Day 353 - Train Ride

Train ride from Asmara

Stepping back to the beginning of my stay in Asmara for a moment, I had one adventure that was more significant than I understood in the beginning. I rode from Asmara to the furthest point on the way to the coastal city of Massawa that was possible at that time on the Eritrean Railway. The railway had been damaged during World War II and then partially dismantled after the civil war. The original engines were all steam locomotives, complete with the smell and soot of the burning coal that provided the energy to create the steam.  The engine on our trip looked far more modern and may have been one of the more recently acquired diesel locomotives. The trip was to celebrate that the tracks had been relaid to an intermediate point between Asmara and Massawa.

Boys on the train

That train trip was a history lesson and an introduction into the sociology of the country.

Its newest equipment is more than 50 years old, with most of the equipment dating back before World War II and many of the engines built in the 1930s. The seats were wooden benches, not built for comfort. The tracks took us around the side of mountains and through tunnels. Most of the passengers were along just for the celebration. I recall that we had a short stop at the end point, but I don't recall there being anything to see. Along the way, a few brave men dared to jump onto the platform at the back of the slowly moving train to shorten the time they otherwise would have had to spend walking beside the track. Whether there was sufficient demand to put the train into regular service between Asmara and the intermediate point seemed unlikely to me. The real goal was to complete the tracks to Massawa so that goods could once again be brought into the country through the Red Sea.

View from the train

The railway was built in the 1930s by the Italians to connect Asmara and Massawa, the two major cities of what was then Italian Eritrea, a colony of Italy since 1882. The train is narrow gauge, the standard in Italy at the time. Italian Eritrea was roughly within the same boundaries as the current country of Eritrea, although the Italians enlarged it by granting a portion of northern Ethiopia to Eritrea in response to the assistance of Eritrean Ascari, the colonial Eritrean military, against the Ethiopians as Italy sought to expand its colonial reach. Italian Eritrea was ruled from 1882 by the Kingdom of Italy and then later by the Italian Fascists who in 1936 consolidated Italian Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, and the recently defeated Ethiopia into Africa Orientale Italiana or Italian East Africa. The Italians made Asmara the industrial center of Italian East Africa which increased the flow of Italians into Eritrea that began at the beginning of the 20th century. The Italians came to Eritrea to set up businesses and factories. The impact of the Italians in Eritrea can still be seen everywhere in Asmara in the architecture of the buildings lining the broad boulevards in the center of the city as well as the many Italian restaurants and pizzerias in the city. The best pizza I have ever had was in one of the many pizzerias in Asmara.

When the Fascists under Mussolini came to power in 1922, the colonies were ruled harshly with stress on the political ideology of colonialism. The Italians used Eritrea as a base for attacks on Ethiopia in the 1930s and on Sudan during World War II. Serving in the Eritrean Ascari was one of the few paid employment opportunities for Eritrean men.

Fiat Tagliero garage and service station in Asmara

At one time, there were more Italians living in Asmara than there were native Eritreans. The city was essentially one of the first planned cities, designed and built for the Italians, not for the Eritreans. It still has a large collection of Italian art deco era buildings including a Fiat garage and service station that was built to resemble an airplane.

At the end of World War II, the Italians were forced to cede their claim on Italian East Africa and the British took over administration of Eritrea, continuing to maintain it as a separate administrative entity from Ethiopia. But as opposition to British colonial rule grew, so did the Ethiopian determination to absorb Eritrea. In 1952, they did.

More Italian architecture

Understanding the relationships among the Italians, the Eritreans, and the Ethiopians may have made some of what I saw in Eritrea less surprising. In spite of the fact that the Italians ruled Eritrea for more than 60 years, that same time period was one of separation from Ethiopia, of having access to the sea, of being the industrial center of the larger Italian colony, of being selected by the Italians to base their military. It is easy to understand that the Eritreans did not want to be part of Ethiopia. It is also easy to understand how the Ethiopians would resent Eritreans having those advantages. It is even easy to understand the border disputes that still continue since areas that had been part of Ethiopia were given to Eritrea by the Italians, making the border claims muddy, not clean lines. Without Eritrea, Ethiopia is landlocked. But its population of nearly 87 million is more than 100 times as large as Eritrea's (649,000) which was brought up as an explanation for the Eritrean perception that the U.S. would always favor Ethiopia because of its larger population.

Asmara post office

I arrived in Eritrea naively believing that independence equals freedom. I knew Eritrea had gained its independence so I expected the people to have freedom. But I left Eritrea knowing that the people in Eritrea were far from free, although perhaps the sixty years of Italian colonial rule, including twenty years of harsh Fascist rule where service in the colonial military was one of the only sources of paid employment, followed by an additional forty years of being ruled by Ethiopia has led the people to think there aren't any other options. In the ten years since I left, I haven't heard much to make me think life in Eritrea is getting easier. I have heard from Nasser that Eritreans who have family members in the west are subject to extortion by the government as they expect family members in the west will provide whatever cash is demanded.  And I think again about what the lives of the 16 boys I left behind are like now. Then I say a prayer for them all.