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Zemihret Yohannes: A Revolutionary Legacy in Eclipse
“Once reckless in the face of danger, Zemihret became a docile servant of power—how a roaring lion, at last, learns to purr.”
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Eritrea at Year’s End: Between Endurance and Exhaustion
As another year closes—the thirty‑fourth since independence—Eritrea stands as a nation defined by contradiction. It is a country that endured colonial rule, international machinations, a short‑lived annexation disguised as a “UN‑supervised federation,” Cold War rivalries, a brutal thirty‑year liberation struggle, a devastating border war, and repeated regional upheavals, yet still struggles to define peace on…
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When Liberation Becomes a Cage: Eritrea’s Unlearned Lessons
Eritrea’s tragic trajectory—after one of the most heroic and costly struggles for independence in modern African history—remains one of the continent’s most heartbreaking stories. By 1991, when Eritrea finally achieved freedom, the lessons of post‑colonial governance were no longer abstract. They had unfolded across Africa and the Global South in full view. Yet, despite these…
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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…
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Eritrea Does Not Need Isolation to Survive
For more than three decades, Eritrea’s foreign policy has been shaped by fear—fear of betrayal, fear of encirclement, and fear that engagement is merely a prelude to domination. That fear was forged in war, and at one time it served a purpose. Today, however, it has calcified into a governing doctrine that no longer protects…
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Whose Face Is on the Wall?
Author’s note: In this piece, I’m more interested in the subtle visual habits that quietly reorganize authority and erase local presence without making a spectacle of it. Sometimes the most revealing thing isn’t the portrait you find, but the absence it creates around everything else. Consider this a small observation about walls that points to…
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Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival (7)
Giants and Lilliputians of the HOA: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival Part Seven Introduction The central argument of this essay is simple: the Horn of Africa’s instability has never been caused by its diversity, but by leaders who repeatedly manipulate that diversity for political survival. Across Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Djibouti, rulers have taken…
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A Monumental Account of Eritrea’s Torment and Struggle
Eritrea’s 135-Year Journey: Perspectives and Insights from My Selected Articles by Woldeyesus Ammar is an unparalleled historical/political collection about the winding journey of Eritrea, spanning more than a century of historic odyssey—from Italian colonisation in 1890 to today under domestic authoritarian rule. In a carefully chosen collection of writings spanning over five decades, Ammar presents…
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Beware, he has 139 million loyalists!
Dear Eritreans, this is a warning—you are expected to shudder with fear. The Ethiopians are 139 million people; they can easily swallow you! If they come for your cattle, your women, or your men, let them take it all. If they want your seashores, spread a red carpet—or roll the sea itself for them to…
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Emperor Haile Selassie and President Isaias Afwerki – Part Six
Giants and Lilliputians: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival Emperor Haile Selassie and President Isaias Afwerki – Part Six 1 — Introduction The Two Propaganda Campaigns The Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) became the target of a sustained campaign of political defamation—first from Emperor Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia, and later, far more powerfully, from the Isaias-led People’s Liberation…
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A Reckoning with Rhetoric: Responding to FM Gedion Timothewos on Ethiopia–Eritrea Relations
Introduction Dr. Gedion Timothewos, Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister, delivered a carefully curated address at AAU Ras Mekonnen Hall on November 13th, 2025, outlining Ethiopia’s policy toward the Horn of Africa, or more specifically, towards Eritrea. His tone was measured, his language diplomatic, and his framing deliberate crafted to cast Ethiopia as a stabilizing force amid regional…
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Saleh, a Donkey, and Whiskey in Coffee Cups
Today’s episode concludes the mini-series spanning episodes 349 to 354. I will place them all in one playlist for easy reference. And as the adage goes, sebaay klte neow nejew kbl mote—a person must finish what he starts. There are many topics awaiting us, especially the constant poking from Abiy Ahmed and his flamboyant but empty…
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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.…
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Giants and Lilliputians: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival (Part V)
Giants and Lilliputians: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival Beyond Emperor Haile Selassie and President Isaias AfwerkiThe centralizing dogma of empire, religion and revolutions Eritrea and Ethiopia are lands where mosque and monastery, Qur’an and Psalter, have long breathed the same air. At their deepest currents, the histories of these nations are not tales of division,…
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Negarit 353 : Are Eritrean Youth Content?
In today’s Negarit 254, I will tell you about the late Goitom, in addition to other stories of humor and human endurance that I observed during my journey through the Eritrean Kebessa, the highlands. This segment continues the travelogue I began in Negarit 249 and carried through to Negarit 352, and it leads us to…
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The Cycle of Blame: Why Tigray Can’t Learn from the War
Author’s Note This essay examines a recurring pattern in Tigray’s post-war political culture: the public’s tendency to celebrate leaders during moments of triumph and condemn them during moments of failure, while rarely acknowledging its own role in shaping those outcomes. Using the popular Tigrinya-language sitcom Gere Emun (“Gere the Trustworthy”) as an entry point, it…
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The Battle of Afdeyu
The previous night we met Petros Solomon and Ali Sayed Abdella, and I discovered the much hoped for dialogue for uniting the ELF and PLF was rejected. The ominous disclosure devastated me. And we returned to Weki. The next morning, we were having tea for breakfast when our breakfast was interrupted. We rushed toward the…
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Giants and Lilliputians: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival (IV)
Giants and Lilliputians: Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival Emperor Haile Selassie and President Isaias Afwerki (Part IV) The Seeds of Division within the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) Imperial Mythology and the Weaponization of Religion To understand the fragmentation of the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), the eventual triumph of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), and…
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Meqerka, Dem Sebaay, Zagir
In 1967, Israel and the Arabs (basically Egypt) fought the Six-Day War; Israel overran Egyptian territories and took control of the Sinai Peninsula and effectively closed the Suez Canal. Haim Bar-Lev, the Israeli chief of staff, designed a 120 km long ditch and about 20 meters high dirt fortifications. Along the Bar Lev Line, Israel…
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The “Darling of Asmara” Finally Rests in Peace!
On a summer day in Cairo, I went to the zoo in the Giza area with my older sister, Fatima, and her three children. While we were wandering in the zoo, we reached the horse-riding area. The norm for the visitors was to ride the horse with the assistance of a worker and to proceed…
