Tag: Horn of Africa
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The Hewett Treaty and the Road to Adwa
This is a two-part story about Gerald Portalâs delegation to King Yohannes IV, based on Portalâs own book of 144 pages. Itâs from a paperback copy of an Arabic Translation by Abdul Hamid Al Hassen and published by âDar Al Kunuz AlAdabiaâ in Beirut (1978). Portalâs narration reads like a travelogue and an adventure series.…
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Reengaging Eritrea: A Path Beyond the Stalemate
Michael Rubin has written about Eritrea for many years, and in a region that often flickers in and out of the worldâs attention, that consistency deserves acknowledgment. Whatever disagreements I may have with his conclusions, I do not question the sincerity of his desire to see an Eritrea that is democratic, free, and just. Many…
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Renewing Awate Without Losing Its Soul
Awate.com is backâwith a cleaner, faster, and less intrusive experience after the removal of the excessive pop-ups and disruptive plugins that had burdened the site for far too long. This moment gives us an opportunity not only to announce technical improvements but also to reflect honestly on where we have been, the challenges we faced,…
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Peekaboo: The EthioâEritrean Game
The current cycle of this familiar political game began in 2018, when Abiy Ahmed traveled to Asmara to meet Isaias Afwerki. The visit was presented as historicâa turning point not just for two states, but for two peoples long defined by conflict. Yet from the outset, the encounter carried a tone that was more personal…
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Protocol, Power, Policy, and the Urgent Need for Institutions
I. A Visit That Reveals More Than It Intended Eritreans have long relied on Awateâs Regional News link to follow developments across the Horn of Africa, a region where every diplomatic gesture carries weight. This week, one story in particular demanded attention: the visit of Eritreaâs minister of trade and industry, Nasreddin Saleh, accompanied by…
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OUR NATIONAL UNITY: Why Eritreaâs Political Imagination Fails Reality
I. The Illusion We Keep Rehearsing In recent weeks, I have been reading a series of essays on awate.com – thoughtful pieces by Semere Habtemariam and Saleh Ghadi, attempting to stitch together a moral vision for Eritreaâs political future. They speak of unity, sacrifice, institutional maturity, historical awareness, and the enduring hope that principled action…
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Power Needs Compliance
Every power structure requires obedience to survive. Intelligent people question authority; obedient people preserve it.
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National Unity Cannot Be Rebuilt One Community at a Time
Eritreans everywhere recognize the same painful truth: our nation is in deep crisis. Political paralysis, social fragmentation, and the mass flight of our youth have become defining features of our national condition. These burdens do not belong to one region or one religion. They belong to an entire people. My brother, the respected commentator Ismail…
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The Eritrean Opposition Must Renounce Violence â Or Remain Irrelevant
The Eritrean opposition in the diaspora faces a credibility crisis so deep that it has become politically paralyzed by it. For more than three decades, it has positioned itself as the alternative to Isaias Afwerkiâs rule. Yet inside Eritrea, even citizens who are profoundly dissatisfied with the government remain unconvinced that an oppositionâled transition would…
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From Martini to Isaias Afwerki
This is edited and contextualized as a reflective opinion essay inspired by the book “Through the Eyes of a Colonizer” by Renato Paoli and translated by Ruth Tewelde There is something I keep running into whenever I read colonial-era books, and it never fails to surprise me. Itâs the numbers. At the turn of the…
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Somaliland, Somalia, and the Ethics of NonâAlignment
Recognition, Reality, and Responsibility in the Horn of Africa The recognition of Somaliland would mark a historic momentâakin to Eritrea or South Sudanânot a geopolitical earthquake, but a shift whose ripple effects could extend far beyond its borders. Global politics has a way of humbling our certainties: the developments we dismiss as peripheral often become…
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Eritrea at Yearâs End: Between Endurance and Exhaustion
As another year closesâthe thirtyâfourth since independenceâEritrea stands as a nation defined by contradiction. It is a country that endured colonial rule, international machinations, a shortâlived annexation disguised as a âUNâsupervised federation,â Cold War rivalries, a brutal thirtyâyear liberation struggle, a devastating border war, and repeated regional upheavals, yet still struggles to define peace on…
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Eritrea Does Not Need Isolation to Survive
For more than three decades, Eritreaâs foreign policy has been shaped by fearâfear 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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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 Africaâs 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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Beware, he has 139 million loyalists!
Dear Eritreans, this is a warningâyou 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 carpetâor roll the sea itself for them to…
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A Reckoning with Rhetoric: Responding to FM Gedion Timothewos on EthiopiaâEritrea Relations
Introduction Dr. Gedion Timothewos, Ethiopiaâs Foreign Minister, delivered a carefully curated address at AAU Ras Mekonnen Hall on November 13th, 2025, outlining Ethiopiaâs 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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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 linesâeach a master of power, each a paradox incarnate. At the outset of their reigns,…
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Blame It on Moses
A young student and her classmate graduated together; she became a geography teacher, while her bright classmate was quickly absorbed into Abiy Ahmedâs party and appointed PR director of the Ethiopian Air Force. Today, he is hailed as an inspirational figure in that institution. By all accounts, he is doing a marvelous job. Recently, however,…
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Refugees Speak Back: Unsettling Exile and Home
In 2007, the Red Sea Press published Sadia Hassanenâs Repatriation, Integration, or Resettlement? The Dilemmas of Migration among Eritrean Refugees in Eastern Sudan. Based on her doctoral dissertation, the book quickly became one of the most important studies of Eritrean refugees in Kassala and surrounding camps. It asked a simple yet unsettling question: what or where…
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More Reflections on Alemseged Tesfaiâs Epilogue
This is not a proper article but rather a collection of thoughts … I started off well, but I was too weak to continue. I was very surprised when I watched a video of a group of PFDJ supportersâthe Eritrean regimeâs party membersâwelcoming Alemseged in the embassy hall in London, clapping rhythmically in a rising…