A NOTE ON HISTORY AND MEMORY

As an Eritrean, I carry stories of my people — including the trauma of forced displacement, like my grandfather's during the mass expulsion of Eritreans from Ethiopia in the late 1990s. I also carry the weight of the Badme War, where 20,000+ Eritreans were killed and countless more displaced over two years. These moments live in the bodies and hearts of many Eritreans.

Acknowledging that pain doesn't mean closing our eyes to others' pain. The war in Tigray caused unfathomable devastation — marked by mass displacement, countless lives lost, and systematic sexual violence. That violence also demands our witness.

The complexity of our relationship runs deeper than politics. Tigrinya, our shared language, developed distinctly across different kingdoms and highlands of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, creating separate cultural identities despite common linguistic roots. Tigrayans are Ethiopian nationals from the Tigray region, while Tigrinya-speakers form the majority ethnic group in Eritrea. Both speak Tigrinya — not to be confused with Tigre, a separate Eritrean ethnic group whose language is actually closer to Ge'ez, the ancient root of all "Habesha" Semitic languages.

This project doesn't aim to resolve political narratives or offer single truths. It offers a mirror — reflecting grief, love, dissonance, and complex ties between people who share blood, language, and land, but not always memory.