Abstract
Eritrea’s historical and political trajectory is key to understanding the emergence of secessionist aspirations and its post-secession path, including relations between state and society. We first consider Eritrea’s claim for self-determination, international response toward it, and independence war. We then focus on the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front’s (EPLF) post-independence state- and nation-building project, which has militarized society as it has become more authoritarian. Regional and global tensions have further reinforced Eritrea’s isolation. Large numbers of youth have sought an “exit-option” as asylum-seekers, joining a multi-generational diaspora. Although Eritreans do not question the secessionist project, and their allegiance to Eritrean national identity does not seem to have waned, their decisions reflect a deep concern for the future of their nation, shaped as it is by the political legacy of the struggle.
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Notes
- 1.
Styan (1996: 80)
- 2.
Pool (1998: 19)
- 3.
Jacquin-Berdal and Aida Mengistu (2006: 97).
- 4.
- 5.
Iyob (1995: 53).
- 6.
Iyob (1995: 17).
- 7.
Pool (1979: 45).
- 8.
Mayall (1990).
- 9.
Jacquin-Berdal (2002: 86).
- 10.
- 11.
Pool (1998: 19).
- 12.
Clapham (1998: 6).
- 13.
Clapham (2017: 3).
- 14.
- 15.
- 16.
Jacquin-Berdal (2000: 59)
- 17.
Pool (2001: 14–15).
- 18.
Jacquin-Berdal (2002: 89)
- 19.
Pool (2001: 45).
- 20.
Joireman (2000: 70–86)
- 21.
Jacquin-Berdal and Mengistu (2006: 90).
- 22.
Jacquin-Berdal (2002: 98).
- 23.
Jacquin-Berdal (2000: 61).
- 24.
Pool (2001: 39).
- 25.
- 26.
Jacquin-Berdal and Mengistu (2006: 91).
- 27.
Ibid: 91 and Marchal (1993: 22).
- 28.
Joireman (2000: 76).
- 29.
Iyob (1995: 63).
- 30.
Marchal (1993: 22).
- 31.
Miran (2005: 204).
- 32.
Pool (2001: 39).
- 33.
- 34.
- 35.
Prunier (2007).
- 36.
Yasin (2008).
- 37.
- 38.
Pool (2001: 76)
- 39.
Kibreab (2008: 256).
- 40.
The ELF created Five Divisions and distributed its forces according to regional and ethnic affiliations. These Divisions had forces stationed in the following provinces: (1) Barka and Gash, (2) Senhit and Sahel; (3) Akele-Guzay and Seray; (4) Semhar and Denkel, and (5) Hamasien in Anderbrhan WeldeGiorgis (2014: 123–24). Isaias, upon return from China, was sent as political commissar of the Fifth Division back to his province of origin: Hamasien in Plaut (2016: 107).
- 41.
Kibreab (2008: 247–248).
- 42.
Plaut (2016: 12).
- 43.
According to Anderberhan Wolde Giorgis, the EPLF emerged in 1973 as the result of the union of three of the dissident factions of the ELF that regrouped to annihilate the ELF-Revolutionary Council. The ELF-RC was finally pushed out of Eritrea into Eastern Sudan in 1981 through coordinated EPLF and TPLF’s action (2014: 127–128).
- 44.
Yasin (2008: 57).
- 45.
Dias (2008: 77–82).
- 46.
Plaut (2016: 13) states that some Kunama, as well as Afar, supported unity with Ethiopia.
- 47.
Pool (2001: 53).
- 48.
Schlee (2014: 34)
- 49.
Jacquin-Berdal and Mengistu (2006: 88–89)
- 50.
US Department of State (2011b: 21).
- 51.
Woldemikael (2003: 122).
- 52.
Iyob (2000: 663, 671).
- 53.
Iyob (2000: 664)
- 54.
Bernal (2004: 11).
- 55.
Koser (2003: 112).
- 56.
Clapham (2006: 25)
- 57.
Conrad (2006: 261).
- 58.
Kibreab (2008: 228).
- 59.
Fouad Makki (1996: 484).
- 60.
Conrad (2006: 261).
- 61.
Schlee (2014: 34).
- 62.
- 63.
Jacquin-Berdal (2000: 67)
- 64.
Conrad (2006: 251).
- 65.
Dorman (2005: 207).
- 66.
Reid (2009c: 211)
- 67.
Dorman (2005: 203–222).
- 68.
Conrad (2006: 260)
- 69.
Englebert (2007: 59).
- 70.
Iyob (1995: 119).
- 71.
Pool (2001: 81).
- 72.
Heinke (2009: 20).
- 73.
BICC (2012).
- 74.
- 75.
- 76.
Reid (2005: 474).
- 77.
- 78.
- 79.
Conrad (2006: 260, 267)
- 80.
Reid (2005: 479).
- 81.
Conrad (2006: 267)
- 82.
- 83.
Treiber (2009).
- 84.
Dias (2008: 198).
- 85.
UNHCR (2012).
- 86.
The decrease in 2011 in the total number of applicants was accompanied by a steady rise in new applicants in Ethiopia, which reached 54,900 (see Fig. 14.2). The independence of South Sudan and its impact in the relations between Eritrea and Sudan it is not negligible as Eritrea lost leverage. Indeed, Eritrea’s relations with Sudan have been volatile.
- 87.
Human Rights Watch (2014).
- 88.
69,600. The total number of Eritrean refugees was 407,500 in 2015. In 2016, the number rose to 459,400 UNHCR (2016: 15).
- 89.
UK Home Office (2010).
- 90.
In 2015, the number of Eritrean applicants in the mentioned European countries was: 700 in Italy, 3800 in the United Kingdom, and 10,900 in Germany. In 2016, the increase was remarkable with 7400 new applicants in Italy and 18,900 in Germany, as well as the stunning decrease in the United Kingdom to only 1300 UNHCR (2015: 38; 2016: 40–41).
- 91.
OHCHR (2015).
- 92.
Bozzini (2013) and Treiber (2009).
- 93.
Reid (2009c: 211)
- 94.
Reid (2005: 483).
- 95.
Martin Wight cited in Bull and Holbraad (2004: 157).
- 96.
Africa Confidential (2011).
- 97.
Cliffe (2005).
- 98.
Sudan Tribune (2007) and Eritrea Ministry of Information (2007).
- 99.
US Department of State (2008).
- 100.
The Telegraph April (2009).
- 101.
Connell (2009a).
- 102.
- 103.
UN Security Council (2013).
- 104.
Eritrean Center for Strategic Studies (2010).
- 105.
Alden (2010: 14, 17).
- 106.
Plaut (2016: 101).
- 107.
- 108.
- 109.
See also Byrne and Englebert (2018) in this volume on how much cases involving Ethiopia change statistics on secessionist trends in Africa.
- 110.
De Waal (2015: 154)
- 111.
Reid (2009a) An interview with a diaspora member and a former fighter confirms that in addition to leaving the country, more recently, those who make it to the United Kingdom seem uninterested in politics. The interviewee stated that “I don’t know what they have done to our youth. They are broken. They just care about living their lives.” Interview conducted by AM Dias, London, October 2015.
- 112.
- 113.
Clapham (2017: 135).
- 114.
Interview, group, conducted by AM Dias, London (2007).
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Dias, A., Dorman, S. (2019). “We Didn’t Fight for This”: The Pitfalls of State- and Nation-Building in Eritrea. In: de Vries, L., Englebert, P., Schomerus, M. (eds) Secessionism in African Politics. Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90206-7_14
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