The reason Eritreans stood up for themselves on September 1, 1961 is not because they hated Ethiopians. It is because the Ethiopian ruling regime (the government of Emperor Haile Selasse) took away their right to choose their own official language, the right to govern themselves, the right to freely assemble, the right to write their own constitution and live by it, the right to life and liberty, the right to hire and fire their government. In short, their right to live a dignified life.
After exhausting peaceful means to bring change for ten years (1951-1961), an Eritrean by the name of Hamed Idris Awate fired the first shot at Mt Adal on September 1, 1961. Although there were many important political leaders, all of them in exile, coordinating with Hamed Idris Awate, it is him and his action that we celebrate today for inspiring and emboldening Eritreans that they are capable of challenging an imperial power backed by the United States and, eventually, by the Soviet Union. Generations of Eritreans paid a heavy price to make Eritrea a nation independent of any rule other than by Eritrean because only then would Eritreans have their dignity back.
Still, more than 55 years later, the cause that inspired an Eritrean to fire that first bullet, and tens of thousands to die, get maimed, get exiled–freedom and justice–remain as elusive as they were then. This is because Eritrea’s current government is as bad, in some cases worse, than the Ethiopian governments it overthrew. The evidence is the last image which follows: Eritreans demonstrating in Geneva on August 31, 2018, with young Eritreans waving the old flag that Emperor Haile Selasse lowered in 1962. What follows is a video chronicle of our story. Happy September 1, Eritreans. Or, as we call that date in our two major languages, Arabic and Tigrinya الفاتح من سبتمبر ባሕቲ መስከረም.
