Benkum Art

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Already Landed

An Eritrean woman in a white zuria and netela shawl steps side-on from a low stone step into a small red wooden boat, her back foot lifting from the stone, in a washed cobalt field between stepped ash-grey panels above a low band of water.

The water hasn’t settled.

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One foot is still on the stone. The other already carries all of me.

On September 17, 2026, the U.S. national emergency declared during the war in northern Ethiopia expired. The next day, sanctions tied to it were removed, including those on Eritrea’s ruling party, defense forces, Red Sea Trading Corporation and senior officials. Eritrea welcomed the move. But an expiration doesn’t answer what comes after it. What it would change between the two countries remained unsettled.

My back foot hasn’t caught up yet. It already knows where it’s going.