The Cuban journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa received the Percy Qoboza Award for Foreign Journalists from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) this past Saturday during the NABJ26 convention held in Atlanta, Georgia, and he took the opportunity to send a direct message to the Cuban dictatorship: “They can't silence us.”
The award, named after South African journalist Percy Qoboza—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 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 because I chose to be a journalist and tell the truth."
The journalist has been living in Barcelona, Spain, for four and a half years.
In a speech that combined the personal with the political, Jiménez Enoa connected the fight for press freedom with the struggle for Black racial equality, noting that both share "the absolute refusal to be silenced."
"I accept this award on behalf of my skin, my country, my history, all that 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 will not silence us."
He also spoke about the personal impact of exile: "These four years in exile have reignited my Black identity. Being away from my family and my homeland has rekindled my connection to my culture, my history, and my race."
He closed his speech by dedicating the award to those who remain on the island: "I dedicate this to my colleagues who endure in Cuba. We will continue forward with pride, for Cuba, for the truth, for the unbreakable dignity of our Blackness."
The journey of Jiménez Enoa is marked by the systematic repression of the regime. In 2020, state security agents interrogated, stripped, handcuffed, and threatened him because of his writings on Cuban reality. After the anti-government protests of 2021, the regime imposed an ultimatum that led him into 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 whom he identified as possible Cuban agents.
The NABJ 2026 award cements Jiménez Enoa as one of the most recognized voices of independent Cuban journalism in exile, in a year when the regime in Havana keeps dozens of journalists and activists imprisoned.
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