In 1991, after a long, arduous and highly dynamic struggle that transformed many of the bases of their society, the Eritrean people won their freedom. The attempt began to reconstruct their war-ravaged society. But, following the renewal of conflict with Ethiopia in 1998 and continuation of hostilities, many of those earlier gains have been set back and the movement towards popular democracy reversed. The nature of Eritrea’s post-independence state, the earlier struggle for gender equality and the current crackdown on dissent are here illuminated.
and Building a New Nation: collected articles on the Eritrean revolution (1983-2002), vol. 2 ( Trenton, NJ, Red Sea Press , 2004).
2.
Eritrea Constitution, Articles 5 and 7, <http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/CAFRAD/UNPAN00464.pdf>.
3.
See Dan Connell , ‘Inside the EPLF: the origins of the ‘‘People’s Party’’ & its role in the liberation of Eritrea,’Review of African Political Economy (Vol. XXVIII, September 2001), pp. 345-364 .
4.
For a discussion of the underlying complexities of this conflict, see Leenco Lata , ‘The Ethiopia-Eritrea war ,’ Review of African Political Economy (Vol. XXX, September 2003), pp. 369-388 .
5.
See Dan Connell , ‘Enough! A critique of Eritrea’s post-liberation politics,’ retrieved from <http://allafrica.com/stories/200311060876.html>.
6.
For a narrative account of these measures, see Debessay Hedru , ‘Eritrea: transition to dictatorship, 1991-2003,’Review of African Political Economy (Vol. XXX, 2003), pp. 435-444 .
7.
I was in Eritrea in 2001 as the criticism of the president went public, and I interviewed several top-ranking dissidents shortly before they were imprisoned indefinitely. These interviews appear in Dan Connell , Conversations with Eritrean Political Prisoners ( Trenton, NJ, Red Sea Press , 2004).
