A Flower for the Emperor, a Gun for Isaias

A Flower for the Emperor, a Gun for Isaias

By Zekre Lebona

Eritrea, according to a recent report published is among the least friendly places for children to grow [1]; the regime is not the sole responsible party for it, however. In order to verify this assertion, note the epidemic of the state of zombification [2] (that is,sharing the same house and illicit relationship with the regime) in none other than the Asmarino.com website, where it is easy to recognize these commonalities in one particular case: extreme politicization and militarization of children. In other words, the opposition politics, through the internalization of some archaic concepts about children, has done some harm of its own. A child is politically innocent, but not in the current public discourse in Eritrea and the war experience in its making. Accustomed to accept the use of child soldiers of boys and girls, people selectively condemn and endorse the role of children pushed into some circumstances, irrespective of their age or gender. Recently, some of us have watched a biased video presentation on Sophia Tesfarmariam as a child, though in her adulthood she became a repugnant cadre serving the repressive regime in Eritrea. [3]

The video piece unethically exploits the picture of the subject presenting a bouquet of flowers to Emperor Haile Selassie, visiting Tanzania in 1969, to attack her for having been a kedamit (maid) while other girls form Eritrea were fighting for ghedli or the independence of Eritrea. The irony in the derogatory use of the word is that the countless maids are the ones who support equally thousands of destitute families in the country, including the infamous sewra in the past. It is still an on-going commerce, the farce of self-reliance aside; the regime operates lucrative businesses with some unscrupulous Arab intermediaries to provide cheap labor in the Middle East. A country of this type should be offended from this name-calling, including Aklilu Zere who once appropriately described the women in the same trade (during the Italian colonial era) in a very positive brash. [4]

The girl in the picture was a child (according to Sophia, she was only nine years old). Her age of political innocence would have been adequate to explain the circumstance in the picture; an innocuous act practiced in all countries, that every Christian highlander of the times would have been proud to have his children do the same. She is as guiltless as the little girls that present flowers or bread nowadays to her idol Isaias. We often describe the regime supporters as having a compartmentalized mind; we forget we are in the same morass.

Sharing the same house

When asked about this particular photograph in the video, the adult Sophia, the busybody propagandist of the regime, felt it useful to bring the ghedli and its actors into the story; she wished she had her picture taken with the ghedli political entrepreneur instead, whom she called, Kubur President Isaias. The emperor for her was too diminutive and old in comparison with the Isaias, the latter chosen for a “fabulous” photograph. Does she know her idol, who had a security apparatus called halewa sewra, exploited the manjus (child soldiers) not only on the front lines, but also as fanatic killers of many innocent people? Horrible as it is to contemplate, the child soldiers of Isaias are as innocent as the child soldiers of the notorious Joseph Koni of the Lord’s Army of Uganda. When Koni’s children are captured or surrender to the authorities, they are sent not to jail or a court but to rehabilitation centers.

The problem is that, the ghedli project is invoked for its “virtues” by both the producer of the video, who belongs to the opposition camp, and Sophia, the regime cadre. All of them refuse to see the nature of the politicization of the subject, the political abuse of children, particularly the impact of drafting and recruiting girls and women on the society, which is now facing a dire demographic crisis.

Yosief Ghebrehiwet has been extensively writing on the practice of recruiting women during the ghedli times, and the war that was ignited afterwards, a large majority of whom were from the Kebessa. And yet, we watch the video violating the political innocence of children and women, by simultaneously demonizing and romanticizing their “agency” for mundane politics. [5] The contrast between the message in the video and Yosief’s essay is stark; here is a quote:

In a normal world, a direct war against the womb with the aim of subjugation or elimination of a people would be hard to accomplish, for the men will die first protecting their women. But in the abnormal world of ghedli’s Eritrea, even this primordial instinct to protect one’s women and children has been lost-for the sake of the nation, that is. It starts with the Big Brothers- the ghedli generation-who are the architects of this evil design that singled out their sisters for the role of fighters and their mothers for the role of fighter-incubators.

Illicit relationship

For another example of zombification in the discussed video, a cursory look of its title, Alewuna/Alewana Kedemti, is sufficient. Alewuna/Alewana was coined by the late poet Russom Haile, who had later become alienated from the regime while the word kedemti (a disparaging term for a house cleaner), was made for the Eritrean opposition by none other than his nemesis Isaias. If you have the patience for the rest of the video, the all-purpose word of the regime supporters abbey nerki/abbey nerka is used in the background song, along with the picture of child and women soldiers crippled or marching in the meda.

Clearly, accusing Sophia the adult for her complicity with the regime is acceptable, but certainly not for her picture with the emperor and her absence among the child and women fighters in the ghedli sojourn. Most certainly, Sophia the child was not a political conformist, as the writing zebere’ke tsehay’na, zenegese neguse’na alluded in the video. In fairness, what would have been desirable and sought for in her adulthood, and from the rest of the public, was absence in the ghedli politics of Eritrea, for the political outcome was a complete terror and rule by decree. And as the video progresses, without any explanation, the viewers watching the “heroic” ghedli are faced with some young people bravely asking the dictator for the whereabouts of missing people and the rule of law, leaving one befuddled.

Video and audio mediums are only as good and effective as the script prepared for them; good care and diligence is therefore required in order not to confuse and disappoint the website visitors. Clarity and focus is therefore essential for the emergence of a clear and unambiguous resistance literature and the complete delinking from the language of the regime; in their absence, the search for truth and accountability will be impossible to achieve in the coming anarchy. Clarity, focus and a moral compass will be tools in our hands for the healing of the damaged psyche of the children, the dignity of the women and most importantly for the recovery of the “Kebessa woman’s womb”. The video under the spotlight has immoderately failed in that mission.

The Amharic saying, yezarie abeba, yenege frie is one of the most memorable proverbs that advises the public to care for children. What they become afterwards, though, is not always certain. The public discourse among Eritrean cyber writers in these times appears to violate the wisdom of it. Remember, children always remain flowers, even when they happen to join the “Red Flowers”. [6]

References

[1] US Dept of Labor. 2012 Findingings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor: dol.gov.

[2]Mbembe, A. Provisional Notes on the Post colony, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol.62, No.1. (1992), pp. 3-37.

[3]Asmarino.com, Alewuna/Alewana Kedemti; a video presentation.

[4] Zere, Aklilu; What (Italian) Colonialism Did To My People of (Eritrean) Kebessa; January 13, 2013; awate.com. XXX

[5] Ghebrehiwet, Yosief, (I) Kebesa Eritrea’s Suicide Mission from Sahel to Lampedusa: the Other War, November 8, 2013.

[6]A communist indoctrination organization of children in the EPLF.