How Cardboard Shoes Won the Eritrean War of Independence

The 1960’s is known in the west for the summer of love and metric gallons of LSD. In Africa it was the decade of independence.

32 of Africa’s 56 countries were founded in the 60’s.

It was a time of hope on the continent. But one small sliver of land told a different story. And in 1961 in the tiny Colony of Eritrea things were going badly.

Eritrea’s location on the Red Sea made it valuable for trade… but not much else. And following the scramble for Africa Eritrea was kind of just what was left over.

And in 1889, when the newly formed Kingdom of Italy was feeling left out of the colonial game they first bought a parcel of land for a shipping port, then conquered Eritrea in 1889. The colony would be absorbed into Italian East Africa in 1936 before falling to the British in 1941.

Post war the colony would remain integrated with British Ethiopia. Then federated into a single country. By negotiations between the UN the UK and Ethiopia… but not Eritrea. Though to address Eritrean concerns the federation granted the Nation, a high degree of autonomy and local elections.

Unfortunately for the Eritreans they found themselves a small and surprisingly prosperous autonomous democracy. Within the absolute monarchy of the Empire of Ethiopia under the… control of Haile Selassie. Famous for resisting the Italians and ruling one of the only free African states. Less famous for genocide autocracy. And incidentally a messiah-esque figure for Rastafarians.

But worse than this the rebellious Eritreans found themselves in possession of Ethiopia’s only access to the sea. Within a country that was being wooed by both Nato and the USSR.

In 1958 in Cairo Egypt a handful of young Eritrean students, and intellectuals met to form the Eritrean Liberation Front ELF. Under the leadership of 48 year old Hamid Idris Awate

Now the ELF were a small semi secret society. And in 1961 launched a small and largely inoffensive guerrilla war against Ethiopia. And I’m using the word WAR here VERY generously.

Hamid Awate was part of Eritrea’s Muslim minority who make up about a third of the country. Born during the Italian colonial period. He was a remarkably competent officer and served with the Italians and was educated in Rome. He briefly led an armed uprising against the British in the late 40’s. And led and formed the armed wing of the ELF.

And on September 1st 1961. The Awate led a force of 11 students to attack an Ethiopian police outpost firing the first shots of a war which would last 33 years.

Now despite Awate’s military laurels this was a handful of students. Not a grand revolution.

Unfortunately Emperor Haile Selassie who was busy terrorizing his opponents. Wasn’t looking for much of an excuse. And immediately invaded the autonomous region. Suspending the nations parliament and occupying it’s cities . And on the 14th of November 1962 he ended the short lived façade of federation annexing the region into Ethiopia. Consequently, turning the small and largely inconsequential ELF into a much more powerful group.

Awate died may the same year. But went down as the Father of Eritrea. Now in the wake of Awate’s death the ELF found its self heavy on spirit but small on… experience. By this point the veterans of the WW2 were rapidly reaching their 40’s and the rebellion was already fracturing along religious ethnic and political lines.

Now 1961. The cold war. You might expect things to go well here for the Eritreans. After all, small group of rebels made up of a bunch of intellectuals, and Nato backed overlords. I mean that is communist bingo. You’re going to get yourself some sweat sweat Soviet money and guns.

Is what should have happened… unfortunately Ethiopia, was a wildly unstable state. And the autocratic Haile Selassie was only getting worse. When in 1958 famine broke out in Tigray, which borders Eritrea and has close ethnic and cultural ties with the area Selassie, sent no food aid. And 100’000 people died. Tigray would go on to be a centre of revolution.

Further Selassie ruling over a large multi religious multi ethnic nation responded to the various desires of his people by outlawing the Oromo language. The Oromo being the countries largest ethnic group. Whose regions would go on to be a centre of revolution.

And persecuting various minorities, while pursuing an Amhara first policy. The Amhara being an ethnic group who make up about a quarter of Ethiopia’s population. And coincidentally the ethnic group of the Emperor and his family.

All of that is a long way of saying. The USSR was much more interested in destabilizing Ethiopia than Eritrea.

Now between 1961 and 1970 the war went… slowly. And the rapidly deteriorating rebel groups spent more time bickering than fighting. However in 1970. With the ELF still arguing. A small group split from the ELF to form the EPLF. Eritrean People’s Liberation Front. A Marxist group. Led by a small committee most notably Isais Afwerki, current leader of Eritrea.

Afwerki was born in Asmara the capital of Eritrea in 1946. Briefly joining the student radicals in the early 60’s he attended Haile Selassie university in Addis Ababa Ethiopia before returning to lead the EPLF.

Now, now they get the Soviet guns right… unfortunately for them. Any tacit Soviet support was short lived because in 1974 Haile Selassie finally pissed the to many people.

Ethiopia’s General Aman Adom was quietly minding his own business definitely not planning coup. When the nation collapsed into nationwide protests. Adom no doubt surprised rang up some friends in the Military high command and police, who also definitely weren’t busy planning a coup and immediately seized power. Declaring themselves a provisional government 3 days later.

General Amon unfortunately was a moderate, and immediately fell out of favour with other generals and was killed in September 1974. He was replaced by Mengistu Haile Mariam who declared Ethiopia a Marxist Leninist state and abolished the monarchy. And initiated a brutal purge of all of his opponents.

Now the USSR must have felt like the bell of the ball with both Ethiopia and the EPLF wooing it.

But seeing that familiar genocidal glint of joy in Mariams eyes as he butchered between half and three quarters of a million people no doubt told them they made the right choice backing Ethiopia.

And in 1975 the USSR ramped up support for the newly communist country. Dashing any hope the EPLF might have had of getting Comintern support. And triggering a new and brutal phase of the war.

Yes I’m getting to cardboard shoes I promise.

Now the flood of Soviet money and the influx of Ethiopian troops should have been bad for the Eritreans. And initially it was kicking off a new major offensive into the region.

But uh… replacing the autocratic Selassie with the Genocidal Derg, the name of the military council who governed Ethiopia. Believe it or not… did not calm the situation in Ethiopia.

And in 1974 the Ethiopian civil war began. Now I won’t get into the wider Ethiopian civil war. Because there were dozens of factions, fighting both the derg and each other for two decades. However needless to say the wind was fast taken out of the Armies sails in its Eritrea campaign.

This chaos was fantastic for Eritrea, who between the ELF and EPLF seized 99% of the country between 1974 and 1977.

In 1978 it looked like victory was just around the corner. Somalia had invaded Ethiopia in the Ogaden war. And rebels in Tigray and Oramia were pushing hard towards the Capital.

Now the USSR was supporting both Somalia and Ethiopia at this point but when Somalia sensing weakness invaded in an attempt to create a greater Somalia. It forced the Soviet’s hand.

It’s almost like the struggles in this area had little to do with idealogy and more to do with national interest… but whatever.

With the USSR pulling away from Somalia the USA stepped in and shit got real. The ELF and EPLF launched massive attacks against remaining Ethiopian targets, and it briefly looking like the regime may lose. So in 1978 the Soviet’s and Cubans orchestrated a massive airlift of men and equipment to stabilize the regime sending in 13’000 elite Cuban troops, Soviet military advisors, and over a billion dollars of equipment.

The war would cost Somalia everything, and would lead to the rapid breakdown of the state and the birth of a four decade civil war that is… still going as of writing.

With the defeat of Somalia, Ethiopia entered a brand new period… of brutal repression. Empowered by direct Soviet support. They pushed their opponents to the brink and went on a massive offensive into Eritrea.

Between 1978 and 1988 The EPLF was pushed almost completely out of the east of the nation and the ELF was rapidly driven back to the Sudanese borders.

It was during this struggle another group would split off from the ELF to from the Eritrean Islamic Jihad Movement based in Sudan.

So in dire straights the the ELF and EPLF finally under A LOT of internal pressure buried the hatchet and formed a coalition.

Now this is one of the areas that Eritrea is interesting in. Eritrea is about two third Christian and one third Muslim, the ELF were popular among western Muslims the EPLF were popular in the cities, and then among Eastern Christians… despite being a Marxist party.

It is the hardships that the Eritreans undergo that forces cooperation and leads to an integration of Christians, Muslims, and Marxists into a single revolutionary front.

Now in the 80’s the ELF and EPLF pushed to the far west dig in and dig in hard. And it is now after the heady days of the mid 70’s they hit their lowest point and defeat looks inevitable. The Ethiopians flood the country with troops about 300’000 while the combined Eritrean forces field about a tenth of that.

Virtually all of the Eritrean equipment comes from captured Ethiopian equipment or private donation from Sudan. However with the birth of Islamic jihad, much of the Muslim support that has been propping up the ELF dissipates. And the EIJM show no interest in working with anybody but themselves.

In 1986 pushed to the far west desert of the nation. Dug into hidden bunkers and underground field hospitals.

The ELF and EPLF have nothing. They are almost out of ammunition, weapons, spare parts food, even the clothes on their backs are rotting. The situation is so dire losing your meagre soap ration is a punishable offense.

Many soldiers lack shoes.

Soldiers sewed their own clothes, cut up old oil drums, and cars, into everything from hair brushes, to knives, to crosses.

And it is in the ravages of the desert that they turned to one of their only plentiful resources to maintain themselves. Cardboard.

In the underground hospitals people started using old surgical tubing to create cardboard sandals. Which were better than nothing.

And young and injured Eritreans were thrown out into the pitiless desert in nothing but cardboard and plastic to fight the largest army in sub Saharan Africa.

In 1988 with a significant number of soldiers still fighting in cardboard shoes. the Eritreans turn the tides. Capturing the western cities of Karen and Afabet. The Soviet Union in immanent danger of collapse itself pulled all support from Ethiopia in 1989.

And between 1989 and 1991 the Eritreans after three decades, still fighting alone and almost unassisted against a vastly superior foe finally pushed the Ethiopian army out of the country in 1991. All on the heels of cardboard shoes.

And that is how cardboard shoes in a small way helped to win a war.

The Peoples Democratic Republic of Ethiopia rebranded from the Derg in 1987 but still led by the genocidal Mengistsu Marriam. Collapsed in 1991.

And you might think Eritrea only got it’s freedom because Ethiopia collapsed. But believe it or not, Eritrea had pretty much won by 1989. The DPRE had started peace talks in 89 after the withdrawal of the Soviets. And had all but surrendered by 91. The Eritreans even began supporting rebel forces in Ethiopia. Becoming a major factor in forcing what was sub-Saharan Africa’s most militarized country to it’s knees. All while still marching in cardboard shoes.

In may 1991 now no longer in cardboard shoes, Eritrea fully independent and sent a delegation to Ethiopia to formally negotiate with the new transitional government. Finally walking away with full legal recognition of their right to independence.

The EPLF and ELF representatives held an internationally monitored national referendum on independence. 99% voted in favor of independence.

So on the 24th of May 1993. Eritrea finally became an international recognized independent country.

Marriam the former leader of Ethiopia fled to Zimbabwe and still lives in exile in Harare. No doubt paying handsomely for their protection.

As for Isaias Afwerki well in 1991 he was made secretary general of the provisional government. The provisional government established a National assembly, a constitution, legal system, local elections and all the frame work for democracy. Then the people elected Afwerki the first president of the republic of Eritrea

The EPLF was dissolved and rebranded into the Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice and is now the sole legal political party of the nation though only controls half of the seats in the National assembly. In an interesting move the ELF were invited into the new Peoples Front many joining and forming the current National Assembly.

So, a true democratic success story… well it would be… if elections were ever held a second time. Unfortunately for the past 30 years there has not been a single national election. And all power is in the hands of Afwerki.

However he’s not… a traditional autocrat. For starters his former enemies were invited into the governing party. The state still celebrates the ELF. Even though some members split away to join Islamic Jihad in Sudan. But the weirdest part of his rule is that Eritrea doesn’t hold shame elections. They just don’t hold any elections.

That’s just… that’s just not done, every dictatorial state for the last hundred years holds sham elections for domestic propaganda. It’s what they do. For his part Afwerki still promises, the eventual move to democracy. But it is interesting and unusual that he isn’t gas lighting his country like Kim Jong Un with “oh we already have elections.”

As far as it goes despite taking unilateral control of Eritrea, there has only been one small purge in 2001. When government minister Petros Solomon authored an open letter of dissent to Afwerki. The letter triggered the arrests of 11 ministers and the shuttering of all public papers. But other than that the situation in the country has been calm and the government has not been overly heavily handed since.

Maybe the cautionary tales of their neighbours is keeping the government in line. Or maybe Asfwerki sees himself as an Ataturk like figure. Setting the country up for democracy. Though he doesn’t host sham elections he has promised elections in the future… in 30 or 40 years.

The annoying reality is no one really knows, Eritrea was until recently a mostly closed country.

Not much is understood about the internal politics of Eritrea. The country recently opened its borders for tourism so more will come out in years to come.

But otherwise things today are fine right?

Well in 1998, Ethiopia invaded again… except this time they were mostly justified. Asfwerki having lived through three decades of war, had a look around at all the peace and was like… nah. And annexed an Ethiopian border town kicking of another twenty years of war. Fortunately the fighting only lasted till 2000. Though clashes continued on and off till a peace treaty was signed in 2019.

And now the wars are done right?

No the poor Eritreans would be dragged into conflicts with Yemen, Djibouti, Sudan, and Ethiopia again. And that is… all of Eritrea’s neighbours.

Today Eritrea seems to be repairing relations with Ethiopia… provided those Ethipians aren’t the Tigray Liberation Front. Who Afwerki seems to have a special hatred for. Launching an invasion into Tigray rebel areas to support Ethiopia’s ongoing war with the breakaway province since 2020.

Fortunately current reports indicate the Eritreans do have shoes.

But believe it or not it looks like much of Tigrays domesticate forces don’t. Despite this the TLF and the OLA (Oromo Liberation Army) are looking like they might seize Addis Ababa and gain control of the nation.

So cardboard shoes might go a long way to winning another war in east Africa and possibly sparking another Eritrean/ Ethiopian conflict.

[This article is a modified script from Historical Hysteria podcast found here: anchor.fm/historicalhysteria ]