Memorandum: The National Question in Eritrea, The Present Political Situation, The Right of the Eritrean People to Self-determination, The Correct and Just Solution

72 Pages·1978·17.238 MB·English

by  coll.

Eritrean People's Liberation Front.
Memorandum .
O T A N F O R D L I B R A R I E S
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TANFORD LIBRA ES
HOOVER INSTITUTION
onWar, Revolution, and Peace
FOUNDEDBYHERBERT HOOVER, 1919
T397
(EMORANDUM
STANFORD LIBRARIES
IE NATIONAL QUESTION IN
RITREA
IE PRESENT POLITICAL
ITUATION
HE RIGHT OF THE ERITREAN
EOPLE TO SELF-DETERMINATION
HE CORRECT AND JUST
OLUTION
TREAN PEOPLE'S LIBERATION FRONT
APRIL 1978
Jorom CIDAC
d Iskor
۱ ۹ s
نم
لق
// یگال

11397
INTRODUCTION
The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), as a progressive
organization, appraisesand struggles to solve the Eritrean people's
national question scientifically. In different historical periods and
different places of the world, peoples have struggled to determine
theirown destiny. Therootcauseforthestruggleforself-determina
tionisthesystemoftheexploitationofmanbyman. Inthesolutionof
different demands for self-determination the historical development
of the particular nation, its economic and cultural conditions, the
relationship between the oppressor and oppressed nations and the
concrete situation of the surrouding region and the world should be
taken into consideration. The EPLF has not only clarified this
question but, realizing that is its primary duty to find a correct
solution, has also been struggling hard to properly shoulder this
responsibility. The EPLF shoulders this responsibility out of the
realizationthatisanationalobligation imposedbyits internationalist
duty. In the short memorandum, the EPLF attempts to clarify, in a
brief and compact presentation, the origin of the Eritrean people's
national question and its views concerning its solution to all the
world's progressive forces.
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The National Question
in Eritrea
Every national question has its own historico-economic causes.
Hence, theEritrean nationalquestionhasnotemergedfromnothing.
The Eritrean national question, the long standing struggle and
sacrificesofthe Eritrean peopleagainstoppression and exploitation
andforindependenceandliberationisjustandprogressive.Toclearly
grasp the nature of the Eritrean struggle, an understanding of its
origins is necessary.
UnliketheinterpretationoftheShoanfeudalexpansionists, imperial
ists and the “Greater Ethiopia» chauvinists, the EPLF, as the
progressive vanguard of the Eritrean revolution, understands and
acceptsthefactthatthe Eritreancasedid not originatethousandsor
hundreds of yearsago but began to take shapeduring the eraof the
rise of monopoly capitalism.
Thenationalquestionarisesintheperiodoftransitionfromfeudalism
to capitalism. However, due to colonialist expansion, the socio
economic development of almost all the peoples of the third-world
could not proceed along the same lines as the evolutionary process
taken by the industrially developed and homogeneous nations (19th
century Western Europe). The backward semi-feudal (pastoral and
peasant) societies did not gradually develop into homogeneous
nation. In most cases, multi-national states were formed in the
process of colonial oppression and exploitation from nationalities
and which were at different levels of economic, social and cutural
development. The peoples of the Horn of Africa, having evolved
over historical periods of thousands of years, are a mixture of
indigeneous Negroids, Hamites from North Africaand Semites from
across the Red Sea. The intermingling of these peoples and the
resultant mixture of races, exchange of cultures and fusion of
languagesgave rise, underthe varying influences of the time, to the
formation of tribes and nationalities with relative difference in their
levels of economic, cultural development.
'One of the important civilizations that emerged out of these
developmentswastheAxumiteKingdom. Aftersixcenturiesofstable
rule, the Axumite Kingdom fell in the 7th century and its socio
economic system disintegrated, leaving no traceof continuity. It is
known thatafterthe demiseof the Axumite kingdom, only different
feudal fiefs without stable boundaries rose up.
In the 15th century, when the Portugueses and the Turks began to
encroach upon the shores of the Red Sea, initially, their main
objectivewastoseize harboursforuseas supply stations in orderto
secureand guaranteetheireconomic interests ratherthan expanding
into the hinterland of the Horn of Africa or beyond to plunder the
natural wealth andexploitthelabourpowerof the peoples. At a later
stage when they attempted to push deeper inward in order to better
guarantee the safety of their supply stations and exploit the
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