ERITREA: AFRICA’S MOST INDEPENDENT STATE?

If you've ever paid attention to how Western media talks about Eritrea, you're sure to notice that it's not very positive. Often labelled 'the North Korea of Africa', Eritrea is simply a country that refuses to submit to Western demands or participate in their neo-colonial politics. It also refuses to let in Western aid workers whose image isn’t helped by the regime-change record of USAID.

If you want an example of what we mean, have a listen to this interview with Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki. He’s asked why his country won’t call for outside help to combat a drought ravaging the Horn of Africa in 2010. But his reply is simple. Eritrea can feed itself. Since independence, it’s strived to be self-sufficient in food and agriculture and the numbers of people suffering food insecurity has declined substantially.

But that’s not all. Eritrea is the only African state not to have signed an accord with AFRICOM - the organisation which runs US military operations across the continent.

Coincidentally, Eritrea has been under Western and UN sanctions for years but that hasn’t altered Afwerki’s politics or beliefs. He’s led his country since it gained independence 30 years ago and to him independence means independence.
Should other African leader’s learn from him?