This article proposes a new periodization of European colonial rule on the African

Red Sea Littoral (ARSL). The ARSL is the arid and semi-arid region between the Red

Sea and the Sudanese Nile and the Ethiopian/Eritrean highlands. The region is now

divided among Sudan, Eritrea, and Djibouti. However, historically the ARSL was

claimed by numerous pastoralist tribes and clans, including the Hadendowa, Bisharin,

Amarar, Beni Amer, Habab, and Afar. This article demonstrates that the process

of rendering these pastoralists into British, French, or Italian colonial subjects—i.e.,

of establishing European colonial rule—took decades. Though colonial offf?icials laid

their claims to the region at the end of the nineteenth century, it was not until the

1920s and 1930s that they began to exert meaningful forms of colonial control over

these pastoralist communities. This article argues that this period of early colonial

rule should be treated diffferently from the period of high colonial rule that follows.

During the early period, the balance of power on the ground had not yet tipped

in the favor of colonial offf?icials. Though these offf?icials were part of large imperial

networks, they were not able to efffectively mobilize these networks to get access to

the resources they needed to establish efffective administrations. At the same time,

these offf?icials did not command local resources, which, in general, remained in the

hands of the local communities that continued to mobilize them to their advantage