Post-Liberation Politics and Political Space in Eritrea: Interrogating Aspirations among Educated Youth

This article discusses post-liberation politics in Eritrea through the lens of political space, making use of empirical data collected between 1996 and 2006 among youth in higher education. Political space is defined as a relational space whose boundaries are being created in constant balancing acts between enforced citizenship obligations and personal aspirations. This definition allows for an analysis of the contradictions between national development objectives and personal aspirations in the lives of research-protagonists, and through this provides important insights into the nature of the Eritrean state. Main findings demonstrate how closures of political space ultimately undermine important state objectives.