User:Tesfay
From Social Justice Wiki
Natznet Tesfay
I entered the struggle in 1984 to witness the last stretch of the Eritrean revolution. As a child born in exile, I was part of the displaced generation of Eritreans who were unwillingly estranged from there home. Born and raised in Cambridge, MA, my distance from Eritrea only strengthened my conviction in realizing our desire for emancipation. The Horn of Africa has been burdened with protracted wars, famine, drought, and general lawlessness; the people suffer while a select few prosper. Eritrea was no exception. For most of the world, Eritrea did not exist before 1993. Turning a deaf ear to the Eritrean liberation struggle, I realized early in life as with many other problems plaguing the African continent, we were forsaken to suffer in silence. But that did not stop us.
So, we protested, up and down the Eastern seaboard, no state capital was spared. We marched on Mass Ave in Boston, the UN headquarters in NYC, and the US Capitol Hill in DC many a times. We vowed never to allow our motherland’s suffering to dwell in silence. The world would know our cause and be forced to reckon with it. Everyone has an inalienable right to freedom; Ethiopia’s colonial oppression in Eritrea would not be an exception. We chanted with our right fist raised to the sky, Never Kneel Down!, AWETNEHAFASH! the most popular slogan for encouragement which can be loosely translated as victory to the people! For thirty years, we protested, mobilized, and prayed in anticipation for the great day, for our greatest wish, Eritrean Independence. To remind me of this fate, my parents adorned me with the title fittingly expressing there wishes for me, my generation, and Eritrea, Natznet, FREEDOM.
Now a senior at Harvard, I have redirected my efforts to aiding Eritrean development. After graduation, I plan to attend graduate school to prepare for a career in the Eritrean public sector, participate actively in policymaking to help stimulate Eritrea’s development and empower the people’s will to succeed and realize their goal of self-reliance.