In highly symbolic first trip outside Rome Pope Francis visited Lampedusa to highlight the light of migrants. Zeracristos Yosief, Assistant General of the Congregation of the Mission offers a very personal reflection of fifty years of agony in his native Eritrea.
On 3 September 2013, through television channels around the world, we were witnesses to horrible scenes: the death of 366 Eritreans in the sea of Lampedusa. As we all recall from the televised transmission, there were more deaths, but the majority of the 530 un- fortunate passengers, including 155 survivors, were Ertreans. In the bellies of the fish in the Mediterranean Sea, these last lifeless bodies are not the only ones. In fact, in the last decade many, many unknown Eritreans were the guests of honor of the Mediterranean Sea’s fish. The world was silent as long as it could be, until finally, when the waves of the Mediterranean Sea brought to the Lampedusan coast the great quantity of lifeless bodies, the world became alarmed. Better late than never, but this story of the loss of Eritreans at sea, is a story that goes back years.
Often, seeing the young Eritreans in agony and drown- ing in the sea, many maintained silence, as if nothing had happened. They kept their eyes and mouths closed. How right was Martin Luther King when he said: “I am not worried about the intentions of the wicked and of ill-intentioned people, but of the silence of the majority, and especially of persons who are considered wise.”
All these bodies that we have seen in countless boxes, bodies that have floated in Lampedusa’s sea, belong to persons who had a dream: to come to the promised land, Europe (not only to Italy, their dream was to go to Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway). And they did it: they were buried in Agrigento, Europe!
After the bad news that the waves of the Mediterranean have brought to Lampedusa’s coasts, is it right to wonder: what is happening in Eritrea? Why is there this massive exodus of young Eritreans? What is behind this massive exodus?
These waves that carried the corpses, also brought their bags, photos of families lost in nothingness, and at least some identification cards. They were placed on Lampedusa’s beach. The most curious thing is that this death is extremely costly: all those young Eritreans, whose bodies were brought by Lampedusa’s waves, must have made many sacrifices. They must have paid a lot of money to cross the borders of Eritrea to Sudan or into Ethiopia. Then they crossed the Libyan desert with a second very costly payment. The third payment, not at all low, was to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The fourth, that unknown, was the way of going from Italy to Scandinavia (Sweden or Norway, since Switzerland decided not to take any more immigrants). And everything is very expensive. All this effort, on weary feet, or by cam- el, was only to end in nothing. In short, “we live sick, to die healthy.” Ironic is it not?
While waiting, because “hope is the last thing that is lost,” that one day the fish of the Mediterranean Sea will come out of the water to bear witness to life and start counting the fatigue, the suffering of these flowers dry before time and in their youth, ask yourself what are the roots of this evil. Why are all these young people leav- ing their homes, their dear ones, their country? Why are they getting lost in the Sahara Desert before and later in the Mediterranean Sea?
The evil that the Eritreans want to avoid
The great misfortune of Eritrea is the loss of a national sense. In fact, Eritreans are known for their sense of national identity. I would say that it is a question of an exasperated fanaticism. To- day, it goes in the opposite direction. From the second half of the 60s until the 80s of the last century, Eritreans, after finishing their studies abroad, with some of the best degrees from univer- sities like Harvard (USA) or Oxford (United Kingdom), did not dream of living in the USA and much less in the United King- dom. Many went to the Sahel region, to the headquarters of the guerrillas who fought for the independence of Eritrea, leaving behind even university professorships. Nowadays, the opposite happens. Why?
It is true that the tree, from which fruit that is never bitter or inedible is gathered today, was planted and grew during the struggle for Eritrean independence from undeclared communism. Ninety-five percent of the young Eritreans since then have not had the opportunity to be educated. In the middle are the few educated and those who show power with a high level of manip- ulation under the appearance of nationalism. Among the above- mentioned is and continues to be the current president, Isayas Afewerki, a man who has never shown any interest in the well- being of Eritrea: he lives for himself, maybe even with an undis- covered hidden agenda. His origins are still a subject of debate; the Eritrean roots are not deep. But this would be a minor evil. Isayas and his pals, from the 70s, especially from 1973, ended by dividing the people of Eritrea between Christians and Muslims; between the inhabitants of the highlands and the inhabitants of the valleys.
The Eritreans said the country was attacked by the Ethiopians, due to the poorly defined border at Badimé. Nobody knew where Badimé was. Decades later, we are now able to understand something: it was just an excuse. Isayas and his companions soon sought an outlet to escape from the trap in which Eritrean scholars put them: a life governed by the Constitution and avoiding the dictatorship of Isayas’s single party. After the war, the second wave of the war with Ethiopia in 2000 AD, these Eritrean scholars resumed their project of delivery of power to the people, but this time they paid with their lives: one was killed in secret and others stuck in harsh and unknown prisons, including 11 former ministers. Faced with these facts, Eritreans began reading. This is the very unfortunate situation; they became divided rather than fighting against their common enemy, making senseless politics and war for the benefit of their common enemy. The big problem is that the political system has sown distrust and nobody trusts anybody. Two Eritreans can speak about politics without putting their lives at risk. If one dares to comment, the next day he disappears. Each one prefers doing his own chores, evidently escaping without sharing personally his project with anyone; maybe they can be seen in Shire’s fields or in Sudan’s Shegereab. It is sad.
But especially, among three provinces of the highlands, where the majority speak “Tigrigna,” he has managed to put one against the other, sowing discord that divides them. In short, he learned well the philosophy of colonization: divide and conquer, but without calculating the serious consequences. Thus, while genuinely an overwhelming majority of Eritreans fought the cause of their country, paying dearly with their lives, mutilation, family disintegration, and social imbalance in the country; Isayas Afewerki paved the way to gain power, sowing discord, learning both Arabic and English, the two national languages. Yes, he had his own plan and succeeded. But Eritreans were too naive and innocent to understand his hidden agenda.
With independence, which took place on 24 May 1991, those who fought for the cause of Eritrea innocently, after the first two years of preparation, in 1993 again began to say “We have done our duty to liberate Eritrea from foreign forces, now deliver the power to the people.” To flesh out this idea they worked hard at preparing the ground: they began to prepare the Consti- tution, the document/standard for the multiparty system. All the commissions presented their finished work to the President and they were ready to be announced, but instead of the proclama- tion of the Constitution and Rules for the multiparty system, Eritrea declared war against Ethiopia in 1998. This killed more people than the Thirty Years’ War (1961-1991). Why? No one ever knew the reason.
The Eritreans said the country was attacked by the Ethiopians, due to the poorly defined border at Badimé. Nobody knew where Badimé was. Decades later, we are now able to understand something: it was just an excuse. Isayas and his companions soon sought an outlet to escape from the trap in which Eritrean scholars put them: a life gov- erned by the Constitution and avoiding the dictatorship of Isayas’s single party. After the war, the second wave of the war with Ethio- pia in 2000 AD, these Eritrean scholars resumed their project of de- livery of power to the people, but this time they paid with their lives: one was killed in secret and others stuck in harsh and unknown pris- ons, including 11 former ministers. Faced with these facts, Eritreans began reading. This is the very unfortunate situation; they became divided rather than fighting against their common enemy, making senseless politics and war for the benefit of their common enemy. The big problem is that the political system has sown distrust and nobody trusts anybody. Two Eritreans can speak about politics without putting their lives at risk. If one dares to comment, the next day he disappears. Each one prefers doing his own chores, evidently escaping without sharing personally his project with anyone; maybe they can be seen in Shire’s fields or in Sudan’s Shegereab. It is sad.
These problems mentioned previously are the roots of the evil in this people. A very worried and suffering people. The people of Eritrea, as a politically incipient people, is being administered by a few cor- rupt and malicious people with the high cost of the loss of their youth coming into being as dried flowers in the Sahara Desert or the guests of honor of the Mediterranean fish. Unfortunately, there are tens of thousands of them about whom nobody has spoken until now. These 366 lifeless Eritrean bodies brought by Lampedusa’s waves are only a small part of the many young persons who are losing their lives for nothing because their country is suffocating. The mountains and the valleys of Eritrea are not hospitable, the young Eritreans are seeking personal freedom, because they feel stifled, forced to hard labor, and without breath. This hard labor includes that done for their bosses personal matters. Briefly, a young Eritrean feels like “a thing” and not “a human being.” From 18 to 50 years old they are trapped into forced military service regardless of age, leaving behind elderly parents, children, and spouses. Bound to work for the interest of others, whether some military officers or the president himself, they prefer to deal with the risks of the Sahara and the Medi- terranean Sea. And this they do. As you can imagine this makes them fall into despair.
As if all this were not enough, the Eritrean people also suffer from natural disasters. In fact, in a society that is based on agriculture and traditional grazing, the little that it is capable of producing would be drastically affected by the lack of rain. As a matter of fact, the previ- ous rainy season, from April to September, has been very scanty, so that the harvest this year has been virtually zero. The alarm of hun- ger is visible in the streets of Asmara, where an enormous hungry multitude is encountered already. Drinking water is and always will be the most serious problem for life. I make this call to the entire Vincentian Family so that those who have the possibility of helping the Eritreans will do so, for the situation is very delicate and vulnera- ble. Because the Eritrean Government does not allow help, I ask that it be done silently and without making any noise. This is possible through the Congregation of the Mission or the Daughters of Chari- ty, who already serve in Eritrea.
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