The Afro-Cuban journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa received the Percy Qoboza Award for Foreign Journalists from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) last Saturday during the NABJ26 convention held in Atlanta, Georgia, and took the opportunity to deliver a direct message to the Cuban dictatorship: "They cannot silence us."
The award, named after the South African journalist Percy Qoboza—who was imprisoned and exiled for opposing apartheid—recognizes foreign journalists who have overcome significant obstacles and contributed to the advancement of the African diaspora.
Jiménez Enoa, co-founder of the digital narrative journalism magazine El Estornudo and former columnist for The Washington Post, left Cuba in 2021 after the regime issued him an unambiguous ultimatum.
"Four years ago, I received a call from the Cuban government and they made me a proposition: I could go to jail or I could leave my country," he recounted upon accepting the award. "I chose the latter, and that's why I am here today. And that’s why none of my family or loved ones are here with me. The only reason they are not here is that I chose to be a journalist and speak the truth."
The journalist has been living in Barcelona, Spain, for four and a half years, separated from his family as a direct consequence of his work.
In a speech that blended the personal with the political, Jiménez Enoa connected the fight for press freedom with the struggle for Black racial justice, noting that both share "the absolute refusal to be silenced."
"I accept this award in the name of my skin, my country, my history, everything I carry within me," she stated. "I come from Cuba, an island where independent journalism is paid for with imprisonment or exile."
He directed his words straight to the regime: “To the Cuban dictatorship, I remind you that the black rebellion runs deep in our veins. From slavery to exile, my people have always known how to break chains. They expelled us, but they cannot silence us.”
The journalist also spoke about the personal impact of exile: "These four years in exile have awakened my Black identity once again. Being away from my family and my homeland has reignited my connection to my culture, my history, and my race."
He concluded his speech by dedicating the award to those who remain on the island: "I dedicate this to my colleagues who resist in Cuba. We will move forward with pride, for Cuba, for truth, for the unbreakable dignity of our blackness."
The trajectory of Jiménez Enoa is marked by the systematic repression of the regime. In 2020, State Security agents interrogated him, stripped him, handcuffed him, and threatened him because of his writings on Cuban reality. Following the anti-government protests of 2021, the regime issued him an ultimatum that led to his exile. In 2022, he received the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and in July 2023, he reported being threatened in Spain by two men he identified as possible Cuban agents.
The NABJ 2026 award solidifies Jiménez Enoa as one of the most recognized voices in Cuban independent journalism in exile, in a year when the regime in Havana continues to imprison dozens of journalists and activists.
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