ESTRATEGIA DIDÁCTICA SUGERIDA CONTENIDO OBJETIVOS

Eritrean people who lived the political culture of nation building make sense of their lives abroad through an exile identity filled with heroic notions which makes them feel there is a scope to their lives. For instance, the author Agostino Tabacco told me that Eritrean identity saved him from depression. After feeling like a foreigner everywhere he went, from Paris to Brighton and finally to Milan, he found a real sense of belonging inside the Eritrean

liberation movement and the community in Milan. He thus desired to remember the organisation and its outcomes, and therefore entitled the book: “Bologna: testimonianze di lotta degli eritrei esuli in Europa. Per non dimenticare”²²

This is a part of the interview carried out during the 2003 festival in Milan:

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Tabacco: The book “Bologna” is a historical testimony, in the sense that it is really dedicated to the youth who have not personally experienced the history of their parents. I would like to give them the knowledge of what their involvement as exiles was. Yesterday we talked about Nakfa²³, which is a symbol of the fight of the warriors in the liberated areas, during the 30-years war. This book instead starts from the early ‘70s, from the moment when the movement started both in the West and in the rest of the world²⁴. It begins from the first congress in Germany²⁵ thus from the first young intellectual exiles in Europe. The armed fighting started in ‘61, but abroad it started from the early ‘70s with the first students enrolled in the various universities in Europe and in the Middle East. The message to the youngsters now is to start from the youngsters of that time, who departed to form a political, cultural and social conscience and strengthen the opinion of Eritreans abroad, and to try to organise at the level of “c’enfer” (sections) [...] All the various experiences abroad were reported in Bologna, where we tried to mature and improve every time around the needs which the Front or the revolution rightly had. We, those who were abroad, tried to fulfil all those needs.

Anna: thus material, economic, and political.

Tabacco: exactly, everything, especially economic. Let’s say that Bologna contributed mostly in terms of economic help, but also of raising awareness in support of the warriors in Eritrea. In my mind, not to be able to pass on what had been a great experience was hard to bear, at least the way I felt about this participation of all Eritreans who met together in Bologna in August. For this occasion, no country was absent: Italy, Sweden, Germany, etc, then from the Middle East²⁶, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and so on. [...] In the various seminars and debates everyone contributed with their experiences. From this experience every time we managed to grow. […] At the beginning there were just over 300 of us. In ‘91, the last festival we did in Bologna, we counted 10.000 people, to show how this unique experience, at the level of exiles in Europe, developed. This demonstrates how keen everyone was regarding the cause in which indistinctively we all believed. We still believe in

22 Bologna: testimonies of the fight of the exiles in Europe. Not to forget.

23 1966, it is the first liberated part of Eritrea.

24 The movements that took place from the 1968 onwards had a great impact on the rest of the world. There was large support on issues of self-determination. Tabacco’s book contains interesting quotes from the letters of the supporters both from other exiled communities and from left wing political organisations in Italy and the world.

25 The congress in Germany continued its activities autonomously since it was held in support of the ELF. In 1992, in Eritrea both sides were present at the festival celebrating liberation. But already in 1993 the German congress continued alongside the other one but supporting the ELF.

26 From the Middle East they organised on the ELF line, there was in fact a secession during the seventies. But in 1975 (see Tabacco 2001:

53-55) the congress was held by both Fronts.

it, but at that time it was so strongly felt that as soon the 10-day festival or the congress ended [...] everyone left so full of enthusiasm that we were already thinking about the year to come. The book explains it, […] it was exhilarating. This is why this book is dedicated especially to the youth: as a witness of what was the hard, exhausting history of their mothers, fathers and all the relatives who lived in Italy and in the rest of Europe, and who have never ceased to believe in the struggle for their country’s freedom.

Tabacco’s work is based on a lived experience, which he wanted to remember and narrate to other generations within the diaspora who did not experience such collective moments. It is in many ways autobiographical, although he does not directly speak about himself in the book. It is different to the other types of historical books written by exiles also because of the personal experience that lies behind it. In many cases the writer did not take part in the liberation war described; like the book written by the Eritrean woman who admits to not having taken part in the liberation struggle but feeling the urge to write a book on the involvement by Eritrean women fighters after her daughter’s description of her fight in the liberation war (Wilson 1991).

Tabacco describes the history of the Eritrean nation building in which he was involved.

Eritreans scattered around the world during the seventies and eighties had a very large network of students’, women’s and workers’ groups, each developing political ideas on which to base the liberation movement and strategies to achieve the means for military and economic power against the Ethiopian regime. There were groups of this kind across Arab²⁷ and European countries, and those in the USA, which could not effectively be in such close contact with the former. There were meetings between the cells, the local Eritrean organisations, then the various leaders of the cells would meet together once a year or so to unify the various thoughts scattered across classes, genders, and nations. The places where this happened were the festivals, where there were also political meetings²⁸

27 The Eritrean student exiles in the Middle East were the first ones to organise congresses and often supported the ELF.

(congressi) in which the cells would compare ideas and the shaebia would list their victories and losses in Eritrea. During the festivals there were bahalì (parties) where people could enjoy Eritrean

28 Especially the latter were more organised and linked directly with the EPLF.

food, theatre, music and dance. In 1989, for the first time, the “Cultural Troupe” (see Tabacco 2001: 259) came to the Bologna festival from Eritrea. Its actors, singers and dancers are said to have been warriors themselves, women and men, who through entertainment informed and involved the diaspora²⁹.