Post-Twentieth-Century Eritrea

Abstract

Post-Twentieth-Century Eritrea Irma Taddia University of Bologna These are some reflections on present Eritrea in the light of its colonial past. I am aware that if the present can only be understood in relation to the past, the colonial past can be analyzed in terms of the present. These reflections are stimulated by various visits to Eritrea in the last years after the change ofpolitical regime in May 1991 and by historical research. If we consider the case of Eritrea and its path towards independence, some differences and analogies emerge in comparison with other former African colonies. The Eritrean experience is taking place today in a very specific context in postcolonial Africa. It is not, I believe, simply a case of delayed decolonization , postponed by 30 years with respect to other former African colonies. I will attempt to identify some récurrent elements and some differences between the Eritrean case and other decolonization models that characterized Africa in the 1960s. Differences/Analogies between Eritrea and Other African Colonial States An event which could have taken place in the 1950 and '60s actually happened only in 1993: the independence of Eritrea and the creation of an autonomous state in the Horn of Africa. This leads us to develop some reflections on the nature of the Eritrean state at the end of the twentieth century and to make a comparison between the Eritrean case and the African decolonization experiences of the 1960s. The history of Eritrea must be studied within the colonial context in which, however, certain differences emerge. Eritrea was a colonial state in the nineteenth®Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 5, No. 1 (New Series) 1998, pp. 7-29 8 Irma Taddia and twentieth centuries. Like other African colonies it was created during the scramble for Africa. Within this process it achieved a form of identity during the years of colonialism. Colonialism can be analyzed as a crucial and lasting process in the development of a new economic and political structure expressed in the form of a new territorial framework and developed by means of the politics of the colonial state. The colonial state imposed a "national" identity on all African areas of influence through a new territorial politic. Colonial borders were no longer questioned during decolonization. Since Eritrea's experience reflected that of other African colonies, it should have become an independent state during the decolonization process. But Eritrea is a colony that did not become an independent state. This phenomenon can be attributed to various causes I will try to underline. Regarding the colonial process, a strong analogy emerges between Italian Eritrea and other examples of African colonies. It is the same mechanism of colonial power which molded different precolonial systems of power and societies into a unique political body. Eritrea, like the other African colonial states, achieved this unity and identity during the years of colonialism. The idea is widespread in the literature. "Eritrean nationalists describe significant economic and social changes under Italian colonialism, supporting arguments that Eritrea's experience mirrored that of other African colonies."1 The creation of the colony was a premise for a new sense of unity and identity. Colonialism is seen by Eritrean nationalists as a condition for establishing a national identity, while at the same time Ethiopians define Eritrea as an artificial creation.2 It is clear that Eritrea is a political construction of colonialism. However, according to Markakis's viewpoint, Eritrean nationalism is not a product of anti-colonialism, but develops after the fall of the Italian colonial government in 1941. "Eritrean nationalism did not emerge as a reaction to the colonial situation . It made its appearance after the collapse of Italian rule, when the fate of the former colony hung in the balance."3 And nationalism is not—again according to Markakis—"a purely ideological phenomenon," but it is "in the first instance ... a struggle for state power,"4 for the political power inherited by the colonial state. Within the fight for political independence after the 1940s, Italy played a complex and contradictory role which historians have yet to analyze in depth. We have very few studies on this period.5 Post-Twentieth-Century Eritrea...