(Written by a former resident of Eritrea)
To fully appreciate Saba today, you have to understand what happened to her thirty years ago in Eritrea. Back then, she passed through a prolonged and bitter struggle for freedom and was brave. She is a living witness today of how much can be done when such intense love is felt for the country in which you live and your family.
After she was graduated from high school, and with the support of her family, she began her first year at a university. There were six other children in the family, and they were all in school so her father was the only wage-earner. Her mother struggled with a tight budget to meet the family’s requirements, but there just wasn’t enough money to meet their needs. Saba determined to get them out of poverty. It was her daily prayer that she’d make it through the university and get a job that would make life more comfortable for everyone.
She spent most weekends with the family, as she enjoyed helping her mom prepare meals, assisting her brothers and sisters with their homework, and looking for bargains in the food markets. Her favorite activity, however, was talking with her dad about her classes and her friends. She especially liked to listen as he talked about the bright future she would have. That became her source of power and energy.
Her father was having trouble at work where there was rampant discrimination and even brutality since Ethiopia had taken over the city. Though he was willing to share his thoughts about it with her, he always advised her not to worry about it or get involved in politics. He wanted her to focus on her schoolwork at the university.
In the early seventies, rumors started spreading about rebels appearing in the highlands, and Saba and her friends talked about it frequently for it was very mysterious as to what they were doing there. More and more rumors about them were being discussed in the streets as time passed, and at the dinner table her father would try to explain his understanding of what was happening.
Early one morning, as she rushed to catch the bus for her first class, she saw someone reading the morning newspaper as she boarded and there was a lot of whispering going on. Saba tried to get a peak at a paper, but couldn’t make sense of it, and couldn’t get an answer from any of the other passengers.
When she left the bus, she rushed toward her classroom as she wanted to ask her friends what was happening, but when she started asking question a government soldier appeared and commanded them to stop discussing rumors.
The next day, life in the city went on as usual, but the campus was very different as it was surrounded by soldiers. It was difficult for more than two students to talk or study together, as they wouldn’t permit it. The atmosphere had changed completely, and the students started becoming suspicious of each other. None of this was conducive to study.
When her classes met, it was not unusual for the instructor to be absent, and no explanation was given. None of the students had the courage to talk about what was going on.
Saba kept thinking about some of the things that her father had told her at dinner, and she couldn’t wait for the weekend so that she could meet with him again and tell him of the new developments at the university.
When Saturday finally arrived, they had a long talk. She told him what she knew, and he informed her that were problems at the place where he worked, too. She learned that some of her father’s coworkers had been killed and others had been taken to prison. The government had come to a standstill, and it was clear that the situation would become worse – not only in the city but throughout the country.
Saba had always been an outstanding student, very gregarious and talented. Within the group of her friends, she was always respected and invariably given a lead position.
A few days after that conversation with her father, she and her friends decided to go camping in an area about 40 miles from the city. They wanted to enjoy the natural surroundings so they chose a heavily forested place in the mountains where wild animals lived, and they spent the day swimming in the lake and hiking.
About midday on one of their walks, two men appeared with guns. It was a frightening experience and all the young women gathered together when the men walked closer and one of them said, “How are you guys?”
Everyone was speechless and looked for Saba to say something.
“How do you do”, she said while looking directly at the men. Their faces were dark, but they looked like reasonable people, and when they began to talk, their message was clear and to the point. They weren’t soldiers. They explained that they were freedom fighters, and the things they were saying about the changes they were going to make throughout Eritrea were very impressive.
Though they said they were few in number, many of them were very clever and knowledgeable about political ways of bringing about the needed changes by meeting with groups of citizens to explain their philosophy which was aimed at reinstating freedom and justice.
Saba and her friends were very impressed.
It wasn’t long after the meeting in the woods, that she and her friends learned that some of their classmates had already joined the freedom fighters. The government was aware of that activity, and countless students including some of Saba’s friends had already been taken to prison even though they felt they'd done nothing wrong.
