Category: Negarit
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Abdurahman Younis: My Proud Friend Moves On
A famous commercial tagline goes, “Never let them see you sweat.” And there was a man who never let them see him sweat. A free-spirited man who faced adversity, jail, and deprivation, but never capitulated. How could he? How could he when he was blessed with a free, stubborn soul that refused to depart except
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What Ethiopian-Eritrean “Friendship” ?
(This is a speech delivered on Saturday, March 26, 2011, at a conference organized by the Eritrean Ethiopian Friendship Forum in San Jose, California: “Ethiopia & Eritrea: Healing Past Wounds and Building Strong People-To-People Relationships.” March 27, 2017) One night a man came upon a child who was searching under a street lamp for a coin he
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The Smashed Eritrean Wristwatch
[this was first published in May of 2015 in objection to an attempt by some hacks to revive old partisan rivalry, and their obsession with partisan politics. Yet, they are the ones who insist on national unity and on focusing to achieve change [justice] in Eritrea. The current debates in some circles make me stick to my
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Berekhet Mengisteab on the Answering Machine
This was first posted on Dehai twenty-years ago (Sun, 3 Aug 1997). I was going over some old files when I accidently stumbled upon it-–I don’t remember the occasion or the inspiration that made me write it, but with minor editing, I thought it serves as an entertainment and easy reading for the weekend. ______________________________________________________________
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Ahl Al-Kahaf: The Sleepers of Ephesus
Let me begin by wishing success and fruitful discussions for the organizers and attendants of the Sheffield Meeting, planed for tomorrow, Saturday, July 22, at 2pm. The two honorable men in the picture are Shiekh Mohammed Juma Abu Rashid, and Abba Shenoda Haile. The “Eritrean Justice Camp” knows both men who are visible in demonstrations
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Eritrean Prisoners: Judge Mranet as a Sample
The 14th of April is when the Prisoners’ Day is commemorated. It’s a day that Eritreans remember their prisoners to spread awareness of the plight of their loved ones, and they remember so many of them. Some who grew old in the dungeons of the cruel Eritrean regime, others rumored to have died in captivity,
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The New Wave of Muslim Preachers
The last decade or so has been difficult for Muslims in many countries, but Muslims are still suffering the most in their own countries due to bad governance, low literacy rates, and poverty. If many non-Muslims are anxiety stricken by the savage actions of some bloodthirsty fanatic Muslims, it is helpful to remember the victims are
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The Village Of Wehni-Ber (Chapter 2)
The following is chapter 2 of the historical novel, “Of Kings And Bandits” ________________________________________________________________ Mokria, a young Ethiopian boy, glanced at the Wehni Mountain whose top was covered in thick fog that made it invisible. He felt the cold bite his skin through the blanket he had slept on, which was now wrapped around his
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Eritrean Refugees In Sudan: 50 Years And Counting
This year, 2017, the first wave of Eritrean refugees who fled en-masse to the Sudan, have been living in refugee camps for fifty years, and they’re still counting. Since 1967, the numbers of the first wave of refugees, including the second and third generation refugees born in the camps, has surged to the hundreds of thousands,
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The Malignant Cancer of Eritrea
A million years ago, when I first said I do not know of an Eritrean ethnic group known as Tigrinya, quite a few people went bonkers. A thousand years ago, in the 1990s, a few people became touchy-feely whenever Andenet was mentioned, forgetting it was not about people, but a destructive mental state. Now it
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God Doesn’t Kill, The PFDJ Does
If you think the title is blasphemous, not too fast. It is not, and I am hoping you would think beyond our habitual reaction to killing, our mechanical reaction of always dropping the responsibility of all murders and killings (not death) on God. I believe it is wrong. Today I will grieve in my own
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Language and Religion In Eritrean Politics
(The following article (first published on June 29, 2011) was presented at a panel discussion under the theme “Eritrea’s Path towards Democracy: Dialogue on Constitutional Issues”. The event was held at the Universities at Shady Grove, Rockville, Maryland, on June 25, 2011; the organizers of the event assigned the topic to the presenter.) I didn’t choose
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From The Archives: Avoid The Downers
This was first published on August 30, 2004. I decided to repost it again, 12 years later, because I feel the same cycle of negativity is overwhelming the justice seeker’s camp. It is my modest advise to encourage them (particularly the self-respecting youth) to shun all negativity and all the cheap talk that denigrate the Eritrean
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Democracy: May Your Heart’s Wish Come True
On September 24, 2016, I was at the University of San Francisco to attend a discussion that was organized by the energetic Meron Samadar (Lead Eritrea). The following is the speech that I prepared but as usual, I delivered its condensed version from memory without reading it. Therefore, though I expressed the gist of the
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Manal Younus: An Example In The Peach State
Emperors, wannabe-emperors, and petty-dictators name significant edifices, avenues, school and the like after their names or the causes they advance. The day Saddam Hussein occupied Kuwait in 1991, his troops didn’t waste time in dismantling the street signage and replacing it with new ones that carried his name. Thus, in no time there appeared Saddam-everything:
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Amidst Trust-Builders and Rumormongers
In its attempt to defeat and end the totalitarian rule in Eritrea, the resistance media disseminates opinion and editorials to expose the regime, to convince its misguided supporters to abandon it, and also to provoke debates on national issues. Its main goal, however, is to empower Eritreans by providing them with news and analysis so
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Asmara to Geneva: A 25-Years Journey
Clarance Darrow, the famous civil libertarian wrote, “No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.” He also said, “True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.” Eritrean patriots would attest to that; they have been facing injustice in their own land for
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Zerom The Liberator
Now that the endless “silver jubilee celebrations in Eritrea are over, and the epic trip of the torch that remained the only featured star on PFDJ’s media for about five months is over, I felt of sharing the following chapter, “The Liberator”, from my latest book “Miriam Was Here”. Consider it my way of expressing the human and
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Eritrean Apathy: No Boletika Zone
This edition of Negarit was first published on July 21, 2008. Since then, so many Eritrean associations have been created; most of them peddle the “No Boletika Zone” position in the face of the rampant injustice that Eritreans are facing. These associations have played a major role in creating the political apathy that has inflicted many
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Untie The Knot In Your Life
Today’s edition is very personal. I am celebrating my 87th cigarette-free day. Three-months of detoxification and I am treating myself to a cup of tea, not in the usual open air, but inside the shop. Over the years I got used to sitting outside, come rain or shine, because I liked what I thought was