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- Convenor:
-
Sara Dorman
(University of Edinburgh)
- Stream:
- Environment, development and human rights
- Location:
- G50
Short Abstract
none
Long Abstract
The papers in this panel bring ethnographic, political economic, and sociological perspectives to the analysis of Eritrean nationalism, state power, and society after fifteen years of independence. The authors understand nationhood as an unfinished social project fraught with conflict and contradictions. The papers’ explore tensions between centralized state power and participatory democracy in the context of war, displacement, and militarization.
Accepted papers
Session 1Paper long abstract
Permanent defence and the development of the Eritrean nation are the ideological benchmarks of president Isayas Afewerki's policy. Following the tradition of the liberation struggle young Eritrean adults have to complete a national service. As so-called 'warsay' they are considered to be the heirs of the Eritrean freedom fighters, the 'yikealo' or 'tegadelti'. In theory this national service includes a 12 months military and a 6 months civil service either in the country's bureaucracy(BESSER: civil administration) or in development projects. In reality young women often remain warsay up to the age of 27, men up to the age of 35 and above. Thousands have not been allowed to leave the military after the war against Ethiopia (1998-2000). They suffer from financial hardship, lawless arbitrariness, war traumas, forced labour and the general political repression, and find themselves unable to plan for their future, be it on a private or a professional level. Warsay who serve in the ministries and authorities of the Eritrean capital Asmara can consider themselves privileged: the city offers at least some possibilities to partially realize their dreams and concepts of a good life - even if in quite different and subversive ways.
Paper long abstract
In 'developmental states' education plays a particular important role in achieving wider objectives of the state, with two factors commonly characterising educational policies: a high degree of centralised planning accompanied by an integrated approach towards economic development and human capital formation, and considerable emphasis on the social and moral dimensions of education. This is equally the case in Eritrea, a developmental state in which the state 'substitutes itself for society in the definition of societal goals'.
The proposed paper will take the example of Eritrea's human resource development strategy to discuss more generally the scope of individual actors versus the powerful Eritrean state. In concrete, it will look at one group of people who are destined to become part of the future elite of the country: students at Asmara University. Methodologically, the paper is based on life history and observation data collected during the academic year 2000/2001, supplemented by survey data from a wider sample of students. This is put into a more recent context, including the 'militarization' of formal education, based on observation and interview data collected between 2002 and 2004.
It will be shown that on the one hand the Eritrean government has been extremely successful in mobilizing human resources and creating an imagined identity that puts the nation first, what has also been described as 'personal nationalism'. At the time of the main study most young educated Eritreans were willing to go along with government interference into their personal lives. On the other hand globalisation has not bypassed the country. Global dynamics are strongly enforced by the Eritrean Diaspora and are transforming personal and national aspirations.
Eritrea in its current nation-building state of development is at a crossroads. It can follow the present path of constructing policies from above and mobilise or lately coerce the population to follow those for their own benefit and the nation's development. Or it can genuinely start from people's multiple realities, and take the aspirations people have for their personal lives seriously. Only in the latter case will a majority of the educated population remain committed to work for the development of Eritrea - instead of taking up the opportunities offered by the global environment beyond. Ultimately, the most important legacy of the 'Eritrean revolution' might be to have created the conditions for parts of the post-independence generation to aspire for and actively bring about a different future.