ABSTRACT
For women, since they are rarely the founders or acknowledged leaders of liberation struggles, the acid test for any liberation movement is its approach to and record on democracy and people’s participation. But since the emergence of a liberation movement itself is a historical process – in this case as in many others the product of a semi-feudal colonial society – the creation of a movement which is democratic in its internal structure, as well as its approach to the population it represents, requires a major struggle in itself. In Eritrea this struggle consisted of the long and often bitter political and finally military confrontations which saw their most acute phase in the years from 1967 to 1974. The political struggles occurred within the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), the first liberation movement to emerge. The culmination of these struggles led to the formation of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), and this was followed by civil war within the Eritrean nation.
