War and remembrance: orality, literacy and conflict in the Horn

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the portrayal of conflict through the written word and oral recollection, and the popular perception of war over time, with particular reference to Ethiopia and Eritrea between the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries. It seeks to explore the roles played by the regional chronicles and traditions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and by orality and literacy in the modern age of armed struggle and revolution, in the creation and assertion of identities. The basic aim of the paper is to demonstrate continuity between apparently distinct forms of ‘war and remembrance’. The first is the chronicle tradition of the Ethiopian highlands, dating back several centuries, both contemporary and retrospective in composition, and in which the seminal role of conflict is continually emphasised. The second is the rhetoric and symbolism of the modern era of liberation struggle in Eritrea, as represented by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front. In this context, the memory of war, and the articulation of that memory in various forms, is as crucial as war itself in the creation and consolidation of identity, most dramatically in nationalist discourse.