Category: Perspective
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Emperor Haile Selassie and President Isaias Afwerki – Part Six
Giants and Lilliputians: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival Emperor Haile Selassie and President Isaias Afwerki – Part Six 1 — Introduction The Two Propaganda Campaigns The Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) became the target of a sustained campaign of political defamation—first from Emperor Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia, and later, far more powerfully, from the Isaias-led People’s Liberation
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A Reckoning with Rhetoric: Responding to FM Gedion Timothewos on Ethiopia–Eritrea Relations
Introduction Dr. Gedion Timothewos, Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister, delivered a carefully curated address at AAU Ras Mekonnen Hall on November 13th, 2025, outlining Ethiopia’s policy toward the Horn of Africa, or more specifically, towards Eritrea. His tone was measured, his language diplomatic, and his framing deliberate crafted to cast Ethiopia as a stabilizing force amid regional
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Giants and Lilliputians: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival (Part V)
Giants and Lilliputians: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival Beyond Emperor Haile Selassie and President Isaias AfwerkiThe centralizing dogma of empire, religion and revolutions Eritrea and Ethiopia are lands where mosque and monastery, Qur’an and Psalter, have long breathed the same air. At their deepest currents, the histories of these nations are not tales of division,
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Giants and Lilliputians: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival (IV)
Giants and Lilliputians: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival Emperor Haile Selassie and President Isaias Afwerki (Part IV) The Seeds of Division within the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) Imperial Mythology and the Weaponization of Religion To understand the fragmentation of the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), the eventual triumph of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), and
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Giants and Lilliputians Part 3: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival
Emperor Haile Selassie and President Isaias Afwerki The Formation of Isaias Afwerki’s Political Character Isaias Afwerki’s rule embodies an ancient warning: the freed slave who, once unshackled, becomes a harsher master than the one who bound him. Before the revolution, the only model of leadership he had known was Emperor Haile Selassie—a sovereign whose imperial
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Giants and Lilliputians: Haile Selassie and President Isaias Afwerki (Part 2)
Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival: The Body as a Mirror of Power To understand Isaias Afwerki’s psychology, one must first confront the contradiction written across his body. His appearance—spare, stiff, and strangely careless—betrayed none of the humility expected of a revolutionary. Nor did it reflect the ethos of the Tegadelti, whose plainness was once a
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Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival: Emperor Haile Selassie and President Isaias Afwerki
Two Towering Figures–Giants and Lilliputians (Part 1) Across the sorrowful and entangled histories of Ethiopia and Eritrea, two figures loom with spectral intensity: Emperor Haile Selassie I and President Isaias Afwerki. Their shadows stretch across generations, ideologies, and geopolitical fault lines—each a master of power, each a paradox incarnate. At the outset of their reigns,
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The Tenth Anniversary of the ELF Reunion and Reflection
Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future Dallas, Texas | October 3–5, 2025 In a hall radiant with camaraderie, sibling affection, and the joy of long-awaited embraces, the tenth anniversary of the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) Reunion and Reflection unfolded under the theme “Honoring the Past and Inspiring the Future.” Held in Dallas, Texas, the gathering
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The Refugee Act of 1980 and the Quiet Burial of the ELF
The U.S. Refugee Act of 1980 is occasionally invoked—most notably by Eritreans, and rarely in writing, and, at least, once in an Amharic-language book by Ethiopian politician and author Gebru Asrat (a page of which was translated for me)—as evidence of a deliberate American strategy to dismantle the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). These claims, though
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Ts’əmdi and Ts’imdo: Joined for Utility, Not Unity
In the semi-fertile soil of Tigrinya, the words ጽምዲ (Ts’əmdi) and ጽምዶ (Ts’imdo) bloom with layered meaning—practical, poetic, and political. Both conjure the image of two entities alloyed together, yet their applications diverge across the rhythms of life. ጽምዲ, as in ጽምዲ ብዕራይ, refers to two oxen yoked to plough a field—a necessity for poor
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Sept. 18, 2001: The Day Memory Was Criminalized
Eritrea’s Day of Infamy: The Day Liberty Died Some days do not merely pass into history—they haunt it. September 18, 2001, is one such day: a wound unhealed, a silence unbroken, a betrayal unforgotten. It is Eritrea’s Day of Infamy—the day memory itself was criminalized. It is the day the regime drained the oxygen of
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Horn of Africa: A Unity Deferred: Between Memory and Possibility
The Horn of Africa remains one of the world’s most fragile political landscapes. State legitimacy is contested, nation-building is stalled or unraveling, and war routinely eclipses peace. Ethiopia and Sudan, its two largest states, are engulfed in civil war and political upheaval. Somalia continues to fracture, with little more than nominal central authority. Eritrea and
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The Eritrean Opposition’s Double Bind
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Ethiopia’s Double Standard: Talking Peace on the Nile, Hinting Force on the Red Sea
Assab is not just a port—it’s where Eritrea’s national story began. Calls for Eritrea to cede it ignore history, sovereignty, and the hard-won price of independence. Ethiopia champions international law on the Nile but risks undermining its credibility with threats over the Red Sea. True leadership requires consistency. Eritrea’s sovereignty over Assab is non-negotiable. Ethiopia…
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Eritrea’s Missing Architects: The Intellectual Void Behind a Crippled Nation-Building
Eritrea’s liberation struggle stands as one of the most extraordinary military victories of the modern era. In 1991, the EPLF decisively defeated Ethiopian forces and freed the country. Yet instead of declaring independence immediately, it opted for a UN-supervised referendum in 1993—an exercise that yielded a predictable 99.83% result. Contrast this with the American Revolution,
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Eritrea’s Unanswered Question: 34 Years of Isaias Afwerki’s Rule
Eritrea’s Unanswered Question: What 34 Years of Isaias Afwerki’s Rule Reveal About Sovereignty and Survival In the beginning was the question—etched into the soul of the nation itself: Can Eritrea survive—and thrive—as a truly sovereign, independent state? For decades, global powers insisted we could not. Italy once tried to sell Eritrea to Belgium, citing economic
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Ethiopia: The Graveyard of Eritrean Opposition Movements
Abstract: This article examines the structural, historical, and geopolitical constraints that have undermined the Eritrean opposition’s ability to bring about meaningful political change. It argues that the reliance on host states such as Ethiopia and Sudan has delegitimized opposition movements in the eyes of the Eritrean people. The article proposes a shift away from failed
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The Literary Works of Bereket Habte Selassie (LL.B., Ph.D.)
A Portrait of a Political Thinker and Freedom Fighter Ladies and gentlemen, It is a great honor to speak to you today about one of the most remarkable thinkers, writers, and freedom fighters to emerge from the Horn of Africa—Dr. Bereket Habte Selassie. A legal scholar by training, a political reformer by necessity, a revolutionary
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Book Review: An African Revolution Reclaimed
Book Reviewer: Semere T HabtemariamTittle: An African Revolution Reclaimed: A Memoir of Eritrean Freedom Fighter Mesfin Hagos Author(s): Mesfin Hagos and Awet Tewelde Weldemichael Publisher: Red Sea Press Year: 2023 Pages: 436 First impression is the best impression: For the last two decades, the idea of writing a memoir has been a constant theme in