I had recently scribbled an article refuting the canonization of Dr. Bereket H S by a certain Mr. Bereketab H.; and a number of Awate readers have asked me two pertinent questions regarding two political issues they feel uncomfortable with in the above mentioned piece.

The first one is easier to answer.

The question was what I meant exactly when I raised the issue that the Federation with Ethiopia was the only viable alternative at that point in time.

The question itself is rhetorical. Well, if Eritrean are as hopelessly divided fifty years after the Federation as they were then (and I am assuming today, they are better educated more politically aware than then) how is it possible that an alternate, say a  Federation with the Sudan (meaning partition) or independence then could have united them. Sure, there would be some euphoria as there always is after the aftermath—but then what?

Considering the geo-political and local conditions at the time, nobody is going to convince me that our fathers with their traditional value systems, their beliefs and recent memories, would have been more accommodating than we are today.

Even ten years later, they still voted for Unity with Ethiopia. Yes, no doubt there was political maneuvering. Yes, no doubt there was political coercion. But they made a choice.

You make a choice not because you are intimidated but because you believe it is in your interest to do so. You make a stand based on your principles. You see, you make a choice even if you do not make a choice.

To top it all, please tell me who the major supporters of Isaias are and who his major detractors are. Please don’t say we are divided because of the heinous Isaias; he is just a small cog in the bigger wheel. And please don’t tell me that if by some magic wand of some opposition group (the only arsenal they seem to have as this moment in time) he were to be made to disappear in thin air, viola, we will start to live happily for eternity. No, I am highly skeptical about this; but this is academic.

Let me go back to the core issue that many wrote about.

The second issue was about my insidious motive in trying to incite sectarian animosity. The points they made can be summed as follows:

• The issue that deals with our history is now buried forever and only despicable semi-intellectuals like me are trying to fan the flames.
• Thanks to the wisdom of the EPLF, this issue has been settled for good. So stop poking old wounds.
• We, like many countries in the World, are a multi-cultural multi-religious country; but our harmonious relationship has become the envy of the world as attested by many foreign writers. Just look at Somalia, Idiot!

How convenient! I wish it were so.

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As many say, in today’s Eritrea, the thirty-years war has become the central parameter of identity construction. Reading the above, I had an eerie feeling that it was some kind of déjà vu: “There is no black America! There is no white America! There is only the United…”  

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It is like an article I once read in Awate. I don’t remember the author’s name, but in order to refute those who think there is a religious problem in our country the author narrates the story of Adey Aisha. The good Moslem woman is always there, always nice and genial. As neighbors, they have always lived harmoniously in their neighborhood, greeting each other profusely and from time to time even drunk tea together—what else can we want?

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Well, in today’s’ Eritrea, where the thirty-years war has become the main parameter of identity construction, I am talking about more than Adey Aisha. I am talking about something bigger than Aday Aisha is. I am talking about a people who may not see Eritrea the way some of us Eritreans see it.

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True, most of the World is multi-religious. Let us see!

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Egypt has a Christian minority. Saudi Arabia has a high number of Christians too but I believe they are guest-workers. Oh, Yes, Nigeria too! I know that because every two years or so they are supposed to conduct some kind of pogroms against their Christian citizens. There are one hundred million Muslims in India; but then there are one billion Hindus too. Do they have Christian in Indonesia? Yes, maybe.

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The United Sates? Sure, they have Muslims—maybe one or two percent. And China? No Chine is a Godless country—one billion people going to hell together with the three hundred million Russians. I wonder if there will be space available in hell for the rest of us!

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Europe! No this one was the cradle of the Holy Roman Empire. The Empire collapsed because it was too large and expensive to administer. But now the resurrection of the old Roman Empire is in full gear—but with shortages of cheap labor and vital resources though it seems it is going as planned—from the shores of Ireland to the gates of Constantinople. Constantinople? Well, now that could be a hitch.

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And Israel? The Palestinians accuse Israel of being a religious State; but isn’t Palestine itself based on religion!

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My friends, many countries are multi-religious; but only in name. This is what makes us and Ethiopia different. Ethiopia and Eritrea are the only multi-religious countries in the World: the only two countries whose population are almost equal in not equal.

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Armed struggle is a protracted process; its outcome is uncertain and its aftermath in human and material costs is incalculable. The Eritrean peasants, the backbone of the struggle who bore the brunt of the atrocities, fought not because of some idealistic belief in some abstract collectivity but because the existing desperation and deprivation convinced them that the future will be better than the present. The issue today is, is it? That is why they deserve to be heard. We cannot live with the old adage ‘What is good for the elite is good for the country’ similar to the American saying, ‘what is good for General Motors is good for America.’

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So, the EPLF has solved religious tensions in Eritrea and religious animosity is a material of history. Really? Bill Cosby would say, come on People! Let us be realistic!

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Religion is an insidious issue, even as I write this: are we not witnessing animosity between religions of the same faith? The friction between the believers (the Pentecoste) and the unbelievers (the Coptic Orthodox)?

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If the EPLF found it expedient to ally with the Christian Highlander Ethiopians to fight a common enemy, why did it not find it expedient to form an alliance with Eritrean Lowlanders to fight a common enemy? If the EPLF can enter Eritrea as a political party why didn't the ELF or whatever was left of it enter Eritrea as a political party? That is because some idiot believed they could fan religious animosity. Ironically, that could be done without having a political party. No, it is simply because the idea of empowering an alternate ideology is abhorrent to the PFDJ

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I believe a government can do many things but it cannot transform a society. Yes, it can legislate religious equality; but can one legislate a good conscience or benign behavior?

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I don’t believe in hierarchies—be they traditional, ethnic and religious or those based on wealth or education—and I am totally against exclusion. But I believe in the infinite capacity and ability of the people to transform themselves. This is why we cannot pretend to be free of ethnic or religious problems. Unlike most of the World, we have a unique population mix; we cannot afford to shelf our problem in the hope that it will fade of its own accord. We need to face it head on. It is what defines us. We flourish or we perish; we stand or fall, on this specific issue.

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I totally reject that fascist slogan of ‘hade hzbi hade lbi’. We are a people as diverse as our numbers and as our ideas. I cannot accept those who try to confine or limit our outlook and our discourse to the institution of conformity. To me discussing our problems openly and forcefully is our birthright, our inherited privilege. And no one should or could deny us the capacity to solve our common problems collectively in a participatory and democratic manner. We have to step into history and take control of our own destiny. As my friend Burhan recently wrote, Christians and Muslim Eritreans have worked together before and will work together again to move the country forward; we should avail ourselves of this opportunity with candor.

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As for my motives, no need to worry, I am neither a Muslim nor a Christian, I am not even an atheist. You see, I belong to the oldest religion of the World. The one Michener calls “The Source”. I worship Baal. If it were not for that despicable Constantine (probably influenced by his mother) and the imperatives of Empire, ours would still be the greatest religion of all time. How ironic that the imperative of Empire is still the driving force of all global religious strife. But you, like me also worship Baal. I see you slinking to your Churches to your Mosques and to your shrines to celebrate Baal. O. K. you do not call it Baal. I believe you call it ‘Baal Amet.’ But then what is in a name!

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