The Afwerkist I

By Fetsum Abraham/ 3/4/2013

DEDICATION: I dedicate this article to brothers and sisters (Afwerkists) conditioned to remain victims of humiliation and manipulation by the super master of dictatorship

Quote of the day: The mind can change life if it overcomes inhibition like fear can steal existence if allowed to control the mind.

triple -surprise

Narrative

Apparently, the first two decades of the Eritrean experience after independence or the first independent political experience of the society has unexpectedly introduced a unique absolutist political philosophy called Afwerkism. The world’s expectation from the Eritrean struggle on the issues of UNITY, FREEDOM and JUSTICE was contradicted by the concrete reality of DIVISION, DICTATORSHIP and LAWLESSNESS, in one of the most surprising and tragic socio-political paradigm shifts experienced by the human race.

In short, the Eritrean concept of freedom has been completely compromised by an exceptional version of absolute autocracy currently rated as the only and the worst type of its type in the world.

In the progression, a group of mentally and morally challenged people called Afwerkists who unconditionally support the philosopher has emerged, to the double-surprise of the society; raising the question whether the culture was misunderstood to have been otherwise, when it was realistically a favorably mushrooming ground for such a self-degrading and down-beat mentality to begin with. Afwerki as a lone father of Awferkism could not have survived in Eritrea had our society been as decent as we thought it to have been! He would have been isolated easily long time ago but the existence of many Eritreans who are silently allowing the destruction of their country under this philosophy, despite all the evidence on the open discloses the contemplation that our society may be submissive by cultural orientation, although patriotic by nationalism. In other words, nationalistic patriotism could have camouflaged the denial and submissive contents of our culture for a very long time.

Personally, I had never thought the Eritrean society specially the educated including me would take this amount of punishment from one man for this long with substantial pretension and unhealthy silence. He delivered and we took it quietly; did it again and we did our taking loyally; and continues to do it in persistent style and we keep taking it in similar fashion. It was simply too much to sustain: Few of us might have freed ourselves from the chain of Afwerkism finally enjoying our freedom of speech in the developed countries, but quiet a few of us are still taking the merciless whipping without a say.

Back in the days, the intensity of intellectual involvement in the struggle for independence was extraordinary, while it is at ridiculously minimum in this rough journey for freedom. Chances are fear, trauma, confidence, opportunism, negativity, low self-esteem and many other psychological issues play a big role in the psychology of an Afwerkist, but what is the resultant psychological problem that reduces the educated member of the society to this mind-numbing level of quietism? Why is there insignificant participation of the educated Eritreans to direct the young Eritrean generation condemned to ignorance by Afwerkism? Who should then carry the responsibility of saving the nation in the presence of an uneducated generation in exodus? Why did the potent energy of the educated class during the struggle disappear in the struggle of the society for democracy and justice? Was the goal of the struggle only to liberate Eritrea or to secure freedom and justice in the country as well? Is this class of the society satisfied by the most savage dictatorship in the country or denying this reality through silence?

Do we have a subtle problem in general that we need to search together? Do we have a problem in the culture it self?

Excuse my AMICHE but I stand over-surprised: Quiet a few Eritreans exposed to the west are still supporting the destruction of Afwerkism in Eritrea after the county’s very long struggle for freedom. My confusion may then have originated from my superficial understanding of our culture so to say; but this Quietism happened to be a triple-surprise to my commonsense! Does this make sense, at least controversially?

The question is who is Afwerkist?

An Afwerkist is a low self-esteemed person conditioned to accept animalistic mode of existence by means of persistent humiliation from the architect of Afwerkism. Similar to the philosopher, an Afwerist has no concept of human value, justice and freedom; does anything to prove his uselessness to the philosopher of his/her humiliation. An Afwerkist is a feeling-less individual who accepts humiliation as a perception of existence; a mindless person, who completely surrenders his/her concept of thinking to the master; a person who by some psychological or circumstantial excuse accepted the status of an object vis-à-vis life it self: One who has a problem to exist without an abusive master and that cannot learn from the consequence of his uselessness on society and on the self.

An Afwerkist is either an innocent victim of Afwerkism or a deliberate follower of the same. Either way the two converge at one point of spiritual decay: no compassion to the suffering of others and no sense of freedom what so ever.

And who is the queitist?

The quietist is a conscious individual who knows the society is in serious trouble; yet chooses to stay quiet for many reasons (at least fear and opportunism). A quietist applies the ENTAIGEDESENI mentality through which he/she accentuates fear and opportunism. In comparison, the quietist is more destructive than the unconscious Afwerkist because he/she is aware of the problem. A quietist hurts the society twice as much: by failing his/her responsibility to educate and guide the youth to freedom and by indirectly elongating the life of Afwerkism as a result. What do you think?