There is a traditional Tigrina blues song, repackaged in the 1970s, which narrates the story of Neguse, wedi degiat Geretsadek, from Areza, from the 1800s. It has many memorable lines, such as: “እቶም ዘለው ዘይሞቱ ይመስሉ: እቶም ዝሞቱ ዘይነበሩ ይመስሉ (Those who are alive act as if they will never die, and those who died as if they never lived.) But it need not be so, and it cannot be so, for an extraordinary human, a great man—a Great Human ( “ዓቢ ሰብ” in Tigrinya)—like Tesfaldet Alem Meharenna. They do not allow you to forget. It is his character, his ideology, his milieu, his legacy. Let us begin with his character.
1. Character: If you asked 100 people who knew Tes on a personal and professional basis, to describe him, they would use the same words to describe him:
a. Generous: ለጋስ – Tes is generous with his money. More than that, Tes is generous with his time. How many people has Tes mentored? Trained? Encouraged? Coached? Dozens? Hundreds? Across how many continents? In person? By phone or video?
b. Humble: ትሑት – Search “Tes Meharenna” on google image. After 37 years of online presence, there are hardly any images of him. He was the man behind the camera. He was the the man who gave voice to those behind the microphone. He was all about building a stage, not standing on it.
c. Compassionate: ርህሩህ – He cared, and he acted on his care. He felt the pain of Eritrean prisoners, Eritrean exiles, Eritrean conscripts. Not Eritrea in the abstract of past, present future: but present Eritrea, present Eritrean people. He felt the pain of everyone who was forced to give up his dreams. Probably because he was a powerful dreamer.
d. Creative: መሃዚ – Before there was Facebook, there was Asmarino chat room. Before the many Tigrinya apps, there was Geezsoft. Streaming audio. Poems. Satellite radio. Articles. Animation. Video production. Music production.
e. Collaborative: ምትሕብባር – The man was a natural leader and team-builder. He could shepherd cats. There are 30 articles in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. How many Eritreans did it take to read each one? How many to translate it from English to Tigrinya? Who put them all together? Who produced it into a Youtube video? With any project, large or small, Tes was always eager to participate in anything that requires collaboration and was good for Eritrea.
f. Diligent: ጻዕራም – You are not going to out-practice, out-work Tesfaldet Meharenna. Like Kobe, he knew he was good, and like Kobe, he practiced every day to be great. (Of course, this would mean nothing to Tes because he was not a sports fan.)
g. Beautifully Imperfect – ዘይፍጹም: Of course, nobody is perfect. One just hopes one’s imperfections are virtuous, well-intended, or harmless. Tes was “let’s talk about it” on all things; therefore, he was an absolutist on one thing: freedom of speech. You call him to complain that Asmarino’s discussion forum had become toxic, and he gets frustrated at you. He tells you more about the marketplace of ideas and you tell him you were not listening you are busy designing his new logo for his new website Hageresebino. Because, clearly, no Asmarino would write most of the trash in the forum, you tease him. When he gets frustrated, words fail him. “The fight is not for freedom of some speech, but freedom of speech, you closet-libertarian!”
h. Temperament: ኣመል – Those of you who know him will testify: the man was even-tempered. Regardless of the pressure he was in, he never screamed, and yelled and pounded the podium although God knows he had reasons for it. He is generous, humble, compassionate, collaborative, hardworking man. He should have been upset by the miserly, the braggarts, the self-absorbed and the lazy among us. But he was not: like a teacher, he felt every moment was a teaching moment, to collectively get better.
2. Philosophy: A Return to Normal
What was Tes’s ideology. Some would say humanitarianism. ሰብኣዊነት in Tigrinya. But it was higher than that: it was: ዓቢ ሰብ ኢዝም:: Be a Great Human instead.
You can easily find Tes’s belief in action in two sources: an Abraham Afwerki song that was the soundtrack to many of Asmarino’s video. We cannot be good at everything; but each one of us is good at something: let us pool our resources. COLLABORATION, COMPLEMENTARITY. “ምንባር ተፈቲንካ ምምሃር. ምንባር ሓያል ሙኳን ጸዋር: . 7 ግዜ ወዲቅካስ 8 ግዜ ምትሳእ.” Fall 7 times, rise 8 times. PERSERVERANCE.
The man created a logo and a tagline every week for his many platforms. The more common was the one who told us what the fight for Eritrea is all about. It was in all his videos: ክፍደ እዩ እቲ ሕነ:: እቲ ሕኒ? ሰላም እዩ:: ፍትሒ እዩ:: ራዕዲ ዘይብሉ ህይወት እዩ:: We will avenge ourselves by having peace, and justice, and life free of terror: a simple life where students go to school, the faithful pray, the farmers farm, and the traders trade. A Return to Normal.
This may seem abnormal now, but for a certain generation of Eritreans (more about that generation later), they only knew they were opposition when they were told they were. From their perspective: there was a brand-new nation, dreamed of for 50 years, many of it in their lifetime, and it was a dream realized. It was time to jump in and heal it. To put this in context for a younger listener: take the happiest day of your life–the day you got accepted to a university, got a visa, got married, held your newborn in your laps—now imagine all of them being experienced simultaneously by an entire community in one day. That was May 24, 1991.
The difference between the supporters and critics of the government can be summed up in two lines. A supporter will concede a smaller point briefly (yes nobody is happy about conscription, disappearance, or exodus) then focus all attention on all the government’s great achievements despite US-led enmity. A critic will concede a smaller point briefly (yes, it is great that malaria and illiteracy are gone) then focus all attention on all the terrible things the government did and does.
Ok, listen up you American-born Eritreans. All the American definitions of a generation—The Baby Boomers, Millennials, Gen-X — are based on the shared experiences of Americans. World War II, Vietnam War, moon landing, the hippie movement, the assassination of Kennedies, MLK, Malcolm X. Eritreans have their own definitions of generations. They are pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial, Ethiopian rule, PFDJ rule: all defined by the shared experiences of the people which, in Eritrea, means who was in charge of ruining the lives of Eritreans.
What is “ንቡር ይመለስ ቴስ (Return to Normalcy)” you ask. An elderly Eritrean lady is talking about her childhood in the 1940s and she casually mentions a curfew. There was a curfew then, you ask. Yes, of course, the Brits were coming to liberate us from the fascists, she says. Let me guess, you interrupt: there was also gffa (military round-ups), you ask. Of course! To faraway lands where our president is kindly asking the government of Italy to account for them.
Tes, what if that–war, round-up, curfews– is the norm, the “nbur” and what you experienced in Eritrea growing up was the anomaly, you ask. Impossible he says.
Back to the relationship between generations and philosophy. Tesfaldet belonged to an Eritrean generation whose goal was to shake the system, not burn down the house. Why? Here is why: just days after Tesfaldet Meharenna moved on to the next phase of his life, Eritrea announced that Ahmed Taher Baduri had passed away. He was 70 years old, only 3 years older than Tes. Baduri spent all his adult life fighting for Eritrean independence and then serving in whatever task he was given, including the task of staying home and doing nothing for a decade. You do not know him well, but your family does because Eritrea is just one degree of separation. Right now, as we gather here, Baduri’s family is also having their fond remembrances of their loved one: remembering happier times, pushing down memories of the psychological prison he was sentenced to for over a decade, by his own comrade.
If one of Tes’s many mentees, Eri-Sat chairperson Saba, is listening to this: If Tesfaldet was running EriSat, a channel he saw as one of his legacies, he would host an article paying tribute to Baduri, and an article criticizing Baduri, and an article criticizing the critic of Baduri. As stated, he was a freedom-of-speech absolutist.
3. The Milieu. In one of his books, Outlier, Malcolm Gladwell postulates that the age you are born in affects your impact on an industry. The founders/CEOs of Microsoft, Apple, Sun Micro, PayPal were all born just a few years apart. You can also see this in Eritrea: the impact of student unions, their leaders and members, the cadre schools in China… on Eritrean and Ethiopian politics for generations. They were all from one cohort.
Tesfaldet was part of a wave of Eritreans who migrated to the US in the late 1970s and early 1980s, who gravitated towards cutting edge technology and never let go. Most of his peers directed their talent towards bettering their lives and those of their loved ones, and good for them: eventually, Eritrea will benefit from their talents. Tes did all that (Alemsoft Consulting), and more.
Whenever he thought of a product to invent, he never asked “what’s the size of the market” but “is it good for Eritrea?” Chats before Facebook; apps before apps, streaming audio before YouTube, short-wave radio beaming to Eritrea. A social network for Eritreans. The man dreamed big, and it must have had something to do with his childhood in Asmara. After all, he did name his website Asmarino.
His father, the famed Alem Meharenna, is recalled fondly for giving children of all ages what they crave most: animal-shaped cookies. It is one of the two reasons that for Eritrean Muslims of Tesfaldet’s generation in Asmara, Mewlid Al-Nebi, the celebration of the Birthday of the Prophet, was their favorite holiday. Unlimited cookies. And you get to stay up as late as you want listening to hymns of praise to the prophet. “Meharenna” put a smile in everybody’s face.
Besides a celebrated father, who cast a long shadow, there is also the city. He is a product of the city, but also of his neighborhood in Asmara which, of course—not to pick a fight with anyone—was also the best in Asmara. He attended, again, not to pick a fight with anyone, the best school in Asmara. So, he is in his teens, in high school, in the waning years of Emperor Haile Selassie. He is not old enough to go to Ma.T.A. and listen to live music, but his turn is coming. Besides, he is old enough to explore the entire city, end to end, and to see a movie, watch a football game. It was the year Team Eritrea won the Ethiopian competition. It was the season that Ethiopia (made up of many Eritrean players) won the African Cup. He could buy tape cassettes, record over them with his jam, unscrew them, unwind them, and mend them with scotch tape: he is practically a music producer.
He hears of Fedayeen, and how they sneaked in, in the still of the night and took “revolutionary steps” against some counter revolutionaries. Some of the Fedayeen and their hosts are arrested: they are taken to court, they have a lawyer, and when the government does not have sufficient evidence, the judge sets them free. Justice. But the same system with due process also practices inhumane collective punishment, too. Injustice.
Over summer, he is suddenly tall (Habesha tall) and very much looks like a potential wenbedie, a rebel, especially to a new military government which had just memorized the books on Red Terror and publicly announced it as its policy. He has seen people he knows, people slightly older than him, killed by a firing squad, in his beloved city. His house has been searched and he has, every night, plotted escape routes for when they come unannounced. He is on the verge of earning the honorific “Asmarino,” maybe, with luck “Fino Asmarino,” but his city has become a trap. It is only fight or flight.
He took the scenic route, the indirect route to his eventual home, Southern California. It is the country of his beloved children, but he is also the son of his parents, and he loves their country.
The connection was never about Eritrean politics, but Eritrean art. You will not find a TV interview of Tes: he would rather create the platform and host it. He will stream you a video of a car just driving around his city, Asmara, over which he would embed traditional music. You can treadmill to it. Asmarino hosted the poetry of Yosief Ghebrehiwet and Feven Afwerki, “in life’s beauty and struggles.” It is all poetry of exiled Eritreans, all living within mere miles of one another in So Cal. Then the entry to the masses, each given praise and encouragement to display their talent.
You know his soft point, so you push. You write an album review of Abraham Afwerki’s songs where you call his song “Shikor” a “delicious, but Amharic-derivative song” and he calls to register his objection. He loved music almost as much as he loved collaboration which is why he was obsessed with “Bahgi Aleni” by Abrar and Fitsum. It was collaborative poetry. He ended up producing the video for Abrar’s next hit: Zegerem.
There was only one time when Tes would come out from his comfort zone (behind the curtain) to the front of the microphone and that is when he is reading a heart-wrenching poem with his intense voice breaking at all the right decibels. You call him and say, “you know, you and Saleh Gadi Johar (awate.com), are burning the candle at both ends? Is there a weight limit on those shoulders?”
He says, smiling, “what can we do, our younger brothers won’t light one even on one end.”
You quoke MLK: ”Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.” He adds “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Then he asks how long you think it would take to translate MLK’s speeches to Tigrinya. He definitely has ideas who should voice it. Later, you hear he was on some collaboration to create a Tigrinya audio book of the Holy Bible.
4. Legacy
A life well-lived is its own legacy. A life lived with purpose, with good intentions, good deeds? A life which includes mentoring, hosting, helping, training, coaching others, young and younger, male, and female, for decades? Just look at who is here now, at the farewell and the homage. Such a life? Yeah, it will have a legacy, of people striving to be Abi Seb: a Great Human. To become mentors, teachers, and helpers: more generous with their time.
Rest assured: he knew he was appreciated. How could he not: there was always a flurry of people asking for help, for advice. Those who lived in Egypt are familiar with this: they used to visit Abona Woldeab Woldemariam to pay their respects. But some were too intimidated by his “historicalness” to approach him. Similarly, Tes knew he was loved and appreciated but not always approached.
There has been a post pinned on a social media page. It reads: “I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you. Then even death, where you are going no matter how you live, cannot you part.” It was posted when it was clear Tes was done with this phase of his life, and ready to start his next.
The story behind this quotation is worth sharing. The author, Annie Dillard, a naturalist, is fascinated by weasels. She writes “once, a man shot an eagle out of the sky. He examined the eagle and found the dry skull of a weasel fixed by the jaws to his throat. The supposition is that the eagle had pounced on the weasel and the weasel swiveled and bit as instinct taught him, tooth to neck, and nearly won.’
The message is: perseverance. Is there any word used more often with Eritreans? The biggest mistake the PFDJ makes is in assuming perseverance was manufactured in Sahel. It was not. It is the core of a people who take pride in the expression that once they bite, they do not let go.
The message is also: seriousness. Nobody loved to laugh more than Tes: and because you felt he had had such a burden, you try to relieve it: you send him audio recordings of impressions, imaginary Tigrinya audio books, and “what ifs”: what if Yemane Barya and Korchach had a duet? He loves it: he says send me more. Still he was a serious man: the sort of seriousness that can come from spiritualism. In the Holy Book, the Quran, there is a verse which says: “Think thou we have created you in jest? Have you forgotten you shall return to us [to account for your deeds]?” (23:115.) Tes definitely lived his life like a man who knew life was serious and that he had to account for his deeds.
History strides in decades, and therefore, to change things, it takes decades that cannot be rushed by youthful exuberance. This, every revolutionary must know. The Eritrean fighters for independence certainly knew that; so must the Eritrean fighters for justice. And now, you cannot say you do not have a role model.
Gebey XaEda, friend!
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