Anatomy of an African Tragedy: Political, Economic and Foreign Policy Crisis in Post-Independence Eritrea, and: Conversations with Eritrean Political Prisoners (review)

These two books by three experienced scholars of Eritrean, Horn of Africa, and international political issues complement each other in demonstrating the disillusionment that has set in because of the failure of postindependence Eritrea to live up to the hopes of its early supporters.

Following an introduction (in chapter 1) that places Eritrea in its postcolonial African context, chapter 2 of Mengisteab's and Yohannes's book summarizes "the history and anatomy of a populist authoritarian state," essentially arguing that political, economic, and cultural democracy have all failed to materialize. After emerging as the dominant political-military movement in Eritrea by the late 1970s, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) became increasingly authoritarian and nondemocratic. This trend continued in the first years of independence in the early 1990s, as the Front transformed itself into the Popular Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), the sole political party in the new state.

The authors argue that "cultural democracy" could theoretically be a sound policy for the linguistically, ethnically, regionally, and culturally diverse country, but the government has exploited such differences to "divide and contain" rather than allow the free expression of differences to create a larger sense of unity. Similarly, the promotion of women's rights has long been a crucial plank in the program of the Eritrean struggle from the time of the 1977 "National Democratic Program" of the EPLF to the 1994 "National Charter" of the PFDJ. Statements in these documents called for the eradication of prostitution, the promotion of education and skills for women, and the protection of women's social rights and equality. The actual practices of the movement and the new state, however, have been somewhat different. For example, the authors allege that rather than ending prostitution, the leaders of the new state became its "principal consumers" (66). They practiced a new concubinage, encouraged the export of women for labor in the Arabian Gulf region, and co-opted women's concerns by creating the National Union of Eritrean Women as an appendage of the state party, rather than allowing the free expression and development of women's issues and desires by women themselves.

With regard to the economy, the authors acknowledge the real difficulties of economic reconstruction and note that there was a respectable growth rate between 1991 and 1997. But in chapter 3 they are mostly critical of the state's "dysfunctional economic strategy." They argue that, rather than taking its place in the usual two-legged state and private economy, the PFDJ constituted a third leg independent of the state. The early widely publicized idea of "self-reliance" failed, and the later idea of obtaining massive foreign capital to transform Eritrea into an East African Singapore foundered on the inability to provide adequate infrastructure. The economic failures of the regime are elaborated upon in chapter 3.

It soon became evident that rather than developing into a political democracy, Eritrea was "slouching toward a dictatorship," in the authors' colorful phrase (84). Although the authors argue that signs of this trend were evident even before independence, the political stance of the party became very clear with the government's 2001 cancellation of national elections and the arrest of eleven veteran members of the liberation movement. The failure of political democracy is discussed further in chapter 4.

In chapter 6 the authors provide a detailed analysis of the Eritrean-Ethiopian war of 1998–2000, pointing out three broader issues that underlay the immediate border conflict. They find fault on both sides for the failure to prevent the initial conflict and the escalation to a large-scale war with an estimated one hundred thousand casualties and tremendous disruptions and human costs...