Tag: authoritarianism
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Giants and Lilliputians: Haile Selassie and President Isaias Afwerki (Part 2)
Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival: The Body as a Mirror of Power To understand Isaias Afwerki’s psychology, one must first confront the contradiction written across his body. His appearance—spare, stiff, and strangely careless—betrayed none of the humility expected of a revolutionary. Nor did it reflect the ethos of the Tegadelti, whose plainness was once a…
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Power, Image, and Machiavellian Survival: Emperor Haile Selassie and President Isaias Afwerki
Two Towering Figures–Giants and Lilliputians (Part 1) Across the sorrowful and entangled histories of Ethiopia and Eritrea, two figures loom with spectral intensity: Emperor Haile Selassie I and President Isaias Afwerki. Their shadows stretch across generations, ideologies, and geopolitical fault lines—each a master of power, each a paradox incarnate. At the outset of their reigns,…
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The Faucet Festival
A satirical take on Isaias Afwerki’s mysterious faucet sculpture, comparing it to Pharaoh Khufu’s pyramid and the Syrian comedy “Faucet Festival” to highlight Eritrea’s forced labor and cult of leadership.
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Ts’əmdi and Ts’imdo: Joined for Utility, Not Unity
In the semi-fertile soil of Tigrinya, the words ጽምዲ (Ts’əmdi) and ጽምዶ (Ts’imdo) bloom with layered meaning—practical, poetic, and political. Both conjure the image of two entities alloyed together, yet their applications diverge across the rhythms of life. ጽምዲ, as in ጽምዲ ብዕራይ, refers to two oxen yoked to plough a field—a necessity for poor…
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Penicillin Overdose Killed the Camel
Dr. Abiy Ahmed keeps me thinking these days, though not in the way I wanted to. During the struggle era, when there were not enough qualified doctors, dressers and nurses became doctors by default. Their kit was modest: a few vials of penicillin for wounds and infections, chloroquine for malaria, and vitamin K and blood…
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Nepal: A Lesson for the PFDJ and the Youth
Every era popularizes certain names—mainly names of rulers and prominent people of the time. Since the nineteen-forties and fifties, the name of a famous person that was often repeated in newspapers and radio bulletins has become popular; parents adopt the name for their babies. My aunt, (who is my cousin, but I called her aunt…
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The Eritrean Opposition’s Double Bind
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Eritrea’s Missing Architects: The Intellectual Void Behind a Crippled Nation-Building
Eritrea’s liberation struggle stands as one of the most extraordinary military victories of the modern era. In 1991, the EPLF decisively defeated Ethiopian forces and freed the country. Yet instead of declaring independence immediately, it opted for a UN-supervised referendum in 1993—an exercise that yielded a predictable 99.83% result. Contrast this with the American Revolution,…
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The Courage to Be Eritrean: Navigating a Moment of Crisis
Eritrea stands at a precipice, a chasm in the unfolding narrative of our nation. This juncture demands not merely the reflex of action, but a descent into the very core of our being—a profound interrogation of what it means to be Eritrean. As the shadow of Ethiopia’s threatened war for Assab looms, we are compelled…
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Eritrea’s Unanswered Question: 34 Years of Isaias Afwerki’s Rule
Eritrea’s Unanswered Question: What 34 Years of Isaias Afwerki’s Rule Reveal About Sovereignty and Survival In the beginning was the question—etched into the soul of the nation itself: Can Eritrea survive—and thrive—as a truly sovereign, independent state? For decades, global powers insisted we could not. Italy once tried to sell Eritrea to Belgium, citing economic…
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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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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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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.