Eskinder is now in the infamous Maekelawi prison but he lives within all of us. He had baptized us all to become his followers with the incessant truth that was oozing consistently out of his pen. Eskinder is now a free man who lives in prison. Physically detached from us all but he resides with us and within all of us through his words that could never be silenced. Rest assured, his powerful words not only resonate in those who seek justice but also in the fragile mind of his powerless jailer, tormenting him everyday and rendering him sleepless. Actually the tyrant has it backwards, as Meles put him in jail he set him free; and imprisoned himself, instead! He is in jail freely but his jailer is a perpetual-captive who has long been deprived of the freedom to do the very simple things that define life.
The spirit of Eskinder resides in me, fiercely urging me to tell his story….so I have become him and will leave you with him…..
Yes! I am Eskinder Nega –unstoppable until my people are free from tyranny –including the tyrant himself.
I am the prodigal son of Bealu Girma who gave his precious life defending the truth. I am a nightmare for Woyanes, as Bealu was once for Derg. Bealu has never left us, even long after he is gone. Neither will I, long after Meles is gone. You can never silence the truth with the power of a gun, was a lesson lost that Meles should have taken from his evil- incarnate predecessor, no matter how strong your army is!
I am Eskinder Nega. I am accused of being a terrorist but all evidence to the contrary! I have never advocated violence in any form or shape. My jailors, on the other hand, are internationally recognized terrorists, born of terror, nurtured by it, and continue to live terrorizing 80 million people. I don’t fit to a conventionally defined term of a terrorist by any standard, except as defined by Zenawi. I never adhered to or supported an act of terror all my life. Nevertheless, I am labeled as a terrorist in the absence of neither an act of terror nor any provable intention of committing it.
I am Eskinder Nega the “terrorist,” but only of a different sort; one that only terrorizes tyrants selectively without firing a single bullet. My pen is stronger than any powerful weapon my jailers posses; one that inflicts no collateral damage, nor take away a single life. My pen, with the words that fluidly flow out of it, is my sole weapon that has been terrorizing a tyrant for so long. I am a “terrorist” but only a selective sort. I have been a one-man organization, single handedly terrorizing Meles from my PC. I am a bold yet bloodless “terrorist” who works with incredible precision and laser-focused target on combating state terrorism. My PC was my bomb, and my words were my detonators that can only scare dictators. The only causality I take with my peaceful actions is the captive mind of a spineless dictator who thinks he can forever silence political dissent by banishing and imprisoning opponents who have a word or two to say about his tyrannical system.
I am Eskinder Nega who clearly saw my beloved Ethiopia hanging at the edge of a cliff waiting to plunge into the abyss any time soon. I was racing against time and will leave no stone unturned to stop it before it becomes too late. I believe, if not me who else can? If not now, when? I have pleasantly given my hands to a shackle in order to free my people from the yoke of tyranny. My voice will not quiver until my people are free to exercise their God given right of choosing their leaders who will govern them by consent; not by force. I am happy to die breaking the culture of indifference and silence that has engulfed my people for so long in the face of injustice. I, defiantly, stand still for “ideas whose time has come,” where no degree of cruelty tends to stop them, that is, if a tyrant can draw a lesson from the history of an extremely near distant past.
I am also the unwavering voice of Wubshet, Reiot, Andualem, Oulbana, Bekele and countless others who are nameless victims of tyranny, languishing in Zenawi’s dungeon. I am the voice of my voiceless people. I am everywhere and nowhere at the same time, discomforting a tyrant and his cronies. I am vigorous in dislodging a tyrant from his comfort zone of two decades. I am the voice of all the victims of the 2005 election. I am the voice of Nebyu, a 14 year old boy and an only child who was brutally murdered by the Agazi forces seven years ago. I am the voice of his mom and all the mothers who lost their precious children in June and November massacres of 2005. I am the voice of the Agnuwaks, the Ogadens, and all other victims of genocide perpetrated by Meles. I will never let you forget what you did to Assefa Maru and his family. I am the voice of all those nameless people whose land have been confiscated and sold to foreigners to only make them landless in their own country. I am the voice against voluntary colonialism which was laid on our proud country. I am the voice against injustice and racism that has been the hallmark of this ethnocentric régime.
Yes! I am the voice of all that and more….
I am Eskinder Nega the voice of freedom. Prison has been my other home for the past 20 or so years; as Meles has been a palace prisoner himself, for as long. I have been in and out of Zenawi’s dungeon eight times. My only son was born free in prison while both his parents were unjustly imprisoned. I have been free through all this and I will remain free; and die free, too. No one can take away my freedom. I refuse to be unfree! I have been preaching freedom, and will carry on whenever I can and wherever I might be! I am burning like a candle so that my people can have light abound. I am destined to be an eternal flame that burns as long as tyranny prevails.
I am the voice of democracy. I am a specter who lives in millions of Ethiopians through my words. Words that are strong enough to terrorize a whole régime armed to the brim. How can you stop me? I am willing to go the whole distance as long as you are in power. My words reverberate from one end of the country to the other. I am invincible! You haven’t silenced me from speaking the truth for the past twenty years and I can assure you: you will never succeed in the future!
Only freedom –true freedom- can sniff the life out of my ink and paper. I am a martyr who sings freedom to write, freedom to gather, freedom to hold a government accountable, freedom to elect and be elected,…. freedom abound and freedom now!
