Category: Articles
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Book Review: The Burden of Exile
This is a review by Bereket Habte Selassie of the recently published book, “THE BURDEN OF EXILE” by Aaron Berhane. I. The Heroic Pioneer He had been an icon, at once inspired and inspiring. His friends and former collaborators never tired of singing his praise as a dedicated fighter for democracy and freedom of the…
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Eritrea’s Mendelai (መንደላይ), Manhood & Cobra
Author and singer Melake Abraham’s song entitled Mendelay, with close to 3 million views on YouTube, popularized the word Mendelay. Mendelai ending in “ai” will be used throughout this article for reasons the reader will understand. Based on the lyrics, and an interview of the video producer Daniel Teame, Mendelai was used in its Tigrigna…
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Pasha René, Bezbez Kassa, Bogos, and More…
Although Italian occupation of Eritrea started in Assab and its coastal areas, it was also in Bogos and its surroundings, the turmoil that culminated with the organization, colonization, and eventual independence of Eritrea, was boiling. Around the mid-1800s, all the ingredients poured onto that region. These included, change of hand from Turkey to Egypt, the…
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Eritrean Regime’s Endless Recoiling
Let me start by saying while we should hope Ethiopia will never be threat to Eritrea, we should not bet on Ethiopia’s tension or its disintegration for Eritrea’s solidification, which must solely depend on Eritrean’s will alone. Having said that, I understand some reservations regarding Ethiopia, as in the saying, “old habit dies hard.” As…
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Maryam Asmereyti
One of the unfortunate victims of the Tigray whirlwind, especially in its subsiding phase when Tigray intellectuals, its diaspora tentacles and their sympathizers recoiled & huddled physically or mentally in Mekelle, was the capital city of Eritrea, Asmara, and particularly its ancient church of St Mary or Enda Maryam also known as Maryam Asmereyti. These…
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Filling and Feeling the Failing West
Co-authors, Haile S. and Beyan Negash Africans owning and charting their future of hopes and dreams can be understood better when seen through the lens of master and slave narrative that had been made to exist eons back. Consider the history of Africans who were enslaved across the Atlantic shores into the new world. Clint…
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Transforming ENCDC & EPF to a Higher National Unity Platform
Honoring the 2021 Agreement on a Draft Political Charter & holding a broader national congress urgently is the only way to transform the Eritrean National Congress for Democratic Change (ENCDC) & the Eritrean Political Forces (EPF) into a higher national unity platform The historic National conference of the Eritrean National Council for Democratic Change (ENCDC)…
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Inter-Ethiopian Peace Talks
As many arrows, loos’d several ways, Come to one mark, as many ways meet in one town, As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea, As many lines close in the dial’s centre, So may a thousand actions, once afoot, End in one purpose, and be all well borne Without defeat! Shakespeare’s Play: Henry…
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Uthman Sabe, A Towering Intellectual and a Prolific Writer!
Uthman Sabe was a household name in Eritrea in the ‘70s and ‘80s and his legacy remains to be one of the most profound and enduring. Sabe has left indelible mark on the contemporary Eritrean history. No book on Eritrean struggle from the ‘60s onward can be complete without the mention of Sabe. To many…
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A Possible Political Collusion Course
Tigray’s TPLF, Eritrea’s EPLF, and Ethiopia’s Prosperity Party at a Possible Political Collusion Course: Whatever the Outcome, it will Redefine the Horn of Africa for Decades to Come. Respectful, rigorous, and intellectually engaging confrontation of ideas is always a welcome gesture; one that focuses on ideas rather than on a person; one that focuses on…
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Eritrean Opposition Movement: In Dire Search of Potency and Relevance
Whenever foreign journalists query Eritrea’s strongman, Isaias Afewerki about political opposition to his totalitarian rule, he is known to get a fake perplexed look on his face before retorting, in feigned puzzlement, “What opposition?” On further prodding from a persistent inquisitor, he tries to lay the question to rest with a dismissive, yet emphatic denial:…
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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…
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What Is the Source of Change in Eritrea?
NB: This post was brought from the Awate Discussion Forum, with minor editing to make it readable by the general public/Editors] In the prayer of the Tewahdos, ብስመ-ኣብ (in the name of God), there is a phrase, እክህደከ ሰይጣን (I reject you Satan). Be happy, I am saying it loud, እክህደከ ኢሳያስ (I reject you…
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A Tale of Two Bulls!
[Reading time: 5 minutes.] Memory is a bewildering human faculty. Just look at a dream you have of a long-forgotten event from childhood appearing to you, now, as vivid and fresh as the day you lived and observed it when it happened, and in a way that you may not have been able to describe…
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The Emperor’s Daughter and her Namesakes
ወለት ሓጸይ, ጓል ሃጸይ, the emperor’s daughter, la fille du Negus, la figlia del Re, la figlia dell’Imperatore or la Principessa are names coined by the locals and foreigners to the legendary figure located in the middle of the Gheleb basin (Eritrea). She fascinated the poetic people of Mensa’e (መንሳዕ) and attracted the curiosity of…
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The Eritrean keyboard Master: Abdalla Abubakar
Abdalla Abubakar’s towering contribution towards the development of the Eritrean music had not received its due acknowledgement until late. Thanks to the efforts made by Habtom Debessay, there is a documentary released recounting the 50 years of musical life of the legendary Abdallah Abubakar. The war of liberation was raging and came closer to the…
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So Long Dear Friend
[This memory is the memory of Ibrahim Negash, translated from Tigrinya into English by his younger brother Beyan Negash.] No matter how inevitable. No matter how old. No matter how young. No matter how or when it arrives. The passing of an individual hits hard. When it is the passing of a childhood friend, two doors…
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Book Review: The History of Bilen (by Dr. Jamil Idris)
Book Title:The History of Bilen, past and present Pages. : 245 Publisher: Dar Alma’arif, Aljeria, 2018 Language : Arabic (تأريخ البلين ـ الماضي والحاضر ) Author. : Dr. Jamil Idris Reviewer : Ismael Ibrahim Al-Mukhtar Diversity is a social treasure with immense power to enrich, enlighten and broaden social perspectives. Reversely, it could be a social poison…
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The Curse of Perpetual Civil Wars
The ghost of the ongoing civil war in our region will be a curse that will haunt us for generations to come. Historical figures are invoked bereft of their historical contexts by those who think they are the only heirs to these historical figures; little do they realize be it the region’s historical figures or…
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Welcome Home Trilogy
A Trilogy Project – that ended up as perpetual work in progress only to be recovered fortuitously after almost seven years from archives saved on an old pen drive! Introduction With the proverbial ‘other’ within the socio-political divide along the national context in my mind, some time last March, 2016 I began writing the verses…