September 1 – Anniversary of the Start of the Armed Struggles in Eritrea

nPostednon September 1, 2014

nInhave written about patriotic holidays in so many countries andnterritories around the world, I keep thinking that I’ve covered themnall…but I still haven’t!

Today’sncountry is fairly small (a little bit larger than Ohio). It isnlocated in the Horn of Africa, between Sudan and Ethiopia, with annice, long coastline along the Red Sea.

nWith official languages of Tigrinya, Arabic, and English, and with nine different ethnic groups (the majority are Tigrinya), the nation is diverse—but it voted almost unanimously to be independent of Ethiopia. But Ethiopia did not feel the same way—hence the “armed struggles.”

Rather than show you grisly
pictures of a 30-year war, I
thought I would just show you
some of the beauties of Eritrea.

nWaynback in 1890, Italians colonized Eritrea and nearby “ItaliannSomaliland.” During World War II, in 1936, Italian forces invadednand occupied Eritrea’s large southern neighbor, Ethiopia. When Alliednforces liberated the African regions, in 1941, Ethiopia once againnbecame an independent nation with its ancient monarchy. ItaliannSomaliland remained under Italian rule – but as a United Nationsnprotectorate, not as a colony. (In 1960, Italian Somaliland joinednBritish Somaliland to form an independent nation, Somalia.) And whatnhappened to Eritrea?

nEritreanwas made a British protectorate from the end of World War II untiln1951, Britain proposed dividing the nation in two, with thenmostly-Islam northwest regions given to Sudan and thenmostly-Christian southeast regions given to Ethiopia. (Don’t you lovenhow often European and American forces divvied up other countries, nonmatter what the people living there wanted or needed? Aack!)
n

Fromnwhat I can tell, this controversial idea was not used, but the U.N.,nprompted by the U.S., did “federate” Eritrea with Ethiopia. SoonnEthiopia was not only occupying Eritrea, it was passing lawsnestablishing the compulsory teaching of its main language, Amharic,nin all Eritrean schools and otherwise showing the Eritreans “who’snthe boss.”

nItnseems pretty natural to me that many Eritreans fought back againstnthis takeover, and on this date in 1961, violence between Ethiopianngovernmental forces and Eritrean separatists broke out. It was thenstart of a 30-year war!

Finally,nin 1991, the UN supervised a “referendum” (vote) in which almostnevery single citizen voted for independence. And finally it did winnits independence and recognition as a separate nation from otherncountries in the world.

nNownEritreans celebrate both the beginning and the end of this war. Todaynis the anniversary of the beginning, and May 24 is Independence Day,ncelebrating the 1991 takeover of the capital, Asmara, from Ethiopiannforces.

nWhy,noh why?

nWenoften scratch our heads over war, wondering why anyone would go tonwar over _________ [fill in the blank]. But in this case, I can tonsome extent imagine why Eritreans were sick of other people takingnover their country and insisting that they speak some OTHER language,nother than their own… Still, I wonder why, oh why would it benworthwhile for Ethiopia to fight the Eritreans for thirty long years?

nTakena peek at this map of Ethiopia to find out why:

nEthiopianis totally landlocked! It has no access to a sea or ocean. Eritrea,nDjibouti, and Somalia block it from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden onnthe north, and Somalia and Kenya block it from the Indian Ocean onnthe south and east.

nAsna matter of fact, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked nation innthe entire world.

nActually,nEritrea’s location on the Red Sea explains a lot of the invasions andncolonizations it experienced: South Arabians came to conquer, alongnwith Ottoman Turks, Portuguese, Egyptians, British, and Italians.nEspecially once the Suez Canal was built giving ships access from thenMediterranean to the Red Seas, Eritrea was in a very strategicnposition. n

nAlsonon this date:
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