A culture of War and a Culture of Exile

In the course of the 30-year war for independence from Ethiopia hundreds of thousands Eritreans were forced to leave their country. Today an estimated third of all Eritreans live scattered across Northeast Africa, the Middle East, North America, Australia and Europe. Most of the 25,000 Eritreans living in Germany today arrived as refugees in the mid- and late 1970s and throughout the 1980s (cf. Schröder 2004).1 In their vast majority they supported the independence struggle waged by Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) and dreamt of a return to their home country. By the time Eritrea was liberated (May 1991) and gained formal independence (May 1993), many exiles had been abroad for more than a decade. Returning home, though finally feasible, proved to be more difficult than anticipated. The situation of second generation or those born or raised in exile led Eritrean parents in Germany to postpone repatriation plans into the indefinite future. Among other reasons, parents were concerned about interrupting the education of their children and opted to wait until their children have finished school, or other educational persuits and were independent. read morehttps://remi.revues.org/2712