Buckle up. This will be a long post. Before I get there: Radio Erena is the closest thing we have (imo) to the inheritors of Eritrea’s disappeared journalists. It’s not another YouTube channel: it’s staffed by actual professional journalists. It is reporting (hosting documentary) on the next PFDJ Congress where the president-in-training, Abraham Isaias Afwerki, will reach the next stage of his grooming: be put in charge of the logistics department of the armed forces. To clear the pathway, the debris is being identified and measures taken: freezing, assignment to foreign missions, disappearance, prison, demotion and the mysterious death (ብዝሓደሮ ሕማም ድሕሪ ክንደይ ክንክን ሎሚ ተሰዊኡ::) Four Ministries are vacant. Whether you find this report credible–“YES! he was plucked out of nowhere to represent Eritrea during the high profile Peace Friendship Nirvana & DesDes Era (2018-2019)”–or not credible–“NO! That can’t happen in the culture of the People’s Front! Your speculation only shows you will never get Shaebia!”–I leave it to your judgement. Using President Isaias Afwerki’s own words, Radio Erena documentary stitches the transformation of PFDJ from a constitution-drafting, constitutional assembly-organizing, National Charter-inking, political pluralism-espousing vibrant thing, to its current rump state: a dead-for-all-intents-and-purposes organization headed by a cliched Big African Man leader saying outrageous things just to be quoted (“seek your political pluralism in the moon.”) Radio Erena bookends every chapter of its documentary with EPLF/PFDJ Congresses and what always foreshadows it: the preparatory committee, hand-selected by the incumbents. The Erena report covers the 1977, 1987, 1994 EPLF Organizational Congresses.
What if we added ELF’s 1971, 1975 National Congresses: can we find something in common that transcends politics and tells us something about ourselves? Let’s look at them in chronological order:
1971: Ten years after its founding, Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) has its first Congress. The goal was to lay out a national political program, create the Front’s structure, and elect the leadership. The National Congress is the highest legal authority of the organization, and its resolutions are binding. One of the resolutions was what to do with the proliferating dissenters. There were three: those from the Obel area (“Obeleen” in Arabic); the Eritrean People’s Liberation Forces (EPLF, led by Ramadan M Nur) and the Party of Freedom (led by Isaias Afwerki). Take all measures including military for the first two; but no military operation against the last one, resolved the ELF Congress in 1971. Why do you think that was?
Yes, you in the back with the usual Habesha haircut? No, it’s not because it had a cool name: ሰልፊ ናጽነት: Party of Freedom. It’s for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. The first leader of the Front, Hamed Idris Awate, had proclaimed the Eritrean independence would never be realized without the Eritrean highlanders. Pure demographics. And ELF, already suffering the tinge of criticism (by Isaias Afwerki) that it is too Jihadist and tribalist did not want to reinforce that belief by liquidating the Freedom Party “most, if not all, of whom” were “Christian highlanders” as Isaias himself described the composition of his group in his manifesto “We & Our Objective.” (ንሕናን ዕላማናን.) A data point in modern Eritrean history: the sensible often prevail over the exclusionists.
The Freedom Party, which was not a military target, aligned itself, physically, with those who were. That too is another data point. Combatant* Herui Tedla Bairu, who chaired the ELF Congress preparatory committee, is elected to the powerful number 2 position in the ELF leadership: Deputy Sec Gen. You know, just like Isaias would eventually be of EPLF…but we are getting ahead of ourselves: that’s in 1977 and we are still in 1971. The pre- and post- first ELF Congress is covered in great detail in an interview I had with Herui.
<Trumpian on> Many people say that my interview with him was one of the best. The best. It’s unbelievable: they still can’t believe it. </Trumpian off>
For more history about the 1971 ELF Congress, the most likely custodian of records is Eritrean People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), formerly Eritrean Liberation Front-Revolutionary Council (ELF-RC), website. www.harnnet.org. For my long interview with Herui T. Bairu, check this link:
1975 – Between the first and second national congresses (1971-1975), there was massive demographic and cultural transformation within ELF: the organization was increasingly becoming leftist progressive, with mass appeal to highlanders and urbanites. Specially those who saw the EPLF (and, later, when EPLF split into an Isaias-led and Osman Saleh Sabbe-led Peoples Fronts) as “splitters who are weakening the revolution!” You know: ጸረ-ገድሊ, anti-revolutionaries.
ELF was whiplashed in the transition: the most senior members were Muslims but, by then, the new recruits were predominantly Christians. (source: every historian.) Who shall be elected to the leadership? Most “change management” books don’t deal with organizations where every man and woman has a gun and is trained to kill. Naturally, the change was not managed well. The ELF’s democracy was as intriguing as those in the U.S.: there is always a pre-election to the electors when the candidates’ slates are prepared. Some of those who “lost” in the election were disgruntled. Combatant Herui Tedla Bairu (Combatant title is his preferred title) lost and he told his constituents the election was rigged. Then, he formed ማርክሳዊ ጉጅለ (ማ.ጉ) or Marxist League. They took their ideology seriously: what do you kids argue about? General Abahaley Kifle, then with ELF, now with PFDJ, characterized the feud less charitably regarding all the parties involved. Meanwhile, the chatter after the 1975 election was: They elected whom for what position? You gotta be kidding me! When will the next Congress be? Can we re-do the Congress? The next Congress never happened due to the “objective situation on the ground.” Add that expression to the data point: the reason given for what would become an Eritrean culture—-delaying, postponing, cancelling congresses—-is always the “objective situation on the ground.” And if you say otherwise–they are delaying it because the incumbent cannot guarantee re-election–you just don’t know the objective situation on the ground because you are a child. That was the last Congress for ELF inside Eritrea. That’s not a data point: in a pluralistic society where one segment identifies strongly with a defeated organization, and a culture of “the winner takes it all”, that’s a festering wound, not likely to disappear: the aggrieved have their children. But add it to the factors that define modern Eritrean history.
1977: Six years after 3 ELF factions decided it was in their best interest to form a coalition, they held their first congress. Unlike ELF, which named its congresses “National Congress” because civilians also participated, EPLF called its Congress “organizational congress.” By then, the “objective situation on the ground” was that of the three dissident factions, the Isaias-led “Freedom Party” was bigger than the Ramadan-led EPLF and the Obeleen whose leader is never mentioned. Including by me. Because I don’t know it. How and why did the Isaias-led group grow? There is an Ethiopian Pan-Africanist who wanted to join a liberation front (he has written a 600-page history book in Amharic since) and when it came to choosing a Front he chose “the one that was started by Isaias” because they knew each other at Addis Abeba (then Haile Selassie) University. Point is: Isaias Afwerki was already a celebrity in 1971. His party grew. Nobody paid attention, least of all ELF, which was growing at an even faster and unmanageable rate.
Barely two years after the EPLF coalition was formed, the “Freedom Party” embarked on a campaign to deny the freedom (and later the lives) of comrades who had joined it to escape Ethiopia’s rule. The self-proclaimed victim of butchers had become a bigger butcher. Escape the Ethiopian version of the Revolutionary Justice and you will be ensnared by the Revolutionary Justice of EPLF. The MenkaE Movement, the Yemeen movement. All perished. Why? Well, it’s not like we had the luxury of permanence and prisons. They had to be killed. So it was explained by one of the icons of the Front recently. That’s another data point: revolutionary justice (we all know he is guilty: why waste time and energy on due process?) was seen as efficient justice. The traditional justice system was dismissed as feudal and pre-revolutionary. That’s another data point.
In EPLF’s 1977 Congress, the political program was outlined; organizational structure designed, party name changed from Forces to Front (same acronym in English), Imperialists and Zionists were down-downed and electable candidates identified. Notice: we are still talking about a form of democracy, albeit a controlled one whose slates of candidates were identified by members of the Secret Party. No, really, we had one. The Eritrean People’s Revolutionary Party. They were the vanguard’s vanguard. They were/are revolutionary zeal barometers and party-fealty talent scouts and Deciders of All Things. The Revolutionary Party should not be confused with the Revolutionary Guard whose job was to whip you until it found a reason to stop beating you, usually your refusal to cooperate by breathing.
What’s that? Of course, the ELF also had its own secret party: the Labor Party. They were the ideological purity enforcers trying to answer the eternal question: from the classical Marxist standpoint, what kind of ideology is “scientifically true” (ሳይንሳዊ ሓቂ) for Eritrea?
Back to EPLF. I believe it was at this first Congress where the EPLF political program (or its resolutions) described the Jehovah’s Witness faith group as imperialist implants that will not be allowed to be practiced in free Eritrea. Nobody objected. Not within the front or its mass organization. That’s another data point. The takeaway from this Congress was: from the troika, the Freedom Party was the most dominant; its value system prevailed. Then why was Ramadan M/Nur elected the Secretary General while Isaias Afwerki with a larger constituency was the Deputy Secretary General? First, when you call the shots, does it matter what your title is? Second, you want to diversify, recruit from a larger base.
We also got all the great hits of EPLF at this Congress: the slogan (Victory to the Masses), the isosceles-triangles flag, and the vision statement (Masses must raise their consciousness, organize and get armed.) This is more than a data point: it became nation-defining.
1987: it took 10 years for the EPLF to have its second Congress. Between the two congresses, EPLF went to civil war with ELF, had an on-off-on relationship with Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), withstood multiple Ethiopian offensives, and transformed to a conventional army with modern equipment. The 1987 Congress is called the Unity Congress because one of the offshoots of ELF, Sagem, attended it and dissolved itself into it. The Front also saw the decline and fall of the socialist (USSR) camp and advanced a political program that recognized the right to civil liberties, including the right to free assembly and political pluralism. The organization was structured to promote Isaias Afwerki: he moved from the Number 2 position (deputy Sec Gen) to number 1 (Sec Gen) and, just to be sure there were no challengers, the number 2 position (deputy Secretary General) was eliminated. Permanently. That’s another data point.
1994: The organization waited 7 years from its last Congress to have its first (and last) post-independence congress. The “objective situation in the homeland” did not allow having congresses earlier. The takeaway here was: “new blood!” The EPLF Polit bureau was gone. The previously secret party was dissolved (to be reconstituted in secret with new members the next day.) Ramadan M/Nur, the leader of the historic EPLF 1, resigned publicly (the Secret Party had convinced him it was in the best interest of Eritrea to do so because we will all eventually resign) to make room for such “new blood.” The political program reappeared as a National Charter, the organization’s constitution, which would later act as a “replacement” document when the National constitution was unilaterally discarded. Now, there are Eritreans who actually think the National Charter is not a partisan document but a national constitution because it has the word “national” in it. In any event, most of what is in the National Charter is as ignored as the constitution. A follow-up meeting to the 1994 Congress was supposed to happen in 1998. But the “objective situation in the homeland” just didn’t allow it. Mesfin Hagos, who had garnered enough votes to become a strong number 2 in the elections, was still a power to be reckoned with. And in the tradition of the People’s Front, you never hold a congress unless you can guarantee the outcome. So it was war time.
2014: in an interview with state media, Isaias Afwerki announced he doesn’t want to talk about how the 1997 constitution died: because everybody knows it’s dead. Why bother doing forensics to see who killed it and how it died when the suspect is holding a bloody knife and telling you, his employee, to move on? Suffice to say that “over the last 15 years, we have learned a lot.” The “we” here is not the country or the government or even the Party, but the royal we: I, Isaias Afwerki, have learned a lot. All the talk about elections and civil liberties and rights poses a mortal threat to my succession plan.
A new constitution was promised—-10 years later all that has happened from what “we learned” was that we don’t need any parliament, any elections, any private press or constitution or even ministries with ministers or cabinet of ministers meeting. The country is best served when Isaias assumes absolute power and there is nothing or nobody to check his power and authority and the succession plan to protect his legacy. And naming your children as successors is classic African “Big Man” strategy, now practiced by the remaining African Big Men: Congo Brazzaville; Uganda; Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, Chad etc. I don’t know if PFDJ will have a full-fledged Congress or resort to what it did in 2001: series of meetings of cadres at Embatkala or Mai Nefhi where the profile of Abraham Isaias Afwerki will be raised. The “new blood” of 1994 have become “old blood.” The PFDJ has allowed itself to be a captive organization of Isaias Afwerki, and he could name an inanimate object as his successor and it’s not in any position to do anything about it.
2024: between 1971 and 2024 (that’s 53 years) EPLF/PFDJ has had 3 congresses. That’s 3: just 3 more than 0. Meanwhile, the TPLF is having its 14th Congress. Televised. Debating everything. I wouldn’t take bets on which organization will be around 10 years from now. Whether Abraham Isaias Afwerki assumes power or not, one thing is for certain: because the organization does not have a history of having timely congresses where everything is candidly discussed, it’s not clear whether Abraham will have consolidated his power before papa goes where everybody is going.
But who cares: it’s festival season! Let’s dance!
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