Biographies of Roads, Biographies of Nations : History, Territory and the Road Effect in Post-Conflict Somaliland

The chapter proposes an ethnographic analysis of a commercial corridor – the Berbera-Addis Abeba road which links the new State of Somaliland to Ethiopia – interweaving stories of the centres and localities along the road, of the travellers and road users and of the forms of regulation of mobility and trade. Against this background, the article sets out to show how an emphasis on commercial corridors can illustrate, like a red thread, central political and economic dynamics of the region in a time of rapid change: the emergence and stabilization of Somaliland in the early 1990s, state-building dynamics, the creation of centres of economic and political power and the relationships entertained by Somaliland with its neighbours. By virtue of this interlacing of memories, interests and opportunities linked to the commercial route, the case-study illustrates how roads can make the state, rather than the other way around. Overall, roads emerge as powerful forms of territorial integration which build up connections and relationships, produce and reframe spaces, express geopolitical projects and represent a scarce resource as well as an opportunity for many.