Category: Articles
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The Lowlands: A Project Killed By Memory
[Translated from Arabic by Awate Team] On March 29, 2014, in London, the so-called Association of The Lowlanders held a seminar. Equally in London as well as on social media, the convening of the seminar was surrounded by mysteries, not because of the seminar or congress in itself, but because “Lowlanders” as a political terminology…
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Eulogy to Ahmad Mohammad Nasser
Once again, death robbed Eritrea one of its best sons. At 68 years of age, one of the respected and recognized leaders of the Eritrean national movement for self-determination and freedom, Ahmad Mohammad Nasser, passed away at dawn on Wednesday 26 March 2014 in a hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. He was admitted to intensive medical…
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Ahmed Nasser, Fifty Years of Quest
Fifty Years. Fifty years of Struggle. 50 years of wandering. 50 years of endless search. 50 years of yearning. 50 years of loss. 50 years of hope. No doubt, it is heartbreaking to learn one of the established and respected names in Eritrean history, Ahmed Nasser pass away exactly 50 years after he left to…
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Australia: PFDJ Coercive Taxation
Hundreds of Australians are being forced to pay a tax that – according to the UN – is funding murderous African rebel groups. (Courtesy of SBS.com.au) By: Santilla Chingaipe ( Hundreds of Australians are being forced to pay a tax that – according to the UN – is funding murderous African rebel groups. Members of…
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Haile Sellasie’s Cannabis
A green, yellow and red headband/wrist band is the symbol of Rastafarians who worship the late feudal king, Haile Sellassie of Ethiopia, whose name (and title) before he was throned was Ras Tefferi. When King Minelik died in 1913, his grandson Lij Eyassu became the king, but Tefferi didn’t accept that. Three years later Tefferi…
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Inquest Into The Lampedusa Migrant Boat Disaster
The tragic boat accident of October 3, 2013, which claimed the lives of 366 young Eritreans off the coast of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa,has been coming for a long time. Warning signs, in the form of human skeleton, have been piling up in the Mediterranean Sea bed for years. Fed up with the prospect…
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UPR: Eritrean Regime’s Abuses Reviewed
Summary presented by “Rodab” at Awate Forum: On the hot seat @ the UPR gathering. Nations from around the world are taking our regime to task. The following are some of the challenging questions (the complete list is at the UPR website): The Netherlands Can the government of Eritrea indicate how it will improve the…
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Eritrea: The Suppression of God
Collected thoughts here and unfinished ideas there; quoted materials saved somewhere in the hard drive or somewhere in some thumb drives long abandoned. The mind furiously searches for those items whose time has come for developing into one readable note or perhaps into one piece worth contemplating for. Ismail Omer Ali’s and Amnauel Hidrat’s recent…
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Unfiltered Notes: The Day After
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” — MLK I remember the face of one compassionate Italian mayor – full of sadness for people she didn’t know – clearly showing her deeper humanity. This was last October when the world mourned the Lampadusa tragedy where over 360 Eritreans…
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Badme: An Eritrean Opposition Deathbed
[Editor’s note: we received a clarification from Semere. Comments are now reactivated. We will explain the issue soon.] There’s no nice way to say this. The anti EPLF/PFDJ opposition that was led by the Ghedli generation for over three decades is laying on its deathbed waiting the inevitable. And there is nothing that could save…
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We Knew it Was Wrong…
We knew it was wrong…we just didn‘t know its name was slavery… “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.” Abraham Lincoln, speech, Mar. 17, 1865 I‘ve been tamed to accept servitude and captivity systematically for quite a long time and I am sure…
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Winter Blues And Another Year In Transition
A Prologue to Winter Blues And Another Year In Transition A friend called me up seeking for help looking for a bit of information But despite the focusing and the serious concentration Nowadays, however, without concealment or beautification My memory, ailing as it is was not helpful and flashing in recollection So as a booster…
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Links Page
Pro-Democracy Anti-Democracy Adoulis AlKhalas AllSaho al-massar Alnahda Arkokabay Asmarino Assenna Awna Debanma Dehnet Dekebat Democrasia EMHDR Erinahda Erit-Alliance Eritreanow Er4change Farajat Freeeritrea Gabeel Gereger Harnnet Hidri Islah Jeberti kunama-agara Maitemenay Modaina Mirad MekalehEritra Nselam Omaal Rahaib Sweetkeren Togoruba alenalki Dehai Shaebia Shabait Meskerem International Eritrea at google Eritrea at yahoo AFP Amnesty I. BBC HRW…
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Eritrea’s Succession Plan
Eritrea’s Succession Plan: Mentoring Emerging Leadership to Build Civil Society I was writing this article when the Lampedusa tragedy unfolded and I had to divert my attention and venting my frustration in my earlier article. Such tragic turn of events should jolt us out of slumber and complacency as many several writers stated it. The…
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Eritrea: The Federal Arrangement Farce
Often, I am accused of factoring out Ethiopia’s violence in my account of how the Eritrean revolution (ghedli) came to be. There are three types of “violence” the accusers have in mind: a) that Haile Selassie unilaterally abrogated the federal arrangement, a systematic violence that targeted both the autonomy and democratic system of Eritrea entailed…
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Bridging The Divide: Muslim and Christian Eritreans in Orange County
Introduction: The dominance of Tigrinya speaking Christians and their involvement in the various sectors of community-based, organizational activities representing Eritreans in Los Angeles, if not throughout the United States, make it appear as though Eritrea is a homogenous country composed predominantly of Tigrinya-speaking Christians (Woldemikael 1996; Hepner 2003). There are, however, minorities of Eritreans in…
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Afwerki and Al-Bashir: Unholy Matrimony
Port Sudan: 27 November 2013 In a ceremony dubbed as one of the most romantic weddings of the year, Eritrea’s Afewerki and Sudan’s Al-Bashir at last exchanged wedding vows in an outdoor ceremony at the gardens of Port Sudan trade center. The wedding was officiated by the highest spiritual guides in both countries, the couple…
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Eritrean Parallel Religious Lines
The roots and branches of Eritrean Diaspora seems to point to the mistrust that lingers stemming from their religious parallel lines – Christianism vs. Islamism – any other isms can amicably be ameliorated once this colossal issue is handled with sensitivity, care, and tenderness it so deserves. The other roots and branches that get in…
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Samrawit: A Book Review
Samrawit is an Arabic novel written by the Eritrean novelist Hajji Jabir who works as a journalist in Aljazeera Channel. The novel is in its third edition and it won the 2012 Al-Sharqa (Arab Emirates) Arab Creativity prize. “Searching for Eritrea” is the subject matter of the novel. Apparently Hajji chose this subject over other…
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Younis: Disengage from Isaias Afwerki; Engage Alternative Voices
[This is the entire text of the speech made by Saleh Younis, and addressed to attendants of an event organized by Eritrean and international human rights activists and was attended by Eritreans, friends of Eritrea, the Africa Desk of the UN, and the German Mission, and the Human Rights Rapporteur, Sheila Bedwantee Keetharuth, designated to…