Soldiers, Martyrs, and Exiles: Political Conflict in Eritrea and the Diaspora. Ethnography ofPolitical Violence series by Tricia Redeker HepnerReview by: Roy PatemanAfrican Studies Review, Vol. 53, No. 1 (APRIL 2010), pp. 198-200Published by: African Studies AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40863134 .

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198 African Studies Review

and . . . the bravery ... of the warrior" is difficult to reconcile with the reali- ties of the 1960s and 1970s when the national curriculum included - nay required - that students pass the Amharic language exams and undertake explications du texte of fictional novels of the Italo-Ethiopian wars such as Ger- macawTakla Hawaryat's Areya: TarikawiLeb Weked (Areya: Historical Fiction) (Berhanena Salam, 1968 [1960, Ethiopian calendar]), to name only one. Kebede posits an "affinity between socialist ideology and Ethiopian Chris- tianity" while believing that capitalism remained "at odds" with traditional culture, which "had contempt for merchants and moneymaking activities it associated with Islam" (115). This bold hypothesis deserves more than a cursory statement, since a major unifying/ divisive theme for reformists and radicals alike was the advocacy for the rights of oppressed religious and ethnic minorities, legitimated by Leninist and Stalinist rhetoric. Perhaps a brief discussion of the rigidity of a traditional culture based on a messianic Christianity that excluded its Muslim citizenry would have deepened the understanding of centrifugal forces that tore apart the fabric of Ethiopian society as its modernized elite left the majority of the populace in a feudal quagmire. The reader is left perplexed by the author's leap of faith in rec- onciling Coptic traditions with Marxist dialectics while simultaneously argu- ing that Ethiopia's educated elite of these decades suffered from "a colonial mentality" brought about by their modern education. Yet while Kebede is cynical about the ability of any intellectuals to effect national transforma- tion, his own account indicates that educators as well as armed men were capable of seizing power.

Despite the often confusing style and the sometimes dubious reason- ing, Messay Kebede 's reexamination of the impact of radicalism in Ethiopia does remind us to look again at the legacies bequeathed to the country by the intelligentsia of the 1960s and 1970s.

I worked with Trish Hepner from 1998 to 2000, when I was the ceremonial president of the Eritrean Studies Association and she was the indispensable secretary. I was impressed then by her intelligence and compassion, and my admiration for her has only been strengthened by this book. As the book jacket states, it "provides a moving and trenchant critique of political intol- erance and violence."

Tricia Redeker Hepner. Soldiers, Martyrs, and Exiles: Political Conflict in Erit- rea and the Diaspora. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. Ethnog- raphy of Political Violence series, xiv + 249 pp. List of Abbreviations. Notes. Glossary. References. Index. Maps. $55.00. Cloth.

Ruth lyob University of Missouri-St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri

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Book Reviews 199

This is a well-written account of how an initially small group of Eritrean men (and several remarkable women) in the EPLF-PFDJ (Eritrean Peo- ple's Liberation Front/Peoples' Front for Democracy and Justice) came to dominate the Eritrean community at home and abroad. Hepner rightly points out that losers do not write history; nonetheless, this work leaves us with the hope that she might one day give us an account of the struggles of the ELM (the Eritrean Liberation Movement) and ELF (the Eritrean Lib- eration Front). In addition, her pioneering study of the growth and demise of the student-led Eritreans for Liberation in North America is especially bal- anced and thought provoking; Eritrean memories are long, and it is not sur- prising that accounts of the ideological and military struggles of the ELF and EPLF should still be at the forefront of the discourse of many of Hepner's interviewees. Indeed, such is the sensitivity on the issue of the brief civil war between Muslim and Christian communities in British-occupied Eritrea during the Second World War that Eritrea's foremost historian, Alemseged Tesfai, has expressed to me a great reluctance to continue his account of Eritrean history much beyond this date, for fear of offending the descend- ants of participants and rekindling conflict.

Hepner is less than analytic in her account of the U.S. position, which now is (as it was also in 1998) one of full support of Ethiopia. (An Eritrean friend of mine who was attending a press conference in Addis Ababa dur- ing the early stages of the war dozed off in the hot room and thought the Ethiopian foreign minister was giving the usual vindication of the Ethio- pian action; he opened his eyes to see the U.S. ambassador at the podium.) Hepner's account of the war with Ethiopia from 1998 owes rather too much to accounts by Ethiophiles such as Tekeste Negash amd Kjetil Tronvoll. A counterbalance might be found in the books jointly written by Lyda Favali and myself: Blood, Land and Sex: Legal and Political Pluralism in Eritrea (Indi- ana University Press, 2004) and Sangue, Terra e Sesso (Giuffrè, 2007).

As far as I am aware, Hepner has not been in Eritrea since 2001. From my own visits since then, I am able to support much of her speculation about the way the PDFJ is digging itself into a hole. Indeed, I must admit that many of us veteran camp followers of the EPLF and PFDJ turned a blind eye to questionable practices in the field, using as our justification the truism that liberals do not win guerrilla wars.

I think it was Richard Leonard who, some years before liberation in 1991, expressed his serious misgivings about the creation of a centralized party and government. This followed a day-long meeting we had had with Issayas Afeworki in Afabet shortly after one of the most significant military victories of the struggle. Later, in liberated Asmara in 1991, Issayas told me that Eritreans did not have the necessary background to implement a fully functioning liberal democracy. In 1995, after surviving a couple of chal- lenges to his leadership, he was more forthright, saying: we cannot as Afri- cans afford to be fooled by the "big banner" headlines of multipartyism.

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200 African Studies Review

It is a pity that the book's glossary does not include the word midiskal (Tigrinya for "frozen"), which refers to the practice of freezing people in their positions, a practice increasingly frequent in Eritrea since September 2001. At the same time, some very senior ministers, ambassadors, and long- serving members of the EPLF-PDFJ have been relieved of their work with- out being informed of what they had done wrong. Such practices have disil- lusioned most of the victims and serve as a scandalous waste of resources, demoralizing many fine men and women who had worked all their adult lives for the liberation of Eritrea and served the country loyally. Like Tricia Redeker Hepner, I stand for freedom of religion, a free press, a system of competing parties and elites, and a vigorous civil society. I hope that one day these will flourish in Eritrea.

Roy Pateman

UCLA, Emeritus

Cardiff, U. K.

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