Title: Identity Jilted or Re/Imagining Identity
First published: 1998
Description: In this bold study of modern ethno-regional nationalism, the author examines the divergent paths taken by the nationalist insurgencies in Tigray and Eritrea. The author argues that Tigrayans, south of the Mereb River, and Kebessa (highlands) Eritreans, north of the Mereb, are ethnically one people, tied by common history, political economy, myth, language and religion. Both fought against a common enemy, an oppressive Amhara ethnic state, for a period of seventeen and thirty years, respectively.

In the process of the armed struggle, however, each evolved separate political identities and, after jointly marching to military victory in 1991, they followed separate political paths - Eritreans created the newest state in Africa and Tigrayans remained within the Ethiopian body politic.
Subjects: History, Ethnic identity, Nationalism, Eritreans, Eritrea, Tigrinya (African people)
Places: Eritrea, Tigray Kifle Hāger, Ethiopia, Tigray Kifle Hāger (Ethiopia), Tigrinya (African people)
Time periods: 20th century, Revolution, 1962-1993
LC classification: DT397 .A45 1998