“Until the lion learns to speak, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” The Horn of Africa, made up of the nations of Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti[1], covers an area of ​​approximately 1,882,857 km2. Commercially, the Horn's position, adjacent to the important Gulf of Aden waterway that connects the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea to the Red Sea and subsequently the Mediterranean Sea, means that it has always been at the heart of international trade. This fortuitous position between East and West also means that the nations of the Coastal Horn have enjoyed particularly diverse interactions with many of the great historical empires. For example, Somalia was long known to the pharaonic Egyptians as the "Lands of God", the land of Punt[2]. The 20th century was a remarkable period for the African continent, with many African countries fighting hard for their independence from the European colonial powers that had occupied them. Beginning with Kwame Nakruma's Ghana, once the wheels of liberation began to turn, the mid-20th century marked a period of jubilation and hope for the newly independent states and their still-occupied cousins. Section 1 Somalia: 5-Pointed Star Division Somalia and the Colonial Legacy To understand the origins of the Ogaden War, it is imperative to understand the culture, history and unique societal dynamics of Somalia. The Somali nation as we know it today, like most African nations, is a relatively new entity. Somalia, in its current incarnation, is a product of British, Italian, French and Ethiopian colonialism throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Before the invasion of the colonial powers, Somalia was an important complex...... middle of paper ......challenging Ethiopian military hegemony in the region. With Somalia now in a strong position, Ethiopia weakened by the internal turmoil of the revolution, as well as the provocation of other ethnic minorities by the WSLF, it is safe to say that at this point, the “clouds of war were gathering”. it was primarily the heterogeneous nature of Ethiopia, both in its ethnic composition and its class structure, which meant that the central government, whether imperial or socialist, would always struggle to unify and govern effectively such a diverse population. Second, it is not the mere existence of a diverse nation that has made Ethiopia difficult to govern, but the bereaved nature of the ethnic groups. This grievance stemmed from the colonial and feudal legacy of the Ethiopian Empire, which held much of the country's northern and western lands against its will..