January 31, 2014
Tekeste Fekakadu’s personal story of Eritrea’s armed struggle is inimitable
by Charles Cantalupo | Tekeste Fekadu’s The Tenacity and Resilience of Eritrea chronicles his country’s armed struggle for independence from 1979 – 1983 from standpoint of an Eritrean war surgeon, continuing the story he began in his previous, much acclaimed account of war from 1976 – 1979, Journey from Nakfa to Nakfa.
Offering frontline, graphic eyewitness testimony of the massive and unrelenting sacrifice of human lives that the war demanded, Tekeste Fekadu also tells a compelling story of a physician’s war to save them. He and his colleagues battled their terrible injuries, diseases and psychological suffering as tenaciously as the vastly outnumbered Eritrean armed forces fought six, large-scale Ethiopian military offensives – yet with as few precious African battlefield: effective, comprehensive and compassionate medical care – whether it required the setting up or tearing down of hospitals on the frontlines or the most delicate surgery and intensive care in trenches and underground wards under bombardment.
Also dedicating himself to combating the array of problems suffered by Eritrea’s equally unprecedented dependence on a female fighting force, Tekeste Fekadu fought for the recognition of women’s unique health issues, ranging from reproductive cycle of challenge of negative sexual stereotypes. In a world which the annals of war are many and often remarkable, Tekeste Fikadu’s personal story of Eritrea’s armed struggle is inimitable.
