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Dispatches from Eritrea # 3: A Tribute to 
Wel-Wel (Wolde'ab Woldemariam) 
 
[ Dispatches ]  
 
Posted by English (64.12.107.21) on April 05, 2002 at 17:09:39:  
DISPATCHES FROM ERITREA 
 A Weekly Column by Elias Amare Gebrezgheir 
No. 3, December 17, 2001  
Hanti (One) Eritra & Dehai (Voice of) Eritra  
A Tribute to Wel-Wel (Wolde'ab Woldemariam), 
The Greatest Newspaperman Eritrea Ever Produced 
Part II  
    
“ksaE lomi: nzKone yKun nay baEdawi 
slTan Elama agelgilen tela’iKen ayfelTn:: 
nbarnet zebele Kulu Sela’i'u iye: zKone 
yKun Hbrun melkUn:: zKone yKun seb: 
iewroPawi yKun weys afriqawi: ab zKone 
yKun Aynet arUt barnet nmQuran 
kigddeni ayK’eln:: zeymeslekan 
zeytesemAkan gber ilu nmQtaley dfret 
‘ente aHdere ke’a: ane’wn sle poletikawi 
‘emneteyn sle Harnet hagereyn sle 
uneteNa TQmi aHwateyn nmumat tbAt 
aHdire aleKu::”   
“Up to now, I have never served nor 
become a messenger for any foreign 
power or interest. I am an enemy to 
any kind of slavery, in all its shapes 
and colors. No man, be he European or 
African, can force me into the yoke of 
any kind of bondage. If there be some 
one who dares to attempt my 
assassination in order to force me to submit to doing things contrary to my 
feeling and will, then I also have in me the courage to die for my political 

beliefs, for the cause of liberty of my country, and for the genuine interest of my 
brothers and sisters."   
-- Wolde’ab Woldemariam in Hanti Eritra, Issue # 88, August 22, 1951  
The words above are not empty rhetorical boasting of a politician; they reflect the words of truth
written by Eritrea’s foremost nationalist newspaperman, Memhir1 ( educator) Wolde’ab 
Woldemariam, a week after the 6 th attempt on his life by Ethiopia’s Unionist agents of terror. Such
was the unshakable belief of the man in his cause of freedom, and his unwavering hatred of all kinds
of oppression that no amount of threats on his life could intimidate him into silence. It also reveals his 
independence of mind, his love of freedom, and his hatred of being subservient to any foreign power,
be it (white) European or (black) African.  
 It is because of such a strong foundational nationalist vision of  “ iertra n’iertrawyan” (Eritrea fo r 
Eritreans) of men like Memhir Wolde’ab Woldemariam, Shiekh Abdel Kadir Kebire, Ra’esi
Tesema Asberom, Sheikh Ibrahim Sultan, De giat Hasen Ali, Azmach Berhe Gebrekidan, Ha j
Imam Musa, Degiat Sebhatu Yohannes, Degiat Woldegiorgis Kahsay  and his son Grazmach 
AsberomWoldegiorgis, Qenazmach Berhanu Ahmedin, Blatta Kahsay Malu , etc., and the 
sacrifices they were willing to pay for their belie fs that we are today enjoying a united, independen t
and sovereign Eritrea. There were also other principled men like Fitawrari Gebremeskel Woldu
(who stood up for Eritrea’s fate to be decided democratically by “fruyat” notables and “deqeQti”
masses) and Blatta Omar Mohammed Qadi,  who became a staunch defender of Eritrea’s federal 
arrangement and its Constitution in the 1950s. I must point out here that my father emailed me a note
from the US last week to remind me that I should have mentioned Blatta Omar Qadi and his short-
lived newspaper Unione e Progresso, and by way of apologizing for being remiss in mentioning many 
such honorable men, I would refer readers to Alemseged’s invaluable AYNFELALE, which provides 
the complete list of the pioneering patriots and all the political 
actors of that period. 
As I said earlier in the first part of this essay, Memhir 
Wolde’ab shone above these other patriots in that he had that 
unique ability to articulate in powerful words the visions that 
he shared with his nationalist colleagues. He also understood 
early on the power of the written word and worked diligently 
to develop Tigrinya as a modern literary language for the 
awakening young Eritrean nation.  As he was appointed to the 
editorship of  Semunawi Gazetta , the weekly organ of the 
British Military Administration of Eritrea, he quickly realized 
the power of the medium in disseminating the nationalist 
vision and started to use it te ntatively towards such a goal. 
Semunawi Gzetta  provided him with a good opportunity to 
hone his journalistic craft and to guide the debate that was 
then raging between the nationalists and the unionists. 
mruSat AnqeSat ato welde’ab: 1941-1991 , edited and 
complied by Ato Tekuabo Ares’e (Hidri Publishers, Asmara, 
1995)  provides a good sampling of Ato Wolde’ab’s 
preoccupation with the concept of the nation during this early 
period. In his articles in Semunawi Gazetta , Memhir 
Wolde’ab was very much concerned about hager (nation) and 
what it meant for Eritreans of that transition period. He was also very much involved in the
development of education in Eritrea, and penned several articles regarding the importance of education
for the development of the people. 
 As a result of working in proximity of th e British administrators during his years at Semunawi 
Gazetta, Memhir Wolde’ab Woldemariam (or Wel-Wel, one of his favorite pen names) was able to 

witness at close range their behind-the-scene machinations of dividing Eritrea into Christian Highlan d
(kebessa) and Muslim lowland (metaHt). Early on, he was given an English article by the British 
administrator of Eritrea, Brig. General Steven Long rigg, to translate into Tigrinya and publish it in
Semunawi Gazetta as an article written by a concerned Er itrean advocating for division of Eritrea and
seceding its parts to Ethiopia and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan respectively. As a result, he became a fierce 
opponent of such divisive politics that was being promoted by the British. One can see his resolute
stand for national unity and rejection of the British st rategy of divide-and-rule in one poem that he 
wrote for Hanti Eritra  titled “ men yK’elo nay ‘engliz mKri ” ("Who can match the English 
conspiracy?"). 
 Perhaps the most dangerous British official ( wditeNa 
mekonen, to use Alemseged’s term of reference)  who worked 
tirelessly (and nearly succeed ed) to destroy Eritrea as a 
unified nation and deliver it to the Ethiopian ruler Haile
Selassie was a man by the name of Frank Stafford . (One 
wonders here who the Stafford of our times may be?) Born in
1895, and thoroughly steeped in the divide-and-rule 
philosophy of the British Empire, he was one of those last 
empire defenders whom Kipling exhorted in his famous poem
to “Take up the White Man’s burden” of civilizing the savage
races. The most formidable independent politician of that
time was Sheikh Ibrahim Sultan as leader of the al-Rabitta 
al-Islamiya (the Muslim League), and Stafford did his best to 
destroy Ibrahim Sultan as a politician and his political
organization al-Rabitta as a unifying pro-independence force 
of Eritrea’s Muslim population. Stafford also directed his 
divisive ploys against maHber iertra n’iertrawyan  (or in 
English the Liberal Progressive Party) of Ato Wolde’ab an d
Ra’esi Tesema, and had managed to entice several political
notables into his snare. Memh ir Wolde’ab wrote a scathing
article in Hanti Eritra condemning  the divisive agenda tha t 
Stafford was advancing in the late 1940s and early 1950s to destroy the coalition of the nationalists in
the Independence Block (selfi natsnet). 
 Wel-Wel was also fair, balanced and objective as a journalist. Both in Semunawi Gazetta and later in 
Hanti Eritrea , he gave fair coverage to both sides of an argument. He could have easily used his
influential position as an editor to thwart the voice of his opponents in the columns of his newspapers,
but he was a fair and honest editor and gave th em ample space to articulate their viewpoints.  O f
course, he came back to demolish their arguments with his powerful pen, but not without giving the m
equal space and opportunity to air their views first. We find an example of this in Hanti Eritra’s issue 
# 112 of February 6, 1952, in which he gave Sylvia Pankhurst space in the letter to the editor section
to advance her argument why union with Ethiopia was desirable. Sylvia Pankhurst was the
Englishwoman who did more than any other Western writer/intellectual activist to advance Ethiopia’s
cause during her invasion by Italy’s Fascist Mussolini, and later in the 1940s and 1950s to support its
annexationist moves against Eritrea through her prop aganda writing. Pankhurst had also authored the 
book ERITREA ON THE EVE (1952), and was otherwise a progressive intellectual and one of the
early feminists, but she had erred big time by slandering the good name of Wolde’ab and his
nationalists colleagues as quislings! There were plenty of quislings in the opposing camp, but certainly 
not in the camp of Memhir Wolde’ab. Furthermore, when Tedla Bairu, his arch political nemesis, was
elected as the first Chief Exec utive of the Eritrean Government in 1952, Memhir Wolde’ab
prominently displayed Ato Tedla’s photograph in the front page of the September 3, 1952, issue o f
Hanti Eritra, and wrote a generous and supportive article towards him as a person and the government
he was about to establish. There was no bitterness and spite in that article, despite all the bad blood 
between the two, and the vicious words that we re hurled against him in earlier times. This was
characteristic of Memhir Wolde’ab  as a person; truthful, honest, full of character and integrity,

forgiving and always forward-looking.
 Wel-Wel’s style of argumentation was eloquent, persuasive (sometimes subtle) and very brilliant.
Witness his serialized four-part article  in the April-May 1947 issues of Semunawi Gazetta under the 
title of “iertra nmen?” (“Eritrea for Whom?”). He starts out with a stance that would seem he favore d 
union with Ethiopia, but as the article progressed in subsequent issues, it becomes clear that he is
arguing the opposite. He was advocatin g for what became known as the “ Hbret bwEl” position: more 
stringent conditions for union with Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia, which he knew well would be rejecte d
by the Unionists, but would expose their hidden agendas to the public. We find another example o f
Wel-Wel’s excellent penmanship in issue # 128 of Hanti Eritra of May 28, 1952, under the title o f 
“TQmi krkebo zK’el nay klte aEruK krkr” (“A debate between two friends which could be useful”), in
which he answers Blatta Omar Qadi’s article, which I assume must have been published in Omar
Qadi’s Unione e Progresso. In this article, Ato Wolde’ab focuses on the issues rather than personality
and responds point-by- point to all the charges that Omar Qadi had raised earlier, emphasizing his
principled stand for the need of Christian-Muslim unity in the face of Uni onist/Ethiopian and British 
divisive maneuvers. 
Hanti Eritra  lived only for two years and was replaced by 
Dehai Eritra , whose maiden issue came out on September 
21, 1952. I asked TebeQa (Legal Counsel) Ato Yohannes 
Tsegai (who also happens to be my uncle) a few days ago 
when I visited him at his home in Geza Banda, why Ato 
Wolde’ab ceased to publish his Hanti Eritra . Incidentally,  
Ato Yohannes is one of the walking encyclopedias of the 
political history of that period, and he has contributed 
valuable information, and insight as well as photos and other 
documents to Alemseged Tesfai, who has duly acknowledged 
his contribution in his book AYNEFELALE. Besides, Ato 
Yohannes also deserves due praise for preserving a bound 
volume of old issues of Hanti Eritra throughout the difficult 
years of Ethiopian rule and finally contributing his private 
collection to the Research and Documentation Center for 
historical preservation. TebeQa Yohannes told me that with 
the Federal arrangement  coming into effect, Memhir 
Wolde’ab and his colleagues in  the Independence Block (by 
this time it had changed it’s name to “demokrasiyawi selfi”--  
Democratic Party) considered the part of their mission of that 
period was accomplished, and that what remained now was to 
see to it that the democratic rights enshrined in the Constitution were to be defended. That mission was
to be carried on by the younger generation who established Dehai Eritra. I also think that  as Ato 
Wolde’ab was now heavily involved in the founding and running of Eritrea’s first labor union, which 
became the backbone of the anti-Unionist nationalist struggle in the following phase, this was to take
the bulk of his focus in the remaining couple of years before he was forced into exile. 
Dehai Eritra entered the stage with gusto and started to write provocatively critical articles pertaining 
to the government of Eritrea’s activities. Its editor was Hussien Seid Hayoti (for a while Mohammed 
Said Mohammed was also the editor) and it was a weekly newspaper written in Tigrinya and Arabic, 
with a smattering of Italian articles occasionally. Tw o of its brilliant writers of the early period were
Elias Teklu  and Siraj Abdu . Elias Teklu was later imprisoned for his vigorous defense of the
democratic constitutional rights of Eritreans and was taken to Ethiopia were he languished in prison
for some years and finally joined the rank of the ear lier martyrs. One article of the early period was
titled “wshTawi naSnet iertras nabey abilu Kon iyu zguAz zelo ” (Whither the inte rnal autonomy o f 
Eritrea?); another expose under the title of  “ qunqune ab hnSa mengsti iertra ” (termites inside the 
structure of Government of Eritrea) warned against corruption of power of the Baito representatives. 

In Dehai’s issue #16 of January 3, 1953, we find a rare intervention by Wel-Wel in the columns o f 
Dehai Eritra. Under the title of “ lsan kab mgza’es Alem mgza’e yQell” (“It’s much easier to govern 
the world than to control one’s tongue”), the veteran journalist gently admonishes the young turks o f 
Dehai to practice responsible journalism and stay aw ay from vitriolic polemics. He notes that the
poisonous words that have been exchanged between the columns of Dehai and Etiopia have cause d 
concern and alarm and that journalists should understand the influence of their pens and write
responsibly. Sadly, however, Memhir Wolde’ab himself was to fall victim of the 7 th assassination 
attempt on his life a few weeks later, and Dehai informed its readers of this tragedy in its #18 issue o f 
January 17, 1953. In its front page article titled “ ezi’oms Sela’ti hzbi iertran ityoPiyan d’a ybehalu” 
(“These can only be the enemies of the Eritrean and Ethiopian Peoples!”), Dehai reported tha t 
unknown assailants had gravely injured Ato Wolde’ab with a handgun that previous Tuesday at 9:25 
PM, but the assassins’ bullets had once again failed to extinguish the life of that venerable patriot. 
Soon after, Dehai was illegally closed for a year because it c ontinued to expose the violations of the
Eritrea’s Constitution and the federal arrangement. In issue #28 of March 5, 1954, Dehai reopened by 
the order of Eritrea’s High Court, and it defiantly info rmed its readers that it will continue to fight fo r
Eritrea’s rights against Ethiopia’s illegal encroachments on the internal affairs of Eritrea. On May 28, 
1954, Dehai had a big headline congratulating the Eritrean people and declared “ hzbi iertra des 
ybelka: sre ATiQom l’uKatka ” (“Congratulations to the Eritrean People! Your Representatives are
finally getting bold” ).  The article reports the de bate of the Eritrean parliament and the majorit y
decision to stand up against the violation of the federal arrangement and for the formation of a special
committee to investigate the issue.  Unfortunately, not long after the publication of this article, Dehai
finally ceased its publication with its last issue # 50 published on August 6, 1954. It was followed b y
Zemen and later Hibret, and with these publications the era of stagnation and decline under Ethiopia’s
rule sets in. I must acknowledge here Professo r Tekie Fessehatzion's well researched article " A Brief 
Encounter with Democrac y: From Acquiescence to Resistance Durin g Eritrea's Earl y Federation
Years," on this period which appeared in Eritrean Studies Review Volume 2, Number 2, 1998, pp. 19-
64, which first brought to my attention Dehai Eritra's courageous defense of the Eritrean Constitution. 
What are the lessons to be learned for our times from the legacy of Wel-Wel and the two great Eritrean 
national papers, Hanti Eritra and Dehai Eritra? The first lesson is obvious: For a newspaper to be 
viable and flourish, it must represent the national interest of the country. No newspaper could be
considered independent while it receives financial ba cking from foreign sources and advocates issues 
contrary to the national interest. Wel-Wel was a fi erce nationalist, first and foremost, and he rejecte d
all kinds of foreign interventions in Eritrea’s internal affairs and he steadfastly refused to be corrupted
and bribed by Haile Selassie's money. Secondly, national newspapers must have a serious commitment
to journalistic integrity, fairness, objectivity and must have a balance in their news coverage as well as
editorials. Memhir Wolde’ab Woldemariam has left us a high standard of journalistic tradition that any 
newspaper aspiring to national status must adhere to. 
Unfortunately, a whole generation or two who were raised under corrupt Ethiopian standards are
totally oblivious of Eritrea’s rich tradition of a vigorous free press. Over  a period of close to 40 years, 
successive Ethiopian regimes have managed to destroy Eritrea’s cultural heritage of a vibrant and
democratic press. In this regard, the worst atrocities were committed under the evil reign of the
Dergue. While the generation that carried on the armed struggle escaped the corrupting influences of
Ethiopian occupation, its links to the earlier trad ition of the 1940s and 1950s were weak and tenuous,
and its preoccupation was mainly in carrying out the political message of the national liberation 
struggle and the information counter-propaganda effort against the enemy. 
There was much hope placed on the  brief experien ce of the post-independen ce period of the private 
press, but that too sadly failed to carry out its national obligations and fell victim to foreign 
machinations as well as the greed of its owners. Pe ople who are more suited to be hustlers after the
buck, or worse yet guards and messengers of foreign embassies, and cannot recognize the heroic EDF
as the national army of a sovereign country but keep referring to it as “ serawit hgdef” (PFDJ’s army) 
can in no way shoulder the heavy responsibility of independent journalism and be expected to fill in

the big shoes that Eritrea’s great newspaperman has left for future generations. In order for a vibran t 
and independent press to flourish in Eritrea now, we need to reclaim the nationalist and democratic
legacy of Wel-Wel and once again match the standards of Hanti Eritra and Dehai Eritra. 
 Errata:  
 In Part 1 of this essay, I had made a couple of errors of information, which need to be corrected: 
1. I referred to Benedict Anderson as a British political scientist. He is Irish and not British. 
For a man who specializes on nationalism studies, this is not a minor point. Try referring to 
an Eritrean as an Ethiopian, and you will know how important such issue is. 
2. The number of assassination attempts on Memhir  Wolde’ab's life by Ethiopia’s terrorist 
agents were seven and not nine as I had erroneously reported. Not that it lessens the horror of 
the barbaric acts that the man had faced from Ethiopia’s agents throughout his early political 
activism in Eritrea, but as a matter of historical accuracy the record needs to be set straight. 
"The struggle is a long and difficult one. Therefore, mask no difficulty, tell no lies 
and claim no easy victory."--Amilcar Cabral 
Memhir  
In this article, I have taken the liberty of using the title "memhir" on Wel-Wel more than his two commonly used titles: the 
more formal "ato" and the informal "aboy". Literally speaking, "memhir" means a schoolteacher, a professor, or in the 
broader sense an educator. "Ato" over the years has evolved to be the modern Tigrigna equivalent of the English "Mr.". On 
the other hand "aboy" literally means "father" or "elder". For the last two decades, Wel-Wel was universally addressed as 
"aboy Wolde'ab". The generations that used "aboy" on Wel-Wel are the 1940s generation and those that are younger. The 
"aboy" in this case is not only a reference to age, but a tribute to his age-bestowed wisdom and knowledge as well. In my 
humble opinion, "Memhir" is a more fitting and historically correct title that should be used for Wel-Wel. Before he assumed 
the role of a journalist, Wel-Wel was indeed an educator, a "memhir." From 1931-1942, he had served in the Swedish 
Evangelical Mission School system of Eritrea first as a schoolteacher and later as the director of the entire system. It was 
this role as an educator that groomed Wel-Wel to become an expert of the Tigrigna language. It was also in his capacity as 
a teacher-director that Wel-Wel managed to publish several editions of his "tgrNa njemerti" and he, without a doubt, was 
the principal contributor to the now classic Tigrigna reading book "Arki temharay" that was published by the Swedish 
Evangelical Mission.  
Even after Wel-Wel became a journalist, he managed to edit the "semunawi gazieTa" so as to be used not only as a 
newspaper but also as a resource for classroom reading. For the decade of its existence the newspaper was universally 
used by school children who had no access to Tigrigna reading books. The "semunawi gazieTa" used to carry short stories 
written by school inspectors, headmasters, teachers and other intellectuals of the time. These stories served as a fertile 
reading source for teachers and students. By this not only did Memhir Wolde'ab manage to teach children of the 1940s the 
proper use of the Tigrigna language but the love of reading newspapers as well. Even in his latter years, as a politician living 
in exile, Wel-Wel remained an educator of his own kind. These are some of the reasons I chose his rarely used title 
"Memhir". For sure Wel-Wel was a unique teacher, "mwaalim" or "Mwalimu" as East Africans affectionately used to call 
another teacher-turned-statesman Julius Nyerere.