RIVALRY, ANTAGONISM AND WAR IN THE NATION- & STATE-BUILDING PROCESS

RIVALRY, ANTAGONISM AND WAR IN THE NATION- & STATE-BUILDING PROCESS: THE H FACTOR IN THE RELATIONS BETWEEN ERITREA AND ETHIOPIA, an article by Uoldelul Chelati Dirar

Märäb Mällaš is defi nitely the toponym which has enjoyed the greatest favour thanks also to the homonymous title of Perini’s book. However, the very adoption of those two toponyms speak volumes about dominant perceptions of land and polities. In fact both denominations and particularly Märäb Mällaš refl ects a geographical position which betrays the location of the observant and, therefore his/her perception of space and power relations from a perspective strongly infl uenced by the Ethiopian polity taken as a main reference and Təgrəñña and or Amharic languages as main medium of communication. I wonder if this representation of space and polities would equally satisfy an Afar, Təgre, Kunama, Nara or Beni Amer speaker. Would it accommodate his/her perception of spatial and political hierarchies? It seems to me that dominant narratives on Eritrea and on Eritrean-Ethiopian relations implicitly assume Eritrean Təgrəñña-speaking highlanders as their main object and by so doing tend to fall in the common mistake of confusing the part for the whole. Until now historiographic analyses of pre-colonial balances of power in the region have failed in taking into adequate consideration narratives from the Western lowlands and, to a certain extent, also those from the Eastern lowlands of what is today the State of Eritrea. They have remained marginal both in colonial and post-colonial literature. 

Within this perspective a fi rst crucial step to be taken in order to draft a fair and It seems to me that dominant narratives on Eritrea and on Eritrean-Ethiopian relations implicitly assume Eritrean Təgrəñña-speaking highlanders as their main object and by so doing tend to fall in the common mistake of confusing the part for the whole. Until now historiographic analyses of pre-colonial balances of power in the region have failed in taking into adequate consideration narratives from the Western lowlands and, to a certain extent, also those from the Eastern lowlands of what is today the State of Eritrea. They have remained marginal both in colonial and post-colonial literature.

https://u-pad.unimc.it/retrieve/handle/11393/41720/958/Uoldelul_Rivalry%20Antagonism%20and%20War.pdf