THE PILLAGE OF SUSTAINABILITY IN ERITREA, 1600s -1990s: RURAL COMMUNITIES AND THE CREEPING SHADOWS OF HEGEMONY. Niaz Murtaza. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998. pp. 224. cloth: $59.95.

In the relatively tranquil space opened up between Eritrea's liberation in 1991 and the igniting of war with Ethiopia in 1998, scholarly research on a range of issues has made a modest start. Niaz Murtaza's book is one product of this early period of research and, as such, exhibits both the promise as well as the limitations of pioneer work into a region that for too long remained off limits to scholars. The central argument of this study is that the recurrent threats of famine and environmental degradation afflicting the area are rooted in the long-term consequences of actions by hegemonic forces on traditional production systems. Such systems represented rational responses to the constraints of local environments. If not always highly productive, they allowed for the sustainability of rural communities.

Following a conventional periodization, Murtaza suggests that before Italian colonization in 1889, intermittent ethnic conflicts or attacks by various regional armies might have caused large-scale destruction of life and property, but there was little interference in the production process per se. Italian colonization (1889 -1942), in the form of a modern and centralized power structure, represented a radical departure. Utilizing a greater technological capacity to extract resources, Italian power realigned the colonial economy to meet its own consumption patterns. This fundamentally altered the relationship of rural communities to both state and market. While pre-colonial forces exacted tribute or siphoned-off surplus from rural output, the colonial state engaged in directly expropriating the resources of traditional communities. Heightened regional immigration, intensified deforestation, and a more intrusive state (controlled by a social stratum not dependent on the output of traditional communities) significantly transformed local production systems. The subsequent Ethiopian period (1952-91) was characterized by a mixture of both the traditional and the new means of expropriation. The crisis of local systems precipitated by Italian colonial policies was further compounded by the Ethiopian state in its imperial war against the national liberation movements.

Murtaza conducted primary research in villages both in the highlands and lowlands. Using analytical variables such as empowerment, viability, adaptability, and vulnerability, he suggests that rural communities suffered a gradual erosion of their asset base (expressed as the quantity and quality of agricultural and grazing land, forests, and animal herds). A number of crucial organizational principles and community institutions were likewise undermined, including the "reciprocal relationship between the highlands and lowlands, the synergy between agriculture and animal herding, and the diversification provided by large animal herds." The scale of such changes indicated something more than a cyclical crisis. By the 1980s, many rural communities succumbed to a trend of diminishing resources caused by these long term disruptions.

Liberation in 1991 brought an end to the violence, but the damage done under Italian and Ethiopian rule left permanent scars. Animal herds were depleted, while soil erosion and deforestation left a denuded landscape. The government faces a shortage of resources. Aid from international donors is either inadequate or comes attached to recommendations that are potentially unfavorable to rural communities. Accordingly, Murtaza maintains that traditional production systems must be strengthened, with rural communities assigned a leadership role. By taking the indigenous capacities and perspectives of rural communities as the building blocks for designing programs, locally appropriate and cost-effective strategies can be devised to deal with these problems.

Only a few cursory remarks will be made for this wide-ranging book. For one thing, the concept of 'traditional' communities that Murtaza deploys as a baseline for his study is misleading, particularly for a region that was a component part of the vast Red Sea-Indian Ocean trading network for over two millennia. Consequently, there is a tendency to view these traditional communities as monolithic and thereby devoid of antagonistic social conflicts that have negatively impacted on their self-reproductive capacities. A relevant example in this regard is the struggle by the Tigre agro-pastoralists against the pastoral aristocracy. An analysis of this conflict, which came to a head in the 1940s, could have revealed the way in which local struggles are decisively influenced by regional and extra-regional actors. An unmediated and polarized view of viable indigenous communities fending off outside forces leaves many questions unanswered. Arguably, it is the ongoing dynamics of local communities, the possibilities for change, the manner in which local structures can be animated and empowered, and the ways in which they are articulated with national or global hegemonic forces that constitute the most interesting and challenging fields of research.

Nonetheless, this is a clearly organized and valuable study that provides a good starting point for further inquiry. Murtaza's striving to identify the nexus between the policies of hegemonic actors and the downward trajectory of indigenous social systems is revealing. His contention that famine and poverty are consequences of policy rather than a dictate of nature is salutatory. The numerous graphs and statistical tables are instructive. Moreover, the book comes at an opportune time, serving as a clarion call not only against the horrifying war currently unfolding in the region, but also the long-term threat it poses to the viability of rural communities.

Fouad Makki
Department of Sociology
Binghamton University