Biopolitics, Militarism, and Development

Eritrea in the Twenty-First Century

David O'Kane, Tricia Redeker Hepner, David O'Kane, Tricia Redeker Hepner

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781845458980
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Anthropologie

Bringing together original, contemporary ethnographic research on the Northeast African state of Eritrea, this book shows how biopolitics - the state-led deployment of disciplinary technologies on individuals and population groups - is assuming particular forms in the twenty-first century. Once hailed as the "African country that works, " Eritrea's apparently successful post-independence development has since lapsed into economic crisis and severe human rights violations. This is due not only to the border war with Ethiopia that began in 1998, but is also the result of discernible tendencies in the "high modernist" style of social mobilization for development first adopted by the Eritrean government during the liberation struggle (1961–1991) and later carried into the post-independence era. The contributions to this volume reveal and interpret the links between development and developmentalist ideologies, intensifying militarism, and the controlling and disciplining of human lives and bodies by state institutions, policies, and discourses. Also assessed are the multiple consequences of these policies for the Eritrean people and the ways in which such policies are resisted or subverted. This insightful, comparative volume places the Eritrean case in a broader global and transnational context.

— Chapter One —

PITFALLS OF NATIONALISM IN ERITREA

Tekle M. Woldemikael

Introduction

Every year on 24 May, Eritreans celebrate Independence Day with great fanfare and revelry.¹ This is a celebration of the day the nation became a reality, after thirty years of armed conflict with Ethiopia (1961–1991). On that day a nationalist guerrilla movement, the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF), took power, making Eritrea an independent country from Ethiopia. In 1994, EPLF's third congress was conducted in the town of Naqfa, wherein the guerrilla movement transformed itself into the only party in the country, renamed itself the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), and assumed absolute control of the state. Ever since then, nationalist leaders and the state-controlled single party have propagated a form of nationalism that is increasingly aimed at controlling the culturally plural Eritrean society, bringing it under the party's firm hegemonic control so that society can be reconstructed in ways the party leadership considers desirable.

This form of nationalism can be characterized as an integral nationalism (Alter 1994) with the aim of producing an integral state (Young 1994). It also has historical roots in the celebrated EPLF, which acted as a total institution (Goffman 1961) by controlling every aspect of the guerrilla fighters' lives during the nationalist war. The EPLF, and now the PFDJ, have aimed to make the public succumb to its unbridled hegemony and identify with the state totally. One of the mechanisms the state uses to accomplish social control has been through sponsoring, planning, directing, and orchestrating the 24 May Independence Day celebration.

However, the joy participants feel in participating in nationalist holidays is a small reward in return for the enormous demands the Eritrean nationalist movement makes on the people. This article examines how the state manipulates the public to participate in 24 May Independence Day as a national holiday, and how and why the public participates in the state-organized celebrations. I argue that the 24 May celebration serves multiple ideological functions for the state and society. These include providing the state with a sense of broad popular support for its rule, thus allowing the government to believe in the ideological illusion that state and society live in seamless harmony, while at the same time providing the people (the hafash, or “masses”) with psychological release from the dire economic and political plight that characterizes contemporary life in Eritrea. This project of the state, however, will be “ultimately undermined and defeated by what Achille Mbembe aptly terms the ‘the historical capacity for indiscipline of society’” (Young 1994: 248). In the case of Eritrea, the unruliness of the “masses” has taken different forms, from internal self-criticism within the ruling party, to open disapproval of, and resistance to, the regime by Eritreans both at home and in the diaspora.

The Independence Day Celebration: 24 May 2005

In May 2005, the official and unofficial celebration of Independence Day had a carnival-like atmosphere. The celebration lasted for over ten days, with each day devoted to special activities. Among these were speeches by the president, parades by uniformed men and women, singing by renowned performers, musical theater, students' dramatic plays, acrobatic performances, circuses, and cultural shows by representatives of all recognized ethnic groups in Eritrea. There was also continuous dancing and jubilation by the spectators. Sponsored by a government organization, the National Holidays Coordinating Committee (NHCC), these activities are set up to promote the celebrations and galvanize public participation in the festivities in order to reproduce indefinitely the experience of liberation in 1991.

One of the ten days of celebration, 23 May, was designated as that of the Independence Day Carnival Parade. During this day, the main avenues of Asmara were filled with people from different age groups, religions, and ethnicities, all dressed in different outfits, parading in the streets of the city, clapping and dancing and performing to music. Here is a description of event by Meron Abraha, a journalist for the government website, www.shaebia.org:

The parade open[ed with] a long procession with a marching band up at front [that] made its way through the Independence and Martyrs Avenues and reached Bahti Meskerem Square.…Taking part in the parade were small children from the various kindergartens in the city, elementary as well as secondary school students, Sunday school students of the Catholic and Orthodox churches, members of the clergy in their unique attire, the followers of the Islamic faith, and representatives of all the district administrations of Asmara.…There were also some cultural groups dressed in the clothes of the different ethnic groups, who portrayed the culture and traditions of their respective nationalities. There were also youngsters, dressed in the colors of the national flag, performing different acrobatic, aerobatic and circus performances in the parade. The public expressed admiration: men clapping their hands and women ululating and sometimes dancing to the tune of the music around.

The carnivalesque atmosphere in Eritrea can be linked to what Achille Mbembe called the banality of power in postcolonial Africa. Mbembe wrote, “Ceremonies and festivities constitute the pre-eminent means by which the commandement speak and the way in which it dramatizes its magnificence and prodigality” (Mbembe 1992: 9). According to Mbembe, the banality of power includes the predictable, everyday routines in which power is exercised as well the obscene, vulgar, and the grotesque aspects of life that are intrinsic to all forms of domination and power, and are the mechanisms of confirmation or deconstruction of the power structure (Mbembe 1992: 1–2). Mbembe was inspired by the work of Mikhail Bakhtin on Medieval Carnival and focused especially on Bakhtin's analysis of laughter, comic composition, profanity, and parody. Mbembe centered his analysis of public spectacle on what he called the grotesque aspects of the body such as the mouth, the genitals, anus, and things related to the belly such as eating, drinking, and belching, and took them to express the banality of power in Africa. In the case of Eritrea, the banality of power takes the form of carnival as described by Bakhtin: there is a concentration of bodies of both leaders and followers into the public arena where they rub one another's shoulders in close proximity, where they enter into “a free and familiar contact,” and where a new interrelationships between them may possibly be worked out (Bakhtin 1984: 123). Peter Biles, a BBC journalist who covered the 24 May 2003 celebration, described how different bodies, including the president of the country, were involved in a public display of the banality of power in Eritrea:

In carnival mood, tens of thousands of Eritreans partied into the early hours of Saturday to mark their country's 10th anniversary of independence.…In the capital, Asmara, they thronged Liberation Avenue, the main street characterized by its palm trees and Italian-style cafes.…As popular Eritrean songs blared from loudspeakers, Asmara's well-heeled young set danced and war veterans in wheelchairs were pushed by their relatives or friends.…Shortly after midnight, Eritrea's president, Isaias Afewerki, appeared beneath an arch of flashing party lights.…Although he was flanked by bodyguards, police and soldiers, the atmosphere was surprisingly relaxed.…President Isaias, dressed in a blue safari suit and black sandals, set off to walk the entire length of Liberation Avenue.

He waved, often with both hands held aloft, while the crowds cleared the road to make way for him.…People cheered loudly and whistled, and the police beat back groups of excited young men who tried to close in on the rear of the presidential procession.…Few heads of state would have felt confident enough to have embarked upon such a public walk-about at night, but Eritrea has always been different. (2003)

However, behind the festivities and celebrations, we have to look at how the ruling party operates using different technologies of power (Foucault 1978). The government's celebrations are planned to manipulate the public to participate in the ceremonies and experience the madness and temporary euphoria that the festivities induce. Even more important is how these festivities are produced through technologies of power or biopower (1978: 140). By technology of power or biopower, Foucault meant the “numerous and diverse techniques of achieving the subjugation of bodies and the control of populations” (1978: 140). The Eritrean state, through the various micropolitics of the state, uses technologies of power in an attempt to produce nationals who will obey, follow its programs, and respect its authority and disciplinary power. The Independence Day celebration is one of the mechanisms used by the party in its attempt to produce docile bodies, subjects who fit into the ruling party's image of nationhood.

The National Holidays Coordinating Committee (NHCC) planned the weeklong celebrations within Eritrea and around the world through its branches within the various Eritrean diaspora communities. A description of the plan published in the government's shaebia.org website reads:

According the National Holidays Coordinating Committee (NHCC), the week-long celebrations will include various programs highlighting the historic event cultural shows at the Bahti Meskerem Square, cultural and musical performances in the main streets of Asmara, marching bands, dramas, photograph exhibitions, Independence Day carnival, community get-togethers and fireworks. Different sports activities including mass sport and Independence Day Marathon will also be carried out. So far, soccer matches, cycling as well as car and motorcycling competitions have already been conducted in connection with the Independence Day Celebrations.…

The streets of Asmara have also been decorated with lights and flags, thereby creating a festive mood. Private businesses have also decorated their restaurants, shops, boutiques and the like.…Similarly, Eritreans around the globe are making extensive preparations to celebrate the joyous occasion. Thus, Eritreans residing in different European and American cities will conduct various activities, including children's sport festival, cultural and artistic shows among different age groups from 21 to 28 May 2005.…The activities that will take place in Washington and its environs would also feature similar progress. Walta Cultural Troupe, consisting of 11 popular singers, has already arrived in the US to give the event added splendor.

In 1991, the celebration of Liberation Day was a spontaneous act. Since then, it has become ritualized through the active sponsorship of the state. There have been 24 May celebrations every year since 1991, but after that year the government has sought to capitalize on the holidays and celebrations. The celebration of Eritrean independence might have remained a purely spontaneous and popular affair, one carried on without the intervention of the government, but we will never know this for certain. Taking advantage of popular responses in the early days of liberation, the celebration of 24 May has become a top down practice. Thus, although each annual celebration has had its unique aspects, the celebrations have become more formal and ritualized with the passage of time. For example, the independence celebrations of 1992 were more ritualized than those of 1991. The state organized the festivals, which consisted of marches, speeches, art shows, visits from foreign leaders, prayers in churches and mosques for the martyrs of the nationalist war, and dances and musical performances. Even more formal were the 24 May 1993 festivities. Although the referendum was conducted between 23 and 25 April of that year and Eritrea was officially declared a sovereign nation on 27 April, the government delayed declaring Eritrea formally independent for a month because it wanted to announce it on 24 May. Thus, it made the festivities of Independence Day coincide with the declaration of Eritrean independence. Hundreds of thousands of Eritreans in different towns and regions of the country, and Eritreans in exile, celebrated that day.

For the government of Eritrea this is a show of solidarity and support from the public. According to Eritrean traditions, support is shown when people attend one another's weddings, funerals, and other events; showing up to celebrate Independence Day also indicates to the government that the people are behind them, that they have not lost touch with their supporters. This sentiment was aptly expressed in the Independence Day Carnival of 21 May 2005 by Meron Abraha, when he stated, “Stressing the importance of conducting such a carnival, the organizers note that since ‘freedom was attained by the people for the people,’ the people were naturally involved in the carnival” (Meron Abraha 2005).

Thus, the public is manipulated into legitimizing the system in a highly planned and orchestrated manner. This involves declaring that day a national holiday, shutting down all the shops and workplaces, and sponsoring nationally famous singers and dancers who perform for the public for free. Everything comes to a standstill. In every town, village, and neighborhood, there are the PFDJ-run organizations that seek out talented individuals who might perform for the holiday. Once selected, they practice with others and prepare for the event. The leaders of neighborhood organizations are expected to encourage or pressure their communities to come out for the day. There are veiled threats of reprisals if a person refuses to participate. The only show in town is the government-sponsored celebration. During festival days, there is nothing to do except go to the celebrations, ceremonies, and parades. Performances are open to the public and they are done quite professionally. People are encouraged to join in and dance and participate. Celebratory speeches are given by the president. People who participate in the revelry are clearly in throes of joy, waving Eritrean flags; many are interviewed and their statements broadcast on the radio and television repeatedly. Overall, the experience seems to lead to some form of amnesia and forgiveness among the public. As Peter Biles (2003) wrote about the 23 May Parade, in which President Issayas walked among people publicly,

President Isaias' appearance was all the more unusual because his government has attracted strong criticism in the last two years and his opponents say he now heads a repressive regime that lacks any genuine popular support.…However, there was no sign of that discontent as the residents of Asmara came out to celebrate the anniversary.…In fact, they seemed eager to thank the man who for many years led the fighters of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in their armed struggle for independence from Ethiopia.…In a young nation such as Eritrea, the strong sense of nationalism, forged from 30 years of conflict, cannot be over-emphasised.²

The manipulation of diaspora Eritreans is more subtle. The hegemonic intent of the government and the party is hidden from the public. The best musicians and dancers are sent to entertain them. The public comes voluntarily to meet, socialize, relax, and celebrate with other compatriots. They are often socially isolated and alienated from their host societies. In addition, they lack the independent organization necessary to pursue their communal concerns outside of the control of the Eritrean government. In the government-organized celebrations of independence, the diaspora public comes, dances to the music and songs, has a good time, and momentarily forgets it lives in diaspora.

But at the same time, through this participation, the dancing and revelry can serve to relieve the public's inner tensions and disappointment (Fanon 1963). Mbembe refers to such interactions as relations of “promiscuity” or “convivial” tension between the commandement and the target population, resulting in mutual “zombification,” i.e., robbing each other of their vitality and leaving them weak (Mbembe 1992: 4–5; Richman 1992: 116). After the festivities, Eritrean people are left with the sense of solidarity with the ruling group, while the ruling group feels it has found a way of gaining back people's trust in its effectiveness and power. Of course, all this is illusory. Instead of zombification implying that people become something like the walking dead, the celebrants in Eritrea—rulers and ruled alike—are seized by temporary euphoria in which they forget all the failures, frustrations, and disappointments of life for that moment. It is also true that the local people are not alienated ethnically or culturally from the ruling class. The ruling class maintains kinship, friendship, or personal connections to the people, especially the most vocal and politically significant group in Eritrea, the Tigrinya speakers.

But it should be pointed out that these events themselves construct consent and to some extent forgiveness and forgetfulness. This is supported by Bakhtin's analysis of carnival: “Carnival is the place for working out a new mode of interrelationship between individuals.…People who in life are separated by impenetrable hierarchical barriers enter into free and familiar contact on the carnival square” (Bakhtin 1984: 123). It is also similar to the collective consciousness created by “ritual activity” and “mythological thought” that Durkheim wrote about in 1912 (1998). Durkheim wrote, “Collective consciousness . has the effect of disengaging a whole world of sentiments, ideas and images which, once born, obey laws all their own” (1998: 91). The Eritrean public at home and abroad feels good when they attend and participate in these celebrations. There is plenty of food and revelry; one feels as on a drug, or possessed by some type of temporary insanity or madness. This is the moment the public lets its hair down; some of its inner tension and trauma is relieved and released. As Fanon pointed out in The Wretched of the Earth (1963), public dancing with such energy and emotion serves a therapeutic purpose. In Fanon's own terms, the people's release

takes precisely the form of a muscular orgy in which the most acute aggressivity and the most impelling violence are canalized, transformed, and conjured away. The circle of the dance is a permissive circle: it protects and permits.…Men and women come together at a given place . fling themselves into a seemingly unorganized pantomime, which is in reality extremely systematic, in which by various means— shakes of the head, bending of the spinal column, throwing of the whole body backward—may be deciphered as in an open book the huge effort of a community to exorcise itself, to liberate itself, to explain itself. (1963: 57)

When the participants are in the dance hall, moving their shoulders and heads and arms and legs to the rhythm of the drums and music and dance of the other, they enter into a trancelike state. Every worry and disappointment they have is temporarily forgotten and forgiven. Such amnesia leads to a “feel good” attitude, to a perhaps more forgiving outlook and a reduction in the despair and disappointment they feel towards the Eritrean leaders and government. Under such conditions, the public does not want to hear negative things about the government precisely because it cannot afford to do so. It wants something that will be soothing and comforting. The party and the government know that very well and provide the medium for it. So at the end of the day, the issues of human rights and other problems are pushed down to the subconscious level and the consciousness of the public seems positive towards the nation, the leaders, and the flag, and they feel hate and disdain for the detractors and those who are perceived as enemies of the nation. Such gross manipulation of sentiment functions to maintain the system, and allows the state to avoid answering critical questions about its policy and actions over the last few years.

Pitfalls of Nationalism

The May 2005 spectacle in Eritrea disguised the dire political and economic straits in which the nation found itself. All the celebrations took place while the human and civil rights of the local population were violated on a daily basis. The most surprising aspect of the May 2005 celebration was that it came amidst Eritrea's deepening economic and political crisis. As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported in 2005,

Eritrea remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with a per capita GDP of about $130 and a Human Development Index ranking of 156 out of 177 countries. More than half of the population lives on less than US$1 per day and about one third lives in extreme poverty (i.e., less than 2,000 calories per day) (IMF 2005).

In 2005, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that Eritrea was in a critical economic situation and in need of external economic help due to four consecutive drought cycles and high level of malnutrition. “All six regions of Eritrea had malnutrition rates higher than 10 percent, and three of them, the rates were above 15 percent” (IRIN 2005). In addition, the Ethio-Eritrea border war of 1998–2000 had not been fully resolved; tensions and the possibility of another border war flaring up loomed large in the horizon. The war and the continuing tensions, endemic drought, and inadequate rainfall had put Eritreans on the verge of a major famine and grave danger. As though to defy the abject poverty and the looming famine, the government paraded its 250 imported new tractors that it hoped would enhance agricultural productivity and tackle famine in the future. Under the title “New Tractors to Boost Agricultural Production,” the government website shaebia.org reported, “The Government of Eritrea has imported 250 new tractors in an effort to enhance agricultural production. ...