The Trans-Mereb Experience: Perceptions of the Historical Relationship between Eritrea and Ethiopia

Abstract

This article offers an exploration of the historical relationship between Eritrea and Ethiopia. This has been a problematic relationship, as demonstrated by the degree of conflict in this region, and, in the abstract sense, insofar as analysis of the history of the relationship has been both polemical and polarised. The region's pre-colonial history has been used either to demonstrate Ethiopia's legitimate historical control of much of what is now Eritrea, or to refute this older, more ‘traditional’, perception and to prove that Eritrea was at no time an integral part of a ‘greater Ethiopian/Abyssinian empire’. This latter, revisionist approach to the pre-colonial past is still in its infancy, the offspring of a recent and potent Eritrean nationalism. Perceptions of key periods in the region's twentieth-century history are similarly polarised. By way of illustration, the article considers four historical scenarios, key snapshots in the history of the relationship: (i) the pre-colonial era; (ii) the period of British administration in the 1940s; (iii) the Eritrean liberation struggle; and (iv) the more recent war between the two countries. Each scenario is looked at in three ways: first, for what we might call the ‘factual indisputability’ of the scenario, in other words presenting as neutral and objective a view of the period as is possible; second, the ‘standard Ethiopianist’ interpretation of the period in question; and third, the ‘Eritrean revisionist’ understanding of the scenario.

Notes

1. See also Reid, ‘The Challenge of the Past’.

2. Marcus, History of Ethiopia, xiii.

3. Marcus, Life and Times of Menelik II, 20; Rubenson, Survival of Ethiopian Independence, 31.

4. Markakis, Ethiopia, 25; Marcus, History of Ethiopia, 91; Zewde, History of Modern Ethiopia, 84–85.

5. Pateman, Even the Stones, 33–37; Haile, ‘Historical Background to the Ethiopia–Eritrea conflict’, 12–13.

6. For example, see Holcomb and Ibssa, The Invention of Ethiopia.

7. See for example, Reid, ‘Mutesa and Mirambo’.

8. Smith, Warfare and Diplomacy, 4.

9. See for example Reid, ‘Warfare and Urbanisation’.

10. Lobo, Voyage to Abyssinia, 29, 65.

11. Lobo, Voyage to Abyssinia, 28.

12. Lobo, Voyage to Abyssinia, 65.

13. Lobo, Voyage to Abyssinia, 199.

14. Lobo, Voyage to Abyssinia, 200.

15. Marcus, History of Ethiopia, 27, offers the standard statement.

16. See for example Salt, A Voyage to Abyssinia and Travels, 227–29.

17. See for example Salt, A Voyage to Abyssinia and Travels, 213.

18. The following military chorus, recited by Salt's Tigrayan companions while travelling in south-central Eritrea, is worth noting in terms of its reference to alien physical environment: ‘We are now journeying in a desert country/Surrounded by wild beasts and savages’: ibid., 235–36.

19. The following military chorus, recited by Salt's Tigrayan companions while travelling in south-central Eritrea, is worth noting in terms of its reference to alien physical environment: ‘We are now journeying in a desert country/Surrounded by wild beasts and savages’, 488, 491–92.

20. Plowden, Travels in Abyssinia, 25.

21. Salt, A Voyage to Abyssinia and Travels, 307.

22. Gobat, Journal, 37–38.

23. Plowden, Travels in Abyssinia, 8–9.

24. Plowden, Travels in Abyssinia, 22.

25. Plowden, Travels in Abyssinia, 39.

26. Berkeley, The Campaign of Adowa, 35.

27. Plowden, Travels in Abyssinia, 24–25, 27.

28. Gobat, Journal, 39.

29. Portal, My Mission to Abyssinia, 81.

30. Portal, My Mission to Abyssinia, 5–6.

31. Portal, My Mission to Abyssinia, 7.

32. Portal, My Mission to Abyssinia, 34.

33. Portal, My Mission to Abyssinia, 62–63.

34. Portal, My Mission to Abyssinia, 71ff.

35. Pankhurst, Eritrea on the Eve, ‘Foreward’.

36. Pankhurst, Eritrea on the Eve, 59.

37. Longrigg, A Short History of Eritrea, 3.

38. Longrigg, A Short History of Eritrea, 9.

39. Longrigg, A Short History of Eritrea, 169–70.

40. Nadel, Races and Tribes of Eritrea, 71, 78.

41. Trevaskis, Eritrea: A Colony in Transition, 130.

42. Trevaskis, Eritrea: A Colony in Transition, 131.

43. Perham, The Government of Ethiopia, 358, 377.

44. Perham, The Government of Ethiopia, 434–35.

45. A good example is Ellingson, ‘The Emergence of Political Parties in Eritrea’.

46. Zewde, Modern Ethiopia, 107, 181, and Negash, Eritrea and Ethiopia, passim, effectively summarise the argument on the Ethiopian side. See Iyob, The Eritrean Struggle for the Eritrean case. Alemseged Tesfay, involved in research at the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) in Eritrea, has recently produced some work on this period which is loyal to the nationalist interpretation. Unfortunately, this work is written in Tigrinya, making it extremely difficult for Western scholars and observers to evaluate it, although it has been translated into Amharic and Arabic. Rumours abound that it will be translated into English eventually. See also Reid, ‘The Challenge of the Past’, passim.

47. See Young, ‘The Tigray and Eritrean Peoples’ Liberation Fronts’; Reid, ‘Old Problems in New Conflicts’.

48. For example, Negash, Eritrea and Ethiopia; Abbay, Identity Jilted.

49. A selection would include: Pateman, Even the Stones; Iyob, The Eritrean Struggle; Connell, Against All Odds.

50. Reid, ‘The Challenge of the Past’, 267ff.

51. Two lengthy documents, held in the Research and Documentation Centre (RDC), Asmara, which are particularly valuable in assessing the contemporary attitudes of the protagonists are: Publications of the EPLF: ‘The TPLF and the development of its relations with the EPLF’ (c.1984): RDC Acc. No. 05062/Rela/3; and Publications of the TPLF: ‘The Eritrean struggle, from where to where? An assessment’ (1985): RDC Acc. No. Rela/10359.

52. Even when the Eritrean government accepted the OAU peace plan in February 1999, immediately following the Eritrean army's defeat on the Badme front, it was dismissed in Addis Ababa as disingenuous and compelled purely by military setback.

53. See Reid, ‘Old Problems in New Conflicts’, 379ff.

54. Interviews were carried out by the author along the former frontline areas on the Eritrean side in the summer of 2000.