An edition of Identity Jilted or Re/Imagining Identity (1998)
Identity jilted, or, Re-imagining identity?
the divergent paths of the Eritrean and Tigrayan nationalist struggles
By Alemseged Abbay.
Publish Date
1998
Publisher
Red Sea Press
Language
eng
Pages
250
Description:
In this bold study of modern ethno-regional nationalism, the author examines the divergent paths taken by the nationalist insurgencies in Tigray and Eritrea. The author argues that Tigrayans, south of the Mereb River, and Kebessa (highlands) Eritreans, north of the Mereb, are ethnically one people, tied by common history, political economy, myth, language and religion. Both fought against a common enemy, an oppressive Amhara ethnic state, for a period of seventeen and thirty years, respectively. In the process of the armed struggle, however, each evolved separate political identities and, after jointly marching to military victory in 1991, they followed separate political paths - Eritreans created the newest state in Africa and Tigrayans remained within the Ethiopian body politic.