A prestigious literary prize was awarded on Monday night to Eritrean poet and journalist Amanuel Asrat, who has been missing from a prison in his country since September 2001. It is the British poet of Jamaican origin, Linton Kwesi Johnson, winner of the PEN Harold Prize Pinter 2020 awarded by the Founding Club of the Famous Writers’ Circle, which in his absence presented him with the International Prize for Writer of Courage.
Amanuel Asrat is one of the oldest political prisoners in the world and is said to be one of the last survivors of the raids organized 19 years ago by the Asmara regime.
In the remaining photographs of him, Amanuel Asrat appears as a man in his thirties, rather tall, rather thin with a long mustache. He was known in Asmara for his lyrics about suffering, about poverty and friendship and especially for his songs about the “scourge of war”, which he wrote in one of his most famous poems.
He was also known for his diary, Zemen (Le Temps), where Eritreans discovered each week’s young art scene and the latest creations from his friends, gathered in the literary circles he had founded shortly before his arrest. .
Because we have no more news from Amanuel Asrat since September 23, 2001. That morning, a week after the reunion of reformists from the ruling party and the army, it was time for Asmara’s intellectuals and journalists to be pulled out of bed one by one. of state security and being thrown in jail. Almighty President Issayas Afewerki, still in power today, was then challenged and feared for his throne.
Testimony from former prison guards says Emmanuel Asrat is still alive. He is said to be one of the few prisoners held in the Eiraeiro prison, built especially for the most famous inmates in desert mountains in the northern country.
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