Category: Articles
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PFDJ Turns to Prayers, Pastors Return to PFDJ
Every epoch in human history brings its own booming business and now, the business of Jesus Chris has become a very lucrative enterprise even the PFDJ is venturing into. And some gibberish talking, bible wielding, scriptures-flaunting and self-crowned prophets have committed themselves to working against the aspiration of the Eritrean people by aligning themselves with PFDJ.…
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The “Sacred Cows”
Nationalism pushed to its extreme equals ultra-nationalism of the fascist kind*. Ethnic pride pushed to its extreme leads to a narrowly defined ethnocentrism or even worse. Religious beliefs pushed to the extreme leads to fanaticism of the Boko Haram, ISIS, Al Shabab and of Myanmar’s genocide (on minority Rohingia) kind. Regionalism pushed to the extreme…
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On Agency, Gender Roles, & Bird’s Eye View of Eritrea’s Revolution
Some articles compel one to write about the article because the subject matter one sense tend to be of monumental import and some other times comments in the Awate Forum beg one to do the same. So, what’s one to do but contemplate or make an attempt to write one that could conceivably combine the…
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Book Review: Red Sea Citizens by Dr. Jonathan Miran
BooK: Red Sea Citizens Author: Jonathan Miran Pages: 401 Year: 2009 Publisher: Indiana University Press Dr. Johnathan Miran is Assistant Professor of Islamic Civilization in the…
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Reflecting on Eritrean International Women’s Day
Saying that Colonialism changed the trajectory of the world history for the worst is to state the obvious. But, historicizing and contextualizing in order to understand the process by which it “essentialised, totalized, and dichotomized” (see Spivak’s work on this) the societies it subjugated, thereby creating an “Other”(with big ‘O’) out of them is one…
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A Citizen’s Letter to Isaias Afwerki
[The following is a letter penned by a person who lives in Eritrea. His name is withheld for his safety] …… To Isaias Afwerki Eritrea, March 13, 2018 Dear Isaias, You may not recognize me yet, but you are the cause of the scars I harbor and the anger with which I harbor it!!! I was…
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Hajji Musa’s Historic Funeral Procession on March 3, 2018
Below this introduction is a recording of the funeral procession of the late Hajji Musa who died in the PFDJ regime’s prison and was buried on March 3, 2018. This video clip will inform Eritreans for generations to come, how a 93-year old patriot defied injustice and chose to die for his rights. Though we…
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To My Dear Son Selaheddin,
It has been three months-and-a-half since I’ve read the open letter that you sent that was meant to be read by all Eritreans, Selahaddin weddey. I keep it in my pocket and read it every day, because I draw energy from it. It gives me life. It gives me sustenance. It keeps me sane. But…
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The Rebirth of a Nation
Hats off! Hajji Mussa, no worries no trepidation Four months have elapsed since your revolution Or was it a hundred and twenty days of incarceration Whichever is right but I do beg some clarification *** You resisted injustice well since your very inception Ever since your indomitable soul knew no rest no capitulation Jails, dungeons…
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Liberation Theology & Intergenerational Discourse on Eritrea
African liberation theology: Intergenerational conversations on Eritrea’s futures. Ghirmai Negash & Awet T. Weldemichael. Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press, 2018. 135 pp. Analysis by Beyan Negash* Liberation theology & intergenerational discourse on Eritrea** Negash and Woldemichael’s (2018) African liberation theology: Intergenerational conversations on Eritrea’s futures is at once about Eritrea and its people situated within historical trajectory…
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Bridging the Intellectual Gap
In a book review article authored by Dr. Bereket Habteselasse and published in Awate.com on August 11, 2017, Dr. Bereket concludes his book review with the following appeal: “I also issue a personal appeal to Eritrean scholars, particularly Muslim Eritreans, to write biographies of Ibrahim Sultan Ali, Abdulkadir Kebire, Idris Awate and other great leaders…
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Saving People, Killing Silence
Introduction: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” This powerful quote is attributable to Martin Luther King Jr. who popularized it during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Digging deeper, however, it can be traced to the abolitionist, Unitarian Minister, Theodore Parker, an activist who fought against slavery…
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Go Love a Bum: When Art and Artist Mislead
You are a survivor A child of promise You are protected like the iris of the eye Time flies, you are at the age of engagement and marriage During the planting season before the rains fall My heart led me, and I came to visit you I stand on your threshold and say how are…
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The Hurt Locker: Film Review and Analysis
In an era of the Internet, in the age of sound bites, and in the world of texts that collapse the meaning of words into a single letter or two; where the bombardment of information ceaselessly flows, the ability to analyze, synthesize, and correctly processing information becomes ever more crucially important. How does one begin, for…
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Eritrea’s Democratic Credentials!
During the United Nations deliberations on the future of Eritrea in the 1950s, one particular claim was made consistently to justify the annexation of Eritrea to Ethiopia. This claim was economical in nature and it maintained that Eritrea was a poor country that can’t sustain itself as an independent nation. This claim was sarcastically refuted…
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Akhriya Steps-Forth: From Akhriya to All of Eritrea
ኣኽርያ በገሰው፡ ካብ ኣኽሪያ ናብ ኩሉ ኤሪትሪያ: Unlike the commonly known Las Vegas slogan, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” our motto is and should be the stark opposite of that: What happened in Akhriya did not, could not, and will not stay in Akhriya. This is a call to action and a call to arms from the belly of…
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The Akhriya Uprising: Lessons Gleaned
To expect convergence when canvassing various Eritrean opposition media outlets during any confrontational events like the Akhriya uprising would be par for the course. What shouldn’t be par for the course is the colluding, inadvertently or not, that aligns us with the supporters the PFDJ (the ruling party) with the propaganda machination of the Eritrean…
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Halloween Uprising
Eritreans as you know are unique especially in their courtesy towards one another and towards others. For example, if a Muslim is taken to jail by a Christian, another Muslim cannot state the fact without digging some Christian name from jail books and reassuring the jailer that it is OK because these things happen…
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Enough to the Cruel Man in Asmara
The need of good governance inspires us to say enough to the cruel man in Asmara. It is the historical record of peoples that reflects their suffering and heroism and conveys their experiences to generations. The agony of the peoples of the Third World was the result of the Western invasion of its countries, which…
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The Case of “Business and Human Rights” In Eritrea
Companies have an obligation to conduct due diligence of their Business activity and this article is a case of “Business and Human Rights” in Eritrea. Business has a direct and indirect impact on the lives of people. It is for this reason that the UN Human Rights Council came with a new framework of “Business…