Daniel Berhane is a pioneer in the Ethiopian blogosphere by launching a political blog in 2010 that evolved into Horn Affairs: a multi-author and multi-lingual online magazine, despite the challenges from all sides. Reports and commentaries by Daniel highlighted the simmering anti-Tigray current and also the excesses of the regime and the legitimate grievances of various ethnonational groups. Though their impact was constrained by the regime’s hostility to free media and discourse and the Western stakeholders’ inadvertent complicity in the identity-based profiling of the media landscape. Daniel’s acquaintances with Ethiopian politics range from a community organizer role to membership in a couple of political parties, from an election observer role to a prominent activist, and from active contributor to several media outlets to founding a leading online magazine. Having spent most of his life in Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa cities, employed in governmental as well as private firms as a lawyer, lecturer, and columnist, Daniel has broad grasp of the various sectors of public life. A decade-long frequent and extensive engagement with Western diplomatic missions as well as journalists and visiting researchers further expanded Daniel’s grasp. Residing in Tigray since mid-2018 and through the War not only further deepened Daniel’s knowledge but also put him in a rare position of being able to provide an all-rounded context into the tragedy of the century.
