Self-Reliance: Fraudulent Then, A Farce Now

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Branna

By Zekre Lebona
Sep 5, 2005, 21:28 PST

The latest magnificent article, on the farce of the “self reliance economy” of Eritrea at Asmarino.com website, by Yosief Gebrehiwet, inspired me to share my thoughts about the past. How did the Fronts manage themselves? And in particular the EPLF? Did the claims of self reliance or besefrina touted by this organization and repeated by Western visitors were an actual portrayal, and have any grain of truth?

A casual glance into the economic profile of the country prepared by the World Bank across many years often has many asterisks in it. The economists of this institution and the like that prepare spiral bound country reports, and our own elite did not dare to call it simply a remittance or an allowance economy, as Yosief convincingly did. Others, like the authors of the Financial Times study made in the mid 90s preferred to call it an abnormal economy. Was it diplomatic niceties in the World Bank case and Financial Times? In the case of the authors of the articles edited under the title, Emergent Eritrea, and published in the mid 1990s, it was opportunism. If the DIA’s “self reliance” claim in the post liberation era was a farce, the gedli era’s propaganda was also a fraudulent. Here are some memory-driven anecdotes to support it.

The Sahel around Arag mountains, a base area chosen by the three disparate groups of the Selfi Nasnet, Sabbe, and Obelite groups was largely largely a semi-arid and scarcely populated region. The mostly semi-nomadic population, whose livelihood mostly remains on the razor-edge, was not an ideal place to support the few hundred sized army.

Food supplies of the armed groups were often inadequate and unreliable. Sorghum and wheat flour were purchased in the Toker region of the Sudan, and smuggled in through Qorora. Some of the money source was believed to be from Sabbe.

Infrequently, a boat-load supplies of guns, canned food, uniforms, and tobacco also arrived. The uniforms were so few, peopled have to parade in front of the senior leaders, such as Isaias to show their state of raggedness and be selected. Grain was also so sparse that the semi-nomads of the locality would often come with their bags of halib to trade with the platoons for flour. In other instances, the fighters would foray into the semi-nomads’ tukuls, and ask for goats for purchase. When money was offered at, it was not bargained for. The prices offered were arbitrary, and did not factor in the prices offered at the Qorora market. Thus they were refused by the owners.

Despite their refusal our squads would force themm to sell. Desperate to keep their precious animals, some would shout at the goats to scatter. It was quite a sight, to see us chasing the goats encumbered by our heavy weapons. Other ploys were also used. An EPLF squad would appear at night, and pose as an ELF unit. It was used both to test the political loyalty of the few herders, and to get a nice meal. The herders would later then be reprimanded, and attend an indoctrination session. Possibly as a result of the Fronts’ periodic demand for food, and other factors such Malaria, the tukuls were often located far from the wadis, and in hidden valleys. The fighters would often stumble into them at night. The Sahel remained largely a mountain fastness and a food deficit area.

When hayletat were deployed to other provinces, they are not quite unlike the feudal armies prior to the Italian era. Two Selfi Nasnet hayletat were heading towards the Hamasien Plateau from the Sahel area in the early 70s. The few sacks of mainly rice and dates were soon consumed when they reached the hot plains of Semhar.

A small caravan of camels soon arrived with wheat flour (fino)secretly smuggled from Massawa and replenished the food stock. Our salt supply was also running out. A few of the enterprising megebti scraped some salt of dubious quality from the hot springs there. Not long after, I witnessed this curious incident.

In the early morning, four bulls of European breed were slowly being led by some fighters from our unit and their herders. It was quite strange looking at them in those barren areas. I soon learned that that they were “liberated” from a modern livestock farm owned by some “bureaucrat” in the Gahtelai area. The herders had initially begged the guerrillas to change their minds, and followed them out. The guerrillas found their company convenient for the bulls were getting nervous. With their help they brought them to be slaughtered for meat. Our protein starved army feasted then. The meat with the rice was quite a treat for many of us, so much so, some said they promise to eat the same dish after liberation. The poor herders having given up the hope of sparing their bulls, finally joined the meat feast. The Bahri-Bara region, located between the Semhar plains and the Hamasien Plateau, was sparsely populated then. Farmers from the Hamasien plateau with few of their belongings would migrate for a few months with their cattle. And the Tigre around the Adi-shuma area often reside there during the rainy season. It was a temporary abode for all. Besides these there were also some small orchard and coffee farms owned by Italians.

After having rested and fed, the fighters headed towards the escarpment. The Italian orchard farms visited by us reportedly were often, according to our commissars, blackmailed for money by the ELF units in the area. After the usual agit-prop sessions, the farm workers are asked to feed the agayesh tegadelti. A few qicha bread is the most that could be collected from these single farmers with poor means. Instead, we feasted on several baskets of oranges hastily picked, and many suffered from gorging themselves on their almost empty stomachs. This was a different type of extortion, from what the ELF units were maligned for. Occasionally, a few donkey caravans with wheat arrive from the few flour mills in the Hamasien villages. Burkuta breads would be baked in the open fires. The burkuta was the most popular and easy to prepare food for the bahri migrant farmers. These poor farmers would leave the Hamasien villages with a small sack of flour for the long stay. They live in small hidmos, a replica of the big ones left in their villages, and often suffer from want. When guerrillas arrive many of them would pitch in, and prepare burkutas. Their burkutas were often much smaller than ours. We were not very grateful for it. I remember one guerrilla complaining about their size. Kindi ballina zekona, he stated. We later reached the Hamasien villages around Geremi. Often we traveled at night, and met old couples in the hidmos, whose children have migrated for work to Asmara. Our commanders would summon the quaderes, and order them to fetch derar tegadalay. The villagers would hastily prepare for us some food, and pray we did not bivouac there, for there were then, garrisons of the commandes in the vicinity. We were often starved, and a few did not refrain from calling the latest village visited temeyti adi. There were also many days, when we have access to sacks of Karneshim dinesh. We ravenously used to eat a lot of it, and suffer indigestion later. A cash crop for the markets of Asmera, the potatoes were boiled for us, for the farmers of this region frequently suffer from grain deficit.

When we feel we have overstayed in the place, and the commandes are after us, we headed towards the Merara area, and down to the Mensa areas. Here the farmers’ lot is also the same. Besides, ELF influence was strong then, and were supporting them with their poor means. They subsist on the beles fruit during difficult seasons. When we venture into valleys, we picked beles indiscriminately from their groves. After a few skirmishes with the ELF, our stay became untenable, and we moved into the durfo area.The Saho live there. They also lead a vulnerable life. They subsist on beles too. Grudgingly they would prepare bojboj with milk, and some beles. We stayed a few days, and went downhill towards the durfo valleys. There were some orchards also there with few farmers tending them. We likewise commanded them to procure us food. In short we were mostly free loading. I never witnessed a farmer or a herder being compensated for it.

When the Derg lost the war, and Eritrea became independent, an umbrella of NGOs from the Scandinavia, who were funneling food across the border from the Sudan during the gedli years, commissioned a study to evaluate the impact of the cross border operations. The authors stated that, unlike other armed movements who prey on their people (SPLA was cited as an example), the EPLF was an exception. They argued by providing food and other scarce resources from its own, it was garnering political support from the people. They called this a reciprocal relationship. I believe they were conned by the EPLF. Extortion was always there. The link between the current coercion practices and the gedli era is apparent. What the West calls “stealing” was for us “liberating” it. The authors of the study, however, left us to ponder this: they said the “liberation economy” has never been revealed, and must be studied.