Politically Active Spiritual Leader, Hanfare Alimirah, Passes

Sultan Hanfare Alimirah was not one to stand back when political issues arose. Just as in 1991, he was attentive and aware of the changes that were to lead to the new administration that brought Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) to power.

Still, he did not become oblivious as the years went on, and he became unable to serve the political movements with the same energy and force. He said as much in an interview he gave in 2016 to ESAT TV as anti-government protests were raging in the Oromia and Amhara regional states.

“I may not have the energy to run in the fields with you, but my heart is with you,” he said. “But neither would I stand by. Stay strong.”

He even offered some advice, which seemed to hint at how to get attention for anti-government protests. He said this was in relation to Afar Regional State, his birthplace and the centre of the Aussa Sultanate.

“Afar is positioned strategically. What happens in Afar reverberates in Addis Abeba,” he said. “What happens in Addis Abeba is heard globally.”

Indeed, Hanfare - who passed away on September 20, 2020, and was laid to rest a day later - lived a life rich with political activism. Having been born within an aristocratic family within the historic Aussa Sultanate, he may not have had a choice of whether to engage with politics to begin with. But to characterise him as a mere product of his ancestral background and upbringing would be to miss how politically conscious he remained throughout his 74 years.

“He was bold and politically oriented, which is one of the reasons he succeeded his father,” says Mohamuda Gaas, a childhood friend who later became state minister at various government agencies.

Mohamuda should know. He was with Hanfare, now survived by seven children, when they first became acquainted with injustice and embarked on activism. It was during the Imperial era when they met each other because of the student association they were a part of.

The establishment of the Awash Valley Authority formed the impetus for their political activism. The Authority’s mandate was administration and development of the natural resources of the Valley.

A big part of this was to be the “the development of commercial agriculture considered to have considerable scope for rapid production growth, and thus immediate impact on the entire economy,” as a paper by the Authority indicated.

Hanfare and Mohamuda believed that this was being effected through land concessions to investors that displaced farmers in the Awash valley.

“We decided to stand together for what we believed was an injustice against our people,” says Mohamuda.