Separated from his family in Eritrea at 7, this Seattle man now mentors East African kids

[RadioActive Youth Media is KUOW’s radio journalism and audio storytelling program for young people. This story was entirely youth-produced, from the writing to the audio editing.]

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verything I’ve ever learned about the 30-year Eritrean War of Independence has been through Wikipedia pages. But that war is what brought my family the nearly 8,000 miles from Asmara, Eritrea to Seattle, and it’s part of what made me who I am.

I wanted to know more about the armed struggle from someone who lived through it, so I talked to Habtom Hagos, a family friend.

One thing to know about Hagos: He will talk to anyone.

"I speak seven, eight language fluently," Hagos said. "Whatever community I associate with, it takes me six months to learn the language. I'm self-taught, self-educated. I can do anything — write and read. Because I'm a survivor. If I have to survive, I have to learn. I have to be them."

Hagos is talking about how he survived the Eritrean War of Independence — and everything that came after it.

This story starts when Hagos was 7 years old and living in Asmara, Eritrea with his family.

The Ethiopian military attacked his village. He was separated from his family and he ran. He found a revolutionary camp for the Eritrean independence movement. The freedom fighters there, part of the Eritrean Liberation Front, took him and other orphans in.

Hagos remembers the Eritrean soldiers showing him weapons. He thought it was amazing. The propaganda went so deep, he started to believe anyone, even a family member, could be considered a traitor.

"I believe if you bring my father, he's a traitor of my country, I blow his head. There is no second thought," Hagos said.

But it wasn't all propaganda. Hagos said the Eritrean revolutionaries were like a new family for him.

"They became father figures for me, [and] like mother figures for me," he said.

A few years later, in 1979, Hagos fled to Khartoum, Sudan like many other Eritreans seeking refuge. He was 12 years old.

He needed to make money, so from Sudan, he tried to get to Saudi Arabia by stowing away on a cargo ship. He was caught and jailed.

"Six months I suffered. I felt lonely," Hagos said. "I was attempting to kill myself."

The Saudi officials sent him back to Sudan, and he was arraigned in front of a judge.

"He asked me, 'Where is your mother?'" Hagos recalled the judge asking him. "I said, 'I don't know.' 'Where is your father?' I said, 'I don't know.' He felt bad, the judge. He gave me 50 riyal, which is Sudanese money. He said, 'There is a bus station in Sudan. Go there. Find your family."