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***image3:left***Saleh Gadis latest article in his Negarit column of Awate.com was quite long and its subject, Embaye Melekin, not very attractive at first sight. I printed out the material and kept it for a delayed perusal, and frankly thought it wouldnt be that interesting. On top of that, I was of the opinion that Saleh Gadi should not have heeded to what has come from a lost sheep, Embaye. But when I reached the paragraphs in which he cited names of pioneers in the days of our nationalist awakening and their contributions, I adored the piece. And, without wishing to sound ironic, I also liked Embaye Melekins provocation to engage Saleh to reluctantly but beautifully say some of the truths about our Jebertis and our Siraj Ahmeds; our Bedjuk and our Tahir Salems!
Every name mentioned in the text ringed great feats and lasting memories about patriots who caused wonderful events unfold long after their martyrdom. Take Tahir Salem the Bedjukai who was described by members of his generation as the most active nationalist agitator among Eritreans in the Sudanese army. His friends witnessed that it was mainly through Tahir Salem that Eritreans in the Sudanese army could finally swell the ranks of the first generation of ELA fighters and leaders.
Similarly, it was people like Siraj Ahmed the Jeberti that another generation of fighters and leaders for the liberation struggle was being groomed in Asmara. Saleh Gadi described Siraj Ahmed as the one who converted his shop to an ELF cell. I was in that shop of Siraj Ahmed in the morning of 30 August 1965. I am willing to narrate a very short anecdote about that day in Sirajs shop, and hope it will not bore you.
The story involved Woldedawit Temesghen (martyr) and Seyoum Ogbamichael (now ELF-RC Chairman) who left Asmara to join the ELF in mid-March 1965 following a mammoth student demonstration in the city that rocked the entire country. (This writer was the only third person that shared their secret departure and saw them off the Asmara bus station on their intended way to the ELF after a diversionary detour via Gondar where Woldedawits mother lived.) When the two fighters were eventually assigned to travel from Kassala to Asmara in mid-August 1965 in order to mobilize ELF cells by professional category, Siraj Ahmeds shop was destined to be one of their meeting places in the Eritrean capital. A surprise phone call from Asmara to Keren had me traveling to the capital to be received at the bus station by Hailemariam Woldetensae (todays Haile Derue) who takes me to the hideout for the two rebel old friends. Work on establishing cells continued smoothly until 30th August 1965.
We, a group of former schoolmates of Woldedawit and Seyoum, were engaged in arranging meetings for them with representatives of teachers, students, factory workers and people from other professions so that ELF cells could grow within work-related networks. In the morning hours of that fateful 30th August, this writer and Michael Ghaber (martyr) met and discussed with their former middle school teacher, Memhir Seyoum Negassi (martyr), who immediately volunteered to meet with the ELF envoys from Kassala. We took him to the hideout at Kidane Mehret after asking all those who were at Sirajs place to go out until the important person (Memhir Seyoum Negassi) finishes with the ELF envoys. They did leave the place as advised (they here refers to martyr Mussie Tesfamichael, Haile Derue, Isayas Afeworki, Berekhet Aket and others). Michael Ghaber and me also left the place for one hour. When we returned to take out Memhir Seyoum from the place at about mid-day, no one was there! No Siraj, no Memhir Seyoum and no ELF envoys.
What happened was that when Mulugeta Giorghis of ELF office in Kassala arranged the travel and contacts in Asmara for Woldedawit and Seyoum, he did not stay long in the Sudan. After the departure of Woldedawit and Seyoum towards Asmara, Mulugeta immediately deserted to the Ethiopian consulate in Kassala and was flown to Asmara to help in the arrest of Wodedawit and Seyoum. Mulugetas contacts in Asmara knew all the Siraj Ahmeds and their shops in the Eritrean capital and to the dismay of Embaye Melekin, most of them great Jeberti names.
To cut the story short, Memhir Seyoum Negassi (whose fiery nationalist feeling was bequeathed by most of his students) was given light prison term because the ELF envoys said they forced him in from the street to talk with them and that he knew nothing about the ELF. Siraj Ahmed, Woldedawit Temesghen and Seyoum Ogbamichael were each given 10-year imprisonment. Siraj Ahmed was martyred in Barentu on 4 August 1978. Memhir Seyoum was crashed to death by a security vehicle in a pedestrians lane in Asmara in 1977. Woldedawit was assassinated by unknown assailants in Kassala in mid-1980s.)
Thanks Salah for rousing nostalgic recollections in me, and for sure in many readers memories, about the old good days, including my day at Siraj Ahmeds shop 37 years and six weeks ago!
In my youth, I witnessed the Jeberti and the Bedjuk contributing more than their share in the Eritrean nationalist awakening. It was to record this fact that I wrote in October 1992 (in a published booklet): The Jeberti (Kebessan Moslems) played a very significant role in the nationalist movement of that period. How true!
It is sad to see that all those who made Eritrean nationalism happen had at the end of the long journey to be treated with disrespect verging at humiliation in the hands (or is it in the big mouth) of the very man who became the first head of the new Eritrean state. And how sad the same inanity of the sick head of state is parroted by his ilk, among them the bigot extraordinaire, Embaye Melekin, to borrow Saleh Gadis phrase. I knew Embaye Melekin through correspondence while he was in Nigeria. He used to ask for many copies of every issue of The Eritrean Newsletter we published in Beirut between 1976-82, and we used to send him without fail. That newsletter was not only a source of valuable information but also a spring of brotherhood advocating unity and love among all Eritreans. It should be something he read from elsewhere that turned Embaye Melekin to what he is today. (Again sorry for taking your time about Embaye Melekin, and I say this with due respect to my friend, Tekle Melekin.) |
