Love, Patriotism and Sacrifice

Eritrea@35 Series

By David Yeh

A nation’s freedom is never born from words alone. It is born from love made visible through sacrifice, from courage tested by suffering, and from ordinary people who choose the future of their country over the comfort of their own lives. Eritrea’s independence was not handed down on a silver platter as a gift, nor granted as an act of international charity. It was earned through the blood, endurance, discipline, and unbreakable faith of a people who refused to disappear.

As Eritrea commemorates the 35th anniversary of its independence, from 1991 to 2026, this moment calls for more than celebration. It calls for remembrance. It calls for gratitude. It calls for a renewed understanding of what love of country truly means. Independence Day is not merely a date on the calendar or a ceremonial milestone. It is a sacred reminder of the price paid by those who gave their youth, their bodies, their dreams, their education, their families, and, in countless cases, their lives so that Eritrea could stand as a free and sovereign nation.

The story of Eritrea’s liberation struggle is one of the most profound expressions of patriotic love in modern history. It is a story of young men and women who left behind the normal hopes of youth and entered the mountains, valleys, trenches, and battlefields of Eritrea with little more than conviction and commitment. Many never returned. Many returned without limbs, without health, without the ordinary opportunities that others take for granted. They sacrificed not because freedom promised them personal reward, but because they believed a nation had the right to live in dignity and sovereignty. Their love was not abstract. It was carried in hunger, sleeplessness, wounds, exile, discipline, and death.

To remember Eritrea’s independence properly is therefore to begin with immense gratitude to the tegadelti, the freedom fighters, who offered everything. Many gave their lives and limbs so that future generations could inherit a country of their own. They gave up education, careers, marriage, childbearing, comfort, and personal ambition for a national cause greater than themselves. They fought not only to liberate Eritrea from colonial domination and occupation, but also to preserve its dignity and sovereignty in the face of repeated attempts to erase its identity and deny its people their rights.

But Eritrea’s struggle was never carried by fighters alone. It was carried by a whole people. The population inside Eritrea endured unspeakable atrocities committed by successive Ethiopian regimes. Villages were burned, civilians were massacred, families were displaced, property was destroyed, and entire communities were punished for supporting the independence cause. Yet the people did not waver. They did not abandon the struggle. They fed the fighters, sheltered them, guided them, protected them, and gave their sons and daughters to the Revolution. They endured collective punishment with a dignity that still demands reverence. Their steadfastness was one of the pillars of victory.

Our gratitude must also extend to those who worked for Eritrea’s independence from inside what can only be called the belly of the beast. In Ethiopia’s prisons and interrogation centers, many Eritreans were tortured, humiliated, disappeared, and killed for supporting the cause of independence. The victims of Expo (ኤክስፖ), Mariam Ghibi (ማርያም ግቢ), Sembel (ሰምበል), Hazhaz (ሓዝሓዝ), Karcheli (ካርቸሊ), Alem Bekagne (ዓለም በቃኝ), and other prisons paid a terrible price in silence and darkness. Some were mothers & fathers, students, workers, organizers, messengers, sympathizers, and patriots whose names may not be widely known, but whose sacrifice is woven into the fabric of the nation. They faced the machinery of Ethiopian repression directly and refused to betray the cause. Their courage must never be forgotten.

The Eritrean diaspora, too, formed an indispensable front in the liberation struggle. Eritreans scattered across the Middle East, Europe, North America, and elsewhere did not treat the struggle as something distant from them. They lived it. They organized, contributed, mobilized, educated, lobbied, recorded, published, fundraised, and carried the voice of Eritrea into places where the world often refused to listen. Their homes, community centers, student associations, women’s groups, and workers’ networks became extensions of the national struggle.

Special gratitude is owed to Eritrean women in the Middle East and Europe (particularly Italy), many of whom worked under difficult conditions and gave nearly everything they earned to support the independence cause. Their labor was often invisible, but its impact was enormous. They supported families, fighters, wounded veterans, orphans, mass organizations, and the wider needs of the Revolution. Their sacrifice reminds us that the battlefield was not only where guns were fired. It was also in kitchens, factories, hospitals, homes, hostels, community halls, and foreign cities where Eritrean women turned hardship into service.

We must also remember Eritrean students in Europe and North America who gave up or interrupted their dreams of education to support the cause. Many could have pursued personal success, professional advancement, and comfortable lives. Instead, they chose activism, organization, sacrifice, and, in some cases, return to the field. Some abandoned the relative luxury of the Americas and Europe and went back to Eritrea to fight. They exchanged safety for danger, comfort for hardship, and private ambition for national duty. Their choice reveals the deepest meaning of ፍቕሪ ሃገር: love of country expressed not in slogans, but in action.

We are also indebted to the Warsay and Mendelay generations, who have secured Eritrea’s sovereignty by standing guard against repeated Ethiopian hostility and expansionist ambitions. They have protected Eritrea’s land, sea, independence, and dignity with vigilance and sacrifice. This generation, too, has paid—and continues to pay—an immense price. Like the generations of its parents and grandparents, it deserves to be recognized, honored, and saluted.

Love of country is often misunderstood. It is not noise, display, or empty emotion. In its highest form, patriotism is responsibility. It is the willingness to place the collective good above personal interest. It is service without applause, sacrifice without guarantee, and loyalty without blindness. The Eritrean struggle teaches that true patriotism is not domination over others, nor hatred of other peoples. It is the defense of one’s dignity, history, land, identity, and right to self-determination.

This distinction matters. Patriotism, properly understood, is rooted in love, service, and responsibility. It respects the dignity of other nations because it knows the pain of being denied one’s own. Eritrea’s struggle was never a struggle to dominate others. It was a struggle to be free, to live with dignity, and to decide one’s own future. That is why Eritrea’s independence carries moral weight. It was a victory not only of arms, but of principle.

The meaning of sacrifice is central to this history. Sacrifice is the willing acceptance of personal loss for a greater good. It may involve time, wealth, safety, comfort, opportunity, or life itself. In Eritrea’s case, sacrifice became the foundation of national survival. Fighters sacrificed in the field. Civilians sacrificed in the villages and towns. Prisoners sacrificed under torture. Diaspora workers sacrificed their earnings. Students sacrificed their education. Families sacrificed their children. Artists, writers, broadcasters, organizers, and community members sacrificed their talents and time. Together, these sacrifices created the moral and material strength of the Revolution.

The 35th anniversary of independence must therefore be approached as both celebration and responsibility. To celebrate without gratitude would be shallow. To remember without commitment would be incomplete. The question is not only whether we honor those who sacrificed, but whether we are worthy of what they gave. Are we preserving the unity they fought for? Are we protecting the sovereignty they secured? Are we teaching the next generation the truth of what independence cost? Are we building a society that reflects the values of discipline, resilience, dignity, and collective responsibility that made liberation possible?

Honoring the past does not mean living only in the past. It means drawing strength from it. The sacrifices of the freedom fighters, the imprisoned patriots, the steadfast population, and the diaspora generation must inspire present and future generations to serve Eritrea with honesty, humility, and purpose. Today, patriotism must be lived through education, work, innovation, community service, cultural preservation, national unity, and the defense of sovereignty. The battlefield may change, but the duty to serve remains.

Eritrea’s independence was not the achievement of one group alone. It was the collective triumph of a people bound by love of country. It belongs to the martyrs who never saw the flag raised. It belongs to the wounded who carried freedom in their scars. It belongs to the prisoners who endured torture in Karcheli, Mariam Ghebi, Alem Bekagne, and other places of suffering. It belongs to the mothers and fathers who gave their children. It belongs to the villages that fed the fighters despite terror from above. It belongs to the women who worked abroad and sent their earnings home. It belongs to the students who traded classrooms for struggle. It belongs to those who left comfort in Europe and the Americas to return to the front. It belongs to all Eritreans who believed that freedom was worth the price.

In the end, the Eritrean struggle reveals a lasting truth: love becomes most powerful when it is willing to sacrifice. As Eritrea marks its 35th anniversary, the proper response is gratitude, remembrance, and renewed commitment. We honor the martyrs not only by speaking their names, but by protecting the country for which they died. We honor the wounded not only by praising their courage, but by living responsibly in the freedom they helped secure. We honor the people not only by remembering their suffering, but by preserving the unity that made victory possible.

Independence is not merely something Eritrea achieved. It is something each generation must understand, cherish, defend, and renew. The past gave us freedom. The present must give it meaning. The future will judge whether we were grateful enough to protect what was won at such immeasurable cost.