Eritrea and Ethiopia

Book excerpt: The study explores the phenomenon of conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia between 1941 and 2011. The Eritrean Liberation Organizations (ELO) did not only fight against Ethiopian governments for thirty years; they also fought against each other for supremacy. The role played by the Ethiopian Students Movement (ESM) in propagating a Marxist revolution, and forging a generation of Ethiopian revolutionaries, is also discussed. ESM branched out into two parties known by their acronyms: MEISON and EPRP. This book also aims to improve our understanding of the struggle against the current Eritrean dictatorship. The study demonstrates that the claim the Unionist Party sabotaged the Biet Ghiorgis Conference (the first formative gathering of Eritrean nationalist elements) all is not sustained by facts. Similarly, the book concludes that none of the Eritrean political parties of the 1940s/50s, measured by the values of national unity, and anti-colonialism, were nationalists. Proper Eritrean nati