Ibrahim Sultan Ali

Ibrahim Sultan Ali (March 1909 – 11 September 1987) was born in Keren. He played a part in the emancipation of Tigre in Sahel and Barka and in establishing Blocco Independenza. He was also the Secretary General of the Eritrean Democratic Front (EDF).

On September 20, 1949, the United Nation discussing the future of Eritrea invited independent block Eritrean leaders, Ali made the strongest representation for Eritrean Independence. At UN, Ibrahim is quoted to have said: “If a wrong decision is taken forcing us to struggle to safeguard our identity and obtain our independence, then the members of this Committee will shoulder the responsibility for the hostilities that arise in East Africa”.

Woldeab Woldemariam said: "90% of the credit of preserving Eritrea in one piece goes to Ibrahim Sultan Ali." He added: “Ibrahim Sultan is a heroic patriot who deserves the praise, the gratitude of the entire Eritrean people”.

Emancipation movement Ibrahim was a prominent figure in the emancipation of Tigre/serfs in the 1940s. The movement was usually known as the Emancipation Movement of Serfs (Harakat Tahrir al Aqnan).

By 1946, the demands of the serfs for complete emancipation from the shumagulle were compounded by another political dilemma originating among another predominantly Muslim tribal group, the Beni-Amer. Although former Beni-Amer serfs had conducted raids against their landowners, the formerly Italian-supported Nabtab, serf revolts had begun to spread from the western Eritrean region of Gash-sedit to as far south to the borders of Ethiopia and north to the Sahel and Massawa provinces.

As civil unrest spread during 1946, the British Military Administration (BMA) began contemplating ways to bring about an effective compromise of the situation between the serfs and the embattled landowning aristocrats. In late 1946, a group of ambitious Muslim merchants and former serfs from the towns of Keren and Agorat allied under the leadership of a former interpreter for the Italian government named Ibrahim Sultan. Despite the fact that the process of serf emancipation would not be completed until 1949, the conditions between the BMA and the serf representatives succeeded in creating a system of new chiefs, sub-chiefs, and tribal subdivisions that emerged to take the place of the former system controlled by the shamagulle.

Death Ibrahim died on September 11, 1987, in Cairo, after having been sick for many years. He was buried on September 15, 1987, in Kassala, Sudan.