"Vile Slander, I Wish" was written by Ayanna Yonemura, Ph.D. and posted on LinkedIn in2015.

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Vile Slander, I Wish
Jun 10, 2015 77 5 2
“Vile slander[s]” and “cynical political travesty” is how one government characterized
a UN report yesterday. Monday, the UN rightly pointed the finger at how the Eritrean
government's human rights abuses push people to migrate yet the government also
punishes people who try to leave without permission. The Eritrean government
retaliated with unfounded accusations of slander. Eritreans make up a
disproportionate amount of the African migrants recently rescued in European
waters as well as many of those settled in nation’s such as Kenya, Saudi Arabia and
the Sudan.
Eritreans are trying to unite with family members who settled abroad during their
country’s two wars with Ethiopia and fleeing the current government’s “totalitarian
state”—as the UN report terms it. The Eritrean government has long been
totalitarian. I experienced its centralized, dictatorial oppression during my 6 months
there in 2002.
Vile Slander, I Wish
Ayanna Yonemura, Ph.D.
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Ayanna Yonemura, Ph.D.
Communications & Education Specialist
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2. “Teaching and living totalitarianism” is how I have long termed my time Eritrea. As
an American who had studied Germany, the history of East Germany and its secret
security apparatus were the only exposure I had had to totalitarianism before
moving to Eritrea as Fulbright Scholar in January 2002. I had postponed my trip to
Eritrea for several months, as while most of us focused on New York, September 11,
2001, and its aftermath, President Afewerki had seized the opportunity to crackdown
internally. As that fall, Eritrean university students were under forced labor in,
literally, one of the hottest places on earth, there had been no need for me to rush to
the Horn of Africa for my teaching post.
Once I reported to the University of Asmara, I was given the assignment of teaching
former guerrilla fighters who were, then, government employees at the Ministries of
Defense and Foreign Affairs. I knew that my students could quickly report every
word I said during lectures or in the university hallways to the authorities. Since I
was teaching Modern World History and told to follow my predecessor’s syllabus,
we spent weeks on the German and Italian totalitarian governments of the 1930’s. In
discussing the omnipresent dictatorial characteristics of past European regimes, I
couldn’t help but think of my everyday life in 2002 Eritrea. I know my students also
made the connections but, of course, we never discussed the similarities.
The government banned Ethiopian music, listened to our phone calls, sent under
cover spies to chat us up at cafes and assess us for transgressive behavior or
thoughts. Even in our homes and cars, we whispered any unflattering comments we
were brave enough to make about the President. My research agenda suffered. The
paranoia of librarians kept me out of the main library for most of my stay and, trained
to take copious ethnographic notes about everything, I wrote down almost nothing
aware that government agents had previously confiscated the notes of another
foreign researcher. Even more frightening for me was the knowledge that my notes,
in the wrong hands, could lead to the imprisonment or death of Eritrean friends or
colleagues.
Fear for those friends and colleagues has prevented me for publishing anything
about Eritrea for 13 years, but now, it seems that almost every Eritrean I know has
escaped. My graduate school buddies successfully sought political asylum long ago
and recently, living in Kenya, I met young, affluent Eritreans whose parents’ money
had afforded them the ability to escape on land and bribe their way into Kenya. Still
during their flights, they were beaten up and, in Kenya, they run businesses but
have no legal rights to own businesses as a they don’t have legal papers to live or
work there.
It is up to African governments to lead the way toward jobs and economic growth
and provide safe nations’ with human rights. As the UN report argues, all countries,
whether they be European, North American, African or Middle Eastern, must provide
“protection for Eritrean refugees fleeing human rights violations.” In addition to a lack
of ethics, those that don’t also suffer from lost economic opportunities.
African Development, Entrepreneurship, Refugee Law

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Written by
Ayanna Yonemura, Ph.D.
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Ayanna Yonemura, Ph.D.Ayanna Yonemura, Ph.D. AUTHOR YOUYOU
Communications & Education SpecialistCommunications & Education Specialist
Thank you,Thank you, Brendon J CannonBrendon J Cannon!!
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