Monday 15th November at St Luke’s Church, Buckfastleigh, Devon TQ11 0DA (time tbc)
Helen Berhane is a Christian Gospel singer who was arrested on 13 May 2004, shortly after she released an album of Christian music. She refused to sign a document pledging to end all participation in Evangelical activities, which included her music. She was detained at Mai Serwa military camp, north of the capital Asmara. She had no possibility of contact with her family and was denied legal representation or medical care.
On Eritrean Independence Day, 24 May, Amnesty International appeals to the Eritrean President to ensure the improvement of human rights standards in the country. Five of the six female prisoners Amnesty International had appealed for in 2005, including Helen Berhane, were still held when they appealed for them again in 2006. They had not been charged with anything nor brought to any court.
Helen Berhane was released from prison in late October 2006. She and her daughter Eva were granted asylum in Denmark after fleeing to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum for refuge.
The 2003 album for which she was imprisoned, T’ Kebaeku (I Am Anointed), was re-released in Europe in June 2006.
In her autobiography, Song of the Nightingale, Helen Berhane tells her inspiring story. Despite the brutal beatings and abuse, which included being kept for prolonged periods in a metal shipping container in the scorching heat of the desert, Helen was able to show Christ’s love to her persecutors.
A single candle flickers, its flame barely illuminating the darkness. They never burn for more than two hours after the container door is locked: there is not enough oxygen to keep the flame alive any longer. It will go out soon.
The woman behind me shifts in her sleep and her knees dig painfully into my back. I try to wriggle over to give her more room, but I am already pressed up against another sleeping body. I pull my blanket up higher and curl up as much as I can. Despite the proximity of so many people, it is freezing cold. Condensation drips from the roof and slides down my cheek, and when it moistens my lips I taste rust. The air is thick with a dirty metallic tang, the everpresent stench of the bucket in the corner, and the smell of close-pressed, unwashed bodies.
I peer around, trying to work out where she is, the woman whose mind is gone. There, by the small window hacked roughly into the side of the container. I stiffen. Sometimes she blocks the opening by stuffing her blanket into it, cutting off our limited supply of fresh air. Other nights she shouts and wails, rocking the container so that none of us can sleep. She is worse now there are more of us; nineteen in a space that can only sleep eighteen. Tonight she is quiet, and it makes me uneasy. But I am so tired, and so I force my body to relax against the hard floor. Abruptly the candle snuffs out, I close my eyes, and think of my daughter. Please Lord, keep her safe.
The floor creaks. Someone must be getting up and stumbling across the sleepers to the toilet bucket. I try to shut the noise out. Suddenly, without warning, hands close on my neck like a vice. My eyes fly open, but it is too dark to see. Then there is a guttural snarl, and I know that it is her, the madwoman, her fingers tight on my throat. I push myself up but I have no breath to scream, and I am not strong enough to shake her off. So I do the only thing I can do: I bang my free hand on the wall of the container and kick out. All around us prisoners are waking up. One tries to pull her away from me, but now she has one hand on my throat and the other knotted in my hair, yanking it away from my scalp. I gulp down a breath and manage a scream. The other prisoners start to shout too, and bang the sides of the container. There are shouts now coming from outside, and the sound of hurrying feet, the noise of the bolts sliding back and the pop as air rushes into the container and then the doors are flung open. My eyes burn as torchlight sears across my face, and then a guard is yanking her away from me and beating her about the head and body with his baton. I fall onto all fours, gasping in air. The guards pull her out of the container, and slam the door again.
The women rush to crowd around the small window. ‘They are beating her,’ one of them hisses, low so as not to anger the guards. She risks another look. ‘They have tied her outside,’ she whispers, and the others start to lie down again, looking forward to a few hours of sleep before the guards come again to march us to the toilet field. I lie down too, but my scalp feels as though it is on fire, and I know that I will not sleep tonight. Sometimes I cannot believe that this is my life: these four metal walls, all of us corralled like cattle, the pain, the hunger, the fear. All because of my belief in a God who is risen, who charges me to share my faith with those who do not yet know him, and who I am forbidden to worship. I think back to a question I have been asked many times over my months in prison: ‘Is your faith worth this, Helen?’ And as I take a deep breath of the sour air, as my scalp stings, the mad woman rants outside, and the guards continue on their rounds, I whisper the answer ‘Yes.’
When he had locked us in and left, many of the women were furious and upset and began to complain and cry….I encouraged everyone to sit on the floor in a circle and I began to speak to them. “Remember that the walls of Jericho came down because of praises. If we keep complaining we cannot win. Instead we must continue to pray, praise and sing. Satan wants to use discouraging words as a weapon against us, so we must continue to praise God in all circumstances.”
Song of the Nightingale is available from Release International and Amazon
For details of other venues on Helen Berhane’s speaking tour go to www.releaseinternational.org/pages/events.php
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Please note that this event will still take place to support our Christian family in Eritrea. Release International will be recording Helen on camera this week and this will be shown at the event.
Dear Supporter
I’m very sorry to have to tell you that Helen Berhane, who was due to speak at various locations across the UK starting this Sunday, has been denied the necessary visa. This is a huge disappointment after all the effort that has gone into planning her tour, both within Release and at the hosting churches.
Helen has been able to visit a number of other European countries and her entry here should not have been a problem. We have been in touch with the relevant authorities but to no avail. However we will continue to try and secure Helen’s entry to the UK at a later date.
Meanwhile the meetings planned for Helen will go ahead. We owe it to our persecuted family in Eritrea not to miss this opportunity now that the events have been organised.
I am planning to travel to meet with Helen this week and arrange for her to speak to camera so that this recording can be shown at each location and prayers can be offered for our Christian family still in Eritrea. If you were planning to attend one of these events, please do come and give your support.
Please also pass this information on to any other supporters whom you know are planning to attend, as it is impractical for us to contact those who do not have an email address.
Yours sincerely
Andy Dipper
Chief Executive