Pachyderms, Power, and Politics: The history of the elephant in Northeastern Africa

The elephant was once numerous, and politically significant in the region of Northeast Africa, for cases of convenience, defined, for the sake of the essay, as Sudan, Eritrea, and Northern Ethiopia. Now all but gone, only found in a small population in Western Eritrea, which occasionally crosses into Sudan. It’s presence in the region encouraged the spread of ancient imperialism, with the Ptolemies of Egypt seeking to use the elephants as a resource, both for their ivory, and their value in warfare. Kingdom’s rose and fell according to the fortunes of the ivory trade, and it is said that certain peoples of the region relied almost exclusively on elephant hunting.