Tag: eritrea
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Deposit Your Money or Else: Eritrea’s Banking Ultimatum
Eritrea’s latest directive orders citizens and businesses to deposit cash into banks by July 31 or face legal action. This analysis examines the official notice, its implications, and what it reveals about state control, banking policy, and citizens’ rights.
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The Gettysburg Lesson Eritrea Never Learned
What separates genuine leadership from the exploitation of sacrifice? Using Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as a historical reference point, this essay examines the moral power of leadership during times of national crisis and contrasts it with Eritrea’s post-independence experience. It explores freedom, citizenship, remembrance, national unity, and the responsibility owed to those who sacrificed their…
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From Geneva to the Present: The Long Arc of International Scrutiny on Eritrea
When Eritrea appeared before the United Nations Human Rights Council for its first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in November 2009, the atmosphere in Geneva carried a charged mixture of anticipation, unease, and unmistakable excitement. For many of us in the Eritrean civil society delegation—supported by the Norwegian Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF)—it was the first…
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Dr. Kebire, The Man We Called Uncle Camera
Last week, we lost an exemplary and peaceful person endowed with a kind heart and a beautiful soul. He was reconciled with all that life gives and takes, both from himself and from others. He lived a spiritually and physically content life. But like every creature, his time was up, and after a long struggle…
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The Extraction of Heroic Capital in Eritrea
Abstract: This essay examines how the Eritrean state converted the moral authority of the armed struggle into a durable political resource. It argues that the category of tegadalay (fighter) flattened unequal wartime experiences into a single claim of equal sacrifice, allowing ruling elites to extract legitimacy from the suffering of ordinary fighters. By separating fighters,…
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Sarigoble, the Woven Shield of Siolidarity
What can a song teach us about belonging? Through the celebrated Saho composition Sarigoble by Ali Abdullah Ahmed, this essay explores the enduring ties that bind people to one another across landscapes, generations, and continents, revealing how music becomes a portable homeland and a living architecture of solidarity.
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A New Political Imagination for Eritrea
A compelling call for a new political imagination in Eritrea, outlining how the opposition can overcome fragmentation through structure, discipline, and a practical roadmap for unity, transition, and national renewal.
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The Merchants of Division: Faith, Fanaticism, and Rationality
For decades we have appealed for national unity, peaceful coexistence, and rational public discourse. Yet fanaticism, intolerance, and hate continue to poison our civic space. Is religion truly the problem—or is it those who misuse it? A personal reflection on faith, reason, and the politics of division
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Eritrea at 35: A Regime Out of Words, Out of Time
A sharp, uncompromising critique of Eritrea’s 35th anniversary narrative, exposing the regime’s empty propaganda, extractive elite, and decades of national stagnation while calling for a new political imagination beyond Isaias Afwerki and the PFDJ.
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Archived Interview With Mohamed Taha Tewekel
Introduction The following interview with Mohamed Taha Tewekel was originally published by Awate.com on Sep 12, 2003, at a time when Eritrean politics, regional alliances, and opposition movements were evolving rapidly. The interview captures Tewekel’s recollections, political assessments, and personal experiences as they were expressed at the time. It reflects the atmosphere, assumptions, debates, and…
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A Regime We Hate, an Opposition We Despise: Why Eritrea Needs a New Political Imagination
Eritrea, Eritrean politics, regime and opposition, political imagination, national service reform, indefinite national service, Eritrean youth, civic renewal, democratic transition, transitional justice, strategic neutrality, Eritrean diaspora, governance reform, authoritarianism, opposition fragmentation, political culture, Haile Gebru, Amanuel Hidrat, Ismail AA, Awate, Eritrean intellectual discourse, national renewal, dignity and pluralism, institutional reconstruction, economic modernization, diaspora capital, Eritrean…
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Eritrea is Suffering From Shortage of Water
Thirty-Five Years On, Asmara Still Struggles for Water Thirty-five years after independence, residents of Asmara continue to endure an acute water shortage. Many water pipelines and household faucets have remained dry for extended periods. Since March 2026, the situation has worsened considerably in Asmara, Eritrea’s capital and largest city, home to an estimated one million…
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From the White House to the Stonehouse
I used to meet an animated, patriotic girl at a neighbor’s house where we gathered on weekends and special occasions. In 1985, just a few days after the September 1 celebrations, we were chatting over coffee. She was nice; only she inserted “Gedli” (struggle) into almost every other sentence she uttered. I teasingly called her…
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Eritrea Celebrates — but Its President Is Somewhere Else
I. A Preface of Reluctance and Recognition For more than two decades, I avoided President Isaias Afwerki’s speeches. They were predictable, monotonous, and devoid of substance — exercises in tedium that tested the limits of my patience. His demeanor, too, has always unsettled me: the way he talks, the way he walks, the way he…
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The Hewett Treaty and the Road to Adwa
This is a two-part story about Gerald Portal’s delegation to King Yohannes IV, based on Portal’s own book of 144 pages. It’s from a paperback copy of an Arabic Translation by Abdul Hamid Al Hassen and published by “Dar Al Kunuz AlAdabia” in Beirut (1978). Portal’s narration reads like a travelogue and an adventure series.…
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Reengaging Eritrea: A Path Beyond the Stalemate
Michael Rubin has written about Eritrea for many years, and in a region that often flickers in and out of the world’s attention, that consistency deserves acknowledgment. Whatever disagreements I may have with his conclusions, I do not question the sincerity of his desire to see an Eritrea that is democratic, free, and just. Many…
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Renewing Awate Without Losing Its Soul
Awate.com is back—with a cleaner, faster, and less intrusive experience after the removal of the excessive pop-ups and disruptive plugins that had burdened the site for far too long. This moment gives us an opportunity not only to announce technical improvements but also to reflect honestly on where we have been, the challenges we faced,…
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The Grammar of Promise: How Eritrean Political Thought Became Trapped Inside Its Own Logic
“The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.” – Alexis de Tocqueville Summary Eritrean political life, spanning both the ruling party and the opposition, is organized around a shared underlying logic: that sacrifice generates the right to govern, and that those who fail to honor that sacrifice must be…
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The Wound and the Cure: How Nehnan Elamanan Damaged Eritrea’s National Unity — and What a Truthful Manifesto Could Have Built Instead
Introduction: The Shadow of a Document There are moments in a nation’s history when a single document bends the arc of its political culture. Sometimes it elevates; sometimes it distorts. Nehnan Elamanan belongs to the latter category. Written in 1971, it did more than justify a factional split. It rewrote the moral grammar of the…
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PM Abiy, Teddy Afro, and the Politics of Art
For the past few days, Teddy Afro’s new album has drawn wide attention. A friend told me its lyrics have irritated Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and sent me a clip of Abiy lecturing parliament about the difference between artists and activists. That pairing—music and political instruction—raises a deeper question: can art ever be separated…