George Orwell once said: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” In the country of Eritrea, located in the Horn of Africa, free speech efforts for its citizens have fallen extremely short over the last 25 years. The reason for this: President Isaiah Aferwaki. Under his regime, the Eritrean people have been given limited amounts of personal liberties, free speech included. Aferwaki has been working since his inauguration in 1993 to silence the cries of his people in order to hold his position as Eritrean President. After years of his tyranny were kept out of the global spotlight, people around the world began to bring these issues to attention. Although the world is more attentive now to the problem at hand, little action has been taken to improve the well-being of Eritrean citizens. In light of the worlds recent findings, Aferwaki has taken measures to make sure his citizens stop spreading the word of his corruption. In doing this, the President has silenced free speech by allowing government surveillance, eliminating the free press, and forbidding free expression.
Back in 2015, a UN commission report was released regarding Eritrea. Its purpose: to show the world that Eritrea has committed multiple human rights violations behind closed doors. In the report, surveillance was one of the main highlighted findings. Although there are worse things going on in Eritrea, government surveillance is one that affects the day-to-day lives of the citizens more than anything else. The testimonies given to the UN commission about the internal spying was truly bone-chilling. One account stated: “In Eritrea everyone is a spy – local housewives, farmers, etc. So they know when you arrive and when you leave. Your own neighbors report you to the authorities.” (UN, 91). Another witness even went as far as to say “You do not even trust your own brother; he could be even part of the national security.” (UN, 91).
These terrifying statements show strong parallels to Orwells 1984. The stories main character, Winston Smith, spends a good portion of the book trying to hide what he knows from the “thought police” (or in Eritrea’s case, internal spies). Winston struggles to determine who can and cannot be trusted. He realizes the character O’Brian, originally presumed to be on Winstons side, is one of the governments pawns who ultimately leads to Winstons demise. Although this is a work of fiction, the story feels extremely real when compared to what is going on in Eritrea today.
The use of surveillance was implemented by Aferwaki in the late 90s. At the time, the government introduced “National Service”, a mandatory state service for 18 months. It made compulsory military service required by law for all young citizens in order to eliminate the threat in Ethiopia during their two year war. Once the war ended and National Service was expected to be disbanded, Aferwaki instead chose to keep it around. Eritrean citizens, being fed up with the indefinite years of required service, began to desert the country. To combat this, Aferwaki coordinated mass surveillance on citizens involved in National Service. In David Bozzini’s piece regarding this topic; he states that, according to UNHCR stats, 8,893 citizens deserted to neighboring countries in 2004, with the number rising to over 17,000 in 2007. After searching for more current data, the Migration Policy Institute states that the UNHCR found that there are upwards of 411,000 total refugees as of 2015. In a country with a population of just 4.5 million, having almost 10% of all citizens deserting (mainly aged 17-25) is extremely detrimental for the nations future.
The free speech implications regarding national service is the lack of choice permitted to the citizens. An article by The Economist states that “thousands of Eritreans flee their country each year primarily to avoid the draft, which they liken to slavery.”(C.L.). Comparing anything to slavery is problematic in a nation who’s government party is titled “People's Front for Democracy and Justice”. In this circumstance, neither democracy or justice is presented to its citizens, instead only tyranny and control is.
The government regime views this differently. A Reuters article states that “The Asmara government insists conscription is vital for national security saying that it fears attack by its far bigger neighbor Ethiopia” (Blair). War may be imminent in the unstable Horn of Africa, but forced labor is not the solution. Forcing citizens to serve the country for extremely low wages, and having the ones who disagree surveyed upon, is Aferwaki’s way of telling us that he values censorship over liberty. Relating back to Orwell’s quote, the government is not allowing its people tell them what they don’t want to hear. Instead, speaking out results in imprisonment and torture. The government has adopted a “you’re either with us, or against us” approach to their youth which, in turn, leads to no open discussions about improving the government.
A counter-example can be found when referring back to Vietnam. When the draft for Vietnam began, many of the youth sought out to evade the draft and protest the war. Although draft evasion is still a criminal offense in the U.S., the citizens were still allowed to have an open conversation about their resentment towards the war and its draft. This open discussion showed the strength of free speech, and how a united group of citizens can change a country for the better. The free press was mainly what surged the movement at the time, and Eritrea’s lack of one has been a key reason why a social uprising within Eritrea is almost unimaginable.
Back in 2001, Aferwaki showed that he feared free speech by shutting down 8 different independent newspapers, which resulted in a shutdown of the entire free press. The Index of Censorship reported that along with the press shutdown, 9 journalists were arrested a week later. An Eritrean political analyst went as far as to say “it was a simple way to avoid reality” (Jayasekera, 110). Instead of disbanding the press altogether, Aferwaki decided that the focus would be put on a state-run press.
The state-run press, titled the “Ministry of Information”, has gained almost full control of the media since 2001. An exiled journalist named Abraham T. Zere and his colleagues have now dedicated their careers towards informing their readers about corruption within the Ministry. Zere’s most eye-opening article, titled "The life of a state journalist in Eritrea”, breaks down the limitations forced upon him by the government. Zere worked for “Haddass-Ertra”, one of the 4 main newspapers in current day Eritrea. In the article, he says: “My column stealthily sought
to communicate ideas without drawing attention from the bosses.” (Zere, 35). He explains that his method was to take a symbolic approach to stating problems within Eritrea, instead of presenting them directly. The main reason Zere needed to, as he put it, “walk a delicate tightrope” (Zere, 34), was because of former Minister Ali Abdu.
Abdu spent his career as Aferwaki’s most trusted advisor. In his time as Minister, Abdu was responsible for the arrests of many journalists, political figures, and citizens that spoke out against Eritrea. While Aferwaki focused on more large-scale affairs, he gave Abdu full consent to shape the Ministry the way he wanted to. In turn, this is what led the press to become the state-run entity it is today. Abdu held a tight control over what could be shown to the people through print, television, and radio. In Zere’s time in Eritrea, he recalls that even the slightest journalistic slip-up resulted in Abdu taking action to prevent it from happening twice. Zere said one day Haddass-Ertra published a letter attacking his column. He says, “Knowing the system, I realized it was a warning.” (Zere, 35). He follows up by saying he believes the complaint came directly from Abdu himself, and knew that if he didn’t leave, imprisonment was what would have followed.
Many thought that things would change for the better when Abdu fled from the country. The newly appointed Minister Yemane G. Meskel was supposed to, at the very least, improve the Ministry’s image created by his predecessor. The reality of this is that anyone appointed by Aferwaki would continue to make Eritrean media a government controlled entity, instead of presenting real domestic problems to the people. Zere said that in 2016, “journalists and staff members who held key positions in Eritrea’s ministry of information were required to fill
out a detailed personal form, including information on their bank accounts, and where their family lived. The threat to those thinking of leaving the country was clear.” (Zere, 34). Even when he was employed under Abdu, Zere did not have to abide by rules as extensive as these. If he did, there is a strong chance he wouldn’t have been able to flee to the U.S.. Although press freedom in Eritrea is at an all time low, free speech through social media still finds a way to spread throughout the nation.
In another article by Zere, he discusses the use of social media in a country that tries to limit internet usage amongst the citizens. According to Zere, Eritrea only has “an extremely centralized, slow, dial-up internet connection that covers only about 1 percent of the total population.” (Zere, 1). Almost all accessible internet in the country is only available through internet cafes. This limited liberty gave the citizens some sense of free speech and thought. This was combatted by the government in 2016, when a law was passed allowing state security to request cafes to register a user I.D. when using the cafe’s internet. Zere states that because of this freedom also being taken away, the use of social media has emerged in the country out of necessity.
Exiled youth from Eritrea have found a way to fight the patriarchy through social media. Since the government refuses to hear the voices of the afflicted within the country, the Eritrean Youth Solidarity of Change (EYSC) have taken matters into their own hands. In 2011, the group mainly consisting of exiled Eritreans posted their goals on Asamarino Independent. Their 3 declared goals at the time: “immediate resignation of Isaias Afewerki, immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, and the end of the campaign of slavery disguised as national service.” (EYSC). As shown by their goals, the group is fighting solely for the people. They realize that no changes can be made from within the country, so attacking and pressuring them from the outside is their way of being the free speakers for the those within Eritrea who don’t share the same liberties.
Daniel G. Mikael, the groups co-founder, expresses the pros of cyber-activism by saying “Cyber based 'revolution' can only help inspire the change agents to act, dictatorship thrives only when it can control what the people are allowed to know, discuss and share.” (Zere 3-4). The “change agents” he is referring to are the ones within the government who have the power to overthrow the regime. The EYSC knows that Eritrean citizens aren’t the targets of their cyber-activism, but instead can be a secondary audience who will be informed if an uprising ever occurred.
Although the citizens of Eritrea are given limited opportunity to express themselves through social media, there still are some outliers within the community. One way is through a popular page “Sacttism: Classified Documents of Dwindling PFDJ.”. An anonymous source named “Samuel” started this page and has been adding multiple different sources of media that highlight different forms of governmental corruption. Zere says this page is not only beneficial for the world to take notice, but posts to the page are also broadcasted on some Eritrean radio stations. On top of that, Facebook Live has given citizens a chance to have their voices be heard without the need to make a public display. This, among other social media apps, have given the people a way to communicate their distaste for the government without the imminent threat of surveillance.
While Eritrea pushes for free speech and open discussion, the government continues to attempt to silence it with fear that their regime will collapse. In many ways, the Eritrean governments goal is to make their citizens mindless drones who only care about their country. To do this, they have tried to limit free expression in order to hold power.
The term “free expression”, when applied to Eritrea, is much more broad than we think of it. In its most basic sense, freedom of expression is the ability to have individual and unique opinions, interests, and beliefs. For an American, free expression is being able write a bad Yelp review, or talk about why the original Star Wars movies are better than the prequels. For an Eritrean, free expression could be something as simple as saying they are Christian or wearing an expressive t-shirt. Sadly, for Eritreans, the political climate doesn’t allow free expression for any of the mentioned thing. President Aferwaki, being the authoriterian he is, has instead pushed to limit this expression so he can keep his people suppressed and make them stay in line.
As mentioned earlier, one way free expression is limited in Eritrea is through religious beliefs. Although Christianity is the religious belief for more almost half of the nations population, persecution in Eritrea has been rampant for years. Kate Gilmore, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights at the OHCHR, talked about this issue at a recent human rights council meeting. She said that over 100 people were arrested in the past year for not practicing state sanctioned religions.
Referring back to the UN commission report, weekly church gatherings were not the only instances where arrests were made. One account said “Initially, only open meetings like weddings, which involve singing and other demonstrations of faith, were targeted. Many were arrested during such occasions. The guests would be asked about their faith, the non-believers were released.” Accounts like this show that no social gathering is safe in Eritrea. These gatherings are, at most, a minimal threat to the government. Aferwaki insists on making countless arrests purely out of fear, while his citizens are just trying to express themselves and have a sense of individuality. Freedom of religion may be it’s own point of discussion, but the inability to preach your beliefs or at least gather to talk about them still makes it a free speech issue.
Another issue regarding lack of free expression is shown in the harsh treatment of teachers. Jennifer Riggan writes about her first-hand accounts with teachers in Eritrea. Her main topic point is about the relationship between citizen and nation, but her story behind it shows the lack of free expression that teachers are given. Riggan highlights one of the more controversial stories, regarding a teacher named Abraham. Most teachers in Eritrea are transferred to different parts of the country because of ongoing population developments. Abraham was not transferred for this reason though. His teachings were not looked highly upon by the Ministry of Education, so they pulled the strings to get him transferred.
When free expression in the classroom is prohibited and monitored, it becomes extremely detrimental to its citizens. If the government can mandate and control what is taught and shape the mind of the youth the way Aferwaki’s regime wants, then they are just raising a generation of “nationalistic” drones. Once again, it seems as though Eritrean government wants a culture similar to Orwell’s 1984. They are capturing these young raw minds, taking their free thought and expression, and nipping it at the bud. When they become adults, it is more than likely those kids will not even notice the wrong that is going on in their country. Taking away free expression from that early of an age will raise children who don’t even believe they need the right to free speech, and that is truly terrifying.
Most citizens in countries with free speech take for granted the liberties they have on a day-to-day basis. They can go to a therapy and spill out their feelings without being nervous that their therapist is a spy. They can go on to a site like WordPress, make a blog, and talk about how much they think Trump is a clown. Religious people can go to church every Sunday and feel safe. Teachers can go to work and tell all of their students what they really think about the nations current events. All of these things, just taken for granted because they have never seen the other side of it. Eritrean citizens cant trust their neighbor, follow a favorite journalist, or gather in groups without fear of being arrested. All because of President Isaiah Aferwaki. Eritrea is in need of a drastic change, and their citizens need to be given the voices they deserve.