ABSTRACT
On April 25, 1993 Eritreans voted to secede from Ethiopia in a UN monitored referendum. The implication of this decision resounded far beyond what used to be the Red Sea province of Ethiopia. The referendum was significant in that it sealed the end of what was regarded to be the bloodiest and the longest civil war in Africa. It was also significant because it marked the first and successful case of secession in post-colonial Africa, opening what was then feared to be the Pandora’s box in Africa. Was the Eritrean case so strong as to merit setting a precedent?1 Does it enjoy historical as well as legal backings? What was the nature of the conflict in Eritrea? How did the Cold War, and its end, affect the Eritrean conflict? These are the questions that will be briefly addressed in this essay with a view to establishing: (a) that notwithstanding the little scholarly attention it received, religion has provided a strong impetus in the origin and development of the Eritrean conflict, and (b) that the independence of Eritrea, and the political arrangements that were made thereafter, fail to adequately answer the main question for which the Eritrean struggle was launched in the first place. But before addressing these formidable theses, what follows is a brief historical background of the territory.
