The Pillage of Sustainability in Eritrea, 1600s-1990s: Rural Communities and the Creeping Shadows of Hegemony (review)

Booh Reviews The Pillage ofSustainability in Eritrea, 160Os-1990s: Rural Communities and the Creeping Shadows ofHegemony Niaz Murtaza Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998. Pp. vii, 203. This book is the published version of the author's Berkeley dissertation, based upon nine months of field research in rural Eritrea. Taking a nuanced political ecology approach, the author analyses how the successive political-economic structures and state policies ofItalian colonialism, Ethiopian rule, and the independent People's Front for Democracy andJustice (PFDJ) have interacted with highly localized, historical, social, cultural, religious, and ecological features of both highland and lowland rural communities. He then draws conclusions and makes policy recommendations to the new state regarding the sustainability and viability of rural communities. The book is valuable to government officials , developmentalists, and Horn specialists focusing on the capitalist global economy's penetration of highly marginalized, small-scale social groupings. Murtaza points out that intrusive administrative policies (including, but not limited to, colonialism) and prolonged war have severely diminished the sustainable productive capacities of Eritrean rural communities, especially in regions where drought and famine hit frequently. The author has conducted original research in a variety of highland and lowland rural communities, taking into account local variations in history, culture, and ecology, as well as gender , class, and ethnic social organization. He pays close attention to how these diverse communities have articulated with the administrative structures of Italian colonialism, Ethiopian rule, and the independent People's Front for Democracy andJustice (PFDJ) regime.®Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 5, No. 3 (New Series) 1998, pp. 117-125 117 118 Book Reviews The central unifying idea throughout the study is that ecological calamities and limitations (such as drought and poor soil quality) and local ethnic conflicts have been far less intrusive threats to the productivity and sustainability of rural communities than structural political-economic changes introduced by successive state administrations. The author begins by situating the study in the field of development studies and development policy and defines key terms and concepts that he relies on in the subsequent chapters. Substantial attention is given to Eritrea's enormous ecological variation, focusing particularly on the conditions that make reliance on agriculture (and hence food security) difficult. Focusing on the general trends of lowland Tigre and highland Tigrinya communities , Murtaza describes the ways in which rural dwellers have deployed indigenous knowledge, organization, "values," and technology to confront natural limitations on productivity. The author details the periods of Italian colonialism and Ethiopian administration /occupation primarilyby illustrating how state administrative structures (including the building of infrastructure, the creation of industrial wage-labor, and changing educational systems), despite their apparent initial advantages, have inflicted lasting damage on rural communities. Unlike natural calamities and limitations, for which rural communities have developed elaborate coping mechanisms, changes introduced by successive state administrations altered the conditions and outcomes of rural people's relationship with the land and control over resources. Murtaza sees the extensive structural changes introduced by Italian colonialism as far more intrusive and damaging to Eritrean communities in the long run than were the impacts of the prolonged war with Ethiopia. He does acknowledge, however, that many of the negative consequences of Italian rule did not fully emerge until—and then were aggravated by—the war with Ethiopia. Drawing upon his analyses ofItalian and Ethiopian rule, Murtaza evaluates the legacies of colonialism and war for the new Eritrean state, and the range of choices now available to the PFDJ government. Referring to the government's "increasing tendencies towards centralization and modernization and the deterioration of ties with a number of regional countries," (108) noting the potential negative impacts of exiles returning after many years in the industrialized, consumerist West, and realistically assessing Eritrea's disadvantaged position vis-a-vis foreign investment and aid, the author points out Book Reviews 119 that rural communities continue to face new sources ofmarginalization in independent Eritrea. The case studies of a variety of rural communities in highland and lowland Eritrea, from the Italian colonial period to the present, are perhaps the most interesting sections of the study. After laying out—too briefly—a methodology thatbears more surface resemblance to ethnography than rapid appraisal methods , Murtaza examines the...