Eritrean Incompetence in the Art of War and Peace: And why we must learn it expeditiously

Eritreans need to fight the media war being waged against them. Photo: Eritreans protesting against the unfair and illegal UN sanctions in London 


“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
  —  El-Hajj Malik-El Shabazz Malcolm X

By Wedi Punt

I think while the Shining Black Prince of Africa stated it so eloquently, any Eritrean could have said the same intuitively. We have been under siege from the Lie that we are the so-called “traitors” to the Abyssinian Empire. Ever since the White empire of Italy and Black empire of Abyssinia battled it out in Adwa over our land, we have long suffered in the media eye. Many of our ancestors fought on both sides, and no matter who won the battle, we Eritreans lost the war and the peace. And by peace I am referring to the political aftermath. In the future, I will refer more to the Treaty of Wuchale and how both sides collaborated at our expense.

All one has to do is look in Eritrean blogs and see the vile and foul language by Habesha saboteurs, primarily Tigrawe web assassins. They wage daily war to violate our image, as their predecessors did to us in the aftermath of Adwa to pose as African heroes and Eritreans as traitors.

Why am I referring to this issue of image and lies? Well, as you all know, many of these “Eritrean” refugees are primarily non-Eritrean with an increased revelation of being Ethiopian. Let me make it clear once and for all. The Habesha are our eternal enemy and have been so for centuries, even before the Turks made their move on our soil nearly 500 years ago. More than a bullet, it is the Lie and its pen that has done so much damage to our image. Recently, there was a hit piece that I read which caused me to analyze what I read as a blatant attack on our people. You can read more here at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/eritrea/11562998/Eritrea-Escape-from-modern-day-Sparta.html#disqus_thread

The first thing I noticed was the name, Wegasi Nebiat. One thing about being an Eritrean is that many of us have a good sense for out distinct cultural heritage, so imagine my surprise when an icon of the “Eritrean refugee crisis” had a Habesha name. The name Wegasi stood out to me. I say this because I had an experience recently where I visited a grocery store in my area, and I had a conversation with a Cameroonian woman about African issues. She informed her that her “Eritrean” coworker was grieving over the recent ISIS murder of mostly Ethiopian refugees. Since almost all of them were Ethiopian, I had to wonder if she wasn’t also an imposter herself? How many times have we confronted “Eritreans” only to find they were Habesha, and Tigray to boot? I also took the liberty of speaking to other countrymen and women, and they informed me that Wegasi was not an Eritrean name at all.

The second thing that I noticed was this quote by British “journalist” Colin Freeman who said the root of this issue is not the land occupation by Ethiopia with its American masters’ approval, but the Scramble for Africa movement, his quote directly:

“As with many of the world’s current conflicts, the story has its roots in borders drafted by Europeans a century ago, when Italy annexed Eritrea from the rest of Ethiopia during the colonial “Scramble for Africa”. The move deprived landlocked Ethiopia of its only port on the Red Sea, and when Addis Ababa sought to regain it in the post-war era, the ensuing conflict claimed around 200,000 lives.”

By this alone, it is obvious he is pro-Ethiopia and has made an outrageous lie by insinuating that we were never a sovereign people. This line alone tells me how he thinks and operates. Now let me say that you will not like me but I want you to look in the mirror, and I’ll tell what one of the problems are: Us.
Why would I say something like that when most if not all Eritreans love their people and nation? I say this because if we truly did, we would have set up legal defense fund teams to sue every liar who slanders our people and our image. Don’t you know that the first thing an aggressor does is destroy the image of the victim to justify their actions?? Why then have we allowed the American empire and its minions to get away? We can sue them in international courts and their domestic ones. Why are we allowing deceivers like this Wegasi to claim Eritrean heritage when she does not have our culture and blood, only to slander it? Why are we not working together worldwide to attack the trolls and banning them from out media? Why are we allowing the UN to get away with this one-sided media war against us?

It is time acknowledge that we have allowed this to go on too far. Let me say this first about the President of Eritrean and his regime. I do not know what kind of person he is or whether he is “good” or “bad”. What I know is that as long as the majority of Eritreans sees him as the legitimate leader, he is our leader for better or worst. And if anyone attacks him, we have an obligation to attack them back. Now I wish to make it clear that there is a world of difference between legitimate criticism and outright lies and ad hominem attacks for personal and political gain. There is a difference. And besides, why is America speaking of human rights when every week if not day, another Black person is being murdered by an agent of the state? Or their drone bombs killing innocent people? Or the NSA tapping onto every communication device of Americans?

Before they can criticize us, they must first fix themselves. Lead by example. And why are they obsessed with free speech? We are Africans, and we must first focus on redeveloping ourselves. Private press or government media, it’s all the same if they do not speak the truth. At least with the government we know where we stand, unlike private media where they work for the Lie (and money) and not the Truth.

So what is a solution? First we must cling to our true heritage as a mostly Beja people with roots beginning in the Land of Punt to the present. We must never allow them to call us Habesha. It is long overdue that we protect our distinct heritage. Second, we must form strong and cohesive communities all over the world and build economic power. Money talks, BS walks. We must use our economy and our media to wage war against the enemy of our people, as a people independent of the Eritrean government. It is time to tell the world our story and our real image. Finally, we must sue every NGO and government agent who is against us, and make an example of non-Eritreans who pretend to be Eritrean. And as to the Eritreans who decide to flee, all I will say is they better speak the truth and stop making lies that are not true.

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