Phantom Wars and Cyberwars: Abyssinian Fundamentalism and Catastrophe in Eritrea

Authors: Sorenson J.¹; Matsuoka A.²

Source: Dialectical Anthropology, Volume 26, Number 1, 2001 , pp. 37-63(27)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

The 1998–2000 war between Ethiopia and Eritrea pitted former allies against each other, ending new opportunities for development and democracy. We examine discursive construction of the war, including Western media coverage and propaganda from both governments, but focus on discourse of exiled Ethiopians committed to political struggles in their former homeland, using the concept of long-distance nationalism. To investigate one form of long-distance nationalism, resurgent Abyssinian fundamentalism, we turn to sites of its discursive production, including the magazine, Ethiopian Review, and the Internet. Theorists of transnationalism have considered the Internet as a site for new forms of communication and community and argue that Internet discourse among diaspora professionals and academics embodies a creolized discourse produced by a distinctive type, the cybernaut. In the case of the Abyssinian cybernauts, however, we detect not a new creolized discourse but a ghostly repetition of old views.

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Department of Sociology, Brock University St. Catharines, Ontario L5H 1B9, Canada 2: School of Social Work Atkinson College, York University Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada

Publication date: 2001-01-01