within the regime’s broader crisis: the Derg split into factions, and Mengistu Haile Mariam eliminated major rivals and took effective control by mid-1977. The regime was saved from collapse only after a large influx of Soviet and Cuban weapons and troops later that year.

Significance in the Account

Ogaden’s mention is concise, but it marks a consequential limit to the Derg’s authority. It appears not as an isolated geographical detail but as part of the political consequences of incorporating diverse territories into the Ethiopian state and then ruling them through an increasingly authoritarian regime. The account distinguishes the Somali army’s intervention in Ogaden from the independence movements in Eritrea and Tigray, showing that opposition to the Derg took different forms in different regions.