Tekeste negash biography of michael
Home / Related Biographies / Tekeste negash biography of michael
While Eritrean migration to Europe and to the North Atlantic world is most likely the unintended outcome of the political history of the region, restrictions on migration are and cannot be defensible; one can argue that such restrictions are against the nature of man/woman. Neither Gaim Kibreab´s Dream Deferred, nor Okbazghi´s Anatomy of an African Tragedy and Bereket Habte Selassie´s, While waiting or working for change, 2015, carry out a coherent discourse on contemporary Eritrea and its future trajectories.
I shall by way of conclusion try to sketch in broad terms such a collaborative framework.
By way of conclusion: building capacity in a hostile environment
Those in Eritrea, the political opposition organizations in the diaspora and diaspora intellectuals all need to enhance their analytical capacities.
(See Tekeste Negash, 2000)
[5] Habte Selassie, Bereket, 1980, 1989; Okbazghi, Yohannes, 1989, Tekie, Fessehazion, Araia Tseggai, Jordan Geberemedhin, Richard Sherman, Basil Davidson, Lionel Cliffe, Roy Pateman, Dan Connell, and David Pool.
[6] Eritrea got a new opportunity to settle score with its arch-enemy, the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front during what is described as Ethiopia´s Tigray War, fought between 2020 and 2022.
After noting that the writing of Eritrean history by Eritreans had just begun, he listed what he called the outstanding ones, which by the early 1994 amounted to about ten monographs including the Journal of Eritrean Studies and RICE (Research and information Center for Eritrea) (1994:506-7). What I considered as a false premise is to lift up the “modernity Italy brought about in Eritrea” as a primary cause for Eritrea to fight a thirty year´s war against its incorporation with Ethiopia.
He went further and concluded that: “The fate of a country is not in the final analysis decided by a recollection of relationships of the distant past, but rather by prevailing political and military realities”. From 1993 until the outbreak of the first Eritrean Ethiopian war of 1998, there were, to my knowledge a couple of books that are of significant importance; namely the one edited by Amare Tekle (1993) and the other edited by Tesfagiorgis, Gebre Hiwet, ed., 1993.
Referring to the outmigration of Eritrean youth and its impact on the Eritrean society, Bereket reflected as follows: “The vast majority of the Eritrean Diaspora…are bitter and it is anybody´s guess as to whether they can be eventually induced to recover their faith in the nation they left behind. The article was also a follow-up of the study that I conducted in 2000 (Negash and Tronvoll, 2000).
“According to Negash, the core of Eritrea´s political, cultural and economic identity is based on colonial premises and these three premises are false.
In 1947 nobody knew about the fate of Eritrea. His younger colleagues, such as Tsegu Fessehaie Bahta (2014: 209-210) did much better in raising the importance of establishing competing political parties. On the contrary I argued that Ethiopia got far more than what it campaigned for (Negash, 1997:68).
“According to Negash, the second (false) premise closely interlinked with the first stressed that the Eritreans are superior (in terms of cultural and political sophistication) to other Ethiopians”.
Here is what they [Ethiopians] thought to be the archenemy of Ethiopia – the devil incarnate – proclaiming in no uncertain terms that he was one of them – a lost child come home from the cold”.
Five years later, Eritrea is still independent and sovereign under the firm grip of President Isaias. One of the reasons why the secret party remained secret was because of the culture of fear that pervaded the entire organization.
Its most significant point was the author´s admission that he kept silent (for over a quarter of a century) about the human rights violations of the EPLF. For a review of Gaim Kibreab´s book, see Tekeste Negash, “Armed Struggle and Better Future: Dubious Connection “, Africa Book Review, March 2010.
[9] Bereket Habte Selassie, 2007:317-8.
[10] Pool, David, 2001:166-7, assessed the work of the Constitutional Commission for Eritrea (CCE) that was headed by Bereket Habte Selassie as follows: “ An informal PFDJ [People´s ´Front for Democracy and Justice] and government consensus on many issues either pre-empted or caused the CCE to anticipate an EPLF view of the constitution.
“Eritrean nationalism”, writes Bereket Habte Selassie, “is based on the creation of the territory as an Italian colonial state. The authors did not in any way discuss how this tragic condition can be reversed.
The 2000 to 2020 decade is undoubtedly dominated by the prolific writer Bereket Habte Selassie.
The EPLF scored a notable victory at Nakfa, 1988 and Mesfin Hagos writes that his role was highly exaggerated.
The story of how the EPLF defeated the Ethiopian forces is narrated in chapter nine where the role of the Tigrean People´s Liberation Front is grudgingly acknowledged[9].
The final chapter is devoted to an account of the state of Eritrea and his role in it.
First, I felt that it is time to assert my identity as an Eritrean and that my views on the history of Eritrea are as good as authors such as Bereket Habte Selassie and Jordan Gebremedhin.