GEOGRAPHY OF ETHIOPIA AND THE HORN

COURSE CODE: GeES 1011

 GEOGRAPHY OF ETHIOPIA AND THE HORN
CHAPTER ONE
1. GEOGRAPHY: DEFINITION, SCOPE AND THEMES
1.1.1. Meaning of Geography
 It is difficult to provide single definition for Geography that is
accepted by all Geographers at all time and place, because of :
the dynamic nature of the subject and change in its scope and
methods of studies
 However, the working definition of Geography is: the scientific
study of the Earth that describes and analyses the spatial and
temporal variations of physical, biological and human
phenomena, and their interrelationships and dynamism over the
surface of the Earth.
1.1.2. The Scope, Approaches and Themes of Geography
 The scope of Geography is the surface of the Earth, which is the
very thin zone that is the interface of the atmosphere, lithosphere,
hydrosphere, biosphere and Anthropospher, that provides the
habitable zone in which humans are able to live.
 Geography can be approached by considering two continuums: a
human-physical continuum and a topical-regional continuum.
 Topical (systematic) fields of Geography view particular categories
of physical or human phenomena as distributed over the Earth
 Regional geography is concerned with the associations within
regions of all or some of the elements and their interrelationships
 Geography has five basic themes namely location, place,
human-environment interaction, movement, and region.
Location
 Location is defined as a particular place or position
Place
 Place refers to the physical and human aspects of a location. It is
associated with toponym (the name of a place), site (the
description of the features of the place), and situation (the
environmental conditions of the place)
Human-Environment Interaction
 Humans have always been on ceaseless interaction with their
natural environment.
 Human-environment interaction involves three distinct aspects:
dependency, adaptation, and modification.
Dependency: refers to the ways in which humans are dependent
on nature for a living.
Adaptation: relates to how humans modify themselves, their
lifestyles and their behavior to live in a new environment with new
challenges.
Modification: allowed humans to “conquer” the world for their
comfortable living
Movement
 Movement entails to the translocation of human beings, their
goods, and their ideas from one end of the planet to another.
Region
 A region is a geographic area having distinctive characteristics
that distinguishes itself from adjacent unit(s) of space.
1.2. LOCATION, SHAPE AND SIZE OF ETHIOPIA AND THE HORN
The Horn of Africa:
 a region of eastern Africa
 is a narrow tip that protrudes into the northern Indian Ocean,
separating it from the Gulf of Aden
 is the easternmost extension of African land which is a home to the
countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
 In terms of size, Ethiopia is the largest of all the Horn of African
countries, while Djibouti is the smallest.
1.2.1. Location of Ethiopia
The location of a country or a place on a map or a globe is expressed in
two different ways. These are:
a. Astronomical/ Absolute/mathematical location
b. Relative location
 A. ABSOLUTE LOCATION
 It is the exact location of a place
 can be explained in terms of parallels of latitudes & meridians of
longitudes which are measured by degrees, minutes and
seconds.
 The absolute location of Ethiopia is 30N – 150N latitudes & 330E
– 480E longitudes.

Thus, Ethiopia has 4 extreme points namely:


the northern most tip of Ethiopia → 150N at Badime.


the southern most tip of Ethiopia →30N at Moyale


the eastern most tip of Ethiopia → 48 0E at Ogaden


the western most tip of Ethiopia → 330E at Akobo

The north – south extent of Ethiopia is 120.


The east – west extent of Ethiopia is 150.

 The latitudinal and longitudinal extensions are important in two
ways.
 First, Ethiopia experiences tropical climate (latitudinal extension )
and
 Secondly, there is a difference of one hour between the most
easterly and most westerly points of the country (due to its
longitudinal extension).
B. Relative location
 expresses the location of countries in relation to other countries
(neighbouring), landmasses or water bodies(Strategic).
Strategic Location of Ethiopia
 Ethiopia is strategically located in:
 the horn of Africa
 Southwest of the Arabian Peninsula
 South of Europe
 Northwest of the Indian Ocean and
 in the Nile Basin.
 Vicinal location of Ethiopia
 Ethiopia shares common boundaries with six
neighboring countries which are indicated in table
below:
Country Location Boundary lines in
km
Sudan West and north west 867
South Sudan South West 883
Somalia East and South east 1600
Eritrea North and north east 840
Kenya South 760
Djibouti East 310
The implications of the location of Ethiopia are described as
follows:
a) Climate: Ethiopia is located between 3°N and 15°N implies
that the country has a tropical climate, but modified by its
altitude.
- Similarly, proximity to various water bodies also has different
implications to its climate.
b) Socio-cultural: due to its proximity to the Middle East area,
Ethiopia, is one of the earliest recipients of the major world
religions like Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
- It shares linguistic and other cultural relationships with its
neighbor's.
c) Political: The political history of Ethiopia has been
considerably influenced by:
Geopolitical considerations of superpowers. 9

Adjacency to the Red Sea (a major global trade route).

 The Middle East geopolitical paradigms.
As a result, Ethiopia has been exposed for external invasions in a
Figure [Link]‟s location in relation to its neighboring countries
Source: Africa Map Library
 1.2.2. SIZE OF ETHIOPIA
 Ethiopia with a total area of approximately 1,106,
000Km2 is the 8th largest country in Africa and 25th in
the World.

 About 0.7% of the country is covered by water bodies.

 Ethiopia is a land locked country which does not has

an outlet (not direct access to the sea).
Implication of size
 affects both natural and human environment of a
country
 Affects the availability of resources.
The advantages and disadvantages of the size of
Ethiopia
Advantages Disadvantages
 Own variety of natural  Requires large
resources army to protect its
 Possess diverse agro territory
ecological zones  Difficult for
 Own extensive arable land effective
 Have larger population size administration
 Home for diverse cultures  Difficult for socio-
 Greater depth in defense economic
external invasion integration
 Demands greater
capital to construct
infrastructural
facilities
 1.2.3. THE SHAPE OF ETHIOPIA AND ITS IMPLICATION
 Even though some kind of shape is advantageous to
a country or not, depends on many other factors,
shapes have implications on defence, administration
and economic integration within a country.
 Countries of the World have different kinds of
shape that can be divided into five main categories:
• Compact: distance from the geographic center to any boarder
does not vary greatly e.g. Ethiopia, Cambodia
• Fragmented: divided from their other parts by water, land or
other countries e.g. Philippines,
• Elongated: geographically long and narrow e.g. Chile, Vietnam
• Perforated: A country that completely surrounds another
13
country e.g. Republic of South Africa
• Protruded: one part is much more elongated than the rest of the
country e.g. Eritrea, Myanmar, Thailand
 Measuring shape of countries
 These measures are known as the indices of compactness that
measure the deviation of the shape of a country from a circular
shape since there is no country with absolutely circular shape.
 There are four most commonly used measures of compactness.
These are:
1. Area-Boundary Ratio(A/B):
 measures the areal extent of a country per unit boundary length.
 If the areal size per unit boundary length is large we have a
relatively more compact shape, because the smaller the boundary
length when compared to the area of the country the more
compact the country is.
2. Boundary- Circumference Ratio(B/C) ratio:
 measures how far the boundary of a country approximates the
circumference of a circle of its own size.
 Therefore, the nearer the ratio to 1 the more compact the country
is.
3. Area-circumference Ratio(A/C):
 is ratio of the area of the country to the circumference
of the smallest inscribing circle.
 The higher the A/C ratio, the greater the degree of
compactness.
[Link]-Area (A/A’) ratio:
 is the ratio of the actual area of a country to the area of
smallest possible inscribing circle.
 The nearer the ratio to 1, the more compact the country
is.
 1.3. BASIC SKILLS OF MAP READING
What is a Map?
A map is a two-dimensional scaled representation of part or
whole of the Earth surface on a flat body such as piece of paper,
black board, wood or cloth.
Importance of maps:
provide the basis for making geographical details of regions
represented.
 are powerful tools for making spatial analysis of
geographical facts of areas represented.
are useful for giving location of geographical features.
are used on various disciplines like land use planning,
military science, aviation, tourism, marine science, population
studies, etc.
are used to asses‟ reliable measurements of the
geographical features.
make storage of the geographical data of areas represented.
Types of Map
Based on their purpose and functions there are two types of map:
1. Topographical maps: depict one or more natural and cultural
features of an area.
2. Special purpose/statistical maps: are maps, which show
distribution of different aspects such as temperature, rainfall,
settlement, vegetation etc.
Marginal Information on Maps (Elements of Maps):
a. Title: is the heading of the given map which tells what the map is
all about.
b. Key (legend): is the list of all convectional symbols and signs
shown on the map
c. Scale: It is the ratio between the distance on the map and the
actual ground distance.
d. North arrow: is indicated with the north direction on a map.
e. Margin: is the frame of the map
f. Date of compilation: is a date of map publication.
 Basic Principles of Map Reading
 In developing map reading abilities and skills, the
following basic principles must be applied by the
map reader:
 Having ideas about the symbol and also the real
world
 Knowledge of direction

 Understanding a series of lines known as grids