WONDER WHY ?

PART ONE : UNCOVERING ALI SALIM AND HIS GROUP.

A. THE BEGINING. It all started with my innocent attempt to applaud the memoir by Dr. Bereket Habteselassie (the ‘Crown and the Pen’) for the simple reason of encouraging our intellectuals to join the struggle against dictatorship not because I underestimated their contributions in this regard but because I sensed that their central presence was lacking in matters of utmost importance to our struggle, that is our understanding of the political solutions for our country today. I felt that their guidance is most needed at this time of our development when the danger of a fragmented opposition is barely out of the horizon and when hooligans and phrase mongers are controlling the platform – both inside and outside of the country. I was not blind to some of the flows in the book – as I did elaborate latter when I was compelled to do so – but, they were petty as compared to the fights and the hard won achievements that the man had gone through. In the center of all that vibrant and explosive life, I saw his strong Eritrean conscience bursting out now and then and shattering the aura that surrounded him. If this man didn’t have the devil inside, he would have simply followed the footsteps of the Dejazmachs and Fitewraris before him. That was most important to me; most important in the interest of the general public. I guess that is why Dr. Okbazghi Yohannes called him ‘our Prodigal son’.

No man can ever come out clean from such a trap, and those who pretend to be braver are only bluffing. At least I have a lot of gray hair and the best part of my youth was spent in the Field to know who is who in Eritrean history. And for the benefit of people like Fessehay Woldu, that is what makes the difference between a man who tells the truth and yet is not afraid to stand in the middle of the street and an impostor hiding behind a bush – rather a pen name, or Ali Salim if you like. Eritrean history is not written in the wind. It is made of events, ideas and people.

Nevertheless, my article was ravaged. As if the culprits have been waiting for an entry into a plot, an unexpected assault of words and insinuations came, first from Fessehay Woldu and then from a certain Burhan Ali, targeting my article for commending the Professor for his frank and open display of his life. Am I not allowed to appreciate what deserved my appreciation? Wasn’t this ‘Awate forum’ supposed to be a free media where everyone would be accepted on his/her own merits as long as one takes the caution not to rebuke and offend others? The aim behind all this was the dear professor who was the emblem of the “hated” Constitution. Until then, it never crossed my mind that it was a taboo, rather a sin, to give the professor the slightest of credits - even for a work that has nothing to do with the Constitution - as that was seen tantamount to vindicating the Constitution. What an odd, fanatically crooked way of thinking it was, though, for me, an interesting experience. I learned my bit – no wonder they called for “Reconciliation” at the outset. Would it still be naïve to believe that we all are in the same boat?

In any case, my article was only used as a platform for the warming up; soon the attack shifted focus towards the “Constitution”, which was vilified in the most outrageous manner that caused the sages to understand and sympathize. There was no use causing uproar over a piece of paper - they seemed to argue. I agree. But, I also fail to understand why its short-comings, though gross, should be allowed to blind us against the purity of some of the ideas incorporated in it: equality before the law and the inalienable rights of the individual citizen (including women), to mention but a few. It is these ideas which will speak up tomorrow. No need for a defense. Even the good professor knew it. After some futile attempts in some gatherings, he gave up, succumbed, but earned a name - whatever it is worth? Now, Ali Salim is asking for his (the professor’s) repentance – a domino game, should I say? Guess who will be next? Needless to say, the document has attained a personality of its own and, like the Constitution of 1952 it will remain a document until the generation to come decides on its validity.

Of course, we all know what followed next. The feverish Ali Salim took everybody (rather most) by surprise with his outlandish and decidedly adverse comments on Christian Highlanders, holding a whole society accountable for the crimes of a self-appointed power group - a group so evil and powerful that it does not need the help of any social entity in Eritrea to behave like it does. The fact that Christian highlanders are the easiest and closest targets for the group’s show of strength was not real enough for Ali to see their sufferings. A little show of heart could have tempered his cold-blooded antipathy and showed him the truth: how Christian Highlanders fought along their Moslem brethren through the gallows, through the battle fields and through the burning hell to conquer the nation’s victory – the nation that Ali is now trying to blow apart. But, didn’t he deface the Eritrean revolution as a thing that “we like to call”? (Read his article ‘Melebemi - For Wisening Up‘ at Awate.com). He sure lacks imagination. To his discredit, however, there are many good Eritrean Moslems who are simply disgusted by his rootless attacks and insane claims that even Abdalla Idriss dared not make. It takes more than imagination – a taste of blood, may be - for one to glorify the Eritrean revolution and appreciate the united struggle of a people who had one and only one dream in life: to be free and own their destiny.

The reason we glorify the Nation, and hence national unity, is not for the sake of burying the past, as Ali Salim would have it. It is because it embodies a higher goal in life to which our children and our grand-children will continue to aspire and to achieve. A people who could not visualize such a goal are always doomed. They remain divided and focus on their parochial elements limiting their opportunities for common desires and mutual benefits. Parochialism and narrow-mindedness are ever dividing forces generating more conflicts and always giving room to those ready to exploit the emotions within conflicts, while the inspiration of national unity capitalizes on the common good for all. It furthers the reach of a society to domains beyond its time. It is only in the quest for such higher goals that differences can be resolved through mutual respect and negotiation. We simply cannot live in the past. If we do not prepare ourselves to exploit the opportunities for a peaceful and egalitarian existence, then we loose the flavor of the game. But, it is our fault, I guess. We let loose our enemies every time we are closer to victory.

B. THE FALLCIES OF ALI’S ‘LAND ARGUMENT’.

1. Land Misappropriation: There is no denying that the PFDJ has robbed the people of their land. The intention of the land law was not to facilitate development and investment, as suggested, but a legal conspiracy to transfer and misappropriate land ownership. Unlike the skewed arguments in Ali’s articles, however, this was and is a national phenomenon happening in every part of the country wherever the PFDJ finds a piece of land the acquisition of which it deems attractive or necessary. The facts are before us. Zekre Libanos, among others, in his April 03, 2010 Awate article, ‘Gudam Ali Salim’, describes in detail how the villages of Emba-Derho, Adi-Nefa, Merhano and many others were pillaged of their land and their resistance crushed. Another resonant writer on the subject is Mussie Hadgu whose article ‘Eritrea, A Nation in Crisis: Land Expropriation’ (Asmarino, March 28, 2009) presents a very candid assessment of the situation. For those interested, it would be advisable to read Mussie’s article in its entirety. In order to expound my point, however, I will reproduce here what I think is most relevant. The article categorizes the land taken by the PFDJ and documents the impact of the land expropriation in the following manner:

• Land for Construction Use: “In the past 18 years many villages have lost their fertile agricultural land and land of other use because the government took them by force, particularly those located near the urban centres…Land is expropriated from the villages around Asmara such as Adi-Sogdo, Weki-Deba, Adi-Abeito, Adi-Nefas, Tsolot, Merhano, Adi-Guadad, Godaif and Kushet and then sold or distributed to the military officers or government officials and to the supporters of the PFDJ living abroad … Resistance by … villagers … was silenced using all forms of brutality such as imprisonment and torture. For example, many people from the village of Embaderho were imprisoned in Naqura for their resistance to land expropriation in 1996. Similarly, many people were detained and tortured in Halhal subzone for their opposition to the land expropriation plan in 2008…. In Massawa many residential houses were demolished in 2006 by the government to be used for other projects…. There are similar expropriation and constructions in other urban areas such as Decamhare, Mendefera and Keren.”

• Land for Agricultural Use: “…in Gash Barka … Katchero around Omhajer, Goluj, Adi Omer and Fanco around Tesseney. In addition to these, there are lands under irrigated agriculture such as Afhimbol, Mogaraib, AdiOmer and Sawa. These are run directly either by the army or PFDJ.

“(In) … Debub and Maekel, fertile lands were expropriated for irrigated agriculture. Examples include Mai Serwa which belongs to Embaderho, Adi Nefas in Maekel Region and Korbarya in Debub.

Land for Mining Use: “(In)… Bisha, Adi Nefas and Augaro” large tracts of land have been appropriated to mining companies rendering the local people land-less.

• Land for Tourism: “… Villages such as Weki, Zager and others in the Karneshim and Dembezan areas that depend for their livelihood on ‘Semenawi Bahri’” have been affected by this policy of land reservation.

By way of concluding, Mussie observes as follows: “In general the combined effect of the land expropriation is so great on the livelihoods of the local communities resulting in less grazing lands, reduced natural resource bases, degraded ecology, declining water availability and restricted access to water as the demand and retrieval of water increases using boreholes enabling the army and commercial farms to drill deep, pushing the water table deeper and deeper. As the local communities have no resources and expertise to dig deep and employ motorized water pumps, they are the ones who fare the worst.”

Nothing can best illustrate this on-going drama of national suffering than the above article, and those who prefer to evade the facts by deliberately eliminating some parts of the truth are either lunatics immersed in the rhetoric of their own delusions or profiteers who dream for a name by sensationalizing a painful social distress.

2. Where to Stop? For the time being, and to the satisfaction of Ali’s corrupt thinking – including that of the phrase-mongers who shadow his ill motives – let us agree with his proposal of a segregated land along ethnic lines wherein those who do not belong to a specific ethnic group would be evicted from the territory of that group. Despite the intention of the British to partition the country between Sudan and Ethiopia through a policy of social strife and division including inciting an incident involving Sudanese police and Christian residents of Asmara while, at he same time, trying to subvert the religious difference by supplying arms and ammunitions to both Moslem and Christian shiftas, and despite Ethiopia’s initial intention to install civil war and bloodshed by exploiting the natural divide of the people and by targeting the lowland population of Eritrea, the internal movement and collaboration of the Eritrean people has never been restricted and there is no record of discord or conflict between the people living together in highland or lowland towns and cities nor between those who have together ploughed the land for centuries (See: Gaim Kibreab, ‘Critical Reflections’; David Pool, ‘From Guerrilla to Government’; Redie Bereketeab, ‘Eritrea: The making of a Nation’; and Okbazghi Yohannes, ‘Eritrea: A Pawn in world Politics). A slight exception may be the case of the TorA – TsenA Degle, and even here the surrounding Moslems and Christians abstained from taking sides (read Gaim kibreab referring to Alemseged Tesfai in ‘Critical Reflections’). This is to indicate how practical our people are in solving and defusing conflicts of a religious or ethnic nature, which requires a highly developed system of coexistence and a state of wisdom that only home-brewed elders could achieve. Because of this quality of defusing conflicts, you find Christians and Moslems living side by side all over the country and sharing the experiences of everyday life: Massawa, SenAfe, Keren, Tesenei, Barentu, Asmara, Mendefera, GhindaE, Alighidir, Ghirmaika, Adi QueyiH, Adi Itay, Ametsi, Adi GuaEdad … the list is inexhaustible.

Now, according to Ali, “The only time Lowlanders will ever have the appetite to think about development policies and legal grounds is when every Land Grabber and Exclusionist is chased out of their proximity” (‘The Language of Land Grabbers’, Awate, Jan 22, 2010)

In order to avoid the confusion that Ali intends to sow, let me quote below his definition of ‘Land Grabbers and Exclusionists’. In his article ‘Hade Hizbi – Kil’te Libi (Awate, Jul 02, 2009) he reiterates:

“Eritrean Highlanders are more united in substance today (under the PFDJ or its ghosts) than they were in the 1950s when the whole Eritrean existence was at stake. It is unimaginable that the people who united under a unanimous consensus to sell their own dignity and national identity to cheap Amharan and Tigrayan masters in the 1950s should be expected to stand up today for the dignity and national pride of others. Do not be fooled by the ‘demonstrations and symposiums’ attended by less people than you would expect in an average funeral procession; and there is no greater proof than the complete consensus of Tigrigna intellectuals in favor of the despicable misfortunes befalling the eight other ethnic groups; where not even a drunk or a crack-head or someone out of his mind would open his or her mouth to say a word to deviate from the sick playbook of their Neo-Nazi masters in Asmara.

“Today is like no other day. Lowlanders are threatened with their very existence and very soon they will be roaming Gypsies with no place to call home and there is no time to weigh the options.” He goes on to paint a dark sate of terror, fear and distrust and calls on all Lowlanders to “unite against the common enemy of ethnic fascists” (meaning the “Eritrean Highlanders” or those who sold “their own dignity and national identity”).

If you need more proof of this blood-thirsty hound read all his articles at Awate. But, just do not stop there. Search also for the articles of those hesitant ‘wise men’ who like to give him a preferential treatment – out of politeness, professional ethics, or what? I just don’t know! To me, a person who has the sick mind to scold a whole generation of martyrs as “identity sellers and neo-Nazi” stooges deserves nothing better than ‘the eye for an eye’. And just to give you a taste of his blind hatred, I have underlined above the key phrases that are central to his theme.

To come to my point, if Ali is going to evict all highland Christians from lowland areas what is he going to do about the Moslems living in predominantly Christian settlements of highland Eritrea? Still, what plans does he have for places like Akhriya, Mai Chohot, Adi QueyiH, SenAfe, or Adi Itay, to name but a few, where Christians and Moslems live together? I bet he is not concerned about the non-Tigrigna ethnic groups other than his personal or group interests – and just wait, time will uncover that he is not alone. But, he is moving on like gangrene before we even wake up to defend ourselves. That is a group strategy. Note for instance, how he tries to create an Afar war zone in his ‘Melebemi - For Wisening Up’ article of April 5, 2010. He writes:

“…it is our responsibility to … convince the Afar that… we (Eritrea) offer more attractive terms that will make convergence to THE NATURAL ... unnecessary. The only way to do this is to make the Afar’s …membership in the Eritrean Union as close as possible.”

Nonsense! This is just one of his deceitful manipulations. Who is he after all? One who does not pride in the struggles of the Eritrean people is not worthy of the name and doesn’t have any business making offers to a people who have the natural right, like all other Eritreans, to decide how the country should be managed.

This nasty idea of ethnic separation is not just a simple geographical formula. It will result in the compartmentalization and segregation of a people who have and are living together and prevent them from sharing the opportunities and benefits that the country holds. It will have the opposite effect of the intended benefits – confine Lowlanders to arid, poorly developed areas with all the disadvantages of modern life.

The Apartheid regime of South Africa did it – they used to call it ‘homeland administration’. But, you cannot do that in Eritrea where people from all ethnic groups live together and share life in villages, cities and compounds. You cannot do it here where Moslems and Christians are interwoven in family trees. In SenAfe, for instance, it is common to see a Queshi and Sheikh walking together hand in hand or sipping tea at a coffee shop. That they could be relatives is anybody’s guess. In SenAfe, again, intermarriages between the two religions are not exceptions – at least not until recently – and family trees are embellished with Saho and Tigrigna names. By the same token, the people of Ad-Teklemariam, Ad-Tekles, Beit-Asghede and many others in lowland Eritrea got their names from original highland settlements in those areas. As a child, I remember gentle men and women from Sahel visiting their kinsmen in Quandoba and Zager with caravans of gifts. Even the Halenga in Sudan claim their ancestry to settlers from highland Eritrea (see: David Poul; Okbazghi Yohannes; and Ato Habtemariam Abraha’s series of interviews with ’Dekebat’). These are only some examples of our past glory, a mosaic of cultural coexistence with few parallels in the African continent. It has withstood the onslaught of colonial forces and the intrigue of internal divide, and is still hovering in peoples memories in the hope that, some day, the good-old-days will be back. Somebody must record events like the above before they disappear into the mist for they hold the ligaments of our land – the land we all aspire to live in together in peace and harmony. But remember! Our sources are few and are dwindling by the day, while our enemies are plenty of guns and money.

3. Theoretical Poverty: Any movement inciting a people to revolt against a system or the status quo needs a theory, and that is exactly what Ali’s proposal or incitement is lacking. There is no theory of revolution whose means and ends are the eviction of ethnic elements and the reclaiming of land. Even ‘Land for the tiller’, a famous revolutionary programme, was only part of a holistic proletariat approach that treated the question of the peasantry as part and parcel of the struggle against the bourgeoisie and the nobility (‘Permanent Revolution’, Trotsky). Likewise, the struggle in South Africa was the total emancipation of the African blacks and not a claim for ancestral land per se. In Ali’s case, evicting the ‘Tigrigna grabbers’ would not solve the problem of the peasant farmers and the grazers because there is no revolutionary mechanism in place to prevent wealthy business men and the landed gentry from appropriating the same land. Because of this lack of theoretical treatment the basic problems of the concerned people, that is the provision of utilities, the right for education and good health care, the right to organize and politicize, guarantee for equal treatment before the low, the right of children and women, the right of movement, the right for decent jobs and most of all the right to till the land and earn ones bread are not even considered in the discussion. Hence, Ali is not concerned about the well-being of the lowland people who should be the right beneficiaries of the process of reclaiming the land. What is motivating him and his company is pure schizophrenia which, like Hitler’s, is based on ethnicity. But, there could be more to it which I will try to consider further on.

4. Changing Times. What the last 50 years of our history register most is a population and landscape devastated beyond any repair. War and the effects of war coupled with repetitive draught cycles and the absence of manpower in the rural areas have led to a massive destruction of our natural habitat and ecosystems. The once vibrant village communities that supported the greater portion of our population are now but dying images of scant and old memories. Yet, in comparison, the effects of the last 12 years have no equals not only in terms of the human and material damage they have caused us but, more so, in the future liabilities and nightmares that we are due to inherit:

• The border war has not only physically and mentally disfigured and maimed our beautiful and tender youth, but it has produced a young generation whose reason and logic are affected and marred by the power of the gun. This is a class that has no respect for the old (a ‘Romanticising Ghedli’ generation) let alone the cultures they embody; a class that envies the wealthy and wants to get rich by all means; a class that would resist all efforts intended to resettle it in its places of origin. They will flock to the towns and cities looking for better opportunities, and with them goes the hope that Eritrea might one day produce enough to feed itself. They are the risk takers who cross land mines, travel hostile deserts and swim unknown seas despite the dangers they hold. Moreover, they have changed. They have changed in a manner nobody understands except those who have lived their lives: the trenches, the battle fields, the prison cells, the mine fields, the merciless deserts and the hungry fish. They don’t understand society and its politics, nor does society understand them. They have jargons of their own that keep outsiders at bay, and they have developed a friendship that transcends ethnic, region and religion - a friendship that has been through fire and water. For obvious reasons, Ali cannot understand that type of friendship. But, for those of you who can dig down the nooks of our national poetry, here is the legendary Yemane Barya ringing the soul of this new generation:

          ስዮማይ ቀይሕ

              ሓወይ ዕሸለ፡

          ኣብ ዓውዲ ኵናት

              ኮይኑ ዝደበለ፣

          ካብ’ታ ብራሾይ

              ዝተኻፈለ፡

          ቃል ዘእተወኒ

              ንኸይንፈላለ።

          እቶም ተዋዘይቲ

              የዕሩኽ ሰለስተ፡

         መተዓብይቲ

              ካብ ቀደም ታተ፣

          ዘይፈላለዩ

              በርሀ ጸልመተ፡

          ሓደስ እንሆ

              ኣበ’ለዉ ክልተ።

          ኣበ’ሎ ኣበ’ላ

              ሕቶይ መልሱ፡

          ኣነ ክምለስ

              ዘይተመለሱ፣

          ብዓል ስዮማይ

              ብዓል ጽገናይ፡

          ሓሊፎም እዮም

              ወይዛ ዓለም ግናይ።

• Another frustrating effect of the war is the displacement of thousands of families from their villages in the border areas. Although the war has ended due to international mediation, these families are still held hostage by the Eritrean government and cannot go back to their places of origin. The government is neither willing nor capable to defuse the mines that surround these villages while, on the other hand, it is barring external bodies from rendering their help. Hence, for the last ten years, these families have literally become beggars lingering around towns and cities. The land they have tilled and pastured for years have become barren, while the crafts they received from their fathers and grandfathers are now becoming things of the past. Worst, they have born children who live by the ways of the street and whose only domain is, sad enough, a tent. These are not only Tigrigna from Tsorona and Enda-Giorgis as Ali would have it. They are a composite of the Eritrean fabric. Their land extends from Adi-Murug in the south-east to Goluj in the west, and they speak Afar, Saho, Tigrigna, Tirge, Kunama and Nara.

• There is nothing good to be told about the impact of the last 20 years when, as a people and as a nation, we have lost the hope of proving ourselves. As a country, we have lost our comparative advantages, wasted our human resources, and earned the name of ‘rouges of the Horn’. As a society, we have come out more weakened and more divided. You can see the brunt of all this in the eyes of our Eritrean mothers: they have lost their men, and they have lost their children. Now, they have only themselves to live for. Nothing else makes sense. Those who stayed in their villages and communities will no longer follow family norms and sanctions for no one came to their help when they needed one; while the widows who have kids to feed are now self-asserted family heads and they don’t want to be ordered around. Yet, some have gone to the battle fields too and been through everything that makes the difference between a man and a woman: They have killed men and buried their comrades, they have commandeered forces, but they have also been subjected to bend to the will of their masters. They have tasted their part of the mud and blood, and they have their own little secrets. But, all said, they have changed for good. If anyone thinks that they can be tamed as before, one better engage them.

It is these terms which will determine the future dialogues in Eritrea and not the outdated clichés of region and religion. If we want to be instrumental in designing future agendas, then we better understand how much these individual and social realities have changed our landscape. We must understand what the Eritrean people expect of us – Us who can afford the pleasure and the time to swim in our imaginations. But, consider this: Those of you who are dreaming of sitting in the driver’s seat should know that the Eritrean struggle is yet to come. It is a long journey which will come to an end when the people decide. To hasten it, let us all work to empower the people instead of trying to replace them. Remember! Nobody has yet a mandate.