Zeray W. A. Teklay
13 February 2026
Abstract
This study interrogates the persistent conflict between state cartography and historical human geography in the Horn of Africa, using the Tigrinya-speaking populations as a critical case. It argues that pre-1991 administrative boundaries in Ethiopia artificially fragmented a coherent, historically documented ethno-linguistic territory for reasons of political and administrative convenience. Through a synthesis of primary source analysis, including nineteenth-century travelogues, twentieth-century linguistic surveys, colonial reports, and historical maps, the paper reconstructs the geographical extent of Tigrinya language and its settlement patterns. The analysis demonstrates that the western (Wolkait, Tsegede, Kafta, and their adjacent areas), northwestern (Tselemti, Waldebba, and their surroundings), and southern (Raya-Azebo and Raya-Kobo) frontier districts were consistently recorded as integral parts of this Tigrinya sphere long before the twentieth century.
Cartographic evidence from authorities such as Longrigg (1945) and Levine (1965) visually reinforces this textual consensus, depicting a contiguous cultural zone straddling the modern Ethio-Eritrean border. The paper concludes that the post-1991 borders of the Tigray Regional State constituted a significant constitutional and political realignment, an attempt to reconcile state administration with this long-obscured ethno-linguistic reality. Ultimately, this research reframes contemporary border disputes as manifestations of a deeper historical and political tension: the imposition of centralized administrative logic onto enduring organically formed cultural geographies.
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