Against All Odds: A Chronicle of the Eritrean Revolution, 2nd Edition
Against All Odds, published in 1993, provides a firsthand account of Eritrea’s 30-year battle for independence, which it won in 1991 with little outside support after defeating successive U.S. and Soviet-backed Ethiopian armies. They did so by overcoming drought and famine while unifying and reforming the diverse society from which they derived strength.
The new 2021 edition recounts Eritrea’s slide into despotism after renewed conflict with Ethiopia in 1998-2000, the dark years of repression that followed, the exodus of many young people, the hopes raised by a 2018 peace, and the dashed expectations produced by yet another round of war, this one far more brutal and destructive than the last.
It ends with reflections on how to reach a lasting peace and a way out of its political cul de sac.