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 “Jigna Ertrawit” (Patriotic Eritrean). She didn’t appreciate the sarcasm, though I thought it was appropriate given her annoyingly jingoistic sloganeering.
That year marked the 24th anniversary of the Eritrean struggle for independence, and the girl seemed to live only to keep tally of the years—mebel 23, mebel 24, and so on.
I jokingly asked her, “How many anniversaries do you think you will count until Eritrea is freed?”
Without hesitation, she replied, “Next year Eritrea will be liberated.”
I liked her confidence. One needs positive people, even when the jingoistic wrapping becomes too much to tolerate.
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I met her for the last time in 1987 and asked her if she is still counting anniversaries. She snapped at me, “We would have been free if you didn’t jinx our independence.”
I haven’t seen her since then, but I am sure she is still counting the years since independence, dancing her head off every May 24. We have now crossed the 35th anniversary mark.
It would have been nice if Eritrea had lived in peace, with no need to count years and anniversaries, if not for the liberator-turned-oppressor governments that have frozen the country in stagnation for decades. The people are living through storms that perpetually disrupt their lives. I never imagined we would keep counting years and anniversaries forever and still not witness meaningful change after 1991.
So here we are, 35 years on, in 2026, and Eritreans are still counting. Even the enablers of the regime are counting. The difference lies in Malcolm X’s distinction between the field slaves and the house slaves.
There is the large segment that refuses to be enslaved, mentally or physically; there is the disadvantaged yet principled segment; and there is the segment of the house slaves. Everyone is free to choose where they place themselves among the three.
The 35th Presidential Speech
As usual, Comrade Isaias Afwerki delivered a speech on May 24, a ritual he never misses. I will not go through it in detail because I have translated enough of his speeches over the years. Awate.com was one of the few—if not the only—websites that religiously translated them. This year, however, many writers commented on the speech because the state media produced an exceptionally polished English translation that became widely available.
Instead, I watched the original Tigrinya speech and read—and reread—the English translation. This year, President Donald Trump was not the main star of Isaias’s speech.
Isaias believes that being blunt means being effective, though it often comes across as abrasive; he mistakes aggression for frankness. He can switch from acting like a president to behaving like a cult leader within seconds. Politically, he resembles Grendizer trying to fight in every mode at once—imagine Grendizer with tentacles.
Grendizer is a classic Japanese anime from the 1970s about a super robot wandering from one star system to another after his home world is destroyed by the villainous Vega Empire. The series revolves around defending his new home from invasion.
Even then, this year’s speech was a timid version of Grendizer compared to his past all-out rants against the United States and others.
One striking moment in Isaias’s speech was his suggestion that “influencers” may have influenced President Trump. That made me wonder whether Isaias realizes that his own influencers have been wreaking havoc on Eritrea through him. I believe he remains beholden to regional elite enablers and political courtiers. No free leader behaves the way he does: incoherent vision, confused priorities, and total disregard for the country’s crises. He is arrogant, confrontational, and foul-mouthed, treating the nation as a private ranch and its people as personal subjects existing only to serve him—and that, too, is the objective of his influencers and loyalists.
The influencers of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his Prosperity Party seem to have received a cold splash of water on their faces and have calmed down.
Centuries ago, the Arab poet Al-Mutanabbi wrote, “The winds blow in directions the ships do not desire.”
Abiy was bitten by the Red Sea bug and appeared convinced that, with support from the UAE, he could become emperor of the region “from the Red Sea to the Gulf.” He may even have viewed the Gulf War as manna descending from the sky specifically for him. Yet even amateur analysts can predict how such ambitions usually end.
Zuruni Kulu Sana Merra—Visit Me Once a Year
It is the title of a classic song by the Lebanese singer Fairuz: “Zuruni Kulu Sana Merra, Haram Tensuni”—“Visit me once a year; it is unfair, even sinful, to forget me.”
Eritreans never forget their country, but many are disappointed and no longer wish to see it reduced to a pilgrimage destination for Independence Day festivities. The deteriorating quality and taste of the celebrations are hardly attractive.
The ruling party’s festival aesthetics have steadily declined. This year may have been the ugliest yet. Is Zemede Tekle still heading the organizing committee?
I would also suggest that the celebration committee improve its sense of aesthetics. Decorating venues with dozens of flags when one strategically placed and artistically displayed flag would suffice makes the scene resemble a bazaar alley. It reflects how far Eritrea’s public taste has deteriorated.
A child watching the celebration on television innocently asked, “Why do the women have pillows behind their heads?”
His mother replied, “Honey, those are not pillows. That is artificial hair from dead Indian women. Stop talking until Brezidenti finishes his speech.”
“But why does he—”
“Shush! Zip it.”
“Ascension of…”—Tmnitna nM’Erag
At that moment, Isaias was saying, “The annual celebration is both a manifestation and a measure of the trajectory and progress of our generational mission of nation-building.” I believe he used the term M’Erag—ascension. I was taken aback because I had rarely heard the term outside its religious context, as in the Ascension of Jesus.
But never mind.
Isaias’s claimed achievements are never subjected to scrutiny. The attitude is always, “Take it or leave it.”
He continued:
“Advancing the integrated task of national development… Independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity constitute an ongoing process that must be continuously consolidated and sustainably strengthened. In this regard, we must reflect on where we stood yesterday, where we stand today, and what the future will hold.”
Kbrur Brezidenti, please do that for once. Tell us where we stood yesterday and where we stand today. You may tell us where we will stand tomorrow in next year’s speech.
He continued:
“In view of the palpable global stature of the United States, I had highlighted in my address on the 34th Independence Anniversary last year the prudence of undertaking serious and careful assessment of the policies and potential ramifications of the Trump Administration upon its return to the White House for a second presidential term.”
Thank you for translating “White House” into Tigrinya—TsaEda Geza. I now wonder what the noun “Isaias” translates into in Tigrinya. If we continue down this corny road, perhaps we should call your residence in Adi Halo “Hbri Chiqa Geza.”
Let us resume the heavily ciphered speech:
“[The] phenomenon remains highly complex and heavy, requiring patience and caution against premature conclusions even as rigorous analysis grounded in the compilation of relevant facts and evidence, as well as standard and comprehensive inferences, is routinely made.”
Whatever that means, I do not understand it well enough even to attempt translation. Let us move on.
Your speeches about MAGA, Trump, the EU, AU, NATO, and your favorite acronyms are broadcast and analyzed widely around the world. Ironically, the only people disconnected from these conversations are Eritreans themselves—people whose ears are plugged, whose eyes are blindfolded, and who are too consumed by suffering under your rule.
For God’s sake, appeal to Elon Musk. It may take him only a single wire dropped from the sky for Eritrea finally to connect to the modern world. Only then would Eritreans be spared your recycled geopolitical assessments.
Has it ever occurred to you to take your speeches to international forums where such discussions belong? Every May 24, people wait to hear something uplifting—or at least something new. Is it fair for a nation to sit in suspense only to hear repetitive lectures on global politics while daily life collapses around them?
People care about water supply, education, healthcare, and justice. Those are the responsibilities you and your influencers are supposed to address—not endless promises and exhausted excuses.
It’s an Unfair World
If you possess a strong economy, you influence the world. That is human nature. Those who possess military power do the same—just as you have done to Eritrea itself. For a man who has maintained power through security forces, it is strange to object when others adopt military postures.
You stated:
“The galloping aggregate US debt, which I referenced last year as exceeding 30 trillion dollars, now appears to have reached 40 trillion.”
What a revelation. It is called capitalism. Surely this cannot surprise you. Yet you could not resist invoking debt statistics to agitate populist sentiment.
Still, I sympathized when you asked:
“Why and on what legal basis did the White House take unilateral action in ‘arresting’ Maduro?”
Another Arabic saying comes to mind: “A word of truth intended to serve falsehood.”
You still have not answered a decades-old question posed to you: on what legal basis did Hbri Chiqa Geza imprison your colleagues and hundreds of others?
No honest person supports extrajudicial arrests or unilateral actions. But one cannot selectively defend justice abroad while denying it at home. Someone deeply involved in systemic injustice is poorly positioned to lecture others about injustice.
Then Isaias calculated:
“Still, two and a half years remain for Trump’s term.”
Is that too long? Perhaps. But then, how many years remain in your own term?
I also sympathized when Isaias said:
“It is equally important to note that criticism should not be directed at President Trump alone. Those who are complicit in these aberrations must be given due consideration. Furthermore, those who claim to be ‘influential’ and strive to mislead and corner Trump must not be forgotten… Transitioning from the old and exhausted global order, which the peoples of the world have grown weary of, is no longer optional.”
Eritrea faces the same predicament. The oppression of the imperial and Derg eras ended long ago, yet people have also grown weary of your own order of governance, which has become just as oppressive as the systems you once fought to dismantle.
Ladies and gentlemen—and Brezidenti—I could go on and on, but let me close with this:
For 35 years, Isaias has repeated the same monotonous lectures. He is predictable, lofty, and singularly focused on preserving power. He consistently avoids speaking about justice and fairness. Yet those are precisely the issues that the overwhelming majority of Eritreans continue to raise.
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