INDEPENDENCE: Across Generations

INDEPENDENCE: Across Generations

By Daniel Semere

Finding meaning has always been the central question in trying to define life. This quest has always haunted humanity. And what makes this an ever urgent quest is the fact that life is short and humans want to know what their living in this world means now and for times to come.

Our lives have to mean something for a life without meaning has failed in the duty of its existence. Generations come and generations go. In this continuous chain of existence each generation has a crucial role to play in the life and history of a given people. Here too comes the meaning of life, the duty to ensure existence of one’s people. As the word generation represents the youth, it’s only natural that the above duty lies primarily on the back of the youth. Every generation is assessed and given its rightful place in history based on the fulfillment of the duties and the demand of the stage. Praise or criticism therefore can only be attributed to the youth in the given stage of the history of a given people.

The Eritrean experience can be a good lesson for the above argument. Just like any other African countries, Eritrea too was tormented by the colonial experience. But unlike most of them it was denied its freedom for much too long and had to ask much price from the youth to get it. And hence the duties and challenges of the then generation of youth were apparent. Because the period was a time when our fate and destiny were completely dictated and the meaning and purpose of life was seriously compromised. Obviously thus there was not much choice but to search for a way out of the life of complete domination.

In this crucial stage of our history therefore the then youth played a crucial role and stood and represented a leading motive force at the forefront of political engagement at the time of the struggle. They faced the seemingly unthinkable, prevail and enable their people to be the master of its own fate and destiny and hence enabling it to reclaim meaning to life. In doing so the youth also fulfilled the timely task. They reclaimed the meaning of their life that can be explained in one but profound word, independence. That’s what they had to deliver to the coming generations. That was their legacy; an independent country with its people proud of its nation and history, and where for the first time the next generation will be born free. There can be no greater legacy than this.

And so independence was a stage completed by that generation but as much as it was thought to be an end it was also a means. A means to a strong nation where its people live in harmony and prosperity, a vision envisaged right from the beginning. But independence must not and should not be taken for granted as it entails the continuous preservation that made its maintenance an everlasting task. In fact preserving independence has proven much more challenging than attaining it.

The story of most African and developing countries are living proof of the relegation of independence to a mere rhetoric. We often hear the term neo-colonialism that signifies the returning to domination of obscure colonialism. The reality in those countries can be compared to the colonial period except for its name and forms of conduct. As a result they are forced to live in façade independence. The lesson the above example offers therefore is that the primary task of independence is maintaining it, which on the other hand is the primary duty of our generation.

For a nation like Eritrea that has paid so dearly for its independence, it could only be too conspicuous as to the role the youth must perform in the safeguarding of it. And this requires of the youth to shield and reinforce the dearly bought independence with holistic development to anchor it in a strong ground against any force that might attempt to work against it. This in turn will need a clear understanding of our potentials and clear definition of the challenges ahead in order to develop high collective consciousness and values that was the secret to our first victory.

Today’s world might be an era of globalization but the tendency to dominate the world has also grown parallel and with equal pace. This made the question of maintaining sovereignty and balancing it with the trend complicated and difficult. Sharing the global economy while at the same time preserving sovereignty necessitate the building of confidence in one’s own performance and ability to stand in one’s own feet.

The simple reason is that any weakness or disadvantage will be exploited without any regard and mercy. Leaning on others, hence, is by no means a choice. That’s where the central concept of economic liberation and self-reliance came to give true meaning to independence. For this reason the struggle to supplement the attained independence with economic liberation carries on and on. And once again, this is the current stage’s demand and today’s generation of youth’s duty and challenge.

Development is a relative concept. One generation will take over a stage and deliver it to the next level and the same process continues in an endless path. Taking over one stage, a generation will only have to face the timely challenges and simply play its role to take a share in history. And if independence is what the new generation of Eritrea has received, enjoying what it has to offer, maintaining it, and strengthening it with economic liberation is the duty of this generation. What we leave to the next generation should be nothing short of an independent, prosperous, and proud nation. The legacy of independence should echo across generations to come.

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