Author: Semere Andom (iSem)
-
Teklay vs. Hamid Idris Awate
In a YouTube video billed as a “chat with the wise among us,” Teklay and Hamid Idris Awate engaged in an hour-long conversation. Despite Teklay’s insistence that this was not an interview but merely a chat, it followed the familiar interview format: Teklay asked; Awate answered. The themes included the honor of remaining friends with
-
Sharpening the Pen to Defend Eritrea When the War Ignites.
The tensions, the constant beating of war drums, the tragic news of Eritreans drowning at sea, and the social media posts announcing those who have gone missing while crossing borders have all been weighing heavily on Eritreans. But above all, the rising drumbeat of a new war between Eritrea and Ethiopia is making people anxious.
-
The Fiddle and the Fiddler:
The Fiddle and the Fiddler: How the Arabs and TPLF Undermined the Eritrean Revolution The story goes: when Haile Selassie dissolved the federation and annexed Eritrea, the Eritrean people erupted in rebellion, and thus the revolution was born. The war lasted thirty years, and ultimately, the Eritreans triumphed. A compelling story. Many Eritreans dismiss the
-
Dr. Tesfatsion Medhanie Abdicates
In a speech he delivered to Selfi Hidase gathering, Dr. Medhanie, without equivocation and nuance, pointed at TPLF as the archenemy to Eritrea’s sovereignty. To obviate the threat from this enemy, he told his audience, Eritreans must coalesce and ally with the government of Ethiopian because if TPLF has its way, the disintegration of both
-
A Miserable Country Goes to War with Itself
Say what you will about outgoing president Trump, and despite the messenger, there are many countries in the word that fit this description, and the country in question is one of them. An epitome of the description. It is a country that recently decided to go to war with itself. I will not name this
-
My Recurring Encounter With a Spade and an Eagle
Dispatches from Kassala I was walking and enjoying the cold breeze on my face during the Christmas Holidays. I instinctively passed my right hand through my head and felt the thinning of my once bushy hair, then I shoved both my hands into my pockets and walked briskly. I slipped and almost fell, but I quickly steadied
-
Macbeth: A Noble Man and a Witch
Once upon a time, a witch encountered a noble man and told him that he will be a king one day. The noble man shared this bewitching prophecy with his wife. His wife pressured him to murder the king now to claim the prophesied kingdom. This was from Shakespeare’s play of Macbeth some 400 years
-
A Prophesy Finally Fulfilled in Eritrea
I was in high school when I learned of the prophecy. I shook my head. I pooh-poohed it. Untenable, I murmured as I sat hearing the prophecy delivered with confidence. But I am not talking about the prophecy of prophet Isaiah, who proclaimed, “a virgin will conceive and beget a son…” I am not talking
-
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.
-
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
-
Job and Jacob, Two Ungodly Men: Eritrea Needs More Hate Speech
Yes, you read that right, Job and Jacob are two ungodly men. Yes, God bragged about Job and allowed Satan to test him, when Satan alleged that Job’s faith is conditional as long as his barrel brims with wine, as long as all his wealth remains intact. Satan asserted, the Bible tells us, that the
-
A Boy’s Odyssey into the Multicultural Nature of Eritrea
It sounds Like Tigrinya, but it is not Tigrinya. When I was thirteen years old, a kid I met during our trek to the Sudan once said this to mock me: “haa wo tekkal shweshsh[1]” as he skillfully navigated the bushes, donning his shorts, which were as tight and as short as todays boxers. I
-
Confessions of A Recovering Addict: It was All for the Chicks
I relished it and my friends provided it. Truth be told, I was addicted, but it was all for a good cause, it was to impress the girls. I was in love and addicted to two cousins, but they manifested through one person. It was in unlikely place that I first noticed Leila, she was
-
A Very Untimely Article
The American 2016 Election: A white woman on the top, a white man at the bottom. Hilary Clinton is poised to become the first female president, but a white woman on the top with a white man at the bottom is not history making. It is not even history repeating itself much less making it.
-
The Song That Emancipates Eritrean Women
Traditionally; most of the Tigriniya love songs hanker on the themes of interference by others, on one lover’s succumbing to the village gossip, “my love, do not believe the gossip, it is motivated by jealousy “. And many are lamentations about parents who refused to bless the courtship because of lack of societal stature and
-
The Agaiazians Have Testosterone Too!
A few days ago I stumbled on a new YouTube Phenomenon, The Agaiazian.tv, broadcast by an Eritrean named Tesfazion. Laden with the history of Tigray and Tigrinya, Tesfazion calls Eritrea a country needled out from the thin air, sewing the nine ethnic groups to create an artificial country by Vatican designers. His main thesis is
-
Tigrinya Speakers’ Anguish: Shallowing Their Mother-Tongue
An Eritrean devoted eleven pages and over 7,000 words on a 2010 article that appeared on Asmarino. The author bemoans the lack of diaspora born Eritreans’ mastery of their “mother tongue”. He cites wads of embarrassing anecdotes to support what he called diaspora crisis in the mother tongue. The article gets into trouble from its onset
-
It Feels Like Yesterday: It Is All Time’s Fault
In different parts of Eritrea some call it gizie, some call it hmmet, ewan, zemen, and some even call it kunetat. They are all talking about the mighty Time. In Tigrinya lexicon it seems everything is the fault of Time, everyone picks on it. Poor Time! “Time, you have changed on me, I cannot tread
-
The Eritrean Woman: Reverie of an Emancipated Eritrean Man
First you need to start with the grand narrative that is constantly quoted to you condescendingly: Your 30% participation in Eritrean’s prolonged armed struggle. This is based on faulty math; it is based on the simplistic calculation of the female headcount divided by the total membership and then converted to a percentage. It does not
-
Talking Mountains, Thanking Eagles, And lyrics
There are mountains that talk, eagles that thank, and lyrics that speak to non-humans. And I still remember where I was and what I was doing, when for the time I heard someone talking to an eagle and the eagle responding. Wedi Ghebru was singing, “Abba-Gunbah Berekha ab Homib entay re’ikha…” I did not know