Eritrean Festivals: The Bane of the Enemies of Eritrea.

In Eritrean communities across the globe 2022 will be remembered for the huge and successful Eritrean festivals that have been held across Europe, America and other parts of the World and the unprecedented massive exodus of Eritreans to Eritrea for their summer holidays. Naturally, both events have caused unease and consternation in the anti- Eritrea camp.

The Eritrean festivals that have been held were immensely successful and stand as testament to the unwavering unity of Eritreans. The festivals have attracted tens of thousands of Eritreans with the Stockholm Festival, the largest festival, attended by over thirteen thousand people.

These festivals have a long history dating back to the days of the Eritrean Struggle for Independence and ever since then have served to bring together Eritreans from across the different regions and as a link for Eritreans residing abroad with their homeland. The festivals also serve to introduce the culture of Eritrea to those Eritreans born outside of Eritrea and to friends of Eritrea.

In true Eritrean tradition these festivals have a family atmosphere where everyone feels part of one large extended family. Violence at these festivals is unheard of and everyone who attends has a memorably enjoyable time.

By its very nature Eritrean society is a gregarious society and although these festivals are held only once a year in the month of July, they go a long way to meet the intrinsic need of Eritreans to be together in times of happiness and sorrow.

All planned Eritrean Festivals, without exception, have gone ahead as intended and have been a resounding success, much to the chagrin of those standing against Eritrea. There is no doubt that these Eritrean festivals have had a positive impact on the Eritrean communities across the globe and have served to galvanise Eritreans to increase their contributions towards developing their homeland.

The huge attendance figures of the Eritrean Festivals held in 2022, the first since the November 2020 rocket attack on Eritrea by the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) and its military adventurism, is confirmation that Eritreans stand firmly behind their Government and Country. It is also an indication of the Eritrea led positive changes that are being witnessed in the Horn of Africa today and a sense of renewed hope that has gripped the region as a consequence of both the political and military victory of Eritrea over the TPLF and its subsequent demise.

Eritrean’s have come together not only to celebrate their culture and history, but to acknowledge the fact that the dream to subjugate Eritrea by its prime enemy, the TPLF, lies in tatters as does the fate of the malignant group.

Any observer of the Horn of Africa of today cannot deny that Eritrea is an oasis of stability and tranquillity in the much-troubled region. Eritrea has proven to the world that it is the lynch pin that holds the region of the HoA together. It is worth remembering that Eritrea did not shirk from its responsibility of safeguarding the HoA and not only did it manage to thwart the ambitions of the TPLF to plunge the region into chaos, but it dealt the TPLF a near fatal blow — saving not only Eritrea, but Ethiopia and the rest of the countries in the region from imminent destruction and turmoil.

Despite Eritrea’s positive role in the HoA in bringing about peace and stability, the TPLF and its handlers have expended a great deal of effort, and money to destroy Eritrea and derail it from its chosen path by spreading false propaganda through their western lackeys embedded in western academic institutions and western so called Human Rights organisations.

One such example is the attempt by the anti-Eritrean camp based in Holland whose strings are pulled by a certain Mirjam Reisen who masquerades as an academician at the University of Tilburg, but in reality, is just another political activist on the payroll of the TPLF whose life ambition is to visit unimaginable horror upon Eritrea, Eritreans and the HoA as whole.

The TPLF unable to show anything for the effort and money it has spent in trying to stop the unstoppable juggernaut of Eritrean Nationalism, had resorted to what it knows best: threatening Eritreans with violence. The TPLF using the puppet groups — it controls by the money it looted from Ethiopia — who unashamedly claim to stand for the rights of Eritreans, had on social media openly called for the violent killing — with axes, knives, and other similar weapons — of any Eritrean who chose to go to the Eritrean cultural concert.

What is most amusing in all this is that while no action was taken against those who were advocating for violence, an Eritrean cultural event which had been planned to be held in Holland was prevented from going ahead under the false pretext of the event having the potential to lead to violence. It is astounding and hard to believe that in a European country, which has preached the virtues of Human Rights ad nauseum, a peaceful cultural concert was prevented from going ahead by the Dutch authorities to appease those who openly called for violence against peaceful concert goers. It is hard to imagine in a country like Holland with ample resources, local authorities would have to cancel a concert because they cannot adequately police the event. This becomes even more incredulous when one takes into account that Eritrean Cultural concerts do not have a history of violence associated with them and quite to the contrary, they are in fact known for being peaceful and entertaining.

The effort that these groups have gone to have the cultural event cancelled and the methods that they have used, make a mockery of the claim of Westerns, in particular the Dutch, to be advocates of Human Rights and the rule of law. In a similar event in 2017, the Dutch authorities had dispersed a conference by young Eritreans citing security concerns. The Dutch authorities showed no concern for the welfare of the young Eritreans, most if not all were European citizens, when in the middle of the night they not only forced them to leave the hotel they were staying at, but Holland itself — including Dutch citizens. In effect the Dutch authorities were willing to deport their own citizens — albeit non-white citizens of Eritrean origin — in the dead of the night without providing them with alternative accommodation in order to pursue their anti-Eritrea campaign. It would be unimaginable for such a barbarous act to have been given the go ahead by the Dutch authorities had the young people been white. Although a Dutch court had later ruled that the actions of Dutch authorities were illegal and breached the Human Rights of the participants, the ruling can do little to erase the trauma that these young people of Eritrean origin had experienced that night.

The key architect behind both decisions of the Dutch authorities was Mirjam Resin — an unscrupulous mercenary of the TPLF with a pathological aversion to the truth.

Mirjam Resin is the author of several baseless reports about Eritrea which were intended to help her paymasters, and which say more about her lack of academic integrity than anything else. The Dutch incident exposes the inherent racism of those westerners who claim to advocate for Human Rights in Africa and in particular Eritrea. It is hard to believe that people who rely on making false accusations in court, wilfully mispresent the truth about Eritrea and resort to intimidation whenever someone disagrees with them, can be expected to bring positive change for Eritrea and Eritreans.

It is worth noting that even from the very outset, when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the authors — mostly westerners — did not consider Africans and other third world nations who were suffering under the yoke of colonialism to be worthy of the rights enshrined in the declaration. If the delegates who signed the Declaration of Human Rights had truly believed that all men were born equal, the Americans would have given African Americans the right to vote and full citizenship, while the Europeans would have lifted the burden of colonialism from their fellow men.

Those who are aware of history will note that it was after the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and 1952 that the French government had committed unspeakable atrocities in Algeria and the rest of its colonies, while the British had committed widespread human rights abuses in Kenya under the pretext of fighting the Mau Mau and other African liberation movements — while all the time their delegates at the UN claimed that all men were equal.

The actions of the Dutch authorities have shown that little has changed over the past eighty years as those of African origin are still not considered to be as equal as their European counter part.

Despite the obstacles that are being placed by those who are increasingly becoming desperate by the hour as their dream of unravelling the unity and harmony of Eritrean vaporises, Eritreans across the globe will continue to work towards maintaining the sovereignty of Eritrea and help in making Eritrea prosperous.