The Eritrean Muslim League and Political Mobilization during the Ethiopian-Eritrean Federation (1952–62)

This paper argues that as the Ethiopian government’s efforts to compromise Eritrean sovereignty increased throughout the period of the Ethiopian-Eritrean Federation (1952–62), the regional Islamic leadership and community activists within the Eritrean Muslim League (EML), the country’s oldest and largest nationalist organization, played an increasingly dominant role in arguing for the protection of Muslim rights. In the process, activists influenced the growing nationalist movement by using the legacy of Islam to justify both the political and cultural autonomy of Eritrean society. Using previously overlooked archival sources, Muslim League publications, secondary literature, and interviews with activists from the period in question, this article attempts to revise current understandings about how the implementation and steady erosion of the Ethiopian-Eritrean Federation influenced the course of political and cultural activism among Eritrea’s Muslim communities. It discusses some of the ways that federation-era nationalists within the League embraced inter-religious cooperation as a means of addressing perceived injustices and as way of building broad political support.