A new spirit of self-reliance is taking root among many Africans as they
seize control of their destiny. What are they doing right?
By Johanna Mcgeary And Marguerite Michaels (Time Magazine-March 30, 1998)
24.10.2014
.......By logic, the nation of Eritrea (pop. 3 million) should not exist.
The secessionist province's independence fighters ought never to have
defeated Ethiopia in their 30-year-long struggle. They were outmanned,
outgunned, abandoned or betrayed by every ally; their cause was hopeless.
They won by force of character, a unity and determination so steely not all
the modern armaments, superpower support or economic superiority of Ethiopia
could withstand it. The spirit that saw the Eritreans through 10 years in
the trenches of their mountain redoubt at Nakfa has built them a nation from
scratch, since independence was finally consummated in 1993.
The emergence of Eritrea as a working state in so short a time is a
remarkable testament to self-reliance. "We learned the hard way," says
President Issaias Afewerki, the rebel leader turned chief executive, "that
our own sense of purpose, our own unity, our own organized capabilities were
the only things that we could count on to succeed." Alone in Africa, Eritrea
carries little debt and accepts virtually no foreign assistance. Over the
past four years, it has asked all but six aid providers to leave, including
Oxfam and every religious organization. "It's not that we don't need the
money," says Issaias, "but we don't want the dependence." Aid, he says,
subsidizes but corrupts the government, blocks innovative solutions to
problems, so that people do not seek out and use their own resources.
Just the physical improvements are impressive. All the rusted metal detritus
of battle has been swept up into neat piles waiting to be recycled into rail
lines, girders and tools. Men and women break rock by hand to repave the
highway that spirals down 7,000 ft. from the capital of Asmara to the
seaport of Massawa. Workers trained by the grandfathers who built the
railroad in the '30s lay reforged rails back toward Asmara; they have
completed 26 miles in two years and cunningly restored the country's two
1938 Italian steam engines.
What sets Eritrea apart is the self-sacrificing character of its people, the
thousands like Olga Haptemariam who rely solely on their own gumption. We
meet her behind the counter of the building-supply shop she has opened in
Massawa, striving to capitalize on the construction boom resuscitating this
shattered equatorial port. "It's my own business," she says, pointing to the
stacked cans of paint and tools lining the shelves. "It is doing very well,
very nice." She can't wait to expand. "When I get more money, I want to get
more materials from Italy, China. If I can bring them in, I can improve this
business fast."
Olga is a self-made woman. While her brother went to university, she was
married off at 16, already pregnant. Two years ago, she sought a divorce and
demanded 30,000 birr as alimony. Out of that she paid the 2,000 birr for a
business license and 18,000 birr for the shop. She earns 3,000 or 4,000 birr
a month, occasionally as much as 7,500. She can afford to send her daughter
to a private school, preparing her to study abroad and become a "doctor for
women." Olga vows never to remarry. "I think of business only," she says. "I
want to make this business very big, and I can do that best myself."
Nothing symbolizes this nation's true grit better than the mountain retreat
of Nakfa. There the near defeated rebel troops hewed out miles of rock
trenches with bayonets and survived for 10 years beneath the shelling of the
Ethiopian army. It still takes 10 hours in a four-wheel to drive the 137
miles from the capital over rugged mountain tracks. But Nakfa is a place of
veneration akin to Valley Forge. "It reminds us forever of our resistance,"
says Zacharias, a teacher at the new technical school. The national emblem
is the camel that carried supplies to Nakfa; the country's new currency,
introduced in November to replace the Ethiopian birr, is called the nakfa.
Despite Nakfa's 9,000-ft.-high chill and barren soil, the government is
determined to turn this inhospitable locale into a regional magnet.
Many of the 10,000 current residents moved into their first concrete
buildings just this year. Helping replace the city's tin huts are young
people doing their national service. Every Eritrean male is required to
spend six months in the army and 12 more working on rehabilitation projects.
Up here, some are also planting trees to revive the blighted landscape. "I
like doing it," says 24-year-old Daniel. "I teach people how to do things,
and that is a way to develop our country fast."
In his blacksmith shop in the busy market town of Keren, Fikad Ghoitom
explains the national attitude: show me, don't tell me; ingenuity applied to
example; homegrown know-how. Fikad's brother saw a wood-cutting machine in
an English magazine and forged one out of scrap metal. Down in the artisans'
suq in Asmara, men in blue overalls don masks cut from cardboard to weld new
pots from old oil tins and cooking braziers from rusted rods. The clang,
hammer, sizzle of makeshift industry are everywhere as boys flatten old iron
bars for their brothers to beat into new shovels.
Eritreans are extraordinarily dedicated to the public welfare. Doctors
living abroad came back during the war as volunteer medics and still visit
for six-month stints. Former fighters who went into the civil service took
no pay for three years.
This is not Africa, people will tell you in Eritrea. What they mean is that
the country is astonishingly free of the social plagues that taint much of
the continent. There is no tribalism or sectarian division here. National
pride supersedes loyalties to nine main ethnic groups, at least 10
languages, Islam and Christianity, in part the consequence of the rebels'
insistence on mixing everyone together in its army units and now in
national-service teams.
Egalitarianism is ingrained, reinforced in the days when army officers wore
no insignia of their rank on their shoulders.
There is no begging, no corruption, virtually no crime. "We would not be so
dishonorable," says Russon, an Asmara taxi driver. However poor they are,
families share with the truly destitute. A fierce sense of personal
rectitude makes thievery unthinkable. "It is not the police who prevent
crime but the honor inside us," insists Fikad, the blacksmith. "The
corruption is the lowest of any government I've ever worked for, including
in Santa Rosa, Calif.," says Michael O'Neill, an American adviser to the
Commercial Bank of Eritrea. "They will not tolerate it in any way, shape or
form." During the war, the fighters were too desperate for money to put any
into people's pockets, and that scrupulous use of every precious resource
carries over into the government today.
What also sets Eritrea apart is the dedication to national purpose of its
leader. President Issaias is one of Africa's new men, hammered into
leadership by the rigors of long war. Though soft-spoken, he is stern,
almost paternalistic in his confidence that he knows best. His government is
firmly controlled, even secretive, yet people seem to admire him. He is
sharp and decisive, says what is on his mind, accepts diplomatic criticism
when he considers it right and rejects it when he doesn't. "What you hear is
what you get," says O'Neill. "He doesn't dicker or pussyfoot."
The President has few doubts about his methods, even if they differ from
those practiced in the rest of Africa. "We learned from the bad experiences
of others," he says, "what is bad governance." He and his countrymen are
determined to do better, on their own. "We are not rich; we do not have many
resources; we are affected by things we cannot control. But we prefer to
face our problems ourselves. If you teach someone to fish, instead of giving
him fish, then he has a sustainable future." He turns his nearly impassive
face toward the reporter. "This is difficult for people; it takes a long
time," he says. "But in the long term, success can only come from inside
us."
Received on Fri Oct 24 2014 - 12:30:45 EDT