Tag: unity

  • Trust Over Terror: Unity Built on a Minimum Agenda

    Trust Over Terror: Unity Built on a Minimum Agenda

    Accra, Ghana. The very air here reminds me of what could have been for Eritrea. In the early 1990s, two nations stood at a crossroads. Ghana chose democracy, and today it stands as West Africa’s most stable and consolidated democracy. Eritrea, tragically, chose tyranny and has become a cautionary tale of what is broken in

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  • What Has Unity Got to Do with Age?

    What Has Unity Got to Do with Age?

    Across Eritrean political discourse—especially within the diaspora—one argument has gathered unmistakable momentum: that leadership of the opposition, and indeed leadership of the Eritrean state itself, where the average age hovers around eighty, must pass to a new generation. At first glance, the demand feels not only reasonable but inevitable. Eritrea is a young nation with

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  • Eritrea’s Opposition Has Run Out of Excuses

    Eritrea’s Opposition Has Run Out of Excuses

    For more than three decades, Eritrea’s diaspora opposition has lived in a political waiting room—issuing statements, forming committees, dissolving committees, and then repeating the cycle with new names and old habits. The pattern has become so predictable that it no longer shocks anyone. Meanwhile, the regime in Asmera has ruled with total impunity: no constitution,

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  • Unity or Irrelevance: The Eritrean Opposition’s Moment of Truth

    Unity or Irrelevance: The Eritrean Opposition’s Moment of Truth

    Eritrea is no longer governed; it is controlled. The state has collapsed into one man. Eritrea is Isaias Afwerki. After more than thirty years in power, the ruling system has not only failed—it has stopped changing. Its thinking is stuck in the Cold War. Its actions are shaped by a past that no longer exists.

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  • The Echoes of Stagnation: Reclaiming Eritrea’s Future

    The Echoes of Stagnation: Reclaiming Eritrea’s Future

    Through Internal Reckoning and Diaspora Strategy Unity has long eluded Eritreans. The word is invoked so frequently—and so casually—that it has lost much of its moral and political gravity. Yet its overuse does not diminish its necessity. Our repeated failure to achieve unity does not render it obsolete; it simply reveals that our methods have

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  • Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival (7)

    Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival (7)

    Giants and Lilliputians of the HOA: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival Part Seven Introduction The central argument of this essay is simple: the Horn of Africa’s instability has never been caused by its diversity, but by leaders who repeatedly manipulate that diversity for political survival. Across Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Djibouti, rulers have taken

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  • Giants and Lilliputians: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival (Part V)

    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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  • Ageb and Eb, are these words alive in our languages!

    Ageb and Eb, are these words alive in our languages!

    I have talked and written hundreds of essays about reconciliation; the website I founded carried the slogan of reconciliation as a guiding principle. That’s because I believe it’s a vital precondition for a peaceful coexistence, unity, and stability. And citizens must be aware of the different social components—their culture, values, and grievances. Reconciliation requires awareness,

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  • The Eritrean Opposition’s Double Bind

    The Eritrean Opposition’s Double Bind

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  • The Religion of Eritreanism in Exile

    The Religion of Eritreanism in Exile

    Author’s Note: This essay is not a tactical critique of government or opposition, but an attempt to reframe how we think about Eritreanism itself. I argue that in exile, Eritrean identity has taken on the qualities of a religion (sustained by longing, ritual, and taboo), which creates a pseudo-reality that confuses expression with political participation.

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  • The Courage to Be Eritrean: Navigating a Moment of Crisis

    The Courage to Be Eritrean: Navigating a Moment of Crisis

    Eritrea stands at a precipice, a chasm in the unfolding narrative of our nation. This juncture demands not merely the reflex of action, but a descent into the very core of our being—a profound interrogation of what it means to be Eritrean. As the shadow of Ethiopia’s threatened war for Assab looms, we are compelled

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