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Hail Ethiopia, Hail Peace!
“Abiy’s provocative declaration has now become a rallying cry for some Ethiopian extremists.” “No claimed ancient bloodline can legitimize ownership—leaving aside political decisions.” “You shall not covet the Eritrean Red Sea.”
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A Voice Between the Banks: A Letter from Sumaya
Narrator of I & Eye: The Mirror, Exile & the Nile Editor’s Note: The following letter comes from Sumaya, the narrator of Beyan Negash’s forthcoming novel I & Eye: The Mirror, Exile & the Nile. As “The River Remembers” continues its literary meditation, she steps forward, not only in fiction but also in conversation with…
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The Unspoken Debt: Sacrifice, Power, and Consent in Eritrea
Author’s Note: This short essay is written as a reflection on Eritrea’s independence narrative and the moral contradictions embedded in many armed liberation movements. Having grown up in Eritrea and internalized these national stories, I later came to examine them through a more critical lens. With Eritrean Martyrs’ Day approaching, I hope this piece invites…
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The River Remembers: The Silence Between Names (Part III)
“From the eye that remembers to the I still learning to see—memory doesn’t merely recall, it refracts.” “What we inherit through the eye is often unresolved; we see what we were taught to remember, not what is.” “The act of seeing is a practice, a discipline; The I must unlearn to perceive anew.”
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How Eritrean PFDJ Propaganda Twists Routine Diplomacy
“A YouTuber presented the two messages as proof that the U.S. was warming up to Eritrea. He interpreted every word as though it were divine scripture.” “Had the audience listened or read critically, they wouldn’t have fallen for the farce. The excitement lasted a week—until reality hit.” “On June 4, 2025, the U.S. administration suspended…
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The Blame Loop Has Expired
Nearly a quarter-century after the ministers of Eritrea were made to disappear into silence on September 18, 2001, a date that split a nation’s hopes, the diagnosis of betrayal has calcified into ritual. In a recent article, Dawit Mesfin revisits this now-familiar script: that President Isaias Afwerki duped not only the Eritrean people but the…
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The Debt-Free Illusion: Rethinking Eritrea’s Economic Self-Reliance
“The myth of Eritrean self-reliance… has helped justify authoritarianism, isolation, and indefinite national service.”
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Eritrea: How President Isaias Afwerki took everyone, including the Veteran Freedom Fighters, for a Ride
I aim to demonstrate not only how the former freedom fighters were misled, lied to, and exploited by the regime after independence, but also how their non-interventionist approach betrayed the very people they fought so hard to liberate from Ethiopian rule. One of the most fascinating but confusing stories that ever unfolded in Eritrea is…
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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…
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Delusion and Confusion: Awet NeHafash or Awet Nwedi Afom
Isaias Afwerki vs. Reality: A Speech Drenched in Delusion. That was illustrated in his last public appearance to deliver the Independence Day speech. As usual, it was a speech drenched in delusion. Listening to Isaias Afwerki’s speeches should be classified as punishment. They are stale, tedious, and laced with bitter pronouncements that parch the tongue.…
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The River Remembers (Part II): The Archive of the Unsaid
In this installment of The River Remembers, the author dives beneath the surface of colonial history to explore its psychic and linguistic aftermath—what remains unspoken, untranslatable, and unresolved. Through a reflective reading of Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North, the essay examines how colonialism embeds itself not only in roads and records but…
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Review:To challenge the writing of Eritrean history is neither to rubbish nor to denigrate
A reflective piece on personal memories of imprisonment and exile, exploring the resilience of identity under barbed boundaries. Through one man’s eyes, we revisit a time where fences divided more than land—they divided Eritrean souls.
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What Memory Chooses, and What It Omits
A lyrical excavation of memory, empire, and resistance, Of Trains, Turkays, and Tongues explores how colonial infrastructures—both physical and linguistic—have been reimagined through song, story, and subversion. From the iron rails of foreign-built trains to the surnames inherited from Ottoman administrators, the essay challenges selective nostalgia and interrogates how power, identity, and language collide. This…
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The Disease the Colonizers Left Behind – The River Remembers Series*
This first entry in The River Remembers series lays the foundation for a postcolonial reckoning across Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, and Ethiopia. Blending historical analysis, cultural memory, and theoretical insight, the essay examines how different colonial powers left behind not only borders but ways of seeing—and mis-seeing—ourselves. With reference to thinkers like Fanon, Bhabha, and…
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Shariati’s Rooster; Honey budger Eritreans (Seramat)
Ali Shariati (Nov 1933 – June 1977) was an Iranian thinker and poet. He was 44 years old when he was found dead in England. British authorities said it was a heart attack, but many believe he was assassinated by the brutal Iranian security service, SAVAK. That was during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza…
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Support Awate & Negarit -2025 Fundraising Drive
Dear friends of Awate and Negarit, This year, we’re launching the 2025 fundraising drive five months behind schedule—we trust you’ll understand. For decades, awate.com and Negarit have served you as a labor of love. Our mission has always been to promote awareness and work tirelessly toward the goal of National Reconciliation and awarness—a goal we…
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Schooling and Social Capital Among Eritrean Refugees
Revolutionary Schooling and Social Capital Among Eritrean Refugees in Sudan A remarkable educational experiment took root in the arid borderlands of Kassala, Sudan, in the shadow of Eritrea’s long and bitter struggle for independence. In 1977, the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Sudanese…
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Memory, Martyrdom, and the Eritrean Struggle
In Echoes of Bravery: Martyr Mahmoud Ibrahim’s Enduring Legacy, Amer Hagos (2025) constructs an impassioned, meticulously researched biography that is as much a personal tribute as it is a national archive. The text is a powerful act of recovery, of memory, of dignity, and of justice, situating Mahmoud Ibrahim, affectionately known as Cicchini, within the…
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Negarit: 325: Is’t Time for Another Cyclical War in the Horn of Africa?
A candid look at the unfolding chaos in the Horn of Africa. This video dives into Ethiopia’s economic collapse, Abiy Ahmed’s war ambitions, the fractured Tigray and Amhara fronts, and Eritrea’s quiet but critical role in the region’s future. From myths to IMF loans, from scattered flour to baked revenge—this is a raw political chronicle…
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Destiny of Conflict, and the Red Sea: A Reflection on Power and People
ethiopia #eritrea In this commentary, we explore the dangerous rhetoric and provocative actions brewing in the Horn of Africa—from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s imperial ambitions to the Amhara splinter group ABEN’s rejection of Eritrean sovereignty. * Framed by poetry from Abul Alaa Al Ma’arri and Abul Qasim Al-Shabi, this reflection contrasts fatalism and free will—questions…
