Symbols of Innocence and Victims of Savage Brutality
A boy was born in the 15th century just a few kilometers from Mariam Dengelat. He grew up and founded a movement, the Dekike Estifanos movement. A coward king, scared by the ideas, unleashed horror on the followers.
The king had the Dekike Estifanos flogged, thrown down ravines, their hairs torn out, their faces and bodies lacerated with knives, speared, dragged on the ground until their skins peeled off, tortured by fire, their tongues pulled out, their ears and nose cut,
their eyes gouged and hot rods inserted in the sockets, their limbs chopped off, beheaded, their corpses dismembered and burnt, and so forth.
More than 500 years later, we remember the Dekike Estifanos as symbols of courage, principle, steadfastness, commitment, knowledge and thought. We don't remember the barbaric savages that massacred them.
Likewise, more than 500 years later from now and longer, the martyrs of Mariam Dengelat will be in public memory. They will be symbols of innocence and victims of savage brutality, reminding generations how precious peace and human life is.
They will be memorialized in books, songs, paintings and in our folklore. None of the cowards and savages who massacred them will be remembered, and if they will be, not in a good way.
I have been holding up, but watching the CNN program, I broke down
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Three books (in Tigrinya) on the war on Tigray. Two from blockaded Tigray and another from Addis. The first one, "A Revolution of Tigrayness", by University Lecturer Asmelash Girmay, is available in a digital copy for free here: 1/n researchgate.net/publication/35…
The second one "How Dow we Sleep?" is by a known activist and now TDF fighter Tsegay Gebremedhn. It is will be available soon. 2/n
The third one, roughly "The Doomsday"?, is by an opposition party leader, @kibrom_zebib. He is outside Tigray, in Addis, and his book will hopefully reflect the experiences of Tigrayans in Addis and other places outside Tigray. 3/n
🧵
Ethiopia & Eritrean disrupted the @WHO's @DrTedros reelection by raising point of order 3 times in turns & delaying it by 13 minutes. Both tried to block the African Group (45 states) from expressing support. The Eritrean said he is Ethiopian delegate.
Ethiopia disrupts 1/n
Then Eritrea disrupts. The representative says "this is the second point of order raised by the delegation of Ethiopia" 2/n
Then Ethiopia. The Ethiopian representative was again so angry that she even turned the name plate upside-down. 3/n
Thread: Why Africans/blacks & the world should care for #Tigray, an African & world civilization & stand against #Tigraygenocide. Tigray is a unique civilization (one of the four great powers of the ancient world) that has always been humane & welcoming to all people.1/n
Early on, it accepted judaism and because of that connection, Aksum is still considered the place where the Ark of the convent is housed. 2/n theguardian.com/world/2021/jan…
Tigrayans (also called Aksum, ancient capital of Tigray) invented the Ge'ez letters which are now used for the writing of many African languages including Amharic, Tigrinya, Guragigna, Tigre, etc. They fused Brana and their writing system and spreed literature. 3/n
Thread
I watched 'Taking Stock of U.S. Policy on Ethiopia: A Conversation with Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman' #USPolicyEthiopia
I put my reactions to the ambassador's points here as a Tigrayan. My thread will focus both on the spirit of his messages and on particular points 1/n
1) I understood that the US still sees Abiy as salvageable and as having the mandate to rule Ethiopia. The ambassador said the US wants to revitalize Abiy's "economic and job creation agenda". This is deeply disturbing to me and tells me Us interests override even genocide . 2/n
The spirit of the ambassador's message is that the atrocities committed on Tigray are not problems of themselves, but only to the extent they jeopardize US business and geopolitical interests in the Horn. 3/n
I sometimes listen to the Ethio-360 guys. The Habtamu guy has only one boring theme: I told you so. The thing is he never told it. Today, they were talking about the design to destroy Amhara and Tigray, and they blame Tigray for that. What do these people smoke, really? 1/n
Tigrayans, including myself, have warned before the war that there was a work to antagonize Amhara and Tigray, among other things. And yet, no one supported the war more than Amharas. They also invaded and seized Tigrayan lands and engaged in ethnic cleansing and genocide. 2/n
Tigrayans understood the Abiy-Isaias plan to create a permanent Amhara-Tigray enmity and warned Amharas about that, but Amharas failed to see. Tigrayans were not only left without partners, but became a victim of the Amharas. That is the sad reality. 3/n