I Didn't Do It for You
Eritrea, a mountainous African nation scarred by decades of violence and colonization, has survived the world's longest-running guerrilla war. The tenacity with which it defeated Ethiopia, its massive neighbor, is ingrained in the national consciousness, the result of a succession of unscrupulous foreign interventions. Fascist Italy wanted Eritrea to serve as the launching pad for a new, ethnically pure Roman empire, while Britain sold off its industries for scrap, the US sought a location for its cutting-edge espionage station, and the Soviet Union used it as a pawn in a proxy war.
Michela Wrong uncovers the shocking injustices that this little nation has endured, as well as the narrative of colonialism itself, with the same acute eye for detail and flair for the bizarre that she brought to her account of Mobutu's Congo. We encounter a fearsome African ruler, a pigheaded English suffragette, and a guerrilla warrior who learned French cuisine in the jungle along the way.
Michela Wrong presents this heartbreaking yet vital story with eloquence. The way international power politics can wreak havoc on a country's fate lends Eritrea's narrative a poignancy and sad ness that is hard to imagine.
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