Re-examining Eritrean history through scholarship, archives, and lived memory.

01 Mar 2026

This episode of Eritrawi Podcast uncovers the extraordinary and nearly forgotten story of Fessehatsion Beyene, an Eritrean pilot whose life collided with Fascist Italy, colonial Somalia, and the racial laws of the 1930s. Through archival records, military files, and official decrees, we trace his journey from decorated colonial soldier to political liability and the legal battle over his son, Claudio Ricucci. At the center of this story is a brutal paradox: a Black officer who served the regime, yet was denied paternal authority over his own child because of race. The very documents meant to suppress his rights are the only reason we know his name today. This is a story about empire, identity, loyalty, exile and the human cost of racial hierarchy. History tried to file him away. The archive refused.