Stimulating Thinking - Communal Sacrifices

What are the things a citizen expects from his country? Access to essential services? Access to business opportunities? Access to educational opportunities? Access to economic opportunities, and the like? If that is the case, what happens if all these things are provided to you in an improved manner by another country? Would you be content and feel fulfilled in life in such cases? How can we measure what a homeland may mean to the citizens of a particular country?

If it is one of the possibilities that one can become content and feel fulfilled if he or she can access the opportunities and services provided by other states, why did many Eritreans in the past abandon such opportunities as work, educational, business and other type of opportunities that were readily provided to them in the Diaspora and decided to join the struggle for independence where one was expected to get no services at all – rather the struggle was where one was expected to totally subordinate his or her concerns and nationalize his body and soul.

So, in their visible or invisible forms, the concerns we have in connection to the homeland have to extend beyond the aforementioned visible things. The people of Eritrea, from all segments of the society, used to join the struggle for liberation to shoulder the burdens of the nation while they were supposed to shoulder their respective family burdens – at least when measured by the standards of individualistic orientations. Hence, there are situations when public or communal concerns overwhelmingly override the concerns we have as private individuals. Therefore, the homeland is more than meeting our material needs. It could be the reason why we readily die for it?

To better understand this, one has to think in terms of the pride that is associated with a homeland and the powerlessness as well as the helplessness citizens experience when they have no nation – for example, when they are deprived of their right to self- determination. A good example would be what we experienced when we were deprived of our right to self-determination. This is what makes our readiness to sacrifice our lives for the sake of the nation justifiable.

It may seem that it does not make sense to sacrifice your life unless you are not going to reap the rewards of the sacrifices you make. But is a person only himself? A person is not himself; he or she is his or her family. An individual is his society. Who you are does not necessarily mean yourself; it has to be more than that. Your family is part of who you are and your society at large is part of who we are. That is why we have paid as prices for the common good of our society - because who you are includes your family and your society.

A person is identified by his name. But when he or she is out of his homeland, he or she is recognized by his country. This is an elementary concept that our political science lecturers often tell us when we take introductory courses to political science? Can we believe that this (the attachment with the nation) can be eroded as a result of the influences of globalization?

What does instantly come to our mind when we talk about sacrifices? What do sacrifices or making sacrifices mean? What do sacrifices potentially include? Where does a sacrifice begin? And where does it end?

Of course, very naturally those individuals who sacrificed their lives to save our lives – our martyrs – will automatically come to our active memory when we think of sacrifices. We will picture in our minds those people who were our classmates, workmates, intimate friends, brothers or sisters, sons or daughters, fathers or mothers etc. We may also feel that these people, like all of us, had ambitions and important goals that they hoped to achieve in different areas of their life. But such goals were discontinued (abandoned) for the sake of their society – for the survival of the nation. This degree of a sacrifice reminds us how highly indebted we are to our martyrs and what they are for our benefit.

Sacrificing lives in defending and safeguarding the sovereignty of a nation is certainly the apex of all forms of sacrifices. But it would be also more important to take into account the different aspects of a sacrifice so as to remind ourselves the sacrifices we are expected to make. Making sacrifices begins when people decide to subordinate their private concerns in order to promote a major collective cause such as independence as it was the case in Eritrea. For example, the freedom fighters who joined the liberation struggle abandoned the concerns of their particular families for the achievement of the aforesaid communal goal – a much more important goal. Each one had unaccomplished assignments and missions at home, but these were abandoned in favor of the bigger mission – independence which is a ground for the achievement of all other goals and missions. Likewise, when they decided to join the struggle for independence, many Eritreans from the Diaspora abandoned golden opportunities. So such abandoned opportunities are also part of the sacrifices people make in their efforts to promote the common good.

Likewise, those contributions of the active citizens who persistently endeavor to make Eritrea a prosperous country through their extraordinarily valuable contributions that go beyond the stated duties of a citizen are also considered sacred sacrifices. This is also another form of making a sacrifice. An example of this aspect of a sacrifice is the contribution of educated Eritreans who use their talents, their time and their energy over and above their formal assignments in complementing development endeavor by engaging themselves in different community services.

What considerably impressed many about the tributes related to the late minister Salih Meki’s is how much concerned and how much committed he was in discharging his public responsibilities. According to the tributes that were given by his fellow workmates and comrades, he was public-spirited to the extent of subordinating his health concerns to the concerns connected to his job. This is because, among other things, he used to put off his medical appointments as he was more concerned and considerably preoccupied with what he had to be done in his ministry. This reminds us what making a sacrifice really is. This kind of sacrifice represents a different aspect of sacrifice. We can easily imagine how helpful the sum of such sacrifices would be in achieving the goals our dearly loved martyrs died for.