Paper short abstract:

How the introduction of colonial modernity, the thirty years of war for independence, and the post-independence nation building projects have impacted production and social reproduction in Eritrea?

Paper long abstract:

Historically, in the precolonial Eritrea, agriculture—small scale cultivation and herding—has been the predominant, if not, the sole means of production and subsistence. However, over the past century, Eritrea has been under major socio-political and economic upheavals that have created supplementary and alternative modes of production. Italian colonialism, the thirty years bloody war for independence, and the post-independence nation building project are some of the significant ones. Italian colonization introduced colonial modernity into the lives of the Eritrean people by establishing the colonial modern state and introducing capitalism and wage labour into the economy. The Ethiopian rule over Eritrea is characterized by the unmitigated humanitarian and environmental havoc in Eritrea. The brutality of Ethiopian rule and the protracted Eritrean war of independence led to the death, displacement and emigration of hundreds of thousands of Eritreans. Since then, migration and remittance have become another means of production and social reproduction. During the early years of independence, the country was ruined and damaged by the thirty years bloody war for liberation. The state had to start almost everything from scratch and made some socio-economic reforms. Hence post-independence is characterized by the state’s engagement on nation building, which significantly has impacted production and social reproduction and the political economy at large. My study aims to study how such socio-economic and political developments have impacted agriculture, which is the predominant means of production in Eritrea.