Paper long abstract:

The proposed paper aims to reconstruct the historical trajectories of identity-building processes in Eritrea by looking at the extent to which the demarcation of borders contributed to the creation of homogenous cultures and to the ways in which people accepted, negotiated and resisted borders and the imposition of identities. The paper will utilise patterns of migration in order to examine processes of identity-formation and citizenship in a context in which borders become the paradigm for the definition of all policies. It will examine older (pre-colonial) patterns of migration – for example political and economic migration – and the extent to which migratory movements presented ‘fluid’ features. It will analyse the ways in which the demarcation of borders (and, as a consequence, the political consolidation, socio-economic changes, administrative transformations and especially the militarisation of Eritrea) changed patterns of migration between Eritrea and northeast Ethiopia, creating new forms of inclusion and exclusion and generating new identities as well as reaffirming old ones.