Forgotten World (212): Eritrea
A former Italian colony, Eritrea was occupied by the British in 1941. In 1952 the United Nations resolved to establish it as an autonomous entity federated with Ethiopia. However, 10 years later the Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie, decided to annex it, triggering a 32-year armed struggle.
This culminated in independence after an alliance of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) and a coalition of Ethiopian resistance movements defeated Haile Selassie’s communist successor, Mengistu Haile Mariam.
In 1993, in a referendum supported by Ethiopia, Eritreans voted almost unanimously for independence, leaving Ethiopia a landlocked nation. Eritrea emerged from its long war of independence only to plunge once again into military conflict, first with Yemen and then, more devastatingly, with its old adversary, Ethiopia.
Today, a fragile peace prevails in the country of almost 6 million and Eritrea faces the gigantic tasks of rebuilding its infrastructure and of developing its economy after more than 30 years of fighting
July 16th, 2010 at 7:01 am
Eritrea – Thomas Keneally’s prophetic warnings & hard facts!
By: Sam B.
Historically, as Eritreans, we have seen a level of unparalleled hostility directed at our desire for self-determination, especially, emanating from those exceptionally hostile elements within Langley and Foggy Bottom neighborhoods, as well as, Kremlin. Be that as it may, the aim of this piece is not to rehash the all too well know facts of military and political supports rendered by the Imperial Centers of the time, Moscow and Washington, to eliminate the aspiration of the Eritrean people and their struggle movements for self-determination. The aim here is to look at – in view of current US-Eritrea relations – the literary work of one of the world’s renowned authors, Thomas Keneally, the author of ‘To Asmara’ and ‘Schindler’s List’.
In his book ‘To Asmara’, Thomas Keneally, makes observations of the West’s hostile stand toward Eritrea’s struggle for independence. In, yet again, another era of unbridled hostility directed at Eritrea from the Imperial Center, Washington, it forces one to wonder if Keneally was stating simply hard facts or providing prophetic warnings in view of Eritrea’s many successes at the time? With this question in mind it helps to look at some of the remarks and the recurring theme; that the West will never forgive the Eritreans for their “folly” of being “brave” and “cleaver”. A theme which finds an outlet in the exasperations of Keneally’s “Ugly American” character, Henry:
“You know what I think? They are brave to the point of folly and they’re clever to the point of being dumb. No one absolutely no one, from Washington to Moscow, wants them to succeed. No one. … God’s even taken the rain away from them, for Christ’s sake. Even he thinks they’re wrong-headed. The sin of pride … the sin of being sharp when no one wants them to be. Their presumption, that organization can save them. That … that won’t easily be forgiven.”
The theme is, the West, and the world for that matter, will not allow the Eritrean struggle to succeed: not only political, military powers and human folly but also nature as well is colluding against the Eritreans. Given their limited resources and the hostile environment they inhabit, the Eritrean case is a hopeless one is a recurring theme that finds an expression in the many outbursts of the American, Henry, which at times is quite crude, however, honest:
“Do you know what the emergency really is? You want to hear about the really big emergency? The emergency is that if you guys succeed, you’ll be an embarrassment to Africa. Who wants a setup like yours? There aren’t many governments on this continent that do. There aren’t many governments in Europe. Colored folk who can look after themselves? It isn’t viable. It upsets the world picture. Don’t you know the West has to believe famine’s an act of God? If they believe that, they only have to make a donation. But if they believe it’s an act of bloody politics, they have to really do something, and that’s too, too complicated. So what is the story? The story is you guys will fall on your own f-ucking swords, because you’ve got this crazy idea that the world will allow you to be perfect!”
The notion that “the world will [not] allow” Eritrea to succeed is of course not always enunciated in anger, even for Henry. Seeing the Eritreans at work Herny admiringly marvel at the industriousness of the Eritreans points out:
“These guys are astounding! Running all this. And you know what? The world hates ‘em for it! The world hooked into the idea of ‘the helpless Africans!’”
The outlook that Eritrea’s case was hopeless because of its limited resources and the hostile environment it inhabits, as well as, because of the superiority of its enemies was resoundingly defeated in 1991. However, given current development in Eritrea, especially Eritrea’s aspiration to reject dependence on foreign aid and NGO, and thus choosing to survive solely through its own ingenuity and toil has generated an all too familiar hostility from the usual quarters of power and the NGOs beholden to them. Maybe the Eritrean plan “upsets the world picture” a bit too much? Perhaps it is true that no one wants to see “Colored folk who can look after themselves?” It may as well not be a coincidence that we are told that this plan “is not viable” over and again. All things considered it is understandable that such aspirations of self-reliance, that disturb the view of the “world hooked into the idea of ‘the helpless Africans!’”, to generate hostility. And to be viewed as “sin of pride” or, more properly, “the sin of being sharp when no one wants [you] to be.” In such world view, the fact that Eritrea is succeeding in this endeavor, through meticulous organization and toil, is a double sin “that won’t easily be forgiven.”
Paradoxically, this observations that “the world will not allow” the picture of the “the helpless Africans” to be disturbed, or that no Eritrean or any African can be allowed to succeed the way Eritrea aspires to is not always a result of emotional outbursts of an overbearing American, the more somber characters, the narrator and the ‘British Lady’ character, also make much the same observation:
“Saudi agents and even the CIA were said to hang round Kassala, the Sudanese border oasis and city, encouraging the ELF to attack the EPLF. For it was a matter of surprise…that no one seemed to want the Eritreans to win. Neither the Americans nor the Saudis … nor the Russians, who supplied military advice and arms. No one wanted an independent Eritrea republic along the stretch of Red Sea shore.”
Keneally’s characters were of course wrong in one account and absolutely correct in another. Eritrea’s success was not predicated on others “want” – for Eritrea to “succeed” or not. It was solely dependent on Eritreans determination to succeed – same goes today. Even though life and the struggle was made more complicated for Eritreans’ “sin of being sharp when no one wants them to be”, it nevertheless “succeeded”, NOT to be “an embarrassment to Africa”, but to be the pride of a good example of what Africans can accomplish when they stand for their interest in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Whether “the world hooked into the idea of “the helpless Africans”, appreciates the Eritrean experience or not, Eritrea is here to stay. It has succeeded in wining its independence despite all the hostility directed at it from the quarters of power. Still, one will have to appreciate Keneally’s prophetic observations that Eritrea’s success “won’t easily be forgiven” or his more dramatic pronouncement: “The world hates ‘em for it!” In that sense his observation resonates with current events, as exemplified by former US President Carter diatribe against Eritrea or by the more recent hostilities coming from US State Department.
It is evident that in the psyche of some Eritrea needs permission from the West to succeed or forgiveness to move on. There may be some truth in that the psyche of the colonized and oppressed to want to remake itself in the image of its masters, or to need acceptance from its masters or former masters. A phenomenon that is sometimes associated with what is commonly described as “colonial mentality”. However, what the Eritrean experience exemplifies is the kicking off of such mentality and the development of confidence in ones own resource and ingenuity. In short the Eritrean is what Nkrumah at the dawn of decolonization described as the “New African”. The New Eritrean, who is the result and has deep roots in his independence struggle, is strong, confident, conscientious and patriotic. This New Eritrean does not live for or look for acceptance from the “rulers of the universe”. Nor does the New Eritrean hate the colonizer and/or the oppressor, nor want to be like them. All the Eritrean wants to be is Eritrean in all its substantive forms. This New Eritrean requires not any forgiveness, permission or acceptance from anyone.
Whether the world, more appropriately its Imperial centers, decides to forgive or not, sooner or later it will have to accept that, as Keneally put it, “Eritrea was not the present. It was the future in terms of theories – military and revolutionary – which hung in its fiery air.”
“No one wanted an independent Eritrea republic along the stretch of Red Sea shore.” And yet it is here. And here to stay! If anyone has a problem, super power or not, with accepting the strong, confident, conscientious and patriotic Eritrean, The New Eritrean, or the “New African” for that matter, it has to be told to “go fly a kite”. And yes! We ought to be “brave to the point of folly” and “clever to the point of being dumb.” The result of this “sin of pride” was our liberation. It worked just fine for us then and it will again and again! Confidence in our ability and Pride in being Eritreans is a formula that works.