Our land has for years been enveloped by the predatory state, like the sandstorms that blow from the coastal areas up the escarpment, and often make it to the Kebessa. The farmers get edgy, when they notice the red brown dust. Popularly the dust known as taka - it wilts the few types of crops sown before the main Kremti, the flowers and vegetables around Asmera. Likewise, our people have for the last 14 years looked withered under the cruel haze of the state.

Our folks are waiting for some sort of relief, a political sort of relief; a precipitation like the rain clouds from the Bahri which has been a harbinger of good fodder and harvest. The state tyranny is almost total, except for the Rashaida.

I was amused by the AFP story. The Rashaida seem not to be bothered by the fractious regime. Neither the onerous tax, nor the compulsory military services appear to affect them. The government is not even mad at them for bringing down the figures of the countries’ GNP. ‘The fear of getting apprehended by the Sudan police is our main concern’, stated one of them. They love the "adventure", reported the same individual. A unique phenomenon!

The Rashaida, from the little I know about them are more of the Tuareg type, that until recently freely roamed the Sahara desert. Armed and fierce warriors, they stayed un-subdued, until the French colonizers introduced special transport vehicles adapted for the seas of sand in the Sahara. Pacified under the French, they nevertheless have stayed in conflict with the post-colonial governments of the region.

Many historians of our region allege that colonial Italy achieved a total control of the various tribes/ethnic groups at the end of the 19^th century. What was the reaction of the Rashaida? How did they respond to the various demands of the Italian State? I doubt if they have ever been inducted into the huge native army (askeri) established by the Italian State for conquering Libya and Ethiopia. On the other hand, have they always been elusive? Political literature is scant about them.

They used to inhabit the Sahel coastline, raising camels and to a lesser extent involved in the smuggling business. They reportedly traveled as far as Suakin in the Sudan and south to the edges Semhar. States, be it of the colonial European type, the Ethiopian or the current Eritrean state were probably at most irritants like the Habub (a dust storm), nothing more.

Armed, secretive, hardy, and in possession of superb riding camels, they appeared intimidating to some of the pastoral groups, such as the Tigre. Disputes about pasture and wells often arose. The then ELF often intervened to address the issue.

During the Gedli era, when every draught animal was commandeered for war purposes, the Rashaidas were treated differently. Their transport services were not for free. In several instances, I witnessed Rashaida caravans being paid by the EPLF commanders. It is safe to assume that the approach of both Fronts towards the Rashaida was identical. They were not "a political threat" then as now. Is it fate or some other reason that spared them the mini-wars that the Fronts were engaged in like other places, for example, the Kunama, the Qohayin and Dembellas areas.

The Rashaida were also left alone when the Fronts were forcefully drafting people for the cause of liberation. Until the end of the war, there was reportedly one Rashaida recruit, and for that matter only a volunteer.

In a totalitarian state, such as Eritrea, to state that the public has been trampled, muzzled, overtaxed, and militarized is redundant. What is astounding is when you hear that a certain ethnic group has either by design or default been left "free". The Rashaida seem to be somehow exempt from all that. This is quite refreshing news. And that is not all. The Rashaida community carries arms. Mind you not as militia of the state, but an ethnic group that carries it for its own purposes. This is anomaly in Eritrea.

The Rashaida I knew in the 70s were entirely camel herding nomads. While serving with the EPLF units, I often remember their small settlements along the Sahel coastline. Accustomed to living in the hidmos with the Kebessa farmers, we felt awkward when forbidden from fraternizing with them. The women folk were also a mystery. The fact that we did not speak Arabic, the strict customs of their community and EPLF’s paranoia discouraged any casual talk. We often watched their big and breezy tents made from camel hide from a distance, while we suffered from the scorching sun. We resigned ourselves to the scant shade of the needle shaped tamrisque trees, and the small salt resisting hichem bush trees.

Just before the recent Ethio-Eritrea war, at Goluj, a town south of Tessenei, I observed several Toyota pickup cars. They were parked outside the town administration. The Toyota cars operated by some Rashaidas were laden with sheep and goat hide that was smuggled from the Sudan. Their clients were the PFDJ enterprises. This was a time, when some of the PFDJ leather tanning factories suffered from the loss of their traditional Ethiopian suppliers. The Rashaida operators were quite comfortable doing the business. The PFDJ was by their standards a late comer into the business. That is the smuggling business. The rogue regime, denied of trade relations with its neighbors, appears to have increasingly depended on the Rashaida to break the trade embargo. Not withstanding the denial, the smuggling business of the Rashaida has the blessing of the state. Have the Rashaida communities I knew made a big migration to the western border now. Or was it also their traditional abode? I do not know.

The comparison made to gypsies is not entirely correct. True, the Rashaida have been into the contraband trade for possibly hundreds of years. I believe, the similarity ends there. Unlike the Gypsies, who were time and again persecuted throughout in Europe, and some were to be gassed in concentration camps of the twentieth century, the Rashaida have remained fierce, proud, and armed. They have never been a "political threat" to any. Whatever that means.