Eritrea

The highlands were part of the ancient kingdom of Aksum and share deep history with Ethiopia, including early Christianity. The Red Sea coast, with its port of Massawa, was drawn into Ottoman, Egyptian, and Arab spheres over the centuries. Italy assembled these territories into the colony of Eritrea in 1890, using it as a base — and, in 1935–36, a springboard for the invasion of Ethiopia — and building Asmara, railways, and industry.

After Italy's defeat, Britain administered Eritrea until 1952, when the United Nations federated it with Ethiopia. Ethiopia annexed it outright a decade later, triggering a war of independence that lasted from 1961 to 1991. The Eritrean People's Liberation Front finally prevailed, and a 1993 referendum confirmed independence.

Hopes for the new state faded quickly. A devastating 1998–2000 border war with Ethiopia was followed by a "no war, no peace" standoff that the government used to justify indefinite military conscription and the suspension of the constitution and elections. Isaias Afwerki, the independence leader, has ruled without a vote ever since. A 2018 peace deal with Ethiopia briefly opened the border, and Eritrean forces later took part in the war in Ethiopia's Tigray region.

Eritrea has nine recognised ethnic groups, roughly split between Christians — mostly the ancient Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, plus Catholics and Protestants — concentrated in the highlands, and Muslims in the lowlands and along the coast. The largest group, the Tigrinya, are highland Orthodox Christian farmers; the Tigre, Saho, Afar, and others are largely Muslim pastoralists.

The coffee ceremony — roasting, grinding, and brewing beans over charcoal, served in three rounds with incense — is the central ritual of hospitality, shared with Ethiopia. So is injera, the sourdough flatbread that doubles as plate and utensil. Weddings, saints' days, and the two Eids are the main celebrations.

The long independence war shaped a national culture of stoicism, self-reliance, and discipline, and a large diaspora — the result of both the war and the ongoing exodus of young people avoiding conscription — sustains families through remittances and keeps Eritrean music and identity alive abroad.

Around 700,000 people live in Asmara, a highland city of wide streets, palm-lined boulevards, cinemas, and cafés built in the 1930s in Italian modernist and "rationalist" styles and remarkably intact — the whole city centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Keren and the port of Massawa are the other main towns.

The economy is small, state-dominated, and constrained by sanctions (since partly lifted), the aftermath of war, and the diversion of labour into national service. Mining (gold, copper, potash), remittances, and subsistence farming and herding are the mainstays. Electricity, fuel, and imported goods are frequently in short supply.

Daily life is orderly and quiet, organised around the church or mosque, the extended family, the coffee ceremony, and — for a large part of the adult population — obligatory service in the military or the civil administration.

Eritrean food is close to Ethiopian, centred on injera, the spongy sourdough made from taff, topped with an array of stews (tsebhi): fiery zigni (beef in berbere spice), alicha (milder vegetable and meat stews), lentils, chickpea purée (shiro), and greens. On fasting days, which are numerous in the Orthodox calendar, the food is entirely vegan.

The Italian legacy is unusually strong for East Africa: pasta ("pasta al sugo") is a genuine everyday dish, especially in Asmara, alongside good espresso, cappuccino, and pastries, and lasagne on menus.

Along the coast, grilled and fried Red Sea fish and shellfish, sometimes cooked in a clay oven, are the speciality. Suwa (barley beer) and mies (honey wine) are the traditional alcoholic drinks; strong spiced tea (shahi) is drunk in the lowlands.

Asmara is the reason to come. Its 1930s core — the Fiat Tagliero petrol station shaped like a plane, the Cinema Impero, the Art Deco villas, the central market, and the Catholic and Orthodox cathedrals — is one of the most complete ensembles of early modernist architecture anywhere, best seen slowly on foot with a macchiato.

The old railway and the switchback road drop more than 2,000 metres from Asmara to Massawa, a coral-stone Ottoman and Egyptian port town heavily damaged in the independence war and only partly restored, with striking Turkish-influenced buildings around its two harbours.

Offshore lie the Dahlak Islands, a low, arid archipelago in the Red Sea with uncrowded reefs, clear water, and a few historic sites, reached by boat from Massawa. Inland, the town of Keren has a lively Monday camel market and a wartime history, and the highland monasteries and the Qohaito plateau's ruins reward those who secure the permits.