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Africa Is a Country ·Behind the news

Who Gets to Speak for Eritrea?

by Michal Petros

Published 2026-09-26 17:09:33.402000+00:00

Who gets to speak for a country when the people still living there are silenced?

0:00 / 14:43 · Narrator Gacrux

Context

When Miss Eritrea took the stage at the Miss World pageant wearing a gown made of newspapers, she won the People’s Choice Award thanks to a massive voting campaign from the global diaspora. But as this 26 September 2026 piece from Africa Is a Country observes, the celebration stops at the border. Inside Eritrea, citizens have no free press and haven't voted in an election in over thirty years. The pageant victory forces a difficult question about representation: when the people actually living in a country are forced into silence, who gets to speak for them?

Show notes

An examination of how the Eritrean diaspora represents a nation whose residents are denied free speech and internet access. Interviews with exiled journalists, content creators, and activists weigh the tension between sharing nostalgic media and advocating for human rights. Together, they lay out the responsibilities and risks assumed by those who speak for a silenced population.

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