Category: Articles
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Of Guerilla Diplomacy and Granary Courtship
Of Guerrilla Diplomacy and Granary Courtship (ኩሽማን ደርሆ ኣብ ኣፍ ቆፎ) on Eritrean American mask-less diplomacy, with satirical flair (ዋዛ ምስ ቁምነገር)… The “je t’aime, moi non plus” (I love you, me neither) tic-tac exchange between the Eritrean Tweet and the American Facebook (in Eritrea) has of course nothing to do with Jane Birkin’s &
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The Story of Eritrean Liberation Front’s Book of Martyrs
“I wonder if anyone knows or remembers Tedros Tesfai Tedla” Degiga revealed his inner thoughts. “He was an ELF freedom fighter, a personal friend of mine, who blew himself up with a grenade in the Gash area to avoid capture in 1973. Tedros and I joined the front on the same day; we were trained
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Sovereign Borders Within Which Children Disappear!
[Translated from Arabic by awatestaff] How I wished that my son Ahmed would not wake up with the awareness that in his ancestral homeland there is a butcher named Isaias Afwerki Abraham among the Eritrean people… I hoped was that would be imprinted in the depths of memory, when he is in a far place,
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Rude Awakening
Emperor Humayun was the ruler of the Moghul empire in the 16th century in what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, North India, and Bangladesh. One day in 1556, Humayun carried some books from his library, stepped on his robe and tripped on the stairs and injured himself, and died a few days later. Emperor Haile Selassie
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Eritrean Leader’s Sandcastle Play
Eritrean president Isaias Afewerki recently ventured out of his hideout at Adi Halo near Asmara to travel to the port city of Massawa for some reflective moments at the beach. [Adi Halo is, of course, the leader’s infamous rural outpost which doubles as his makeshift “presidential office.” The place has an even more bizarre history
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The Lost Words of Yohannes IV and Abiy Ahmed!
In December 1888, Yohannes IV, the emperor of Abyssinia wrote an unusual letter to his Mahdist rivals in Sudan. Along with the Italians, the Mahdist were his arch enemies and major challengers. In his lengthy letter, Yohannes IV, called on Abu-Anja, a Mahdist leader, to end their rivalry and establish peace between them. His letter
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Yosief’s Messages From the Underground
It is only a narrow-minded or embittered man who can harbor evil thoughts about ordinary people because they are not heroes. From the novella “A dreary story” by A. Chekhov A philosopher is born If there is a merit for Eritrea and Eritreans in the war in Tigray, it is that it has blown-up covers
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Undercurrents of the Eritrean-Tigrai Relation
The contemporary sociopolitical history of Ethiopia, Tigray, and Eritrea is informed by two undercurrents that appear to impact these tripartite entities devastatingly as each attempt to outmaneuver the other in that elusive race toward political hegemonic prominence. Chose to use a recent Tigrinya song that captures the foolishness of the war(s), interspersing it within the
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Eritrea’s Bittersweet Memory of A 30-Year Struggle
Eritrea has bittersweet memory of a 30-year struggle that was eked out by the botched 30-years of Governance. In 1935, little did Italy know that its decision to invade Ethiopia would lead to a World War II. Little did Italy know, too, that the Eritrean Askaris it hired to do the invasion of Ethiopia would also abandon
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Eritrea: It is left to us!
Seasonal river In words worth describing the on/off modes of our Eritrean opposition activities in its quest for justice, the narrator of the short story “The Great Wall of China” by the 20th-century novelist Franz Kafka says describing his times: “Consider rather the river in spring. It rises until it grows mightier and nourishes more
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Eritreans’ Hopefulness & Tigrayans’ Romanticizing HiwHat (ምቁንጃው ህውሓት)
[Correction: we apologize for the technical mistake on the wrong Byline, it’s not Awate Team. The author is actually Beyan Negash/The Editor] “In the long vista of the years to roll, Let me not see our country’s honour fade: O let me see our land retain her soul, Her pride, her freedom; and not freedom’s shade. From
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Government in Exile: Eritrean Integrative Discourse
Over the last three decades Eritreans have tried to unify themselves by creating alliances or creating a new organization. Though some people may have not been considerate, no one can undermine the efforts done by Diaspora Eritreans. But there has been confusions on what our role should be on this endeavor. The divisions and aspirations
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ERITREA: WHAT IN A NAME
A self-contemplation that was circulating for some-time in my head was brought to surface when the curious touche-à-tout Saleh Gadi Johar humorously discussed the origin of the name Eritrea in his Negarit No 123 entitled “Eritrea and Eretria”.1 Where did the name come from? And who coined it? Johar did his own research. He was
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Eritrean Government in Exile: A Possible Third School of Thought
The emergence of literary national identity, Transcendentalism can be an instructive model as Eritreans are grappling toward the formation of a government in exile. In the 1820s and 1830s Transcendentalism helped marshal an emergent American culture in the definition of its literary national identity. Prior to Transcendentalism, thinkers looked at Europe’s past to create literary
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Tragic Tales Of Eritrean Families: Mohammed Said Abdella
Yesterday, March 26, 2021, we received a shocking news. Milkias Mehreteab Yohannes, one of the best writers awate.on-forge.com ever hosted, has passed away. We will republish several of his articles on a weekly basis. This article was first published on Nov, 13, 2010//Awate Team One thing that greatly disturbed and puzzled me in my life as a
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On the 50th Anniversary of a Founding Father, Hajj Sulieman Ahmed Omar!
On a typical quiet day in Asmara, hours before the sunset, a group of men came to our home, located on Leonardo Da Vinci Street. None of the men were familiar to me, except for one. He was the tallest among them; he was wearing a colourful turban, a white Jalabia and a classic coat
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Eritrea: A Classic African dictator took over (Book Review)
Book Reviewer: Chefena Hailemariam Bjork, Christina. 2019. Eritrea: A Classic African dictator took over. Themes, Stockholm. ISBN 978-91-985588-0-7 Christina Bjork’s book which made its debut in 2019 is about the history of modern Eritrea with a focus on the armed struggle. Her book comprises of twelve sections of personal narratives drawn from her in depth
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Eritrean Refugees: Fifty Years of Injustice
[Editor’s note: This content was first published on Feb 15, 2017.] The Eritrean refugee’s story is a difficult one to tell. Eritrean refugees in the Sudan made history twenty years ago, by becoming the longest stayed displaced refugees in the world. The length of time, the relatively friendly atmosphere accorded to most refugees by the
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A Miserable Country Goes to War with Itself
Say what you will about outgoing president Trump, and despite the messenger, there are many countries in the word that fit this description, and the country in question is one of them. An epitome of the description. It is a country that recently decided to go to war with itself. I will not name this
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Eritrea’s Socio-Politics of Slash and Burn
Back in 1990, The New York Times had an opinion piece titled, “The Politics of Slash and Burn”. The gist of the article speaks to the beginning of down spiraling political discourse in the US where Republican candidates were encouraged to use words like ”Sick.” ”Traitors.” ”Bizarre.” ”Self-serving.” ”Shallow.” ”Corrupt.” ”Pathetic.” ”Shame” when describing their opponents.