the role & continued struggle of the National Union of Eritrean Women

Africa World Now Project

The history of the geographical region now called, Eritrea is deep and rich.

Eritrea has been occupied in turn by Ottoman Turks, Egyptians, Italians (from 1886 until 1941), the British until 1952 (who defeated Italy in Eritrea during the second world war) and the Ethiopians ever since [Pateman 1990:51]. In 1 952, the British and the United Nations determined on a federation of Eritrea and Ethiopia.

In the first 10 years after the federation was formed Ethiopia's direct rule over Eritrea was imposed. Towards the end of 1952 La Voce de' Eritrea, a newspaper critical of the federation, was banned. In 1956, following the suppression of the opposition waged by workers and the peasantry, the Eritrean General Union of Labor Syndicates was banned. In 1960, the Eritrea flag was lowered, and separate courts were established. In 1962 Eritrea was forcibly annexed by Ethiopia [Worku Zerai, Organising Women within a National Liberation Struggle: Case of Eritrea, 1994; Pateman, 1990: 6].

The national struggle for national liberation began in 1961 with the formation of the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). The ELF and the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) which split from the ELF in 1970 gained control over many towns in the country, but as the Soviet Union intervened on the Ethiopian behalf, independence could not be achieved in the late 1970s. The Soviet intervention forced withdrawal from the towns that were controlled by the EPLF to the northern part of the country.

The EPLF continued fighting against the Ethiopian occupation until it liberated the whole of Eritrea in May 1991. Eritrea became an independent country officially in May 1993.

Many have highlighted that "although women in many countries have struggled together with men for national liberation, at the end of that revolutionary struggle their position in society as women improves little as the era dawns" (Worku Zerai, Organising Women within a National Liberation Struggle: Case of Eritrea, 1994).

While this view is correct in one sense, it forgets the objective reality of the stages of the socio-economic and political development of formerly colonized nations. There are many contradictions embedded in the structures, systems and institutions between the people and the colonisers, between the different liberation movements that led the national liberation front, between the different classes in the society.
As a consequence, national liberation does not mean that all contradictions are going to be solved at one go. It is here that Fanon and Cabral adds sharp clarity the pitfalls of national consciousness without the implantation of class suicide.

Women’s struggle for freedom cannot be seen in isolation from the larger struggle for liberation.

Today, we will hear a talk that was given by Seble Tsehaye, Secretary of the National Union of Eritrean Women, USA, member of the Central Committee and member National Public Diplomacy Taskforce.

Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native/indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana, Ayiti; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people.

Listen intently. Think deeply. Act accordingly.

Sources: Worku Zerai, Organising Women within a National Liberation Struggle Case of Eritrea, 1994; Victoria Bernal, Equality to Die For?: Women Guerrilla Fighters and Eritrea's Cultural Revolution, 2000; National Union of Eritrean Women: http://www.nuew.org/

Image: EPLF freedom fighters. There is no independent Eritrea without Eritrean women. available here: http://www.madote.com/2017/03/nuew-national-union-of-eritrean-women.html