They Got What They Wanted and Lost All They Had*

‘They’ is for Eritreans and the rest for those who cannot see.

So much has been said, celebrated and promised on life after the independence of Eritrea.  Now that ‘Eritrean Martyrs’ Day is here and gone, we are reminded and all over again that it coincides with International Day for Refugees.  It is 20/20 time and suddenly Eritrea happens to be one that exports the highest number of refugees on the planet.  We are celebrating the dead while the living are fleeing the ‘liberated’ land.  Have we not achieved what we wanted?

How ironic can it get!  When will the dead souls rest in peace? This event could have been marked by a different or rather a relatively unfamiliar experience of settlement.  

Those who gave their lives believing in the idea of free Eritrea are long gone while there were much more who lost their lives for a reason yet unknown.  Such kind of a massive collective loss has a tremendous effect on all societies of the nation.  A decent and credible settlement has not yet materialized and the collective soul of the living and the dead is lingering in limbo and the evidence is all out there... restless, angry, divided and lost and buried in hopelessness.

While a new wave of Eritrean refugees are scattered all over the place and literally wasting their lives wherever they are, the martyrs’ of yesteryears are being remembered for what they gave to their nation state.  

Their own lives, for this future and for free? The irony is that those who are abroad want to return and those at home are so desperate to migrate.  What is going on here?  Flowers in memory or graveyards for prolonged misery?  It is the convoluted  history of Eritrea never at ease or at rest with itself... just a national episode waiting for another chapter.  There has to be a catharsis across the whole board of the Eritrean nation and the societies that comprise it.  Eritrea’s life cycle as a colony and a nation state has gone through its full circle.  

On this day, Eritrea is confusing the dead with the living and its future hangs on the balance ... no more no less.