Confession: We Eritreans obviously have had ethnic and religious based divisions like any other similar societies in the world. This problem has been one of the main obstacles that stood in the way of our unity. There is, for instance a justified reason for our Geberti people’s grievance within the Tigrigna ethnic group to agitate some of them into forming a different ethnic group distinct from its Tigrigna roots, although I don’t believe this is the solution to the problem as I expressed my opinion on in my past related articles. I have not doubt that they could have been dominated by the Christian Tigrigna speakers within the common ethnic group in issues that concern both communities equally: I did not research on this to say with authority but I have no problem entertaining the possibility that the Geberti community could have had problems with few Christians at least in isolated circumstances. To be honest with you, it does not matter whether the grievance is justified or not, I just accept it and walk forward closing the issue instead of trying to challenge my people from that community on the innocence of the Christians in this regard because of being born from a Christian family. Aren’t the Kebessa Tigrigna speakers and the Christians in particular complicating the Eritrean situation more than any other Eritrean ethnic group in the society?

In the flip of the coin, the spoilers of our equality and unity are few greedy individuals that do not represent their communities, thus the Eritrean masses are innocent of the crimes imposed on the society by these few dysfunctional elements. We Eritreans have no problem with each other at the mass level of our society, only between the elites from different ethnic backgrounds. Are not we all as a unit suffering under this self-destructive Kebessan dictatorship? Should not this reality vindicate the Eritrean masses from being responsible for the destructive consequences of the criminals and motivate them to unify their punch against their common enemy irrespective of religion and ethnicity?

We Eritreans cannot deny that we sometimes discriminate each other on the basis of religion and ethnicity since doing so would mean rejection of our humanness at large. Eritreans like any other society in similar situation (Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, the Arabs, etc) used to own slaves from the darker or authentic African looking communities within their societies. People in this category used to be called BARYAs in both Eritrea and Ethiopia while they called the Southern Sudanese FELATAs in Sudan. The expression ABED probably implies the same thing in Arabic; I don’t know what they called this in Somalia and elsewhere. We are not the only society that went through this inhuman and extremely degrading experience, the whole world did but we cannot deny our share of this experience pretending purity without the audacity to materially prove it otherwise.

As reality states, the biggest threat to the Eritrean peaceful nationhood had been the Tigrigna Speaking people or what I prefer to call the Kebessian Bizantine in this forum. They dominated politics for a long time and they have been the most divided as well. The Moslems in our society may have reasons to organize themselves in terms of ethnicity and religion for security but I cannot understand why the Kebessa Tigrigna speakers have so much a problem to unite. What makes one from Hamassien think in terms of his region discriminating other people from Akeleguzai and Seraye or the vise versa? What would cause the division between the Geberties and the Christians from the Tigrigna ethnic group? I sometimes think that they have been the main problem for Eritreans from the other ethnic groups to peacefully leave in the country. We are standing in the way of the peaceful coexistence of our family members from other ethnic groups in the process of denying ourselves peace and tranquility. We have a strong urge to lead without capacity, to dictate, isolate, envy or to stagnate, exaggerate, pretend; yet, divided as well.

Checking out the political groups and civic organizations in the resistance tells me that most of the division for power grab is accentuated from individuals within the Tigrigna Ethnic group, which has become cancerous to the unity of the Eritrean people; the rest is paying the price of this backward outlook of life. The Kebessans are stretching the country to its maximum elasticity from opposite ends: The regime from inside and the scattered around groups and individuals in the resistance from outside. The irony is that most of the kids on the run from the Kebessan dictatorship to only stand in the death row of the deserts, the seas and the trafficking criminals are Kebessans by ethnic orientation. Yet, the Diaspora resistance is severely damaged mostly by political leaders and community organizers from the Tigrigna speaking ethnic group, good for nothing so to say my dear people!

Now, can we deny the discrimination of our people from the KUNAMA ethnic group by our Christian and Moslem family members from other ethnic groups? Can a divided ethnic group within itself (Tigrigna) avoid discriminating others such as the KUNAMAs? Can an ethnic group in extinction with selfish and divided leaders watching from distance for the sake of power care about the survival of other ethnic groups? Can ethnic groups (Christians and Moslems) that have the history of exercising slavery on people of darker complexion avoid racially discriminating the Kunamas? I don’t think so. Although the time for directly discriminating a human being on the open is over in most countries of the world, complete mental freedom from this extraordinary spiritual decadence requires deep resentment on its historical actuality free of denial and genuine commitment to eradicate it once and for all through education and democracy which some of us, Eritreans are very much challenged on because of ignorance and ego. We have the tendency to defend our religions and ethnicities more than the truth itself or we sacrifice it by injecting religion and ethnicity into the motion of life like many backward societies in the world.

Unfortunately racism and other forms of discrimination will exist till the end of time; all society can do is guaranteeing equality through the law. Our Kunama family does not have to secede from its other family members because of few rotten individuals that spoil our love for one another as a result of their own insecurities. A person that discriminates others is certainly sick upstairs and suffers from deep inferiority complex in relation to the target of discrimination. You don’t discriminate if you are confident and secure about yourself. The motivation for discriminating people emanates from the tendency to prove one’s importance or betterment in the absence of essence; and this feeling cannot originate from confidence but from negative opinion about the self. Discrimination is a cover for internal inferno, or pretention for justifying a broken life style. It is indeed self-deception for survival when the mind confronts the person in this darkness on one’s terrible internal conflict about the self in view of the objective reality. We have people like this and they should not stop our Kunama brothers and sisters from enjoying the resources of their country at equal paradigm of the relationship. Democracy will control the spoilers by helping them suffer the consequence of their prejudice because we Eritreans have no time for this decadence. We will protect our Kunama family and recover their nationalistic confidence through democracy because when they suffer we all suffer. The spoilers hurt us equally and they are our common enemy that should be pacified through direct confrontation and democracy.

Comment: This organization joined the EDA believing in working with the other twelve Eritrean political parties to bring democracy in the country. Its vision includes self-determination up to secession from Eritrea should the society fail to guarantee equality based peaceful coexistence of all ethnic groups within. This conditional position is based on the experience of the Kunama people vis a vis the rest of the Eritrean society, thus correct in my opinion. The only way Eritreans can secure the Kunama people within the society is by installing democracy whereby every Eritrean is equally represented in the country’s political life. The only way the Kunamas can justify their demand should be after experiencing democracy in their country with their other Eritrean families minus this dictatorship. Otherwise, I found the Kunama’s vision of an alternate solution in case the problem persists as smart and strategically correct. They are saying that they will work in democratizing their country with the rest of the family expecting to live in it equally and freely but with the right to separate in the absence of reducing democratic values to practice that would negatively affect the life of their community.

I believe this is a fair deal that can only be spoiled by the majority of Eritreans. The rest of Eritreans specially the Kebessans are directly responsible for raising the comfort level and confidence of this portion of the family through practical spirituality. We need to practically attract our Kunama family through genuine love and compassion. We need to give in a lot in order to gain the trust of our Kunama people damaged by years of mismanagement, neglect and discrimination. Unfortunately the Kebessans have been the problem of our society for being divided for no reason other than ego and rigidity. If they have no internal peace how can they radiate piece in their environment? They couldn’t secure unity within themselves while the society is disintegrating a bunch at a time through the exodus crisis that is consuming our people in the deserts and seas everywhere.

Question: Why?

Comment: To me Idris Awate was the father of the Eritrean struggle for Independence and I respect him as one of the most important figures of our collective socio-political experience. I believe Awate will remain respected by Eritreans of all generations forever like Thomas Jefferson will remain the founder father of American democracy although he was a slave owner

But does an Eritrean group or individual have the democratic right to think otherwise based on experience? Can a person express personal or group opinion on a distinguished figure in society based on one’s democratic right? Are blacks justified expressing their resentment on Jefferson’s slave ownership? Should whites defend Jefferson on his slave ownership reality through excuses because he was white? The situation boils down to all these speculations in my opinion.

If a distinguished individual in society does a community wrong, should a person defend the offender on the basis of common religion or ethnicity? No, this wrong! Justice is only served by spiritually integrated individuals that have the consciousness quality to analyze happenstances through detachment from their identities. One cannot serve justice from within the circle of family, ethnicity and religion; only from outside the periphery of the circle. Ras Tessema had to exit from attachment to his own family in giving the verdict of capital punishment by hanging against his own son for killing a person. Can we modify our integrities by picking about 10% of a lesson from this down to earth Eritrean?

I had to search for any available source of information that may help this situation for neutral judgment and here are few that I found.

Comment: I don’t know the Author, have not read the book and I did not even know it existed. I am not in a position to conclude anything based on this exposure but I cannot ignore the information for this would be contradictory to transparent communication. For whatever purpose it may serve, this information will live forever because books don’t die. Whether Idris Awate was a Shifta or not immaterial I believe this man initiated the armed struggle for Eritrean independence. But if what said Idris did to the Kunamas and Baryas was correct, these people have the right to express resentment on his personality. I don’t see any problem here as a person because their experience based grievance does not affect my attachment to the icon revolutionary in view of one from an unaffected ethic group by his activities during and before the struggle. Nor am I justified defending Awate in this case against the Kunamas in the presence of historical facts that manifest the opposite and in the absence of material evidence against their claim. I cannot judge against the collective grievant without researching the cause of its position but I feel the kunamas have the right to have a feeling on what he did to them given the allegation was correct like the black Americans have the right to denounce Jefferson for what he did to their community of his time.

Another source of information: “What does Mr. Saleh Gadi Johar, know, like or more than the Kunama people, about the background history of Hamid Idris Awate?” states the following:

This paper accuses an Eritrean elite stating that; “[] Mr. Saleh Gadi Johar, [] keeps writing, very prolific articles, on and about Hamid Idris Awate, often totally lacking of sensibility, about the Kunama people and the sufferings their ethnic-members had to endure, because of the “ethnic-cleansing” attempts, Hamid Idris Awate had made, but times and circumstances prevented him from achieving his aims.

Comment: This is really sad and we can only learn from our mistakes and protect each other in Democratic Eritrea. We Eritreans from other ethnic groups have no right to get agitated against the grievance of the Kunamas because they know their experience better than all of us. Their grievance should not depreciate the value of the father of the Eritrean struggle for independence Awate but it is arrogant to argue that he was good to the Kunamas without scholastic evidence for no Eritrean should assume closer relationship with Awate because of religion or ethnicity. We gain a lot by listening to each other’s experience of pain and apologizing for our mistakes and I feel this allegation deeply in my bones as an Eritrean. Awate remains to be a hero to us Eritreans in relation to the Eritrean struggle for ever and his treatment of the Kunamas before the start of the armed struggle will as well remain in the minds of his victims forever. We should not have conflict of interest here if we listen to each other without prejudice. Therefore, I have no problem with Saleh Gadi’s positive opinion on Awate unless he tries to defend him on the accusation hitherto brought here by our Kunama family without tangible evidence. Likewise, I have no problem with the Kunamas’ negative opinion on this man’s relationship with their ethnic group and in fact want to learn more so that I can feel their pain and work harder to avoid the problem in the future.

Comment: It is not clear so far where Gadi went wrong concerning this issue. If the writer is accusing him for praising Awate as an individual, then I don’t see any problem with this. If he defended Awate on the Kunama question though, I would say grave error in part of Gadi because he has no right to contradict the Kunama story without evidence. I sympathize with the Kunamas in this scenario because I cannot prove Awate’s innocence on the allegation. But I also see the legacy of the icon of the struggle as everlasting in the Eritrean experience. I don’t think praising Awate as a problem here and our Kunama family should not be aggravated with the praise but they have full right to teach us what happened to them during his era and to denounce him if necessary like they did openly recently.

Comment: I feel comfortable with this expression and I agree given the grievance is genuine, and I tend to believe it because I don’t see any reason for the accusers to accuse Awate without substance. They are talking about their history and experience: therefore I have to listen to them without any resistance and in fact sympathize as well as a humanitarian activist fighting for freedom and justice in Eritrea.

Comment: I am sorry but nothing is provocative in a text or speech of an oppressed community openly criticizing his oppressor in this argument. I am sharing my neutral opinion not as an Eritrean but as a universal individual here without any knowledge whether the accusation was formally answered or ignored by the accused. What I mean is the accuser deserves the benefit of the doubt here in the absence of response from the accused. I believe Mr. Saleh Gadi crossed the line of fairness in this situation by labeling the DMLEK provocative for its leader’s subjective grievance on Awate’s misdeed to the Kunama people once upon an era in the Eritrean experience.

It is said that Mr. Qernelios’ “was indeed speaking on behalf of his organization and rebuffed all calls for an apology from Eritrea’s outraged opposition organizations.” Gadi could have taken this as the voice of the party and I don’t blame him because I would have taken it too. To me, it is not about Qernelios or DMLEK at the fundamental level of the argument: it is about why Gadi personalized this to the extent of finding it a provocative danger to the Eritrean unity. What motivated this brother to go as far as adversely antagonizing with Qernelios or DMLEK for the sake of Awate?

It appears like Mr. Gadi personalized the issue without genuine provocation. This was none of his business in my opinion, with all respect to the brother, was thus biased. I have no justification to reject the grievance of our Geberty family on the Christians because I was born a Christian or the vise versa. I would do good service to the society respecting the Geberties and sympathizing with their grievances and in fact apologizing in the name of my community as well for the sake of love, brotherhood and harmony , whether I was mandated to do that or not, and irrespective of the validity of the allegation.

I can use my individual right to assume representing my community apologizing in public for something that is not perfectly personal, may be partially communal and even never been done. What does it hurt to do this? let me do it right now: I apologize for what happened to our Geberties by the Christian Tigrigna speakers. Don’t blame me for this and deal with your ego yourself because my mandate to represent the Christian Tigrigna speakers is an imaginary idea that does not concern you. It remains being my objective opinion irrespective of how I understand my imagination. This, however, brings peace and love into the society and it is spiritually gratifying as well.

Comment: Why not? Gadi is clean here assuming that the Chairman of the party represents the party specially when saying he did in this scenario. What is he supposed to assume then? But I don’t see any political recklessness on the Chairman’s opinion because he has the right to express his opinion freely in view of democracy. He used his freedom of speech that the EDA in principle supports to say what he had to say about his community’s experience with Awate.

“To our judgment, Mr. S. G. Johar, has totally failed in his journalistic duty and launched the initial idea of “suspending” and even of “kicking-out” of the “DMLEK” from the EDA, which immediately followed. As we have been following, “Qernelios Arte Mailam’s Political Recklessness”, from the very beginning, S. G. Johar and his “awate.com” were the first ones and the most vociferous forces, who and which had mobilized and rallied the organs, such as…….. That Saleh Gadi Johar, and his awate.com, had mobilized and rallied”, the above mentioned news-outlets and organizations and exercised a very heavy “pressure upon EDA’s leadership and member-organizations” into taking that drastic and severe measure of expelling the DMLEK from it.”

Comment: Wow, to that extent? I wonder why the EDA took such an anti-democratic step against the party of our Kunama family to begin with and why Gadi suggested the suspense of the party from EDA in this scenario, if the allegation was correct. If this allegation is correct, Gadi should have been biased of something to personalize the issue to this extent. What was more terrible was that he politicized the issue beyond its significance as well. He didn’t have to take this issue this far because of probably running AWATE WEBSITE (I am not sure if he does) for there is no conflict of interest in the situation. The bias could not have been ethnical either (assuming brother Gadi was from the Geberti community) but may be religious in my frank opinion. By the same sensation, the EDA practically violated the right of the Chairman to express his grievance on Awate against the principle of “freedom of speech” and democratic values.

Comment: I am shocked as well as a neutral Eritrean who does not have the whole picture of what happened. I am really shocked and disappointed about what the EDA did to our Kunama family members and even more shocked about the unprovoked negative interference of brother Gadi in this situation. We need to be careful on how we treat each other and must be consistent on a concept to claim integrity. Gadi should have sympathized with the Kunamas instead of defending their abuser and cause the party’s suspension from EDA because I assume he came from a minority group (Geberti) within the Tigrigna speaking ethnic group that has few human rights issues with the Christians. Please don’t take this assumption out of proportion because I am talking a straight language that is easy to understand here. Criticizing or denouncing an iconic figure of society by any member of the society is not political recklessness at all and suspending an individual or group from a DEMOCRATIC umbrella on this excuse is anti-democratic and dictatorial as well. I would love to see the respond to this allegations from the accused in order to be balanced, needless to say ignoring the allegation is arrogance and uncivilized in my opinion. I feel sorry for wrong action the EDA took against our Kunama family in this situation.

In conclusion; we will fight for justice everywhere in Eritrea and so will we this time to defend the rights of our Kunama family to freely express its unique experience in the Eritrean diary. I sympathize with this family for the wrong deeds of our icon of struggle Idris Awate on; and criticize him for the mistakes he did in this regard without depreciating my respect of him. I also humbly remind our Kunama family not to exasperate this situation to the point of hurting our unity and the resistance over all. I want to remind this group of the family that we love you and we will fix any problem in your community together in this fight for freedom and democracy in our country. No one can trespass your right to equally enjoy your country from now on for no Eritrean deserves his/her right without defending the rights of all of us as unit. Defending the rights of our Kunama family is a prerequisite for securing my individual freedom in Eritrea. Therefore, I condemn EDA’s undemocratic violation in suspending DMLEK out of its umbrella.

Down with ethnic and religious chauvinism in our society: Long live our unity and the genuine struggle of the Kunama people for freedom & democracy in Eritrea!