Geography and History
Like most geographic concepts, the Horn of Africa is flexible. In a narrow geographic sense, the term applies only to the easternmost triangle of the continent that juts out into the sea, bounded on the north by the Gulf of Aden and exposed on the southeast to the open Indian Ocean. Geopolitically, in the latter half of the twentieth century, the term came to include the entire territory of Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and the Republic of Djibouti and is so used in this book. It is sometimes extended to northern and eastern Kenya as well. The whole region has common cultural features, historical ties, political interrelationships, and traditional economic linkages.