The Eritrean Liberation Front: social and political factors shaping its emergence, development and demise, 1960-1981

Abstract

This thesis is a historical study of a socio-political movement that has been important in the recent history of Eritrea: the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). The ELF (1960-1981) was the first, and largely Muslim-based, armed resistance movement that emerged to contest Ethiopian rule over Eritrea. Formed in 1960, the ELF carried out political and military activities for the subsequent twenty years in the country, aiming at independence. The movement later lost the battle for supremacy to the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), another broad-based insurgent movement, which took over the state power in 1991, and still rules the country under the name of 'People's Front for Democracy and Justice'. This has led to a historical and social and prolonged side-lining of the ELF, its history and its members, whereby they are almost seen as enemies. For this reason, the history of the ELF today remains one of the poorly researched areas of the Eritrean history. This thesis examines empirically the events and forces that gave rise to the emergence, development, and downfall of the ELF covering the period from 1960 to 1981. The outcome of the study reveals that the ELF despite the fact that it was the first armed resistance movement with the aspirations of the Eritrean people in face of the disappointments caused by the revoked federation, and Ethiopian repression, a number of internal and external reasons contributed for the eclipse of the ELF in the long term. The data for this study was collected over a period of six months from extensive archival resources hosted in the archives of government institutions, mainly in Asmara, and additional interviews with key informants. The objective of this thesis is, therefore, to fill a gap in Eritrean historiography and to make a contribution towards understanding of the developments leading to Eritrea's recent history and independence.