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I Didn’t Do It For You by Michela Wrong

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I Didn’t Do It for You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation by Michela Wrong

Ethiopia and Eritrea

Eritrea is a small African country on the Red Sea. Eritrea gets its name from Erythraeum Mare (Latin for Red Sea). Since 1991 it has been independent of Ethiopia.  It’s capital is Asmara, which is in the mountains. Massawa, on the Red Sea coast, is its main port. Eritrea is half Eritrean Orthodox Christian (mostly in the highlands) and half Moslem (mostly along the coast). The Tigray are on both sides of the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Tigray speak Tigrinya, a Semitic language.

Italy’s First Colony

At the end of the 19th century, Italy founded its first foreign colony, in Eritrea. Previously, Eritrea had been part of the Ottoman Empire. The Italians build a railroad from Massawa up the mountains to Asmara. Many Italian men had children with Eritrean women.

The Fascists, the British, and World War II

When the Fascists gained control of Italy, they imposed racial segregation between the Africans and whites in Eritrea. On the plus side, the Fascists built many beautiful Italian Art Deco buildings Asmara. Italian Fascists built a naval base at Massawa. Many Eritrean Ascari soldiers fought with the Italians in Mussolini’s attack on Ethiopia. Sylvia Pankhurst, based in London, was a major advocate for Eritrea and Ethiopia. In 1936 she started the New Times and Ethiopian News newspaper. During the early years of World War II in Africa, the British won a major battle against the Italians at Keren in Eritrea. British forces included a large number of Indian soldiers. After the war, the British engaged in asset-stripping of Ethiopia and Eritrea and paid no compensation to either the Italians or the Africans.

The United Nations and the Period of Federation

In December, 1950, the United Nations passed the Federal Act, which stated that Eritrea should be an autonomous unit federated with Ethiopia. This was a compromise between annexation and independence. In theory, this arrangement could be modified in the future only with the approval of the General Assembly of the UN. The British left Eritrea in July 1952. Eritrea was formally semi-autonomous from 1952 to 1962, but Ethiopia did not treat Eritrea with respect. Ethiopia collected custom’s duties at Eritrean ports, but gave Eritrea none of the money. Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia replaced Tigrinya and Arabic in Eritrea with the Amharic language of Ethiopia. Eventually, Ethiopia abolished the Federation, and annexed Eritrea in 1962, and the UN did nothing to stop it. The UN did not even respond to numerous letters from Eritrea after the annexation. The West needed Ethiopian goodwill in the Cold War against the Soviet Union.

The United States and Kagnew Station

The United States gave Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia, $180 million in U.S. military aid between 1946-1972. This was because the National Security Agency operated a system of radio dishes on 3,400 acres of land at Kagnew Station, a place of great radio reception on the Hamasien plateau. The largest dish was 150 ft. in diameter and weighed 6 thousand tons.

The Soviet Union and the Derg

In 1974 Haile Selassie was replaced by the Marxist Derg and its leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam. The Soviet Union subsequently gave $9 billion military aid to Ethiopia. The Soviets also supported Ethiopia against the Ogaden. The Ogaden were on both sides of the border between Ethiopia and Somalia. Previously, the Soviets had armed Sia Barre of Somalia. The U.S. moved its intelligence operations from Kagnew Station to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

War of Independence

In the 1960s the Eritrean Muslim rebels formed the Eritrean Liberation Front. In the 1970s the Christian highlanders formed a secular, Marxist organization called the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF). In the 1970s, when when the EPLF was being formed, Isaias Afwerki purged his opponents and eliminated collective decision making. The EPLF received aid from Eritrean diaspora. At Orota, they built an underground hospital with 3 thousand beds. In March 1988, there was a major tank battle at Afabet, where the EPLF defeated the Ethiopian army. In February 1990 the EPLF captured Massawa. In 1991 Eritrea obtained political independence from Ethiopia.

Since Independence

Things went well in Eritrea from independence until 1998, when Ethiopia started a border dispute at Badme in Eritrea, claiming it to be part of the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Isaias Afwerki, President of Eritrea since 1993, has become dictatorial, shutting down Eritrea’s independent media, imprisoning his critics, and conscripting large numbers of young men into the army.



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