For quite some time, Burhan Ali has been writing excellent analytical articles about Eritrea, and other countries relevant to its affairs. He also doubled as a book reviewer of both fiction and non fiction type at the awate.com. His review of the novel The Plague by Albert Camus was an apt metaphor for the ongoing political malaise in our forsaken land.  I enjoyed it a lot.

Recently I came across an excellent book on Eritrea authored by Gaim Kibreab. With the exception of a few, Burhan has once said most of the books written about Eritrea have been “forgettable.” The books were I might also add dull, boring, superficial and often partisan (does not include books written in Arabic.)  In my opinion, this book however is both controversial and thought provoking.

The lacuna left since the last important book: Eritrea: A Colony in Transition 1941-52 has now been narrowed by Critical Reflections on the Eritrean War of Independence: Social capital, Associational Life, Religion, Ethnicity and Sowing seeds of Dictatorship. Unlike the puny book of Trevaskis though, Gaim’s book is a tome,(about 415 pages ) and deals with many facets of the complex history of Eritrea.

The title of the book and the size may be very intimidating for the average reader. Serious readers and scholars on the other hand, who were confounded with the complex and poorly researched history of Eritrea, would find it a treasure. Until the heavy weight writers such as Burhan Ali seize the opportunity, I have temporarily decided to stray from my memory driven articles and attempt to briefly share my opinions on Gaim’s book.

The author, a former refugee himself has published many books on the circumstances and survival strategies of a multitude of Eritreans in the various settlement camps of the Sudan, and the Sudanese people too. Having preoccupied himself with refugee affairs, he has now written an extensively researched book on the political atmosphere of the ghedli era, and the regime that resulted from it.

Gaim’s purpose was as he indicated to “examine” the war of independence. Among many matters, rights to associate, which he call the “associational life” during the resistance times, and the nature of the so far tolerant and benevolent nature of the civil society of Eritrea, which he termed “social capital”, and the political actors with respective armed organizations were widely discussed.

The “social capital” framework advanced by Gaim to understand the long and complex history of Eritrea’s war of independence, and its link to the repressive nature of the post independence regime in Eritrea is original. The literary investigation is also massive. The story and fate of both the famous and obscure rebel groups within the major rebel groups of both the ELF and the EPLF have also been unearthed.

Abu Tayara, one of the prominent veterans in the ELF organization, and mostly associated with the Obelites of the seventies died of old age in Eritrea, I surmise. Awate.com paid tribute to him. What is odd is to hear that the dictator in Asmera has done the same. After having destroyed all real and perceived rival organizations, and burying under their history, Isaias is now comfortable to say nice words about some. For those of you who wish to inform yourself about the Obelites and others, the book is a gem.

Our continent has for several decades been bedeviled by rapacious dictators of the traditional type, and by “liberation” touting regimes of former rebels now turned governments. We have now despaired of counting the number of the “failed” and “collapsed” civilizations. The famous American author Jared Diamond has attributed the cause for the genocide of close to a million Tutus in Rwanda to over population and the resulting conflict for resources.

If resource conflict is the blame for the massive killing in largely fertile Rwanda, what horrible things could be contemplated in arid and semi-arid countries such as Eritrea. Gaim stipulates that what kept and sustained the diverse society of Eritrea in tact for close to a century, with the aberration of a few, is the reciprocal and dependent relationship of its both pastoral and farming communities.

For Gaim natural resource poor Eritrea has nonetheless been endowed with what he coined “social capital.”  For those who studied Economics 101 many years back, we should be aware that information/knowledge may have lately been added to the factors of production. The proponent of “social capital” equally compares it to financial capital and other resources. And unlike many countries in the Continent, Eritrea in his opinion has been blessed with this rare asset.

His hypothesis of “social capital” is contrary to what Trevaskis, the former British colonial officer said once.  The colonial officer felt the native were “acting up”, when they began to assert themselves both their identity and loyalty under the British Military Administration, which resulted in some ugly scenes. He said the people have been “ungrateful” to their former masters, who both kept their stomach full and “anesthetized” the many latent factors for conflict.

For the “social capital” theory to hold, I argue that sustainable and democratic governance is a precondition. The brief window of some democracy under the tutelage of the BMA coincided with the rise of religious and other factors based conflicts.

Gaim and another historian Alemseged Tesfay seem to concur that the conflict was minimal and among a minority of people limited to Asmera and the youth groups of the Muslim and the Unionist political parties. Political writers have often conveniently described active but “minor” political movements in different ways. We do not tend disparage the initially small, but active armed political groups of the independence war.

We hope their narration is accurate, for the alleged “harmony” that lasted close to a century under the Italian colonial era and after has required the vigilant and heavy handed interventions of particularly the current regime. We do not know much about the pre-colonial history of Eritrea. Have you lately observed the shrieking of the government supporters and the regime relishing the sad civil strife in Kenya? According to them the hafash is in total “harmony” in totalitarian Eritrea, and woe to those who complain for democracy.

The book has also extensively dealt with the so far elusive search for democratic governance by the various political actors in the Eritrean resistance. Not so many years after the “first shot” was fired the armed wing of ELM, a mostly urban based movement and relatively enlightened group were murdered by larger ade-ghedli ELF organization. Many people were probably not aware it, and this did not harbor well for the nation.

Not encumbered by bad publicity made on the several dissenting groups made by the victors, the book has painstakingly looked for primary sources, when available and shed a balanced coverage. The liberation historiography of both the ELF and the EPLF were carefully scrutinized and none of them were solely free of blame. ELF’s “olive branch” towards the splinter groups, and particularly the Selfi Nasnet is juxtaposed with its decision to take military actions.

For those of you, who made it a habit attending the March 8, PFDJ Women’s day, the book has a surprise. In the vicious propaganda war between the Fronts, the EPLF did not hesitate to use male chauvinistic songs to denigrate the both the female and male combatants of the ELF. The irony is that this is coming from a Front that allegedly espoused the emancipation of women from the downward looking traditional Eritrean customs. One of the songs goes like this:

Eza keyah qolea
Tegadalit ama
Ab kendi kalashin
Qolea tesekima

Life for women fighters under the EPLF/PFDJ has remained bleak and hopeless. The percentage of single headed among former female fighters has been considerably higher than for the rest of the society.

Who has not noticed the presence of scores of former veteran female fighters working as parking attendants in down town Asmera? Progressive appearing programs notwithstanding women in the EPLF were not the mythical “Amazon woman” they were often compared with by some foreign writers. The despicable condition of the women at Sawa boot camp, and the front lines further attests to the hollowness of the claims.

The subsequent EPLF whitewash that life under the ELF left no option but splitting was also disputed. That they were not the alternative democratic organization was amply debunked by the cruel measures they took against the prominent leaders of the Menkae group.  Who were already in custody, and unarmed. The fate of the “falul” group in the Jebha was also examined, which was the latest quest for some sort of reform in the Jebha was also brutally repressed, and left a heavy impact on the ELF. The scene described at Korekon near the Sudanese border was ghastly. Many senior cadres of the ELF were summarily executed.

The riddle is how did the civil society uniquely endowed with a “social capital” harbor in its womb many political actors with ruthless and intolerant organizations? Who in the EPLF’s gutted out their institutions such as the barite, and appropriated their land tool. Were they exogenous to the culture and tradition of the society like the Khmer Rouge, who appeared among the gently Cambodians as some historians allege? Or is there some malaise still undiscovered in our history like what the Khmer Rouge allegedly inherited from their Angkor Wot rulers as some historian mentioned? Last but not least how did the civil society fare under the liberation fronts?

The author is afraid that “association life” almost totally disappeared under the fronts, and furthermore believes that the asset “social capital” may have been eroded to some extent. The current totalitarian political atmosphere has without doubt proved the creeping disfranchisement of our people from the ghedli era. When left organizations begin to tamper the culture of their people initially on the sly and later brazenly it is most accompanied with the terror to cow the people. The killing victims of the ELF, and particularly the EPLF that were gathered in the book are only several scores, and are mostly prominent political cadres. We do not know much from it about the countless people who were either abducted and taken to the base of areas of the fronts, or killed on the spot in their villages for some alleged political crime.

It is my contention that thousands may have been made to disappear, and therefore, the magnitude of the repression is much bigger that what the book admits. The Kunama, and the Nara genocide made by Ras Alula’s army in the late 19th century and its demographic impact is a grim reminder of the horrible times at the close of the 19^th century. The chronicler of the Ras, who does not have to answer for the violations universally accepted human rights, boasted openly about the brutal measures carried by the Abyssinian army.  Like their counterparts in the rest of the world, the left political leaders of ghedli era, were mostly carrying out political killings in secret, and as a friend once mentioned a sealed environment.

Yes people do die, while attempting to flee the scorching deserts of the Sahel, and others while crossing the Red Sea for some safe haven as the author remarked, when discussing the fate of the countless who have disappeared. Such statements in my opinion simply serve to underestimate the scale of the killings. The score of killing mentioned in the text are what we witness occurring in many palace coups around the world.  It is better instead to suggest that we prepare ourselves for a systematic tally of the disappeared, when the proper political climate allows it.

Gaim’s theory of “social capital” resembles Desalegn Rahamato’s concept of “coping mechanism” that I now dimly remember. When studying the often famine prone people of the Wello who inhabit a diverse ecological zones, which are also similar to Eritraea’s, he discovered various and complex peasant strategies of survival. The multi faith people and multi agro-ecological dwellers of Wello were according to him not passive to harvest failures. He mentioned the dependency of the highlanders on the seasonal farm work in the riverine areas, and the trans-humans of the lowland people to the highlands during the rainy season. 

If what I compare is wrong, and the “social capital” that Gaim talks about is another thing altogether, like ethos of a country, whatever is left of it will hopefully cushion the tumbling down of the current political edifice. I have some grounds for my less optimism. Like most people, I have read the recent scoop made by the Reporters without Borders about the Eraeiro African Gulag around Ghahtelay.

The camp doctor we learned is Dr. Haile Mihsun, who after the demise of Menkae movement in the Sahel was imprisoned. He survived the incarceration, while his fellow colleagues were executed without any sort of due process of law. His friend and fellow prisoner, on the other hand, the pharmacist Michael Habte, went stark mad, and was often seen doing a solitary walk in Asmera’s streets. What do you make of this? When a former victim docilely serves the regime that is currently persecuting his former persecutors. His past history as a victim and his noble profession should have stopped him from his current horrible practice. Deservedly the Reporters Without Borders have requested the EU to include him among a suggested list persona non grata from Eritrea. It makes you wonder, what has “social capital” begat.  

If we are lucky, when the failed state explodes, the residual of the “social capital” may spare us the Somalia disaster and other possible scenarios. Gaim’s does not put any shred of hope on the current opposition political organizations. Their frequent “amoeba like” division and dependency on self interested neighboring countries like Ethiopia has according to him diminished their role. But “amoeba like” division and political influence and political interference from neighbors have always been in the history of the armed struggle. I argue that unlike in the sixties the public has now been exhausted. Like the mythical legend Atlas, who carried the earth on his shoulders, the Eritrean masses have been carrying a heavy and grateful burden, and their knees seem now to be buckling.

For quite many years, we have been complaining about our gutless intellectuals, who have either mostly kept silent or chose to defend the rampaging regime. Unlike many of us Gaim is not a pamphleteer, who frequently writes about political issues in Eritrea in some Eritrean websites. This book has all the features of years of painstaking, solitary and disciplined work that we expect from a historian. It is also unique.

Like the rich “social capital” asset that was probably instrumental in narrowing the social cleavages during our history, a book from a historian who hails from Keren, the bastion of “social capital,” may help reconcile our often bitter political interpretations. Gaim has set a trend for others to follow his path. The least we can do is to read his book and critically debate it.