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7 Nationalist Networks
- University of Nevada Press
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122 7 Nationalist Networks The Eritrean Diaspora Online victoria bernal The ways that Eritreans in diaspora are engaged with cyberspace reveal some of the ways that transnational migration, coupled with new technologies of communication, is transforming political participation. The Internet may be the quintessential media for diasporas because it so easily bridges distance and dispersal. But it would be wrong to see the new technology as simply facilitating or speeding up communication across social networks that are already there. New media, especially the Internet, are making possible new kinds of communicative spaces and practices. New discursive communities are emerging that, while they may, as in the case of Eritreans, build upon existing social networks on the ground, bring them together and extend their membership, purpose, and significance in novel ways. Although new information technologies make possible such things as cheap and immediate communication among dispersed interlocutors across long distances, technological potential itself does not determine and cannot by itself explain the uses to which it is put. Despite their global scale and their lack of a physical location, Internet communications are not independent of cultural context. The ways in which they are given form, character, and meaning relate to social systems and political structures on the ground (see, for example, v an Den Boss and Nell 2006; Miller and Slater 2006; t h e e r i t r e a n d i a s p o r a 123 and Whitaker 2006). In the Eritrean case, the history of nationalist organizing and the state’s interest in mobilizing the diaspora has led to an Eritrean online public sphere with distinct characteristics whose individual posts and overall patterns of posting can be understood only in relation to the transnational field of Eritrean politics of which it is a part (see also Bernal 2004). diaspora as an eritrean world wide web During the course of the thirty-year struggle for independence from Ethiopia , an estimated one million Eritreans fled their country (unicef 1994). Thus, at the time of independence nearly one out of every three Eritreans was living outside the country. Although physically located outside Eritrea’s boundaries, Eritreans in diaspora were actively involved in the struggle for independence. The primary nationalist movement, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (epl f ) was organized transnationally with cells and affiliated organizations in many countries. These political organizations connected Eritreans in diaspora to the struggle’s leadership within Eritrea (Hepner 2005). The epl f was extremely successful in mobilizing the diaspora and harnessing its energy and resources for the nationalist cause. While solidly based within Eritrea, the epl f extended far beyond Eritrea’s borders and maintained communications with Eritreans abroad (Al-Ali, Black, and Koser 2001). During the course of three decades of struggle Eritrean organizations and individuals in diaspora organized political support, staged public events, held demonstrations, and engaged in public relations efforts on behalf of the Eritrean cause. They funneled resources and supplies to the Front. In some cases Eritreans even left the safety of their new homes to join the ranks of epl f fighters on the battlefront in Eritrea. For Eritreans in diaspora the nationalist movement served as an organizing force in their experiences of exile and forced migration, connecting Eritreans to each other, to their homeland, and, not incidentally, to visions of a better future. At the same time, the experiences of escape, displacement, and survival in new lands produced new forms of community and new bases for the connections among Eritreans living in diaspora (Woldemikael 1996). The isolation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement experienced by Eritreans in diaspora contribute to their continued identification as Eritreans, despite holding citizenship of other nations. Shared personal histories of lives disrupted, loved ones killed, and families separated by war provide an impetus for Eritreans in diaspora to keep in contact with fellow Eritreans who understand firsthand what they have been through. The histories of Ethiopian oppression, war, and displacement that members of the diaspora share thus contribute to the [3.95.233.107] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 02:25 GMT) 124 d i a s p o r a s i n t h e n e w m e d i a a g e bonds of community and connectedness even among Eritreans who had no prior relationship with each other back in Eritrea. In addition, because so many Eritreans fled the country, many Eritreans in diaspora are in contact with former neighbors and classmates as well as relatives in...