Not many people have the good fortune to die well, and fewer still to live well, but by all accounts Wolde-ab Wolde Mariam managed the first as respectably as he had the second. He died in May at the age of 87 in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, which became the 52nd sovereign state in Africa two years ago. Wolde-ab was buried in the cemetery of Tsetserat and a day of national mourning was declared. Hadas Ertra, the main newspaper, ran a long eulogy and published a photo of this frail old man taken forty years earlier or more - a mugshot posted by the Agordat police with the offer of a reward for news of Wolde-ab's whereabouts. The face is robust and solid, suggesting a resilient physique, which must have been the case, for he survived four very close calls - there were seven assassination attempts in all - during the first phase of his life as a militant for Eritrean independence.

LRB 6 July 1995 | PDF Download