Heard of Eritrea, Africa’s Ukraine?

Yoursquove probably never heard of Asmara so you might not know itrsquos the capital of a country called Eritrea which you havenrsquot heard of either Itrsquos been decades since I was last there but I remember one striking moment from my first visit there in 2001 Our airport taxi had reached the town centre where several avenues converge on a green traffic island A giant startling statue made of sheet metal stood there almost 20 feet long and nearly as highIt was a pair of bathroom sandals You know the kind you probably wear them around the house Eritreans call them shidas from the Arabic word and the roundabout is named Shida SquareShidas remind Eritreans of the 30year war they fought for independence from their large ruthless better armed and brutal neighbour Ethiopia Neither the USA nor the USSR who were Cold War enemies then were particularly interested in Eritrearsquos fight for freedom though for different reasonsTiny Eritrea then with a population of 22 millionmdasha tenth of presentday Mumbaimdashhad a ragtag army of guerrilla fighters who called themselves the Eritrean Peoplersquos Liberation Front EPLF It was Africarsquos little David armed with a slingshot against the raging Goliath of EthiopiaYet it was Eritrea that trounced the big bully next door and became the worldrsquos newest nation on May 24 1993Why would I not be reminded of Eritrea when I read about the brave people of Ukraine hitting back against the Russian bear next doorThe most remarkable fact about Eritrearsquos war to be free was that the world didnrsquot care at all about Eritrea Unlike Ukraine where the NATO countries are aligned against Russia the world had no interest in the small rebellious country perched on Ethiopiarsquos shoulder flanking the Red Sea The Russians loved Ethiopiarsquos leftward tilt towards a more lsquocommunistrsquo world view and channelled money and arms to itThe Americans meanwhile had another equally selfserving reason for supporting Ethiopia Their radio engineers had discovered that the Eritrean plateau 24 kms above sea level had unparalleled radio receptivity With Ethiopian support America had set up a listening post called the Kagnew Station to eavesdrop on radio signals from over half the globe A miniAmerica existed there with burger joints and bombproof underground concrete bunkersSo the US side by side with its ideological adversary Russia also supported Ethiopia fearing that an idealistic newborn Eritrea might just kick them outThe Eritreans hunkered down for a longdrawnout war they knew they would have to fight with no help from the rest of the world But what Ethiopia had in sheer firepower the Eritreans made up in pigheaded determination courage solidaritymdashand innovationThey dug themselves into the sheer mountain sides along the plateau of Nakfa The EPLF painstakingly cut miles of tunnels into the rock to house weapons a 3000bed hospital and schools for the children of fightersWomen joined and fought alongside men with perfect gender equity As in Ukraine civilians became warriorsmdashteachers doctors tailors carpenters and others took up arms against a seemingly invincible enemy Uniforms were made from donated jeans cut as high as possible so that each pair of jeans yielded several shortsOne account described the trials of fighting a war without drinking water or latrines ldquoFighters formed a human chain and backs pressed against the cliff face passed jerrycans carefully from one shoulder to another As there was not enough flat ground for a latrine fighters would wrap one arm around a sapling that leant over the void undo their flies and relieve themselves into the abyssrdquoEventually the Ethiopians could not resist the sheer tenacity of the Eritrean spirit They left as the Russians will from UkraineSo why the giant statue of sandals in the public squarePlastic sandals were introduced to Eritrea by a photojournalist in Mussolinirsquos invading army Raffaello Bini who stayed and set up a shoe company in Asmara Importing machines from Hong Kong he designed a cheap PVC sandal nicknamed the lsquoKongorsquo When the Ethiopian army seized Binirsquos factories his workers went underground becoming EPLF guerrillas They began churning out Kongos for fighters by melting down old car tyres The shidas they made were dirtcheap could be rinsed clean with water and repaired easily by melting the rubber over campfireWhile Ethiopian soldiers plodded about in heavy boots Eritrean guerrillas moved lightfooted as goats in their cheap sandalsWhen an Eritrean fighter died little would remain so frugally did they live In due course the EPLF would send back the dead fighterrsquos sandals to his family Within the house a shrine would be built around the sandals a modest memorial to the man or woman who had fought for freedom in those sandals and died wearing themHere viewed from there C Y Gopinath in Bangkok throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai the city that raised him You can reach him at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper