Eritrawi Podcast: The Other Side of Eritrea

Eritrawi Podcast
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Eritrawi Podcast: The Other Side of Eritrea History built from archives, not myths. A research-based history podcast exploring the history, culture, archaeology, and heritage of Eritrea and the Horn of Africa through academic research and historical evidence. Episodes cover Adulis, Italian colonial Eritrea, the British Military Administration, the Eritrean struggle for independence, architecture, archaeology, theatre, music, and the people who shaped Eritrea's history. Beyond propaganda. Beyond stereotypes. Reconstructing the past through what people actually wrote, built, and lived.

  1. 1d ago

    We Have Seen Enough War! Must Another Generation Die

    # We Have Seen Enough War! Must Another Generation Die? | Eritrea & Ethiopia**What does war look like through the eyes of someone who fought it, survived it, and witnessed its devastating human cost?**In 1978, at just 16 years old, Mebrak Ghebreweldi joined the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), becoming part of a generation that sacrificed its youth in the struggle for Eritrea's independence.She lived through some of the most defining chapters of Eritrea's 30-year liberation struggle, from Ethiopia's massive military offensives to the historic victories that ultimately led to Eritrea's liberation in 1991.But her testimony is not simply about battles, military victories or political history. It is about the human beings caught in war, the suffering of ordinary families, the humanity of captured Ethiopian soldiers, and the memories that remain long after the guns fall silent.**Today, as Ethiopia's renewed threats to annex Eritrean territory raise fears of another confrontation, Mebrak asks a question that political leaders cannot afford to ignore: Must another generation die?**This episode of *The Other Side of Eritrea* explores:- **The generation that fought for independence:** Mebrak's journey from a 16-year-old freedom fighter to a witness of Eritrea's liberation.- **The battles that shaped a nation:** Operation Red Star (1982), Wuqaw (1984), the destruction of the Nadew Command at Afabet (1988), and Operation Fenqil (1990).- **The humanity behind enemy lines:** Why the treatment of Ethiopian prisoners of war remains an important part of her testimony.- **The cost of political ambition:** How decisions made in government offices become funerals, shattered families and lifelong grief.- **Eritrean sovereignty:** Why independence, territorial integrity and internationally recognised borders cannot be bargaining chips.- **The danger of proxy warfare:** How foreign involvement and competing geopolitical interests risk deepening instability in the Horn of Africa.- **A direct appeal to Ethiopian mothers:** A reminder that the nationality of the dead does not change the nature of a mother's grief.- **A different future:** Why mutual respect, independent diplomacy, peaceful coexistence and legitimate commercial cooperation must prevail over territorial confrontation.This is not a celebration of war. It is a warning from someone who knows its consequences.Eritrea's independence was achieved through extraordinary sacrifice. That history cannot be erased, and sovereignty cannot be negotiated under threats of force.But defending sovereignty and rejecting another devastating war are not contradictory positions.**The Red Sea should be a corridor of commerce and cooperation, not a battlefield for territorial ambitions and foreign proxies.**As Mebrak's testimony reminds us, politicians may debate borders, military strategy and geopolitical influence. But when the shooting starts, families will confront the same irreversible losses.**We have seen enough war. It is time to ensure that the children of both nations inherit peace, not another generation of graves.**Watch, reflect and share this testimony.**The Other Side of Eritrea | Eritrawi Podcast**Podcast Eritrea | Eritrea Podcast | Eritrean History | Horn of Africa#Eritrea #Ethiopia #EPLF #EritreanHistory #HornOfAfrica #RedSea #EritreaPodcast #Peace #Sovereignty #NoMoreWar

    We Have Seen Enough War! Must Another Generation Die

  2. 6d ago

    Eritrea’s Sovereign Foreign Policy vs Ethiopia’s Expansionist Ambitions in the Horn of Africa

    **Eritrea’s Sovereign Foreign Policy vs. Ethiopia’s Expansionist Ambitions in the Horn of Africa**What happens when a country's economic ambitions begin to challenge the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbours?This episode of **ERITRAWI PODCAST** examines the growing diplomatic confrontation between Eritrea and Ethiopia, contrasting Eritrea's emphasis on national sovereignty, recognised international boundaries and regional diplomacy with Ethiopia's increasingly assertive pursuit of access to the Red Sea.We examine the historical, diplomatic and legal dimensions of this confrontation, including:- **Eritrea's sovereignty and diplomatic record:** Its approach to regional cooperation, mediation, bilateral agreements and respect for internationally recognised borders.- **Ethiopia's Red Sea ambitions:** The growing demands for maritime access and the distinction between legitimate commercial transit and claims involving sovereign territory.- **The Two Waters Doctrine:** The emerging strategic narrative connecting Ethiopia's Nile Basin interests with its ambitions in the Red Sea.- **The 2024 Somaliland Memorandum of Understanding:** How an agreement presented in terms of economic cooperation triggered serious questions about Somalia's sovereignty and the potential implications for Djibouti, Sudan and other neighbouring states.- **The diplomatic breakdown of 2026:** Reports that Ethiopia curtailed communications with Eritrea's Foreign Ministry from May, withdrew its remaining diplomatic personnel from Asmara on 8 August without formal notification, and expelled ten Eritrean diplomats on 1 October, including representatives accredited to the African Union and UNECA.- **The 2002 Eritrea–Ethiopia Boundary Commission ruling:** The final and binding delimitation decision established under the Algiers Agreement and its continuing significance for territorial sovereignty.- **International law and the threat of force:** Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter and its prohibition on threats or uses of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of states.At the heart of this investigation is a fundamental distinction: **economic necessity does not create territorial entitlement.**Landlocked countries have legitimate economic and logistical needs. Those needs can be addressed through negotiated port access, bilateral transit agreements and commercial cooperation. They cannot independently establish a legal right to acquire another sovereign state's territory.The consequences extend far beyond Eritrea and Ethiopia. If economic necessity becomes an accepted justification for territorial expansion, what protection remains for the sovereignty of smaller states throughout Africa and beyond?**Commercial access is negotiable. Territorial sovereignty is not a bargaining chip.**source https://shabait.com/2026/10/21/82778/Subscribe to ERITRAWI PODCAST for research-based examinations of Eritrean history, sovereignty, international relations and developments across the Horn of Africa.#Eritrea #Ethiopia #EritreaPodcast #PodcastEritrea #HornOfAfrica #RedSea #AbiyAhmed #Somaliland #Somalia #Djibouti #Sudan #AfricanUnion #InternationalLaw #EritreanSovereignty #Geopolitics

    Eritrea’s Sovereign Foreign Policy vs Ethiopia’s Expansionist Ambitions in the Horn of Africa

  3. Oct 17

    Ethiopia’s Contemporary Crisis Historical Roots and Drivers of National Unraveling

    **Ethiopia's Contemporary Crisis: Historical Roots and Drivers of National Unraveling**Ethiopia's current political crisis did not emerge overnight. Its roots stretch back to the late nineteenth century, when Emperor Menelik II expanded the Ethiopian Empire through military conquest, incorporating diverse peoples and territories into a centralized imperial system.From Menelik II to Haile Selassie, from the Derg to the EPRDF and today's Prosperity Party, successive governments have inherited, reshaped, and struggled with the political contradictions of the Ethiopian state.This episode of **Eritrawi Podcast** examines the historical forces behind Ethiopia's recurring instability: imperial expansion, land dispossession, ethnic inequality, political repression, foreign intervention, and the concentration of power.Particular attention is given to Eritrea's experience under Ethiopian rule, the United Nations' decision to federate Eritrea with Ethiopia, the systematic dismantling of Eritrean autonomy, and the decades-long armed struggle that contributed to the collapse of successive Ethiopian governments.The discussion follows Ethiopia's political transformations through the 1974 revolution, the military dictatorship of the Derg, the events of 1991, Eritrea's independence, the 1998–2000 border war, and the political order that emerged under the EPRDF.It then turns to the present: the conflicts in Amhara, Oromia, and Tigray, mass displacement, agricultural land acquisitions, economic dependency, and the contradictions between Ethiopia's internal instability and the Abiy Ahmed government's renewed demands for sovereign access to the Red Sea.**Can Ethiopia resolve its contemporary crises without confronting the historical structures that helped create them? Or are successive governments repeating the same patterns under different political names?**Drawing on the article *Ethiopia's Contemporary Crisis: Historical Roots and Drivers of National Unraveling*, this episode explores the relationship between imperial history, state formation, territorial ambition, and the recurring crises of the Ethiopian political system.**Eritrawi Podcast | Eritrean History, Horn of Africa Politics & Historical Analysis**#Eritrea #Ethiopia #EritrawiPodcast #EritreaPodcast #PodcastEritrea #HornOfAfrica #EritreanHistory #MenelikII #HaileSelassie #AbiyAhmed #ProsperityParty #RedSea #AfricanHistory

    Ethiopia’s Contemporary Crisis Historical Roots and Drivers of National Unraveling

  4. Oct 13

    Abiy Ahmed: From Peace to Betrayal - The Imperial Dream Threatening the Horn of Africa

    Abiy Ahmed: From Peace to Betrayal — The Imperial Dream Threatening the Horn of Africa In 2018, Ethiopia and Eritrea made peace. The historic rapprochement was celebrated internationally as the beginning of a new era of cooperation and stability in the Horn of Africa. Eight years later, the relationship has deteriorated into renewed hostility, accusations and escalating tensions over Eritrea's sovereign Red Sea coastline. What went wrong? In this episode of Eritrawi Podcast, we examine the political trajectory of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed through the central argument of Ghidewon Abay Asmerom's article, Abiy Ahmed Ali: Receiving Good, Repaying It with Evil, published by Red Sea Beacon. The article draws on a Tigrinya proverb: “በላዕ ጥዑም ፈዳይ ሕሱም” — One who receives good but repays it with evil. From the promise of reconciliation to the resurgence of confrontation, we explore the contradictions between Abiy's international image as a peacemaker and the conflicts and geopolitical tensions that have marked his leadership. We examine the narrative of a childhood prophecy, the symbolism of kingship, the dream of imperial greatness, Ethiopia's internal wars, drone warfare, and the growing controversy surrounding demands for access to the Red Sea. At the heart of the episode is Eritrea: its role in the 2018 peace process, its sovereign coastline, the strategic port of Assab, and the question of whether regional diplomacy can survive when trust between neighbours collapses. Can a leader who once received international recognition for making peace become a source of renewed confrontation with the very country that helped make that peace possible? And what happens when the ambitions of one government collide with the sovereignty of neighbouring nations? This episode examines the history, political arguments and consequences of a relationship that moved from celebrated reconciliation to profound distrust. Source article:Ghidewon Abay Asmerom — Abiy Ahmed Ali: Receiving Good, Repaying It with EvilRed Sea Beaconhttps://redseabeacon.com/abiy-ahmed-ali-receiving-good-repaying-it-with-evil/ Eritrawi Podcast | Eritrea Podcast | Podcast Eritrea #Eritrea #Ethiopia #AbiyAhmed #EritrawiPodcast #RedSea #Assab #HornOfAfrica #EritreaPodcast #PodcastEritrea #Geopolitics #EritreanHistory #RedSeaBeacon

    Abiy Ahmed: From Peace to Betrayal - The Imperial Dream Threatening the Horn of Africa

  5. Oct 4

    The Vote Eritrea Was Denied

    The Vote Eritrea Was Denied Who had the right to decide Eritrea’s future? After the defeat of Italian colonial rule, Eritrea’s fate became the subject of international negotiations. Britain administered the territory, competing powers pursued their own strategic interests, and diplomats debated whether Eritrea should become independent, be partitioned, or be linked with Ethiopia. At the centre of this episode is a striking contradiction. Sylvia Pankhurst, one of Britain’s best-known anti-colonial and human-rights campaigners, documented the dismantling of Eritrea’s industries and infrastructure under British administration. Yet she also became a prominent advocate for linking Eritrea with Ethiopia, presenting it as a historical correction. Inside the United Nations, however, another argument was being made. Pakistan’s representative, Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, warned that Ethiopia’s suffering under Italian occupation could not justify deciding the political future of another people. The wishes of Eritreans themselves, he argued, had to be the overriding consideration. Eritreans were consulted, political movements were heard and competing proposals were investigated. But the population was never given a referendum to choose its own political future. In 1950, the United Nations instead chose federation with Ethiopia. The compromise was made in diplomatic chambers rather than at an Eritrean ballot box. The federation came into effect in 1952. Its autonomy was progressively eroded, and in 1962 it was abolished entirely. What followed was a decades-long armed struggle that ended with Eritrean forces taking control of the country in 1991. Then, in 1993, Eritreans finally received the ballot that had been absent four decades earlier: Do you approve Eritrea to become an independent sovereign state? This episode traces the journey from colonial rule and international diplomacy to federation, repression, armed struggle and, ultimately, the vote through which Eritreans formally determined their own political future. Podcast Eritrea | Eritrea Podcast | Eritrean History Podcast | History of Eritrea | Eritrea History #Eritrea #EritreanHistory #EritrawiPodcast #PodcastEritrea #EritreaPodcast #SylviaPankhurst #EritreanHistory #AfricanHistory #HornOfAfrica #SelfDetermination

    The Vote Eritrea Was Denied

  6. Sep 19

    British Military Administration of Occupied Territories in Africa - Eritrea 1941-1947

    In 1941, British forces took Eritrea from Fascist Italy and inherited an economy built to sustain Italy's imperial ambitions in East Africa. Behind the imposing marble banks and colonial infrastructure was a remarkably fragile system. As British forces advanced, Italian banks received instructions to destroy financial records, safeguard or conceal valuables, and deny the incoming administration a functioning financial system. Yet instead of complete financial collapse, something unexpected happened. Banks reopened. Depositors returned. Money began flowing back into the system. British administrators cut costs, introduced new banking arrangements, moved financial records across an active war zone and even used banking to contain emerging currency black markets. But the greater challenge was food. Italian colonial policy had distorted local production while Eritrea had become dependent on imported supplies. When wartime shipping was disrupted, the new administration discovered that military bureaucracy could not efficiently feed the population. What worked instead was much older. Camel caravans brought grain from Sudan. Traditional Red Sea trading routes connected Massawa and Assab with regional markets. Wooden dhows followed seasonal winds. Existing merchant networks moved food with remarkably little central coordination. Massawa's enormous salt reserves became economic leverage for securing supplies from Ethiopia. British administrators even discovered that attempts at official grain rationing struggled to compete with these informal trading networks, which could often move goods faster and more cheaply. The structures built to project power and permanence had fallen apart. The quiet networks of survival that had existed for centuries barely missed a step. And that raises a question for today: Our economy now depends on centralised digital banking, electronic payments, algorithmic markets and highly optimised global supply chains. If those systems stopped working, what would our equivalent of the camel caravan and the wooden dhow be? This episode draws extensively on Lord Rennell of Rodd's 1948 official account, British Military Administration of Occupied Territories in Africa 1941–1947, examining British military administration, banking, currency, trade and food supply in Eritrea during the Second World War. #Eritrea #EritreanHistory #Asmara #Massawa #Assab #AfricanHistory #EastAfricanHistory #HornOfAfrica #WWII #WorldWarII #BritishEmpire #ItalianColonialism #ColonialHistory #EconomicHistory #BankingHistory #RedSea #History #HistoryPodcast #EritrawiPodcast

    British Military Administration of Occupied Territories in Africa - Eritrea 1941-1947

  7. Sep 13

    How Eritrea Became a Nation: Newspapers, Politics and the Struggle for Unity

    How Eritrea Became a Nation: Newspapers, Politics and the Struggle for Unity How did Eritrea's people begin to imagine themselves as part of a single nation? In the 1940s, Eritrea emerged from Italian colonial rule into a period of economic crisis, British administration and profound uncertainty over its future. Independence, union with Ethiopia, partition and other possibilities competed for support as Eritreans debated what should come after empire. Drawing on the work of scholar Fouad Makki, this episode explores how vernacular newspapers and a new public sphere transformed that debate. Newspapers carried political ideas beyond a small educated elite, while public readings in markets, cafés and gathering places allowed those ideas to reach communities across the territory. But the Eritrean nation was not born fully formed. The Unionist Party advocated union with Ethiopia, while the Muslim League emerged as a major force for Eritrean independence. Religion, class, regional interests, land, economic hardship and foreign intervention all shaped where people stood. We examine British partition proposals, Ethiopian involvement in Eritrean politics, growing communal violence, the intervention of the United Nations, federation with Ethiopia, and how the gradual destruction of Eritrean autonomy ultimately transformed the political struggle. The story challenges the idea that Eritrean nationalism was inevitable. Modern Eritrea emerged from competing visions of what Eritrea should become—and from the struggle to create a shared national identity across those divisions. And it leaves us with a contemporary question: if shared print media once helped strangers imagine themselves as members of the same nation, what happens when we increasingly consume information alone, through personalized digital worlds? #Eritrea #EritreanHistory #EritreanNationalism #EritreanIndependence #HistoryOfEritrea #AfricanHistory #HornOfAfrica #Decolonization #ColonialHistory #BritishMilitaryAdministration #Ethiopia #UnionistParty #MuslimLeague #EritreanPolitics #Nationalism #PrintMedia #NationBuilding #PoliticalHistory #AfricanNationalism #HistoryPodcast

    How Eritrea Became a Nation: Newspapers, Politics and the Struggle for Unity

  8. Sep 6

    How Massawa, Eritrea Helped Defeat the Nazis in North Africa

    How Massawa, Eritrea Helped Defeat the Nazis in North Africa In 1941, the British captured Massawa, Eritrea — only to find one of the most strategically important harbours on the Red Sea deliberately wrecked. Before surrendering, the Italians had scuttled ships across the harbour, destroyed equipment and sabotaged the port’s vital dry docks. At the same time, Rommel’s advance across North Africa was putting increasing pressure on Alexandria and the British Mediterranean Fleet. Massawa suddenly mattered. Into this wreckage came Commander Edward Ellsberg, an American naval engineer and legendary salvage expert, with an extraordinary assignment: bring the port back to life. He had no proper shipyard, limited equipment and a strange collection of civilian contractors, Hollywood divers, mechanics, ironworkers and local labourers. And Massawa itself was brutal. Scorching heat. Near-total humidity. Harbour water contaminated by sewage and fuel oil. Divers working in suffocating canvas suits while breathing air pumped down from the surface. Wounds becoming infected. Equipment deteriorating in the heat and salt. Yet Ellsberg and his men improvised. Divers hammered timber into underwater blast holes, allowing the wood to swell and seal damaged structures. Workers sealed hatches and deck plates before pumping compressed air into submerged compartments to force the water out. Without the machinery needed to properly shape replacement hull plates, workers built wooden templates and cold-formed thick steel by hand with sledgehammers. And sometimes the greatest obstacle wasn't engineering at all. Ellsberg repeatedly found himself fighting peacetime regulations, union rules and colonial bureaucracy while trying to solve wartime problems — confrontations that occasionally required threats, improvisation and even the possibility of involving the American press. Against the odds, wrecks began rising. A supposedly ruined port began functioning again. This episode tells the remarkable story of Edward Ellsberg's salvage operation at Massawa — and how engineers, divers and workers armed with little more than experience, ingenuity and sheer determination helped transform a devastated Red Sea harbour into a valuable Allied naval base. It is a story of war fought not only with tanks, aircraft and battleships, but with pumps, timber, compressors, diving helmets, welding torches and sledgehammers. Sometimes history turns on the people who figure out how to make the impossible work. #Eritrea #Massawa #EdwardEllsberg #EritreanHistory #WorldWarII #WWII #AfricanHistory #MilitaryHistory #NavalHistory #RedSea #Engineering #HistoryPodcast

    How Massawa, Eritrea Helped Defeat the Nazis in North Africa
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Eritrawi Podcast: The Other Side of Eritrea History built from archives, not myths. A research-based history podcast exploring the history, culture, archaeology, and heritage of Eritrea and the Horn of Africa through academic research and historical evidence. Episodes cover Adulis, Italian colonial Eritrea, the British Military Administration, the Eritrean struggle for independence, architecture, archaeology, theatre, music, and the people who shaped Eritrea's history. Beyond propaganda. Beyond stereotypes. Reconstructing the past through what people actually wrote, built, and lived.

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