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Militarization, Generational Conflict, and the Eritrean Refugee Crisis

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African Childhoods

Abstract

The Northeast African nation of Eritrea was at once best known for its three- decade nationalist revolution and struggle for liberation from Ethiopia (1961–1991). Today, however, it is known as one of the most militarized societies in the world and one of the highest producers of refugees. Far from the vision of popular social justice, freedom, and prosperity embodied in the official nationalist discourse and the hopes of a war-weary citizenry, the “African country that works” (Hammer 1996) has ensnared its citizens in a web of compulsory military and national service, political repression, social mistrust, and economic deprivation. These harsh realities have affected none so much as the youthful “heirs” of Eritrea’s celebrated revolution, the warsay generation, who make up the bulk of the swelling military and constitute the majority of refugees and asylum seekers to leave the country in recent years.

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Authors
  1. Tricia M. Redeker Hepner
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Marisa O. Ensor

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© 2012 Marisa O. Ensor

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Hepner, T.M.R. (2012). Militarization, Generational Conflict, and the Eritrean Refugee Crisis. In: Ensor, M.O. (eds) African Childhoods. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137024701_8

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