Conversation with Pastor Ezra Gebremedhin

Part Five (Last)

Issayas: How about the Mensa?

Pastor Ezra Gebremedhin: In his book Envoys of the Gospel in Ethiopia , Gustav Aren writes: "A convert from Islam, Ato (Mr.) Gustavo Bealged Maybetot (1908-1987), went in 1927 from Geleb to Asmara to seek employment. "On my arrival there a circular had been distributed to all companies and government offices which forbade employment of members of the Church", stated Ato Gustavo in his Hiwoyt Tarik, his 12-page autobiography.Later he founded the Mekane Yesus Congregation at Dessie, Ethiopia.

Ato(Mr.) Gustavo Be'alged Maybetot (1908-1987)

Two things struck me about Ato Gustavo. The first was his forename. The name must have been given to him by some Swedish missionary, or taken by him in appreciation of a Swedish missionary by the same name. The second thing that struck me about him was his loyalty, his perseverance in his Evangelical faith he had received. He was a Kenisha, at home in his faith away from home. Secondly, he belonged to the category of people known as the Mensa (pronounced with a guttural sound at the end). Who were the Mensa? What can we say of their history and culture? In what way did they come in touch with the Swedish Evangelical Mission?




Teachers in Geleb. Sitting: Left to right: Qesh Dawit Amanuel, Ida Coisson, Ida Harndahl and Eleazar Hedad. Standing. Left to right: Eyassu Be'imnent, Tesfa-Li'ul Hibtes , Timoteos Fayed, Samuel Etman, Maestro Coisson. (1930)

Teacher Natnael Negassie and his family who labored in the Geleb area.

Karl Johan Lundstrom has given us a short but comprehensive survey of their history. His text follows.

When the first Swedish missionaries arrived in Massawa, the French Consul Werner Munzinger advised them against advancing to the Oromo through Abyssinia. He suggested instead that they begin work among the Mensa people who according to him, were pagan and lived just a few days walk from Massawa. However, he soon ran into a problem. Catholic missionaries, who had initiated mission among the Bilen, not far from the Mensa, protested against his proposal. He therefore changed his mind and recommended Kunama as the most suitable site for pioneer missionary work by the Swedes.

Seven years later, Munzinger, who by then was in Egyptian service, was still urging the missionaries to do something for the Mensa. In December 1873 a missionary by the name of E.E. Hedenstrom (1844-1904) moved up the area, settling in a place called Geleb. In Geleb the missionaries met still another culture. The people were not, as Munzinger had first stated, pagan but bearers of a mixture of Muslim and Christian cultures. Mensa tradition claims that the people originated in Arabia. The Swedish missionary K.G. Roden writes,

Their forefathers were two brothers Tsed and Tsebed, descendants of Kerosh and Manneja, who lived in Arabia. later on they separated: Tsebed remained in his country of origin, while Tsed crossed the Red Sea , landed on African soil and settled on Buri, a peninsula south of Massawa. From him were born Haranreway, Hatsotay, Toray, Schiahai, Adalie(Adaglie), Mensaay, and Mereyay. The first of these formed a branch called Haranrewa; the others a second branch with name of six people: Haso, Tora, Schiahay, Adallye, Mensaay and Mareya.

The new settlers were Saho who migrated from the coast to Haigat. A migration led the same groups of Saho to the plateau where they took up Tigrigna or Tigre as their language. The story continues to narrate how the Mensa and Marya left their brothers and moved towards the area where the sun sets and then moved up to Haigat. There they went in different directions. Mensaay settled at Haigat and his descendants were called Mensa, while the Mareyay settled at Erota and his descendants were called Marya. The existing population, called Tigre was subdued and Mensa and Marya became the ruling classes (Shimagele) in the area. The area mentioned above was located in the Central Eastern Highlands of Eritrea and stretched towards the north. The language spoken by the people was Tigre, closely related to the ancient Ge'ez. Other related groups, such as the Bet Juk, settled north of Mensa. The Mensa were divided into two groups: The Beit Abrehe, with their main center at Habna (Geleb) and the Biet Eshhaqan, with their center at Mihlab.

Issayas: Pastor Ezra, thank you very much for your time. Do you want to add anything before we end?

Pastor Ezra: I would like to take this occasion to thank you sincerely for kindly presenting the forthcoming book entitled, Kenisha: The Roots and Development of The Evangelical Church of Eritrea 1866-1935. By Karl Johan Lundström. Edited by Ezra Gebremedhin in a series of installments. As we now come to the end of this generous enterprise, I must say that the publication of the book has been delayed and that it will be published, hopefully, during the first quarter of 2010. It will be a solid work of just over 500 pages, richly supplied with photos, maps, some simple charts and a comprehensive and up to date bibliography. Among the appendices of the book we have a section of several pages on literary sources (annotated) on the history of the Swedish Evangelical Mission (SEM) and the ECE, as well as some brief statistics on mission and church, yesterday and today. A “lexicon” with very short biographical data on former Swedish missionaries and their Eritrean colleagues from around 1867 to the present (for Swedish missionaries) and to 1935 for their Eritrean colleagues, will be of interest for both Swedes and Eritreans. We shall be sending notice on the venue of the publication and distribution of the book in good time. Meanwhile, be our jungle telegraph. Thank you!

e-mail contact: ezra.gebremedhin@teol.uu.se

Conversation with Pastor Ezra Gebremedhin

Part Four:

Issayas: Pastor Ezra, you mentioned that Karl Johan Lundstrom had materials on the history of the Kunama and the Mensa. Can you breifly elaborate on that? Also, a lot of people do not know that Aboi Woldeab Woldemariam's first job was as a teacher in Kunama area.

Pastor Ezra: When three Swedish missionaries landed on the coast of Massawa in the spring of 1866, they had no thoughts of heading in the direction of Kunama. Their goal was to reach the Oromo in western and southern Ethiopia. However, the route from the coast to the interior of Ethiopia was closed to them due to political and social unrest in the country. The roots of Evangelical Church of Eritrea (ECE) go back to the individuals and small communities that once belonged to three religious groups: the "Animist" Kunama, Tigre speaking Muslims and mainly highland populations groups that belonged to the Orthodox Tewhado Church and who spoke mainly Tigrigna.

Aboi Woldeab who was born in 1905 started school late. He spent his early years as a boy tending his father's cattle in a highland village in Eritrea. Even though he started school late, he made fast progress. Eventually he attended the Teacher Training School of the Swedish Mission at Beleza. His first job was that of a teacher in Kunama where he was to spend three years and where he almost died of the type of malaria that attacks the brain.

In 1935 he writes the following personal report on a confirmation ceremony that he attended in Ausa Conoma:

" The mission field in Kunama has far been regarded as the most difficult and the least fruitful field. Its history, which I have had occasion to learn about more closely in recent days, has been dark. [...] but I only want to say that I have admired and still admire those people who struggled and died victorious, in spite of the fact that they never saw victory."

Aboi Woldeab was in Kunama in the company of his close friend Sahle Ande-Mikael (later commonly addressed as "Memher Sahle"). The two were part of a working team led by an energetic, widowed Swedish missionary by the name of Signe Berg.

Aboi Woldeab had experienced a sense of awe and admiration in the face of what the very first Swedish messagers of the Gospel had met in Kunama, "the land of blood and tears." But who were the Kunama who had captivated the hearts of Swedes and Eritreans alike? Why did they attract such attention?



Chief Adim Billa the first Kunama to be baptized on the mission field.
As a boy, he had met the first missionaries and his mother used to cook for them.



School for girls in Kunama.
Middle row: Far left, Emma Andersson and behind her Joseph Mati.
Peter Andersson is seated to the far right of the girls in the front row.



Maria Nilsson with the first Christian couple wedded in Kunama: Joseph Mati a teacher who was later ordained and his wife Sillas who was from Geleb.

The main area of settlement of the Kunama was and still is between the Gash and Setit rivers. However, a certain section of the population lives to the north and south of this area. Basically, the area is divided into four regions, namely Marda in the north, Barka in the east, Bazena in the west, and Tika in the south.

The Kunama language is classified as belonging to the Nilo-Saharian group of languages. The Rev. Sture Normark, a former Swedish missionary to Kunama mentioned that there are four main Kunama dialects: Marda (for the region around Sosena), Barka (for the region around Kulluku), Tika (for the region around Ugaro) and Sogodak (for the region around Tessenei).

Kunama culture shares many characterstics with the cultures of other Nilotic people. The totem symbols that represented the four territorial divisions are an example. These divisions with their respective totem symbols and dialects are Shua (the Rhinoceros) for the Marda, Gumma (the Buffalo) for the Barka, Karawa (the Elephant) for the Tika and Semma (the Moon) for the Sogodak. Each division has its own dialect.

In 1864 Werner Munzinger (Governer General of Massawa under the Egyptians) reported that Muttersrwecht, a social system in which the woman plays a dominant role in the family, existed among the Kunama. The system was, however, not a form of matriarchy in which the woman was the head of the family, but rather one based on matrilineal kinship. Inheritance followed the mother's lineage, but the dominant personality was the mother's brother, i.e. the maternal uncle. Thus the women played a crucial role in Kunama society as bearers of tradition and spiritual life.

The society was very egaliterian and the village was seen as a unit. An attack on a single member was considered an attack on the village. Every village had a council whose members were called Andai, the Great Ones. These elders consisted of all married men in the village. As a sign that they had assumed this role, the men cut their hair and receive the title Anda.

The older a man, the greater his influence. The elders met regularly on the dibba, the site of the council, usually located under a big tree. In the deliberations that were held, the younger members of the council spoke first, followed by the older ones, who also had the right to final say.
If a Kunama broke the faneda- the manners and customs- he would find himself isolated. This was the worst punishment that could be meted out to a Kunama. Kunama society was acephlous, i.e. it had no central ruler or chief. Every village was legally and politically independent. A stranger could become a member of the village even if he didn't have any relatives in the village. This fact had negative consequences. The absence of a common defence organization left the Kunama open to attacks by robbers and to other kinds of harassment.

A.Pollera and E. Cerulli maintain that the Kunama, since times immemorial regarded Anna as the one God, the creator of all among the Kunama. According to the Kunama, the first people to be created were Adam and Aua (or Hawa), the original parents of the Kunama. The names may have been added later as these words occur both in the Jewish-Christian and Muslim traditions.
The Kunama addressed their prayers not only to God but also to their ancestors. In their religion there were clear signs of hierarchial structure. Highest in this hierarchy was the Creator, Ana and below him/her came the hierarchy of the ancestors, which consitituted the various lineages. The society also had bearers of religious heritage, people who were recognized as specialists in various aspects of religious practice. These assumed both secular and spiritual functions. Among such specialists called Manna, are : the L'Aula Manna: who brought or withheld rain; L'Ula Manna: who provided protection from locusts; Sciurka Manna: who provided protection from birds;Bian Manna: who protected specially durra(sorghum) from the scourage of worms;Attana Manna: who provided protection from flies and insects.

The Manna were male. There was, however, another group of female actors in the realm of religious rituals, who were called Asirmina. The Kunama too attach a great importance to the presence of spirits. The world is a unit of the Living and the Dead, Good Beings and Evil ones. Life would continue beyond the grave and the spirits of the deceased would always be present in the minds of the Kunama. The spirits , usually representing someone from about a generation ago , would assume a human shape by becoming a Manna and Asirmina.


Next(final) on the Mensa.

Conversation with Pastor Ezra Gebremedhin

Part Three

Issayas: In an interview that I did with Prof. Asmerom Legesse and posted on my blog a while back, he referred to reformers within the Orthodox Church who started a reform movement in the 1860's and this movement coincided (Zeitgeist, if you will. Where history and destiny emerge)with the Swedish missionaries who were trying to go to Ethiopia (at that time, Abyssinia). Can you tell us about the reformers and their contribution in forming the ECE?

Pastor Ezra: It should be pointed out that though the narrators of this story are Qeshi Selomon Atsqu and Qeshi Zera-Tsion Mussie, the main figure and spokesman in this story of the early fathers of the ECE is Qeshi Haile-Ab Tesfai(Qeshi Haile-Ab and Per Erik Lager were killed by one of the soldiers of Ra’isi Woldenki’el outside of the church of Qiddus Mikaél in Addi Qontsi in July 1876). The two fathers of Evangelical Christianity in Eritrea narrate their story with a quiet sense of conviction, and with hardly any trace of self-pity or bitterness. As the title of their narrative (BERHAN YEKUN: LET THERE BE LIGHT, published in 1912) indicates, the first encounter between highland Orthodoxy and those who had arrived at an Evangelical conviction took place in Hamasen.

The point of departure of those who were of Evangelical persuasion was that the Bible and only the Bible (Tsiruy qal Igziabher- the pure Word of God) should be the guide and norm for teaching and practice in the Christian Church. Of course, these Evangelical fathers meant the Bible with the sixty-six books which they regarded as canonical, not the eighty-one books of the Tewahdo Orthodox Church. These fathers of the ECE, a number of whom were still priests of The Orthodox Church,were brought up in the classical theological literature of their mother church. Their understanding of The Trinity was based on the teachings of Haymanotä Abäw (Faith of the Fathers). Their standards for life and behaviour were set and guided by works like Fitha Negest (Law of The Kings) and Sinodos, even though the narrators add that they found the rules of Sinodos “harder than the rules of Orit” i.e. The Old Testament straight forward history than the kind of outright hagiography which abounds in dramatic miracles.

They had respect for ser‘at abbotat (The rule of the fathers). Nevertheless, when the time came for them to enter holy orders, Qeshi Solomon and Qeshi Zera-Tsion, had traveled to Adwa with a certain Haleqa Afeworq, the arch-priest of Hamasen, to ‘‘receive priesthood’’from Abune Atnatewos. After their ordination, they were received in a private audience by the bishop, who is reported to have told them, “If you can preach the Gospel in another country do so; if not preach it in your own country” Haleqa Afeworq then took them and introduced them to a certain Johannes Maier, a messenger of the Gospel from Switzerland who lived in Adwa at the time. Maier encouraged them, gave them portions of Scripture and other writings in Amharic. He also promised to supply them with further copies of Scripture from a bookstore in Massawa.

Monks from Debre Bizen Accuse Fellow ‘Orthodox’ in Tseazzega

According to the narrative in Birhan Yikun, monks from Debre Bizen, intent on challenging the ‘early fathers’ of the ECE, first appeared in Tseazzega in May 1873, according to the Julian calendar. The narrative states, It happened that in May 1873 some monks of Debre Bizen [...] were on their way to bring charges against us. Qeshi Gebremedhin, who was on a journey, happened to meet them at Addi Qontsi. Believing that they were still on friendly terms, he alighted from his mule in all sincerity and greeted them with a ‘Good morning!’ However none of them answered his greeting. He therefore interrupted his journey, returned at a gallop to his comrades and told them about what had transpired. Convinced that they would be interrogated in proper order, for good canonical regulations, taken from the different church councils recognized by the Coptic Church.

For good or for bad, they laid out welcome carpets in church and waited for them. The others however, about thirty monks altogether, came in procession, carrying the seat (stool) and cross of Abune Filippos, which were covered with ornamented textiles, and walked straight towards the residence of Blatta Gebre Kidan. Blatta Gebre Kidan sent his servants and had us brought to his presence. The subjects taken up at this session were the role of the saints as mediators, the significance of the Tabot (The Ark of the Covenant) in the worship of the Orthodox Tewahdo Church and the piety of the faithful. The main spokesmen for the Evangelical group were Qeshi Haile-Ab and Qeshi Gebremedhin. The first encounter seems to have ended in a deadlock. In any case, another appointment was made for a meeting at a place known as Miku´at Meret.
The same issues were discussed in greater detail at the session in Miku‘at Meret. The Orthodox Tewahdo priests argued energetically in favour of the thesis that angels, saints, the righteous had been given promises by God that they would be able to mediate on behalf of the faithful. The Evangelicals maintained that such a teaching was based, in the last analysis, on secondary sources of dubious quality and not on the Bible. Since the views of the two parties were found to be irreconcilable, the matter was referred to a judge in Tseazzega.

Once before the judge, the spokesman of the Orthodox Tewahdo monks, Abbat Haile Yesus, argued,‘Don’t give these people their’ rim’ (i.e. rations or rightful dues). Note: Let at this point be known that we should perhaps restate a fact that is probably not obvious for everyone. The Kenisha never questioned the propriety of mutual intercessions (i.e.‘praying for each other’) here on earth, i.e. in atsädä siga (the realm of the body).What they questioned was the propriety and ‘biblical legitimacy’ of praying for or entreating the prayers of the departed, i.e. communicating through intercessions with the departed in atsädä näfs (the realm of the soul or spirit). Furthermore, the Kenisha felt that the unique and utterly sufficient role of Christ as the Mediator of Mankind before the Father should be underlined.

Abbat Haile Yesus continued to argue to not let them enter the church. "I excommunicate all those who associate with them", he said. Let him who has the power to excommunicate do like wise!’ At this, all the monks present said, ‘We have excommunicated!’Then Qeshi Gebremedhin replied, ‘Behold, my master! How can they excommunicate us while we stand here before the law? Isn’t this like deciding that a person be made to forfeit his cattle before he is convicted or that he be made to lose his wife before he is divorced?’ At this stage, some elders like Ayte Barya’ou from Shiketi and Kentiba Zemouy from Tseazzega stood up and pleaded with those who had uttered the excommunications: ‘Restrain yourselves! Unbind your excommunications!’However, the former said, ‘We shall not!’We then replied, ‘Well then, we too have authority, just as you do. We would have excommunicated you. However, since you are rulers of the land and the bestowers of worldly appointments, let a thousand carpets full of gold and a thousand slaves bearing guns, protect you. We then pronounced, ’Don’t give them their ‘rim’ and don’t associate with them.’ The judges told us, ’Go home.Let your mutual excommunications remain in force.’ We spent the night at our homes and they spent the night locked in church. On the morrow, mediators came to us and told us ’Keep to the Bible, which is lofty enough. Don’t refer to questions’.

We answered, "as long as we have the Bible we have everything we need in it. Indeed, that is why we preach on the basis of the Bible ". Having said this,we considered the matter, approved of their request and agreed to become reconciled. The mediators then took us to the church where they were. After the reconciliation we greeted and embraced each other. We then spent two days discussing books. At last we agreed that we would rectify wrong practices inthe church. Having agreed that we would meet at Miku ’at Meret on the feast of Be’alizgi in Meskerem, we parted company.

A Good Will Visit to Debre Bizen

Qeshi Haile-Ab and Habte-Giorgis of the Evangelical group paid a goodwill visit to Debre Bien before the date of the coming meeting at Miku’at Meret, hoping to facilitate the dialogue that had been started. They were given the cold shoulder. The proposed October meeting was postponed to Be’alzgi in Tiqimti, i.e. the 29th of Tiqimti (ca the 7th of November).On the day of the meeting, the Evangelicals felt that the atmosphere between the two parties had deteriorated. A spirit of confrontation had replaced that of dialogue. According to the narrative in Berhan Yekun, the friendly and conciliatory Blatta Gebre-Kidan was left out of the negotiations,intentionally. Soldiers who belonged to Ra’isi Barya’ou were sent to arrest and take Qeshi Haile-Ab, Qeshi Selomon, Qeshi Gebre-Medhin and Habte-Giorgis to Areza, where they were made to stand before Ra’isi Barya’ou.

The priests of Evangelical conviction were openly ridiculed and stripped of their priestly head covers and attires. Issues which the Evangelicals had questioned, like the mediatory roles of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus, saints, the righteous, the martyrs, angels,the Tabot (Ark of the Covenant), the cross, sacred images, and certain regulations on fasting, were taken up and discussed. No agreement could be reached on the debated questions. At last the monks of Debre Bizen pleaded with Ra’isi Barya’ou that the accused be forgiven “for today”.They continued,if they sin in like manner in the future, we elders who live in our monastery shall keep an eye on them. If we send them back to you, do what you want with them. We would then be free from any responsibility for them.Then the Ra’isi replied, ‘ Since they are priests from the jurisdiction of my friend Hailu (Note: Degiat Hailu who was the prince of Tseazzega was a close friend of the Swedish missionary, Lager) I shall have mercy on them for today.’ He then asked the accused,’Do you prefer religion or punishment?’ And our brothers answered, ’When did we ever abandon the faith of the prophets and the apostles?’ At this reply, theRa’isi answered, ’In that case, swear not to abandon the faith of the prophets and apostles and the Three Hundred!’ They agreed not to. Then, Matthew 25:41-46 was read, after which they gave their oath to abide by the promise they had given.

The Ra’isi added, ‘If I hear, from now on, such an accusation against you, woe to you! You will be responsible for the consequences.’ He then released them and sent them away on bail, for a small sum of money. On their way to their home region they reasoned, ’ As far as faith is concerned, what else did the prophets and apostles have, except faith in God? And as far as The Three Hundred are concerned, what else did they have except the faith in the Trinity which they had formulated at Nicaea? What was the point of binding us by oath on such obvious matters’, they said, laughing as they moved homeward. And those of our colleagues who had stayed at home received them with joy. Alas, their joy and laughter was not to last long. Soon, persecution,flight, fear, exile to the burning heat and humidity of the Red Sea coast,hunger and thirst, were to become their lot.

Birhan Yikun- A Mirror of the Historical, Cultural, and Religious Features of Highland Eritrea

As already mentioned, the narrative in Birhan Yikun is, in many ways, a mirror of the historical, cultural, social and religious features of life among the Orthodox Tewahdo. It reflects the tenor of the times when Swedish missionaries and the Kenisha were slowly starting to gain a foot hold on the Orthodox highlands of Hamasen.

The narrative reflects quite a homogeneous Orthodox society in which local chiefs and leaders of the church worked in concert,listening to complaints and litigation. These leaders also meted out punishment or took measures to reconcile the conflicting parties.The power to excommunicate that the Orthodox priest possessed was held in high respect. In the course of the conflict, priests representing the Orthodox Tewhado Church and those Orthodox priests who had arrived at Evangelical convictions excommunicated each other. Others, both civic and church authorities, pleaded with the conflicting parties to lift or take back their excommunication. Berhan Yikun reflects a rural communal tradition in which efforts were made to iron out conflicts, through the offices of elders and men of authority. The highland society where the Kenisha found themselves was a society in which religious, social, political and cultural issues were intimately tided to each other. To abandon the Orthodox Tewahdo faith was to forfeit ones right to live in peace in the village of one's forefathers.

Next, Part Four On Kunama

A Conversation with Pastor Ezra Gebremedhin

Part Two


Issayas: You are Aboi Woldeab Woldemariam's nephew. I have a good friend, Dr. Nicole Saulsberry, who wrote her dissertation on Aboi Woldeab. I'm always urging her to publish it. Do you know if Aboi Woldeab had kept a diary or notes on events. If so, have you thought of writing a book about Aboi Woldeab using private (family) and public records?

Pastor Ezra: Yes I have a small notebook with material from an interview that I had with Aboi Woldeab. I don't know when and how I can use these notes, which were taken when he lived with us here in Uppsala for some months in the 1980s. I am sure that most of the things that he told me are things that he had told others. But, I haven't looked at these notes for some time.

Issayas: I read the late Prof. Gustav Aren's two books (Evangelical Pioneers in Ethiopia and Envoys of the Gospel in Ethiopia) about 8 years ago. What are the similarities and differences between your upcoming book and Prof. Aren's books?

The late Prof. Gustav Aren and Pastor Ezra Gebremedhin

Pastor Ezra: Let me say that the book [whose subtitle is "The Roots and Development of The Evangelical Church of Eritrea 1866-1935" (Allow me to keep the main title a secret!)] is basically a work of the late Karl-Johan Lundstrom, a missionary of the Swedish Evangelical Mission (SEM) to Eritrea. Several sections of the coming book build on material from Gustav Aren's Evangelical Pioneers in Ethiopia (1978) and, to a lesser extent, his Envoys of the Gospel in Ethiopia (1999). This is not surprising. The book must begin with an introduction into the historical background of the Evangelical Church of Eritrea (ECE). Not all future readers of the present book would have read Prof. Aren's books. Furthermore, the material taken from Aren is particularly appropriate for Eritrea and the ECE, though Gustav uses the same material as a prelude to the history of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). However, the present book by Karl Johan Lundstrom has given me a good deal of new knowledge about the history of the SEM and its mission in Eritrea, and the "prehistory" of the ECE. This is particularly true of Karl Johan Lundstrom's material on the history and culture of the Kunama and the Mensa. Furthermore, I have been impressed by K.J Lundstrom's contributions to our knowledge of the involvement of the Italian colonial powers, the Catholic Church and Catholic mission activity in the work and life of the SEM and the Evangelical community. The accounts on the roles played by missionaries from the Waldensian Church (a Protestant minory) in Italy in the work of the SEM and the ECE have also been very enlightening. Finally, it has been most revealing for me to read about some highly gifted, dedicated but stubborn Swedish missionary personalities on the mission field.The late Karl Johan Lundstrom

Let me explain to you as to how I came into the picture. Some three months before his death in December 2003, Karl Johan called me in Uppsala to tell me of the state of his health and to ask me to take over and complete the task of recording the history of the ECE. I couldn't believe my ears when he told me that the doctors had diagnosed an advance state of cancer. I visited Karl Johan and his wife, Maj-Britt at their home in the small community of Eksjo in the province of Smaland. My intention was to see him in person and to receive some more specific information and directions on the work he had started, before he became too weak to share information with me. We talked about the assignment in somewhat general terms. Even though he showed me some chapters of the emerging history of the ECE and some of the notes on which he had based his work , he felt that there was no need for any special hurry on specific directives to me. I must admit that I was a little uncertain about his optimism at the time. I continued my journey to Uppsala and never saw Karl Johan again. In hindsight, I must admit that the lack of a clearly defined mandate has led to uncertainty and unnecessary delays.


Next, part three.

A Conversation with Pastor Ezra Gebremedhin

Pastor Ezra Gebremedhin


A brief background note.

About a month or so ago, Seble Ephrem sent me an e-mail after she read an interview that I did with ELEM (Eritrean Life and Entertainment Magazine: http://www.elemonline.com) for their latest issue(July/Sept. 2009) . Seble liked what I had to say in the interview and informed me that I needed to contact Pastor Ezra Gebremedhin because according to Seble, Pastor Ezra had finalized writing a book on the history of the Evangelical Church of Eritrea (ECE). I contacted Pastor Ezra and he was willing to do an interview with me for my blog.

I would like to thank Seble for passing the information and for Pastor Ezra for his patience( from my endless and constant nagging) and graciousness. Since most of the questions that I had asked Pastor Ezra were already in his book, I'll present the truncated answers in parts.

This is part one.


Issayas :Can you tell my readers(briefly) about yourself?

Pastor Ezra Gebremedhin: I was born in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia on November 17, 1936 and received my B.A. from the University of Addis Abeba in 1957. I left for St. Paul, Minnesota the same year on a scholarship from the Lutheran World Federation. I received my M.A. in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) and my B.D. from the Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. I took a year of internship at the Ethiopian Evangelical College in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia, between 1960 and 1961 (the year of the coup d'etat by the bothers Mengistu and Germame Neway). Upon my return to Ethiopia in 1963, I was made the Executive Secretary of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) in which capacity I served up to 1966. Ordained in 1964, I served as pastor of the oldest Mekane Yesus congregation in Addis Abeba until 1970, when I left for Sweden for further studies. I was awarded a Doctor of Divinity at the University of Uppsala in 1977 and taught Theology between 1977 and 2000, the last fifteen years as Assistant Professor at the Theological Faculty of Uppsala University. From my Kenisha parents, who had moved to Ethiopia from the then Italian colony of Eritrea in the early 1920s, my siblings and I received a deep and lasting impression of the Evangelical faith which had nurtured them in the Eritrea of their youth. I have served as pastor among Diaspora Eritreans and Ethiopians of Evangelical Lutheran persuasion here in Sweden. My wife Gennet Awalom, also a person of Eritrean background, and I have three children and seven grandchildren. We are residents of Uppsala, Sweden.

Issayas: Can you tell us briefly, what was the story behind the establishment of the Evangelical Church of Eritrea?

Pastor Ezra: During the latter part of the 19th century there was a growing concern in missionary circles, especially in Great Britain, about ways of conducting mission and organizing indegnous Christians into churches. The motto, "A Self-governing and Self-propagating Church" had been adopted but, at the beginning, it didn't quite seem to catch. In time, it became the cornerstone of the Protestant missionary policy in Africa. The organization of the Church on the basis of a democratic constitution was meant to guarantee independence under African leadership.

In 1920 a newly appointed Mission Secretary, Nils Dahlberg, visited the SEM (Swedish Evangelical Mission) field in India and together with the Rev. P.O.Froberg, who was then the chairman of the mission conference, raised questions regarding the organization of the local church. Dalhberg presented a proposal for a church constitution to the India Field Conference and to the Board in Sweden. The constitution was solemnly approved at a conference in Chindwara on February 9, 1923. The name of the new church was to be "The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Central Province". 31 delegates from different congregations and 7 missionaries were present at the meeting. A Synodical Council was set up, consisting of one missionary, three Indians and the President. The new church elected Rev. P.E. Froberg, who was also the chairman of the Field Conference, as President. Missionaries continued to hold the office of Church President up to 1945 when the office was transferred to an Indian, The Rev. Emanuel Raman.

Nils Dahlberg, Mission Director of the SEM, arrived in Eritrea just before Easter 1925, following a visit to Ethiopia in 1924. On Palm Sunday a gubae (meeting) was held in Asmara with some 1200 participants. The Mission Secretary was given a warm reception and he made a deep impression by his happy and dashing appearance and, even more, by his powerful preaching and the contributions he made during the conversations. Many Kenisha came to remember him and to compare his visit with that of Professor Kolmodin in 1909-1910. Dahlberg underlined the view that a growing congregation must strive to become self-supporting, self-governing and self-propagating.

This philosophy had been propagated by Prof. Kolmodin 17 years earlier, but had not, due to many unfavorable conditions, been realized as yet. A committee was selected to prepare a proposal for a church constitution "in close keeping with the pattern of our sister fields in India and South Africa." Another important question was the upgrading of the education of indegenous co-workers. This proposal too was accepted at the mission conference in the autumn of 1925 and referred to the Board that gave its full approval. The hopes of Iwarson (the Field Director of SEM in Eritrea) were evidently not limited to the Church in Eritrea. Earlier on, in a letter to Dahlberg, Iwarson had expressed interest in seeing the formation of a wider organization that would include the Church in "Southern Ethiopia", possibly also the Presbyterians. He had also discussed the matter with Karl Nystrom of the Bible True Friends, who had shown interest in participating in such an organization.

The First Synodical meeting, which constituted the Evangelical Church of Eritrea (ECE), was held in Sept. 1926. 34 participants were present, 12 of these were pastors, 12 were laymen from the congregations and 10 were missionaries. The main item was the election of a president. This position went to Rev. Iwarson. Pastor Tewlde-Medhin Gebre-Medhin was elected Vice-President, while others were elected to different offices.

Next, part two.

A conversation with Adiam Berhane

Issayas Tesfamariam: First thank you for your time and for all the lovely pictures. Can you briefly tell my readers about yourself?

Adiam Berhane: My name is Adiam Berhane. I was born in Asmara, but I left for Milan, Italy when I was two-years old. I was in Italy until I was almost 10, at which time we moved to Washington D.C. My parents owned a very successful Eritrean restaurant in D.C.I went to Blessed Sacrament, Washington Ethical H.S. , Howard University ( Political Science and History) and Georgetown Law School. I do not practice law. I have worked in the entertainment field since graduating from school. I do brand management for magazines and record labels.

Issayas: What kind of law did you study at Georgetown Law School?

Adiam: I started out wanting to do international law, but ended up studying entertainment law.

Issayas: You mentioned that you do brand management for magazines and record labels. Can you elaborate?

Adiam: I have done brand management for Unleashed Magazine, Vibe and Source. I worked in artist management with Black Friday , we had a deal with Def Jam. I have also consulted for Czar Entertainment. The smaller labels I have worked with are Rockafella, Ruff Ryders, and Soul Life.















Adiam with Jerry Wonder(left) and Wyclef (above) at a benefit for Obama in 2008.

Issayas: What is brand management? What kinds of things do you do?

Adiam: Brand management is when you take a brand- a person, a product, a record, a magazine- and manage how they will be presented and marketed. There are different aspects of it , whether you are there at the beginning of the launch of the product or if you have to come in for a revamp. In brand management you have to make sure the brand is legally sound-trademarks,etc..., after that you establish a goal with your client and it goes from there. If I have a client who tells me that they are looking for a younger audience, then I'll have to work on the product and marketing to make sure that the intended audience is reached. I often have to revamp the websites of companies or even make sure they have a web presence. The work you do depends on the client. Like yourself, a filmmaker, we would talk about what it is that you want to, what type of film you would like to make etc.. That is, it is a matter of looking at your product and determining the best way for you to reach your desired target-audience and how to translate that into revenue for you. There would be cross marketing and a bunch of other stuff. It's is too long to explain on a short conversation.

Issayas: You just came back from Eritrea. How long were you there? And what was your impression?

Adiam: I was in Eritrea from May 5th to June 5th. I spent my first day and my last day at the Asmara Children Home. This is the orphanage in Asmara, and I went the first day to take the two suitcases of stuff I brought for the kids and the last day I had a cake made for them and I went to say goodbye. The place is immaculate and the children are very well taken care of. It impressed me very much, the level of care they were receiving. I stopped by unannounced so there was no time to "stage" anything. The cafes , especially Modka, became a very delicious routine for me. I was impressed by the tech savvy-ness of the young people in Eritrea. There must be an internet cafe on every block-or two per block! I found wireless internet and excellent food at the Midian Hotel , so I became a regular there. I would sit in the lobby and have a cappuccino while working on my laptop.The cleanliness of Eritrea was inspiring.

Issayas: When did you visit Eritrea prior to your last visit?

Adiam: I was there five years ago which is was too long. I am going to try and go every year like my mother. It is so hard for me to take a continuous month off, but I think with better internet connection I will be able to do that. My mother goes for longer, at least 2 months more like 3 ! I think that I will go yearly even if I cannot stay a whole month.

Issayas: Talking about young people being tech savvy in Eritrea, a couple of years ago, we filmed at the Midian hotel. It's a nice place. What impressed me the most during that filming was that their IT person (a young man who has his own company) had created a software that tallies the accounts, and other things. This is a software created in Eritrea by Eritreans. (Note: you can check out their website at http://www.midianhotel.com)



Pictures from Midian Hotel website

Adiam: The young people in Eritrea are all online, chatting, sharing their music and movies with their flash-drives, and they can surf the web with the greatest of ease. Cell phones are common. They watch their favorite shows-such as Prison Break- before they are on TV by going online. There are also iPods and MP3 players all over the place. They are very aware of tech terms and the latest advances in technology. About Midian hotel, the hotel is located behind Nyala building. There is internet connection in every room, there is a business center with computers and faxes, and there is wi-fi connection throughout the common areas. I found the place because my godfather took me to see his photos that are hanging there. I was more thrilled about the wireless connection. I ended up having lunch there one day and the food was better than anything I had had. The place is spotless, the bathrooms alone are worth going there. Yemane, the owner, told me it is because he integrates himself into everything. There were many journalists and foreigners who were staying there. By the way , there is wireless connection at several other hotels. I helped a couple of guys out who are web designers and also did the wireless for Midian and they said that the government was spending some serious money to get broadband over there. Also , the majority of the art and painting he has there are by Eritreans or of Eritrea. Did I tell you I got to see and meet Abraham Sahle, the noted Eritrean artist?

Issayas: No you didn't.














Abraham Sahle
















































Examples of Abraham Sahle's paintings.

Issayas: Did you have a chance to visit different parts of Eritrea? Where did you visit?

Adiam: I was very lucky on my trip because my godfather Girmay Gerenzei is a noted photographer, and actually his dad (who recently passed) is noted as being Eritrea's first professional photographer. Girmay took me everywhere, with a history lesson to go with it, and best of all he knew the best spots to take photographs all over Eritrea. We went to Massawa and he took me to the old mosque, it is small, and not open to the public. It is one of only two mosques built during the Prophet Mohammed's time. It is different in the sense that all mosques face Mecca, but since there was no Mecca at the time , this one faces Jerusalem.

















I went to Isola Verde, a few minutes by motorboat from Massawa. I spent a very beautiful and lazy day swimming there with my grandmother. The best part about Massawa was seeing the unfinished Dahlak hotel. The owner, Primo, is a friend of my parents and he was also in Italy. Primo is a very proud Eritrean and he has made huge contributions. He also owns the Keren Hotel. He grew up dirt poor in Asmara but has become quite successful. The place is a labor of love, it is beautiful just amazing. I saw the new four-lane road in Ginda which is more than impressive.

Massawa
















Interior of Keren Hotel in Asmara .
























New road in Ginda. It's four lanes and very wide so that large trucks
do not have to take the narrower road.

Girmay stopped all over for me take photos. We went to Keren, and the most amazing thing there was the new St. Antonio church. It was entirely designed and built by Eritreans. The priest told me that they didn't receive a single penny from the Vatican. This is one of the most beautiful places of worship I have ever seen. The road was great, and we stopped at the new Costina Hotel in Keren and had really good mango juice. The fruit and tea in Keren were great. I saw the shrine of Miriam Dearit. The farms on the way to Keren are huge and gorgeous.

The new church in Keren.
































































Shrine of Mariam Dearit.
















The new Costina Hotel in Keren












New Bank in Keren.













Sarina Hotel, Keren




























Azel pharmaceutical company in Keren

Issayas: Thank you for sharing with me the pictures that you took in Eritrea. I noticed that you visited the synagogue in Asmara. Can you tell me about it?

Adiam: Girmay took me to see Sam Cohen, who runs the Sinagoga di Asmara . It's only block from Girmay's Foto Asmarina, so we walked there. Sam Cohen is an Italian Sephardic Jew, whose family is from Yemen. Eritrea had a large Jewish population at one point.The Sinagoga (synagogue) is a beautiful building. The women pray upstairs and the men downstairs. Sam showed me their shofar, he said they were very proud of it, and apparently it is the envy of many synagogues. He said he is the one that blows in on Rosh Hashana. He then opened up the archives for me and it surely is a treasure trove. There were posters from the books- Jews in Eritrea- and the movie Shalom, Asmara. I never even knew the two existed. There were pictures of president Issias Afeworki celebrating at the Israeli Embassy. There was a camp photo of the 400 Jews that were arrested and jailed in Eritrea during British occupation. I remember reading about Mossad leader Rafi Eitan and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir being prisoners in Eritrea but here was a picture. He even found some old Encode beef bullion which was made in Eritrea and was kosher. It was a treat for a history buff like me. Sam Cohen told me that when the Jews escaped from Asmara, Sembel they did so by digging some tunnels. He said that those escape routes/tunnels have never been discovered.













Exterior of the synagogue in Asmara
















Sam Cohen showing his shofar which he argues is the envy of many synagogues.































































































Below: From the Archives of Asmara Synagogue











































Visit of Chief Rabbi Yizhak (Isaac) Herzog to Eritrea in 1946.
He was Chief Rabbi of Ireland (1919-1936) and Chief Rabbi
of the British Mandate of Palestine(1936-1948)












































Incode beef bullion

Issayas: Adiam, thank you so much for you time and for giving me the opportunity to talk to you about your trip. And again, thank you for sharing your beautiful pictures with us .

Adiam: No problem.

June 20th: Eritrean Martyrs' Day

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance"

Asmara: City of Radiance. A trailer

KIDANE KIFLU AND THE JACK KRAMER PAPERS: ADDENDUM

KIDANE KIFLU AND THE JACK KRAMER PAPERS: ADDENDUM


In my previous series of postings entitled " Kidane Kiflu and the Jack Kramer Papers", I mentioned that the research was on-going. The continuing research for the aforementioned led me to two interviews that were conducted by Gunther Schroder. From the 1980's to early 1990's, Gunther Schroder interviewed, what would be considered a WHO'S WHO list of people from ELF and Harakat (ELM). (Note: He also interviewed very few people from EPLF. During that period he interviewed over 50 people).

Going through the transcripts of the above mentioned interviews, two interviews grabbed my attention. The first was Gunther's interview with Abdella Hassan Ali. If you recall, Abdella Hassan Ali was one of the fighters (the other being Aberra Mekonnen) who accompanied Jack Kramer from Kassala to the field in 1968. I'll present part of the transcript that relates to Kidane Kiflu and Jack Kramer. I'll present the second interview in its entirety.

The reason why I started writing "Kidane Kiflu and the Jack Kramer Papers" was because of Kidane's letters to Jack Kramer. The letters are located at the Hoover Institution in Palo Alto. The letters reveal the political maturity of Kidane. In the letters, Kidane was reflecting his and his comrade-in-arms sentiment of the time and their vision for the future of Eritrea's struggle for independence. For the purpose of this article, his comrade-in-arms included people like Tekue Yehdego, Wolderufael Sebhatu, Mehari Debesai and others. The same people were mentioned by General Ghirmay Mehari and Naizghi Kiflu in part VII of "Kidane Kiflu and the Jack Kramer Papers".

I found some letters that Tekue Yehdego, Wolderufael Sebhatu and Mehari Debesai wrote (separately) to the Eritreans in the diaspora. The letters were written in the early 1970's. I'll post samples of their letters in another time. Suffice it to say, despite their young age, what makes all their respective letters (including Kidane's) valuable is the similarity of their sharp analysis, the clarity of their message, their organzitional ability, their boldness, their humbleness, their politness, their determination, their resolve and focus.

Here is an excerpt from the transcript of Gunther’s interview with Abdalla Hassan Ali.

ABDALLA HASSAN ALI
On The Student Movement In Asmara And History Of ELF
Kassala/13-02-1991/Arabic/English (Translator: Tesfay Weldemikiel)
Transcript read and corrected by Abdalla Hassan Ali summer 1991

Gunther: When you came to Kassala it was the time when the Harakat Eslah and the movement of the fighters were agitating there. What where the issues and how did you participate in those activities?

Abdalla Hassan Ali: At that time in Kassala the general atmosphere was intensifying in calling for the unity of the zones, also there was slogan about there should be one leadership and its center must be the field, that the congress should be held and also there were slogans calling for the programmatic declaration of ELF. In Kassala there were many houses which belonged to the different zones, these centers accepted the fighters who came either for rest or for treatment but all the fighters used to gather and to exchange ideas. And also there were people entering Kassala from different zones and the organized people in Sudan also had the same sentiments and views of this general at¬mosphere. So being in Kassala at this time I participated in the activities calling for the unity of ELA and the establishment of one leadership whose center would be in the field. There was no difference between the general sentiment of those fighters and people here in Kassala and the Harakat Eslah. And finally the task was done jointly. From Harakat Eslah there were Abdelqader Remadan, Abdalla Suleiman, Kidane Kiflu and others. So even this expresses the general sentiment of the situation. There was no difference, we can not see them as different groups. We were doing meetings together. Although we can't say that this gives a form of two bodies, from those who were known as army committee were such persons as Abubaker Mehamed Jime, one martyr called Abdalla Talodi, Abdalla Mehamed, Taha Ibrahim, Mehamed Nur and also Idris "Sharif".

Gunther:How did it come about that Aberra Mekonnen and you were given the assignment to accompany Jack Kramer to the field eventhough you were active in the movement of the fighters? Was Aberra also of this movement?

Abdalla Hassan Ali:Aberra Mekonnen was with us also in these activities. When he came to the field he directly came to Kassala before even taking a military training and he participated di¬rectly in this situation. At that time, even though the Harakat Eslah and the movement of the fighters were present, this does not mean that the relations between the fighters participating in them and the Revolutionary Command did not exist. For example, Said Saber has been working in the information Department, Welday was a member of the Revolutionary Command and
Kidane Kiflu and myself were under the Kiada Sewriya. When this American journalist came it was seen that the Americans still do not have a clear assessment of the situation. So it was organized that if this American goes to the field and writes of what he sees it would be for the benefit of the revolution. So I and Aberra Mekonnen were ordered to go with Jack Kramer to the field. We were not long with him, we accompanied him from Kassala to Barka, we visited some place in Barka and then, because he had to meet some units in the 2nd zone and then enter
to Keren, he was given some fighters who accompanied him and they directed him to zone no. 2 and with Aberra Mekonnen I returned to Kassala with his documents and films.

Gunther: When you came to Kassala in 1968 what was then the relationshiop betwen the ELF and the Sudanese government? Was there a tendency of the government to impose restrictions on the activities of the ELF in Sudan?

Abdalla Hassan Ali:At that time, of course, I was new in Sudan and how the government of Sudan functioned and what its relation to the revolution was, I did not know. But what I had come in contact with was that the Sudanese authorities were arresting some fighters who were released after paying some fees. The members of the Kiada Sewriya were mainly operating underground and the activities of the Ethiopians also intensified. They have been throwing
some bombs in the Western Gash area of Kassala against the Sudanese petrol distribution area to threaten them, This was the general information I had, but I realy did not know what was going on.

Gunther:What did you do after you returned to Kassala with the materials of Kramer?

Abdalla Hassan Ali: After the formation of the Tripartite Unity I went to that area and with me were many other fighters who were sent to the field in many directions and with the same ideas we had we joined the units in the different zones. I went to Akele Guzay and joi¬ned the unit called seriya 8. Seriya 8 at that time had about 150 fighters. In the Tri-partite Unity there were at least eight seriya but also independent gantas for guerilla activities. I did not participate in the Adobha Congress. I continued in this seriya in Akele Guzay. Its commander was Umer Suba. I stayed with this unit till the Tekhlit of Tahra. After that some units were sent to the vicinity of Asmara. After the merger of the army new units were formed and it was also decided to send guerilla units around every town. Saleh ad-Din Abdalla and myself were given the duty to organize inside Asmara, Mahmud Hazeb was sent to Aqerdat, a certain Mehamed Yazin to Mas¬sawa, Suleiman Musa Haj to Keren, Mehamed Taher to Mendefera. The guerilla units were given the tasks of organization around Asmara and inside the town. When I returned responsible for organizing the city I found everything had come to a new situation, that the Ethiopians intensified their campaign to arrest the ELF members. So we began to organize the city according to the acquaintances we had. We also tried to recruit new elements. At that time to operate in Asmara was very difficult. Besides this task of organizing the guerilla units had other tasks which can be identified as military operations and political agitation around Asmara.Our main camps we were depending on, were in the area of Mensa up to Ad Shumer (Filfil, Agenat). When we tried to go up to the Highlands we couldn't even stay for half an hour, just after some time the Ethiopians used to arrive. So, the center being these lowland areas gradually we were
managing to expand our activities, to create cells in the villages, to get information and to return back. We had cells inside the villages, we got information from them and sometimes we came into contact with some persons who came from Asmara and organized them. But we were always returning hastily. For example, we first met in She'eb, Selemona, some teachers and we mandated them to carry our mission. Concerning the acceptance of the people, of course, because there is an intensive enemy pressure in that area, there were difficulties, but those who came into contact with us from Asmara were mainly composed of Christians and we fighters, our units, were both composed of Christians and Muslims. So, especially in our task, when we come to work, the general national sentiment was dominating. And when we were inside Asmara, Muslims and Christians were working together. I did this work up to October 1970. Then I was captured on October 13, 1970 inside Asmara, but Saleh ad-Din Abdalla carried on with our work after I was arrested. I was about 6 months in prison, then in April 1971 Mehamed Amir "Kabli", who was captured at Massawa, and myself, we escaped from the prison by digging our way out. After I fled from the prison, I was mainly on treatment in Kassala and Khartoum and then I participated in the 1st National Congress.


Below is the transcript of Gunther's interview

L. BAIRU
On the events of 1969/1970 in Kassala.
Kassala. March 21, 1989/translated Tigrigna to English by Gebray Weldeselase.

I'm more than 35 years in Kassala. Many people in Kassala were killed at that time. These two were killed out of the six of the pC in Kassala. Mesfin Hagos was supposed to be killed with them. He was here in Kassala when they called him, he told them he has a job right now. After this Time, Mehari was in Khartoum. After they were killed he came and took their belongings to send them to their families. They were the ones to make contact with the Sudanese government. If any fighter was wounded or in need of any help these people were trying to solve the problem of the fighters in Kassala. Any Eritrean, who had an interest in the revolution, they were helping if any problems or difficulties were happening to him. lf people were kidnapped by the organization these people appealed to the Sudanese police.

Ali Berhatu came from Arab nation. He was responsible for refugees through the ELF. When he arrived, Welday and Kidane took him to the hotel. They suspected "if he sleeps without any guard the opponents may kidnap him and take him to the field." They went to the police station and they requested to give one police to guard him in the hotel. They gave them the police. Then the opposers knew he is sleeping in the hotel and they came the next day by taxi to the hotel and told the police this guy is wanted by the Sheikh of Hilla. They took him to this place. When they dropped him there he was taken by other opponents waiting there by force to the field.Kidane and Welday came to the hotel to find him. They asked the police and the police told them, a member of your organization came and took him by taxi to the Sheikh of Hilla. They were angry with the police but immediately they went to the police sta¬tion and appealed that this man has disappeared from the town. Then the administration of Kassala send a letter to Khartoum that this man had disappeared from Kassala by kidnapping. Then the administration of Khartoum sends a letter to this office to ask the ELF office and force them to bring the man from the field. The police arrested some of the ELF to force them to bring him back. They asked for two months and assured that he is alive. And after 2 months they brought him. He was saved his life because of these two pwople Welday and Kidane. When he came back, they were already killed. Tesfay and Ibrahim were leading with these two. They were in the field, they came to Kassala. Ibrahim was in China for training and educated. Tesfay was an ordinary fighter.

They were newcomers and started simply discussing, talking with other members of the ELF, because they did not know what things were happening in Kassala. Welday and Kidane advised them not to go with the others members and not to separate from them and after some time the opponents understood that the idea of Tesfay and Ibrahim is the same as those of Welday and Kidane. They kidnapped them immediately and took them to Sowake, a garden near Kassala. They killed Ibrahim there, but took Tesfay back to the field. When the two, Welday and Kidane,
appealed to the.police station that Ibrahim and Tesfay had disappeared, then the police arrested some members of ELF and investigated. Then among the members of ELF it was believed that Ibrahim had been killed but they did not find the body.The people who had done it, told actually the police that they had killed him in the garden then. They promised to the police to bring Tesfay back to Kassala. Before they brought Tesfay back Welday and Kidane were assassinated.

ELF got behind Welday Feqaq , one of their members, to bring his wife from Ali Giddir and then to make a feast and to invite Welday and Kidane as otherwise they would not have a chance to touch them. They gave Welday Feqaq money to get these people into his house. He hid 8 persons from the opponents in his house and when these two came to his home, immediately these 8 persons caught them. Welday started to fight and trying to escape. Immediately they killed him by knife in his side. Kidane was gagged and trussed up and tied, then they attend a taxi and they took them away. Kidane was covered by sacks from head to toe. 4 sacks. When they went around Haffera, Welday's dead body dropped from the taxi and the taxi is soiled by blood. A villager who sells milk passed the car and saw this. The taxista and the other people tried to escape from that place and they succeeded.

The villager went to the police station and told there are some dead bodies there. Then the taxista started washing his car. When the police investigated they found him washing his car. When they asked him, he said, people were fighting and I took them to their house. Then the villager, police and the taxi-driver went to the area there and found the dead bodies. They were taken to the police station for investigation. The police asked the taxista how it happened, they beat him to tell the truth. When the police asked the taxista he explained that when someone gave me money to take people that way, I do it, and all police, you know this, that many taxistas do that. The police declared then that he is mad. Then the taxi-driver informed the police
that many taxistas are working like that and many were arrested.

When the other taxi-drivers were questioned, they were released again as there was no evidence against them. Welday Feqaq, the traitor, and two others were arrested at that time by the police. The taxi-driver said, he was called by a fighter called Shinkakay to carry a sick person to the hospital and I came. Shinkakay and one other were arrested. The other six escaped. The taxi-driver claimed to have been forced by Shinkakay by knife to carry the dead bodies. He received 25 Sudanese Pounds and was promised another 25 Pounds. At last, Welday Fekak, his wife, Shinkakay and his friend and the taxi-driver were imprisoned. Shinkakay was sentenced
to death but the ELF office appealed and he was released after some years. The second man was sentenced to 14 years, after 7-8 years in Port Sudan they were released. Welday Fekak and the taxista stayed only one year in prison. The wife was imprisoned for one year only.Kidane was killed when Welday's body fell out of the car. Originally it was planned to take them alive inside for interrogation. From the Harakat many people were killed in Kassala and in the field by the ELF.There were no clubs here for the Christian Eritreans especially because the Sudanese Government would pick them up and return them to Tesseney. Teku, Mehari, Mesfin, Welday and Kidane were secretly working in the house of Letefiel. Teku Yehdego, later killed by ELF, has a child now in Sahel. Was killed about 3-4 years after death of Welday.

General Abraham Hannibal, General Ivan Hannibal, Alexander S. Pushkin and Descandants

FROM THE ERITREAN CAMEL TO THE RUSSIAN DOUBLE-HEADED EAGLE TO THE BRITISH LION (VIA THE GERMAN LION)

PART FIVE (Final)

TO THE BRITISH LION (VIA THE GERMAN LION)

I have left the best for last. As I have presented in the last four parts, the stories of Abraham and his descendants are very remarkable. It even gets amazing. Get hold of a glass of water for the ride. Before you read this article, you probably have wondered what the title of this article (in five parts), “From the Eritrean Camel, to the Russian Double-Headed Eagle, to the British Lion..” is all about. By now, at least,” From the Eritrean Camel, to the Russian Double-Headed Eagle” part should be clear. So, what is the British Lion (symbol of British royalty) via the German Lion (Symbol of the Ducal House of Nassau) is all about? This is the rest of the story.


Pushkin’s Second Generation (Abraham’s Fifth Generation)

As I have already mentioned earlier, Alexander S. Pushkin and Natalia Gonchorova had four children. From the oldest to the youngest were : 1. Maria (1832-1919) 2. Alexander (1833- 1914) 3. Gregory (1835-1905) and 4. Natalia (1836-1913).

1. Maria married Gartug in 1860.

2. Alexander married his first wife, Sofia Alza Linskina in 1858 and had eleven children. They were, Natalia, Sofia, Maria, Alex, Olga, Anna, Gregory Peter, Nadjeda , Vera and Sergei. Alexander married his second wife Maria Alexievna Vallava in 1883 and had two children. And they were Nicholai and Elena.

3. Gregory married Barbara A. Melnikava in 1883 and had Polina, Nina and Yevlalia.

4. Natalia (pictured below was the connection for this part of the story).
Natalia married Prince Nicholas of Nassau (a German prince) in 1868. Since the marriage was considered unequal because Natalia was not of royal blood, a new morgantic title was created for her and her children. The title was created for her by Furst Georg III and acknowledged by H.I.M. King Wilhelm of Prussia (Genealogy of the Imperial Family of Russia). As a result of the morgantic marriage, Natalia became Countess of Merenberg. (Note: There were many morgantic marriages earlier, however, today it is a common practice. For example, Prince Andrew’s marriage to Sara --Duchess of York etc.) Based on this practice, the children of the marriage were also accorded the same title. Therefore, the three children of Natalia and Nicholas of Nassau, became:

A. Countess Sofia Von Merenberg (1868-1927)

B. Countess Alexandrine Von Merenberg (1869-1950) and

C. Count George Von Merenberg (1871-1948)

Pushkin’s Third Generation (Abraham’s Sixth Generation)

A. Countess Sofia Von Merenberg (pictured on the left) married H.I.H Mikhael Mihailovich Romanov in 1891. (Note: Grand Duke Mikhael Mihailovich was the grandson of Czar Nicholas I and the brother of the last Czar of Russia, Czar Nicholas II. If you recall, it was Czar Nicholas I who informed Pushkin that he (the Czar) would be his censor. It is ironic that the descendants of Czar Nicholas I and Pushkin would marry each other. In other words, Czar Nicholas I and Pushkin after their death had become grand parent -in-laws.) Because of the morgantic nature of this union, a new title was created for Countess Sofia Von Merenberg and her children. The created title was Countess De Torby. And the title was created by H.R.H. Grand Duke Adolphe I of Luxembourg (Genealogy of the Imperial Family of Russia). The children were :

A1. Countess Anastasia De Torby, Zia (1892-1977)
A2. Countess Nadejda De Torby, Nada (1896-1963)
A3. Count Michael De Torby (1898-1959)

B. Countess Alexandrine Von Merenberg married Massim De Elia in 1914.

C. Count George Von Merenberg married his first wife H.H. Princess Olga Yourevsky Romanov (daughter of Czar Alexander II) in 1895. (Both pictured on the left). They had three children and they were:

C1. Count Alexander Von Merenberg (1896-1897)
C2. Count Georg Michael Von Merenberg (1897-1965) and
C3. Countess Olga Von Merenberg (1898-1983).

(Note: Grand Duke William of Luxembourg, who was the uncle of the Von Merenbergs, faced a choice as to who should succeed him. The choice was between George, Count of Merenberg and abrogation of the Sallic Law, which excluded female succession. The Luxembourg Parliament chose the latter allowing Charlotte to claim as Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. (Pushkin Genealogy). Racism Ala royalty. Count George Von Merenberg married his second wife Adelheid (Ada) Brambeer in 1930)


Pushkin’s Fourth Generation (Abraham’s 7th Generation)

A1 Countess Anastasia De Torby(Zia) married her husband Sir Harold Wernher (baronet) in 1917. (pictured below). (Note: At the time of their marriage, Sir Harold Wernher was considered to be the wealthiest bachelor in England. He had inherited the riches from his father, Sir Julies Wernher, who was one of the “creators” of modern South Africa. Sir Julies Wernher was a financier and mining magnate. He was one of the four original “Life Governors” of De Beers Consolidated Mines. Countess Anastasia’s title was changed to Lady Zia by the King of England. Their children are:

A1A. George Michael Wernher (1918-1942)
A1B. Georgina Wernher (1919-
A1C. Myra Alice Wernher (1925-


A2 Countess Nadejda De Torby (Nada)

Countess Nadejda De Torby (Nada) married George Mountbatten (formerly Battenberg) in 1916. (pictured below). (Note: George Mountbatten was the 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven and great grandson of Queen Victoria, the sibling of Queen Louise of Sweden and uncle of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh (husband of Queen Elizabeth of England). He was also the older brother of Earl Mountbatten of Burma who was the last viceroy of India. It must be noted too that when Prince and Princess Andrew of Greece -the parents of Prince Philip –were exiled at the beginning of the war, Prince Philip was sent to stay with Countess Nada and George Mountbatten. (Genealogy of Pushkin). As a result, the son of Nada and George, David, was like a brother to Prince Philip. As a matter of fact, David 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven was the best man at the wedding of Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth, later Queen. George and Nada had two children and they were:

A2A. Lady Tatiana Mountbatten (1917-1988)
A2B. David Michael Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford haven.(1919-1970)

C2. Count George Michael Von Merenberg

Count George Michael Von Merenberg married Paulette in 1926 and divorced. He then married his second wife Elizabeth Anne Muller in 1940 and had one daughter from his second marriage namely:

C2A. Countess Elisabth Clotilde Von Merenberg (1941-

C3. Countess Olga Von Merenberg

Countess Olga Von Merenberg married Count Michail Loris-Melikov in 1923. And had:

C3A. Count Alexander Loris-Melikov

Pushkin’s Fifth Generation (Abraham’s 8th Generation)
A1B. Georgina Wernher
Georgina Wernher married her first husband Harold Philips in 1944. (pictured on the left) Their children are:

A1B1. Alexandra Anastasia Philips (1946 -
A1B2. Nicholas Harold Philips(1947-1991), godson of Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh
A1B3. Fiona Mercedes Philips (1951 -
A1B4. Marita Georgina Philips (1954 -
A1B5. Natalia Ayesha Philips (1959 -

Georgina married her second husband Sir George Kennard (baronet) in 1992 thus became Lady Kennard.

A1C. Myra Alice Wernher

Myra Alice Wenher married Sir David Butter in 1946. Their children are:

A1C1. Sandra Elizabeth Butter(1948 - (god-daughter of Queen Elizabeth II)
A1C2. Marlyn Davina Butter (1950 -
A1C3. Rohays Georgina Butter (1952 -
A1C4. Georgina Marguerite Butter (1956 -
A1C5. Charles Butter (1960 -

A2A. Lady Tatiana had no children

A2B. David Michael Mountbatten

David Michael Mountbatten 3rd Marquis of Milford Haven married his first wife Romaine Pierce in 1950 and divorced her in July 1960. He then remarried Janet Mercedes Bryce in Nov. 1960. From his second wife he had the following children:

A2B1. George Ivar Louis Mountbatten 4th Marquis of Milford Haven (1961 -
A2B2. Lord Ivar Alexander Mountbatten (1963 -

(Note: George Ivar Louis Mountbatten 4th Marquess of Milford Haven and Lord Ivar Alexander Mountbatten are both second cousins to Prince Charles of Wales (the future king of England)

C2A. Countess Elizabeth Clotilde Von Merenberg

Countess Elizabeth Clotilde Von Merenberg married Enno Von Rintelen in 1965 and the children are:

C2A1. Alexander Enno Von Rintelen (1966 -
C2A2. Nicolaus Von Rintelen (1970 -
C2A3. Gregor Von Rintelen (1972 -

C3A. Count Alexander Loris-Melikov

Count Alexander Loris-Melikov married Micheline Pruiner in 1958 and had:

C3A1. Countess Anne Loris-Melikov (1959 -
C3A2. Countess Dominique Loris-Melikov (1961-
C3A3. Countess Nathalie Loris-Melikov (1962 -
C3A4. Count Michael Loris-Melikov (1964 -

Pushkin’s Sixth Generation(Abraham’s Ninth Generation)

A1B1. Alexandra Anastasia Phillips (pictured on the left)

Alexandra Anastasia Phillips married Sir James Hamilton, the 5th Duke of Abercorn. As a result, Alexandra (Sasha) became Duchess of Abercorn. They were married in 1966. Their children are:

A1B1A. James Hamilton, Marquess of Hamilton (1969 - )( godson of Prince Charles)
A1B1B. Lady Sophia Hamilton (1973 -
A1B1C. Lord Nicholas Hamilton (1979 -

A1B2. Nicholas Phillips

Nicholas Phillips married Countess Maria-Lucie Czernin Von Und Zu Chudentiz in 1975. Their children are:

A1B2A. Charlotte Phillips (1976 -
A1B2B. Edward Phillips (1981-

A1B3. Fiona Mercedes Phillips

Fiona Mercedes Phillips married James Burnett of Leys in 1971. Their children are:

A1B3A. Alexander James Burnett of Leys (1973-
A1B3B. Eliza-Amelia Burnett of Leys (1977-
A1B3C. Victor Burnett of Leys (1982-

(Fiona's wedding to James Burnett of Leys. Among the pictured on the left are also Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mother, Zia (all seated from left to right) and standing second from the left, Prince Phillip)

A1B4. Marita Georgina Phillips

Marita Georgina Phillips married Randall Crawley in 1982 and they had:

A1B4A. Adian Crawley (1983 -
A1B4B. Cosima Crawley (1985 -
A1B4C. Galen Crawley (1988 - (godson of Prince Charles)

A1B5. Natalia Ayesha Phillips

Natalia Ayesha Phillips (is pictured standing second from the right) married Sir Gerald Grosvenor 6th Duke of Westminster. Thus making Natalia the Duchess of Westminster. (Note: The 6th Duke of Westminster is Britain’s wealthiest aristocrat and the sixth richest man in Britain. The Duchess is also known as Tally. She was a friend of Princess Diana of Wales and she is the godmother to Prince William--the son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana-. Their children are:

A1B5A. Lady Tamara Grosvenor (1979 -
A1B5B. Lady Edwina Grosvenor, god-daughter of Princess Diana of Wales (1981 -
A1B5C. Hugh Grosvenor, godson of Prince Charles of Wales (1991 -
A1B5D. Lady Viola Grosvenor (1992 -

A1C1. Sandra Elizabeth Butter

Sandra Elizabeth Butter married William David Morrison in 1983 and their children are:

A1C1A. Charles Nicholas Morrison (1985 -
A1C1B. Sophie Natasha Morrison (1987 -

A1C2. Marlyn Davina Butter

Marlyn Davina Butter married James Hubert Ramsay 17th Earl of Dalhousie in 1973. (Pictured on the left. Also pictured is Prince Charles standing second from the left). Their children are:

A1C2A. Lady Lorna Ramsay (1975 -
A1C2B. Lady Alice Ramsay (1977 -
A1C2C. Simon David Ramsay, Viscount Ramsay (1990 -

A1C3. Rohays Georgina Butter

Rohays Georgina Butter married Prince Alexander Galitzine in 1945. Their children are:

A1C3A. Princess Sasha Galitzine (1989 -
A1C3B. Princess Nadezhda Galitzine (1990 -

A1C4. Georgina Marguerite Butter

Georgina Marguerite Butter married Count Peter Pejacsevich De Verocze in 1982 Their children are:

A1C4A. Count Alexander Pejacsevich De Verocze (1988 -
A1C4B. Countess Anastasia Pejacsevich De Verocze (1992 -

A1C5. Charles Butter is not married

A2B1. George Ivar Louis Mountbatten

George Ivar Louis Mountbatten 4th Marquess of Milford Haven married his first wife Sara Georgina Walker in 1989 and divorced in 1996. They have the following children:

A2B1A. Lady Tatiana Helen Georgina Mountbatten (1990 -
A2B1B. Henry David Louis Mountbatten, Earl of Medina (1991 -

A2B2. Lord Ivar Alexander Mountbatten

Lord Ivar Alexander Michael Mountbatten married Penelope Anne Vere Thompson in 1994 and had the following children:

A2B2A. Ella Louise Georgina Mountbatten (1996-
A2B2B. Alexandra Nada Victoria Mountbatten (1998-

C2A1. Alexander Von Rintelen not married

C2A2. Georg Nikolaus Von Rintelen not married

C2A3. Gregor Von Rintelen not married

C3A1. Countess Anne Loris-Melikov

Countess Anne Loris-Melikov married Marc Moos in 1983 and they had:

C3A1A. Alain Moos (1984 -

C3A2. Countess Dominique Loris-Melinkov is not married

C3A3. Countess Nathalie loris-Melinkov

Countess Nathalie Loris-melinkov married Johan Dierbach in 1996 and they have:

C3A3A. Sophie Dierbach

C3A4. Count Michael Loris-Melikov is not married.

CONCLUSION

By now, I presume you had your glass of water. What started as a kidnapping of an eight year old boy from Eritrea led into what you have read in the five articles that I presented. The lives of Abraham, Ivan and Pushkin not only shows how the human spirit despite obstacles, adapts and survives, but also prospers and excels. Abraham’s contribution to Russia was immense. He was the first and the finest engineer in modern Russian history. His son, Ivan, not only fought for Russia gallantly, but also built Kherson (in modern day Ukraine). Pushkin’s contribution to the Russian people in particular and to the people of the world in general was remarkable. He was a poet of the people, novelist, short-story writer, historian, dramatist, children and fable books writer. According to William J. Dean's article on Pushkin entitled,"Pushkin was the Source" wrote,

Pasternak (author of Dr. Zhivago) declared Pushkin’s tetrameter to be a measuring unit of Russian life, a yardstick, as it had been patterned after the whole of Russian existence. Describing Pushkin’s impact on one of the Russian art form, opera, for example: Virtually all the great Russian operas are based on Pushkin’s works. “Ruslan and Ludmila” by Glinka.“Eugene Onegin” and “The Queen of Spades” by Tchikovsky, “Boris Gudonov” by Mussorgsky“The Golden Cockerel”by Rimsky-korsakov. It is therefore no wonder that Pushkin keeps getting bigger and bigger because he keeps appealing to what is universal in every one of us: humanity.

It is no wonder that some, if not all, of the former Soviet Union despite their political separation as different countries, still claim Pushkin to be their national poet in their respective countries. It is also no wonder, a lot of other countries claim Pushkin-through Abraham Hannibal -to be theirs. Chad, Cameroon, Ethiopia and others are among them. However, the best candidate according to the biographers and historians of Pushkin is Eritrea.(A lot of other newspaper articles also attest to that, e.g. The Times.) When it comes to Pushkin’s descendants, I will quote at length, from a letter that Charles Stewart sent to Ebony magazine in 1988. In it he wrote:


…Pushkin’s direct descendent, the 27 –year old(1988) Marquis of Milford Haven (George Ivar Louis Mountbatten, 4th Marquis of Milford Haven-see AB21-) is a second cousin of the Prince of Wales (Prince Charles) and is in line of succession to the British throne. In 1868, Pushkin’s daughter, Natalia, married a German prince, Nicholas of Nassau. Their son Count George Von Merenberg, married Princess Olga Yurievska in 1895, a daughter of Czar Alexander II. Natalia’s daughter, Sophie, also married into the Russian imperial dynasty when in 1891, she wed Grand Duke Michael Romanov. In turn, one of her daughters, Countess Nada de Torby, married Prince George of Battenberg (Later Mountbatten), whose siblings included Queen Louise of Sweden, Princess Alice of Greece (mother of Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth The Second’s husband) and Earl Mountbatten, last British viceroy to India. At the time of the wedding, in 1916, the British press openly speculated about the scandal that would ensure if Nada were to give birth to a “blackamoor prince!” another of Sophie’s daughters, Anastasia (Zia) married an English baronet, Sir Harold Wernher. The king substituted the title of countess. In the 1970’s “Lady Anastasia’s grand daughters, Alexandra, Natalia and Marilyn (see A1B1, A1B5 & A1C2) were married respectively to three of England’s wealthiest noblemen; the 5th Duke of Abercorn, the 6th Duke of Westminster and the oldest son the 16th Earl of Dalhousie (17th Earl). So not all royalty is blue-blooded. Some have the black blood of African tribal chieftains flowing through their veins.


Finally, the story of an eight year old boy who was kidnapped from Eritrea and who ended up to be a great general of Russia is incredible. His son, Ivan, had also an incredible life. The maternal great grand son of the stolen eight year old boy was Pushkin. Pushkin was one of the world's greatest authors. Pushkin's descendants married into the European royalty to the point where two of the descendants (8th generation) are second cousins to the future king of England. Hence, this real life story would put any Hollywood film to shame. By the way, don’t be impressed if you thought I wrote all the descendants name from memory. It was done through research, research and more research. In closing, of course, more study is needed to fill some gaps of this incredible odyssey that started in a small village in Eritrea called Lagwen in the 17th century.


PUSHKIN’S GENEALOGY CHART TRACING THE LINE THROUGH HIS DAUGHTER, NATALIA

















SOURCES USED (NOT IN ORDER)

1. Pushkin: A Biography. Elaine Feinstein
2. Pushkin: The Man and His Life. Robin Edmonds
3. Pushkin. Henry Troyant
4. Russia and the Negro. Allison Blakely
5. Distant Pleasures: A. S. Pushkin. Stephanie Sandler
6. Great Black Russian. John Oliver Killens
7. Alexander Pushkin: Complete Prose Fiction. Paul Deverczeny
8. Tiwlidi Lagwen
9. Pushkin's Button. Serena Vitale
10. World's Great Men of Color Vol. II. J.A. Rogers
11. The Duke: A Portrait of Prince Philip. Tim Heald
12. Prince Philip. Douglas Liversidge
13. Grand Dukes of Diamond: The Wernher's of Lutton Hoo. Raleigh Trevelyan
14. Two Lives One Russia. Nicholas Daniloff
15. The Princess of Siberia: The Story of Maria Volkonsky. Christine Sutherland
16. A Romanov Diary: The Autobiography of H.I.& R.H. Grand Duchess George
17. Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin. Sebag-Motefiore
18. Eugene Onegin. Alexander Pushkin
19. Anna Karenina. Leo Tolstoy
20. Notes on Prosody and Abraham Gannibal. Vladimir Navakov
21. The Mountbattens: From Battenberg to Windson. Douglas Liversidge
22. Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece. Hugo Vickers
23. Russians views of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. Sona Stephen Hoisington
24. Court of Russia in the 19th Century. Vol. I. 1908. E.A.Brayley Hodgets
25. Gannibal: The Moor of St. Peters burg. Hugh Barnes

ARTICLES/JOURNALS/NEWSPAPERS &MAGAZINES

1. Natioanl Geographic Magazine. Mike Edwards. Sept. 1992
2. The New Yorker. Shooting Pushkin. Ralph Fieness. June 7, 1999
3. Russian Life. "My Pushkin/Our Pushkin" Mike Ivanov. June/July 1999
4. Russian Life. "Dine with Pushkin". June/July 1999
5. Pushkin and His Works. Pushkin Centenary, 1837-1937
6. Russian Life. "The Poet's Fate." Elaine Feinstein. June/July 1999.
7. Ebony. "Letter to the Editor" Charles Stewart. December 1988.
8. Christian Science Monitor. "Pushkin was the Source". William J. Dean. February 7, 1990.
9. Descendants of Duke Wilhelm of Nassau
10. Genealogy of the Royal Family of Great Britain.
11. Genealogy of the Imperial Family of Russia.
12. Genealogy of the Ducal Family of Nassau
13. The Times. "Pushkin Turns 200". Maura Reynolds. June 4, 1999.
14. The Journal of Negro History. Albert Parry. October 1923.
15. Great Negroes Past and Present. Russell Adams. 1963

General Abraham Hannibal, General Ivan Hannibal, Alexander S. Pushkin and Descandants

FROM THE ERITREAN CAMEL TO THE RUSSIAN DOUBLE-HEADED EAGLE TO THE BRITISH LION

TACKLING THE RUSSIAN BEAR: THE FOURTH GENERATION THE ODYSSEY CONTINUES

ALEXANDER S. PUSHKIN: THE SON AND SUN OF RUSSIA

PART FOUR

At this juncture, unlike the previous parts, I start this part differently. First, I will give quotes from various Russian and non-Russian sources to give one a feel as to how much Alexander S. Pushkin meant to Russia and everyone. Yes, everyone, as Mikhail Ivanov wrote in the June/July 1999 issue of Russian Life, entitled “My Pushkin, Our Pushkin”:


Everyone has their own vision of Pushkin. Russians, of course think
Pushkin is the pride of Russia, the sun of Russian poetry. The French,
I am told appreciate Pushkin’s prose more than his poetry. It is not
clear why. Perhaps because prose is easier to translate. Or perhaps
because it is hard for the French to admit that such fine verses were
written by a poet so nonchalantly killed by a French bon vivant.
The British may cherish Pushkin because he loved and translated
Lord Byron.


Second, I’ll write his story in brief, with highlights in his life, where I think were crucial. Without exaggeration, Alexander S. Pushkin is probably the only person on earth who has been studied to “death”. As Vyacheslav Skotorenko, National Pushkin Commemoration Commissioner, rightly said in 1999, “he just gets bigger and bigger”. There is a book, Puskhin’s Buttons, which deals with the last week of his life, detailing his activities from the time he woke up to the time he went to sleep. Heck, there is even a restaurant, CDL, which has a special Pushkin menu that will treat you to all the delicacies Pushkin sang in his verse (Dine with Pushkin in Russian Life June/July 1999). Elaine Fienstein in the Poet’s Fate writes, in Russia, Pushkin’s name has entered the spoken idiom. It is common place for a child to be scolded: “Who do you think will close the door after you, Pushkin?" In other words, there is not much to add here except to highly recommend to you to read Pushkin’s biography by various authors.

Third, I’ll start working my way backwards. A. I will quote from comments made at the time of his death and later. B. I will return back to the brief biography of his short but active life.

“The sun of our poetry has set. Pushkin is dead, dead in the full vigor of life in the midst of his magnificent career. We have not the courage to say more. Besides, what good could it do? Every Russian knows the meaning of this terrible loss; every Russian heart is torn by it. Pushkin! Our poet, our joy, our popular glory! Is it possible that we no longer have Pushkin? We can not get used to the thought”. Kraievsky, 1837.

“Pushkin was one of those creative geniuses, to be great historical personalities who working for the present paved the road toward the future, and therefore can not possibly belong only to the past”. V. Belinsky, 1837

“You were born among gods- go forward’. Zhukovsky, 1825.

“Russian language was created for Pushkin, Pushkin for the language: raise up Russian Poetry among the nations of the world, as Peter the Great made Russia a world power”. E.Baratynsky (Pushkin’s contemporary)

“Pushkin walks with the strides of a giant”. Decembrist poet, Konstantin Ryleev.

“Pushkin is rare and perhaps unique phenomenon of the Russian spirit: he is the Russian man in his supreme development, as he will appear perhaps 200 years hence. In him, the Russian nature, the Russian soul, the Russian language and the Russian characters are reflected in such purity; in the same refined beauty as a landscape seen reflected on the convex surface of a magnifying glass”. Nikolai Gogol in 1830’s


“Without Pushkin we should have lost, not literature alone, but much of our irresistible force, our faith in our rational individuality, our belief in the people’s power, and most of all our belief in our destiny”. Fydor Dostoeyvsky, 1857

“Pushkin! following on your steps we sang a secret freedom! give us your hand in these troubled times help us in our silent struggle”. Alexander Blok, 1921.

“Pushkin in our country; is the beginning of all beginnings”. Maxim Gorky

“Pushkin is an immense importance not only in the history of Russian literature, but also in the history of Russian Enlightenment. He was the first to teach the Russian public to read” N. A. Dobrolyubov

“Pushkin alone had to perform two tasks which took whole centuries and more to accomplish in other countries, namely to establish a language and create a literature”. I. Turgeniev

“The fire has gone out upon the altar”. ... "Pushkin loved life so much that he died so soon.” Henry Troyant.

“Love bard par excellence”. ... “He wrote of passion and regret; he defied Tsars to champion individual freedom and sing of “noble hearts in a cruel age”. He gave Russians a romantic image of themselves, and he is still their favorite poet” Mike Edward writing in the September issue of 1992, National Geographic.

“It was a white woman, Harriet Beetcher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin), whose writings lit the torch for “negro” freedom in America; it is a “negro”, Alexander Sergeevitch Pushkin, who did the same for white emancipation in Russia”. J. A. Rogers

“Any translation of Pushkin’s poetry that seeks to produce rhymes of poetry will be nothing but a pale reflection of the original”. Paul Richardson.

“Pushkin turns 200, but never grows old; Russians most revered writer touches his country’s psyche like no other. Culturally, he, Shakespeare, Jefferson and Elvis rolled into one”. Maura Reynolds (The Times) in 1999.

Finally, what does Alexander S. Pushkin had to say to all these attentions that he got? Well, prophetically, he had said it already, when he was still alive. Here is what he had to say:

“I shall not wholly die-but in my songs my spirit will, incorruptible and bodies survive-and I shall be renowned as long as under heaven one poet yet remains alive”.


Childhood

Alexander S. Pushkin was born to Sergei L. Pushkin (an impoverished and yet noble family) and Nadejda O. Hannibal (the granddaughter of General Araham P. Hannibal) on May 26th 1799. His mother, Nadejda Ossipovna Hannibal, (“The Beautiful Creole”) - who due to her abandonment by her father – was self-centered cold and vain. She was not fitted for the role of the “housewife” (Troyant.) She liked appearing in drawing rooms, ball rooms to show off her beauty and youth. Beside Alexander --the second child-- she had two other children from Sergei Lvovich Pushkin. And they were the oldest ,Olga and the youngest, Lev. (There were three others who died at early age.

Nadejda more or less resented that she had Alexander because of his supposed “blackness”, which she felt had resulted in ruining her beautiful image. As a result of this resentment, Alexander was really drawn to his and his sibling’s nanny, Arina Rodionovna. His isolation pushed him to search inwards. His siblings were also supportive of him. If I have to summarize his childhood; four people really influenced and molded him very much early on.

The first one was dead almost eighteen years earlier. It was Abraham P. Hannibal, his maternal great grandfather. Pushkin understood and respected Abraham Hannibal for what he had accomplished, despite the cruelty of the world around him, almost single handedly. The second was his maternal grandmother, Maria Alexeievna, who despite her husband’s abandonment was still warm, gentle, intelligent and good “house wife” (Troyant). Her knowledge of the Russian language and alphabet was very useful in instilling a sense of pride in young Pushkin. She was also the first one, to realize the genius in Pushkin. The third was his paternal uncle, Vasilli L. Pushkin, who in his own right was a good poet. Friends of Uncle Vasilli would gather and read poetry that also broadened young Pushkin’s mind.

All the books in the household were read by Pushkin at a very early age which also sparked his imagination. And finally, the most important influence in Pushkin’s life, ironically, was not an “educated”, but “uneducated emancipated serf woman”, Arina Rodionovna, whose encyclopedic mind and knowledge of the Russian language folk-tales, folk- songs, & proverbs sparked the genius in Pushkin.

School Days

Around 1811, Pushkin’s parents decided to send him to school. A friend of the family told them that Czar Alexander I had set up a Lyceum/ Lycee in a wing of his palace at Tsarskoe Selo, near St. Petersburg. Alexander Pushkin was accepted, and his paternal uncle, Vasili L. Pushkin took the future poet to St. Petersburg in July 1811. In school, he befriended many students who would become his life long friends. Among them were, I. Pushchin and Anton Delvig.

During his school days, he was known as the “Frenchman” because of his command of the language. He was also mocked for his appearance. He was teased and was given a nickname, “the monkey” because of his “blackness”. In all the six years Alexander stayed at the Lycee, he went to visit his family only once. While occasionally, his parents would visit him. According to Elaine Fienstien, the highlight of his stay at the Lycee was:

In January 1815 the boy received extraordinary recognition from
Derzhavin (the leading poet of the last generation). Invited to hear
recitations of the pupils at the Lycee, Derzhavin had fallen asleep
but was suddenly galvanized into attention when Pushkin began to
read his poem, “Recollections in Tsarskoe Selo”. After hearing of
Pushkin’s poem, the older poet said, “I live on. He is the one who
will replace Drzhavin”.

J.A.Rogers describing this event wrote, “Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the poem was that it was written not in the conventional French but in Russian. Russia had at last a great poet using her own language!" As one writer put it, “with one cut of the sword Pushkin had freed Russian literature from the ties that were keeping it enslaved”.

All the aforementioned accomplishment at the age of fifteen! The moment whereby the elder Derzhavin “passed the torch in surrender” was immortalized by the famous oil painting of Ilya Repin. (Note: French was the official language of the court of Russia and Russian was considered not a language of the elite but of the serfs that would not qualify for literature).

It is also very important to understand the political and social conditions of Imperial Russia at the time of the birth and childhood of Alexander S. Pushkin. After the era of Catherine II (Russia’s frontiers had expanded tremendously). Czar Paul I succeeded Catherine II. Paul I was killed when palace coup plotters during an attempt to arrest him was strangled. His son, Alexander I, succeeded him as czar. Czar Alexander begun his reign as a liberal and he started to liberalize Russia.

In foreign affairs, Alexander after a series of military defeats by Napoleon of France - who had been marching into various European capitals after defeating their armies - sued for peace. In 1807, at Tilsit on the river Niemen, Alexander and Napoleon signed a peace treaty. However, by 1812 the French had invaded Russia, aroused a great wave of patriotic indignation among the Russian people, though the westernizers among the elite of Russia had been very sympathetic to the French aspiration (Feinstein). According to John Oliver Killens, in his book, The Black Russian, also notes that “most of the Russian nobility worshiped the French as if it were a kind of fetish that would secure them the keys of the kingdom”.

On the military front, the Russian army under the famous Russian commander, Kutuzov, enticed the French army to penetrate deep into Russian soil, even allowing them to burn Moscow, so that the famous Russian winter could destroy Napoleon’s troops. After the defeat of Napoleon, Russian people’s hopes were restored. However, Alexander I took measures that retarded his earlier policies.

Forced Exile
Tackling the Russian Bear: The Fourth Generation

Pushkin’s fame grew like wild fire. His poems were recited by ordinary people. He took their fear, feeling, anxiety, joy, agony and translated them into beautiful words of “living hope”. Since, there were around forty million serfs during this period of time, Pushkin became their voice. He declared serfs to be men and women not chattels, thus he got the name of “Apostle of Freedom”. (Note: There were other people who were called “Apostle of Freedom”. Among them was the Bulgarian patriot, Vasil Levsky). The authorities fearing his poems which began to instill a sense of hope in the masses, started to censor his every line. The authorities finally exiled Pushkin. The hope of the authorities was that, like his predecessor ancestors, the untamed Russian bear, would devour him. One of the poems that pulled the last straw was entitled, “ole to freedom”.

Oh shake and shiver, tyrants of the world, but lend an ear ye fallen slaves,
gain courage and rise!

In her book, Distant Pleasures: Alexander Pushkin and the Writing of Exile, Stephanie Sandler states:

Throughout the western tradition, poets sent out of their native
lands have made their wonderings famous: exile produced Dante’s
Commedia and Ovid’s Tristia; expatriation formed the Sensibilities
of Henry James and Gertrude Stein, of Ezra Pound and T.S Elliot.
Russia has given the world a large share of writers in emigration…
Russia has another distinguishing feature among nations that writers
have been known to flee, for it is a country with a long tradition of an
internal exile. Russia’s vastness, juxtaposed to its concentration of
cultural life in it’s two capitals, St. Petersburg and Moscow, made it
possible to remove dangerous men and women to areas within the
country where they would be both less accessible to those who might
fall under their influence and less likely, because whey were deprived
of an audience to flourish.

“It was this forced internal exile, precisely because he was confined within Russia but sent to its periphery; Pushkin became acutely aware of his Russian-ness. It was indeed the experience of travel in exile immensely, which broadened his sense of what Russia was. But banishment meant that Pushkin could not speak with authority from the center of the country, only tentatively from its borders” (Sandler). Even though he was to communicate with his fellow Russians from a distance, for Russians, literature is both an affirmation and an expression of national identity called “narodnost”. Moreover, literature is regarded as an embodiment of social and moral truths. Therefore, the writer is viewed as a sacred voice, a prophet (Sonya Stephen Hoisington writing in Russian views of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin). His sacred voice continued to instill narodnost to the fullest. The authorities could confine Pushkin within the borders of Imperial Russia and yet he still continued to inspire his fellow country men through his writings, despite the physical distance. In exile he went to the far frontiers of Imperial Russia. It was during his exile in the south that he wrote many works including, The Prisoner of the Caucasus, The Gypsies and The Fountain of Baktchisarai.

His friends back in St. Petersburg pleaded on his behalf and he was allowed to go to Odessa. “I put my appearance in Europe”, Pushkin wrote in 1823 after hearing of the news. After writing more poems from Odessa he was ordered to be confined to his ancestral home in the province of Pskov in the estate of Mikhaylovskoe. Even though life in Mikhaylovskoe was monotonous and boring, it was a turning point in Pushkin’s literary works because he departed from “subjective lyricism” and ventured into historical objectivism (Pushkin and His Works). He took a serious study of Shakespeare and produced his Boris Godunov. He also started his masterpiece Eugene Onegin.

During his exile in Mikhaylovskoe the authorities had spies following him, including monks and his own father. It was also during this time that great changes were taking place in St. Petersburg. After the death of Alexander I, in 1825, a revolt occurred in the guard troops that were organized by Pushkin’s friends. Pushkin almost participated in the revolt except that his belief in bad luck (superstition: few things crossed his path on his way to St. Petersburg) prevented him from coming to St. Petersburg disobeying orders.

Czar Nicholas I succeeded Alexander I. Czar Alexander I commenced his rule by hanging five brilliant guard officers and exiling over 100 to Siberia. As a footnote, when two of the condemned were supposed to be hanged the rope broke and in disgust one of the condemned commented, “That is why we revolted; poor Russia they can’t even hang us right”. The authorities found out that Pushkin’s poem was an inspiration- beside their efforts to change the conditions of Russia- of the secret society of the officers. As a result, the new czar sent for him. Thus, as E.A. Bradyley Hodgetts wrote in Court Of Russia In The Nineteenth Century, Volume I, 1908, One of the most interesting chapters in the history of European Literature is the history of the relations of Nicholas with Pushkin, the poet. It is also interesting to note that the new czar began his rule-after hanging the accused and exiling the rest--by having an audience with Alexander Pushkin for two hours. This famous meeting also has its own dramatic point to show.

According to J.A Rogers:

The Czar asked,” Were you a friend of the conspirators against me?” Pushkin, his back to the fire, his manner not showing the respect due to the czar of all Russias, replied frankly, “that is true, your majesty. I loved those so-called conspirators deeply, and I shall ever love and
esteem them”.“ What would you have done had you been in St. Petersburg on the 14th of December?” Nicholas asked. “I should have been in the ranks of the rebels,” was the fearless reply. “That would have caused us great sorrow.” replied the czar. “We are grateful for all you have done for Russia, and wish you to be always near us. We name you imperial historian.”

Nicholas I Czar of All Russia decided to be the personal censor of the writings of Pushkin and promised Pushkin to travel any where he wants to go. Actually, Pushkin had a short poem that he had written about Nicholas which began to circulate, it read:

He was made emperor, and right then displayed his fair and drive: sent to Siberia a hundred-twenty men and strung up five.

After six years of exile and a promise by Czar of All Russia to free him, Pushkin’s freedom was short-lived. Pushkin decided it was time to get married.


Marriage

Troyant in his brilliant biography of Pushkin ended the book by saying that “Pushkin loved life so much that he died so soon”. For Pushkin, one of the reasons that makes life so pleasurable and lovable is because of women. “Pushkin was so fond of women”, a contemporary acquaintance, S. V. Komovsky, wrote, “that even the touch of hand while dancing at school ball aged 15 or 16 was enough to make his eyes blaze, and he would redden and snort like an ardent stallion in a young herd” (Feinstein). His poems to various women were of superb quality. Finally, Pushkin decided to marry an eighteen year beauty called Natalia Gonchorova. Some commented that she was the most beautiful woman in all of Russia. It was rumored that Czar Nicholas I was even in love with her.

Pushkin and Natalia had four children. They were Maria, Alexander, Gregory and Natalia. With all the successes of his writings, prose and verse, his wife was oblivious to her husband’s genius. She had often wondered what all the fuss was about her husband being the greatest poet. Like Pushkin’s mother, Natalia, was more concerned with the ball rooms and court appearances than providing cushion and comfort that Pushkin had been longing for.


Death

His writing and popularity also created a lot of powerful enemies and court intriguers. This, of course, was deja-vu all over again: the fourth generation. Pushkin’s enemies plotted to get to Pushkin through his beautiful and naive wife. Anonymous letters saying that his wife was having an affair with the czar started to circulate. There was also another letter which read: “Pushkin was elected acting grand master of the order of cuckolds”. Pushkin challenged D’Anthes(whom Pushkin accused of being the originator of the letters) to a duel. D’anthes was the French adopted son of the Dutch Ambassador to Russia, Heckeren. D’anthes withdrew Pushkin’s challenge and decided to marry Natalia’s sister. More letters started to circulate indicating that D’anthes was courting Pushkin’s wife. Pushkin challenged D’anthes for a duel once again. This time around, D’anthes accepted.

It was on the fateful morning in February 1837, the son and sun of Russia was shot in a duel and died two days later. There were thousands of people who gathered outside Pushkin’s home. The authorities fearing revolt whisked the body away at night and buried him at the cemetery of the Svyatogorsky Monastery, near Mikhailovskoe. D’anthes and his “father” were whisked out of Russia.

Finally, the Russian Bear Tamed

If you recall in my earlier posts, I mentioned that Abraham Hannibal was occasionally sent to be devoured by the Russian bear because of court intrigues, jealousies and racism. Ivan Hannibal, the oldest son of Abraham Hannibal, also encountered the same fate. Both Abraham and Ivan Hannibal through their resolve and resilience tackled the Russian bear. Even though, both survived the Russian bear, the Russian bear was never tamed. It was only with the sacrifice of a member of the fourth generation- namely Alexander S. Pushkin – that the Russian bear was finally tamed. It was not building canals and bridges, it was not even conquering in the name of the Double-Headed Eagle that the Russian bear was tamed but rather, through literature. The supposedly untamable Russian bear, finally succumbed to the beautiful words of Alexander S. Pushkin: the son and sun of Russia. In another words, it was not the power of mechanical engineering, or military engineering that tamed the Russian bear, but the engineering of words that finally led the Russian bear to throw down its towel.

Some people argue that it is difficult to decide as to which one of the works of Pushkin is his greatest achievement. There is, however, a consensus that his novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, is considered to be his master piece. The famous Irish actor Ralph Fiennes in his article entitled “Shooting Pushkin”, quoting Vladimir Nabokov, in the forward to his deliberately literal version of Eugene Onegin writes: "it is impossible to translate the poem- that it is best to sacrifice “elegance, euphony clarity, good taste, modern usage, and even grammar” for something closer to Pushkin’s line-by-line meaning. Nabokov also insists that anyone who really wishes to appreciate “Onegin” should learn Russian."

It should also be noted that Pushkin’s works had and continues to inspire and influence various Russian art forms such as ballet, opera and music and artists such as Muggosorsky, Raimaninoff and others.

Here is a short list of (not complete) the works of Alexander S. Pushkin (not in chronological order)

1. The Moor of Peter the Great (unfinished book about Abraham Hannibal)
2. The Captain’s Daughter (inspiration for Tolstoy’s Anna Karanina and many other famous Russian writers.)
3. Dubrovsky
4. The Queen of Spades
5. The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin
6. The History of the Village of Gorukhino
7. Kirdjali
8. Egyptian Nights
9. Ruslan and Ludmila
10. Boris Godniov
11. The Bronze Horseman
12. The Golden Cockerel
13. History of Pugachev
14. Eugene Onegin
15. and many more.

Pictures;
1)Alexander S. Pushkin
2) Olga (Pushkin's sister)
3) Lev (Pushkin's brother)
4) Natalia Gonchorova (Pushkin's wife)
5) Pushkin's grave

General Abraham Hannibal, General Ivan Hannibal, Alexander S. Pushkin and Descandants

FROM THE ERITREAN CAMEL TO THE RUSSIAN DOUBLE-HEADED EAGLE TO THE BRITISH LION


TACKLING THE RUSSIAN BEAR: THE SECOND GENERATION
THE ODYSSEY CONTINUES.

General Ivan Hannibal

PART THREE

For the purpose of this article, among General Abraham Hannibal's children, three (Ivan, Peter and Ossip Abramovich) stand out the most. Despite Abraham Hannibal's objection and reservation, the eldest son, Ivan Hannibal, had a distinguished and illustrious military career, which almost equals that of his father's.

According to Professor Allison Blakley,

By the 1760’s Ivan Hannibal had attained the rank of lieutenant colonel in the field artillery. In 1770 Ivan Hannibal was made section master of naval artillery in the fleet under Admiral G. A. Spiridov, he participated in the taking of Koron and Navarino and in the battle at Chesma(Chesmensk). It is said that the officer in charge of the Russian forces at Navarino, who happened to be none other than one of the princes Dolgoruky, decided the fortress could not be taken. The assignment was given by Spiridov to Ivan Hannibal, who planned and carried out a successful fifteen-day seige by land and sea (he is considered the hero of Navarino and Chesma) .

In 1772 he was promoted to major general of brigadiers, and in 1776 to general of naval artillery. He was appointed a member of the admiralty college in 1777. By the mid-eighteenth century, the palace "German coup” that General Abraham Petrovich Hannibal had feared was completed. Empress Catherine II with her lover Prince Serenissimus Potemkin were in charge. After the ending of the Russian-Turkish war the territory of the Steppe between South Bug and Dnipro (Dnieper) was passed to Russia (the History of Kherson).

During this long war, in 1737 Russia had made fortification on the high right bank of the river Dnieper called Alexander Shantz. On the other side, the Ottomans had kept a powerful fortress. As a result, Russia was worried that the southern front was open for invasion. To strengthen this front, Empress Catherine II (the Great), some say, Potemkin decided to create a port capable of building ships, trade, quay, shipyard and a fortress. Again, some say, it was Empress Catherine II who chose the name of the port to be called Kherson -in honor of ancient Greek Khersonesus -
(History of Kherson), and others point out that it was Potemkin who chose the sonorous name, ringing with his neo-classical and orthodox dreams of Khersoneses (Sebag-Montefiore). This was the period when like his father before him, the palace intrigue caught up with Ivan Hannibal.

On 31 may 1778, Empress Catherine II adapted Prince Potemkin’s plan of creating a Black Sea fleet to ensure safety for the southern boundaries of the empire. As a result, on July 25, 1778, Prince Potemkin chose General (Admiral) Ivan Hannibal to be the first Governor of Kherson (modern day Ukraine). For the second time, the second generation of General Abraham P. Hannibal, was sent to tackle the Russian bear. Or was it hoped that the Russian bear would tackle General Ivan Hannibal first? The task was so daunting. There were 500 carpenters and thousands of workers who were to build Kherson. Potemkin’s obsession to have Kherson build was driving Ivan Hannibal relentless (Sebag-Montfiore). By August, Ivan Hannibal had established twelve teams of workers and bought timber on the upper Dnieper in Belarus and Poland which had to be floated down the river to Kherson. Consequently, Kherson grew tremendously.

What Abraham Hannibal had feared came true when a dispute erupted between the all powerful Prince Potemkin and General Ivan Hannibal. According to Blakley, even though, supposedly, Empress Catherine II supported General Ivan Hannibal in this dispute, he nevertheless, retired due to “illness” (or rather disgust) to one of his estates in 1784. General Ivan Hannibal was not only a brilliant military strategist and commander but also a generous person. He looked after his siblings and their affairs. Ivan Hannibal was not only aware of his Africaness but was also proud of it. Kherson, in memory of its first governor, General Ivan Hannibal, had built him a monument. General Ivan Hannibal died in 1801. His tombstone, reads: “the sultriness of Africa bore him, the cold calmed his blood” (Sebag-Motefiore).

Ossip Abramovich: The Direct Line (Alexander Pushkin’s Grandfather)

Ossip Abramovich, Pushkin's maternal grandfather

The other son, Peter (1742-1822) had somehow a respectable military and civil service which was more or less a quiet one. On the other hand, Ossip Abramovich had a modest official career, however, he had a more agitated and romantic private life (Troyant)

Continuing quoting Troynat,

"Promoted to the rank of major, he was sent in 1773, to the cannon foundries at Lipetsk. Twenty-two verts from there lived a landed proprietor named Pushkin (not the poet) and his daughter, Maria Alexeievna. Ossip was a handsome blade, talkative, witty, unstable, and fiery. He soon won the heart of the young lady, married her in 1773, had a child, Nadejda (Alexander Pushkin‘s mother), by her, and abandoned her three years later, after having deceived her with a few of the neighbors farm girls."

A few years later, he moved to the province of Pskov and married a woman named Justine Tolstoya without the annulment of the first marriage. As a result, Maria Alexeievna denounced him forcing the annulment of the second marriage. Ossip Abramovich appealed to the Holy Synod and later to Empress Catherine II. After Empress Catherine II declared the second marriage invalid, Ossip then being a naval officer in the Black Sea fleet left Russia with the fleet.
General Ivan Hannibal, in the meantime, took care of his brother’s wife and daughter. Ossip’s daughter known for her striking beauty (the Creole Beauty) was brought in the house hold of Potemkin’s first governor of Kherson, General Ivan Hannibal (Sebag- Motefiore)

Nadeja, Alexander S. Pushkin's mother.



Sergei Pushkin, Alexander S. Pushkin's father.


Maria Alexeievna, according to Troyant, was intelligent, economical, and active. She had secured a fourth of Ossip’s property estate at Kobrino for her daughter. Nadeja, at the age of twenty-two married a distant cousin of her mother called Sergei Pushkin (the Pushkin family on the poet’s father side had been a noble family for 600 years). Seven years before Ossip Abramovich died in
1806, Maria Alexeievna sold her estate at Kobrino and freed among others, a serf girl by the name or Arina Rodionovna (who would become the real “mother” and inspiration to Alexander S. Pushkin). Arina refused to accept the freedom she was offered and remained with Maria Alexeievna. Arina was a peasant woman, of forty two, gentle and talkative, and she knew all the old tales, folk-songs, and the sayings of her country. (Troyant)

It was these folk tales, folk-lores, fables and folk-songs told by Arina Rodionovna, which fired up young Pushkin’s imagination, boundless.


Arina Rodionovna


Next, Part Four.


The Third Generation
Alexander S. Pushkin: the Son and Sun of Russia
The Odyssey Continues

General Abraham P. Hannibal, General Ivan Hannibal, Alexander S. Pushkin and Descendants

FROM THE ERITREAN CAMEL TO THE RUSSIAN DOUBLE-HEADED EAGLE TO THE BRITISH LION: The Odyssey of Abraham P. Hannibal, Alexander S. Pushkin and Descendants.

Part Two

Introduction

Joel A. Rogers, the famous African American historian of Carribean descent wrote in his book, Great Men Of Color (Vol. II) that destiny had been good to Hannibal from the beginning (I'll use the complete quote at the end of the introduction). But has fame been fair to Abraham Hannibal when it comes to being known for his accomplishments, at least, for English language readers? I tend to think not. Unlike the norm, whereby the achievements of off spring have been overshadowed by famous parents, here is a case of a renowned literary genius, Alexander S. Pushkin, whose achievements overshadow those of his maternal great grand father, a "great man of color", the brilliant military and civil engineer, Abraham Petrovich Hannibal.

In my last post, I mentioned that two books had been published since I wrote a series of articles on Abraham Hannibal and his descendants in 2003. Thanks to the works of Hugh Barnes and Frances Somers Cocks, English language readers can finally read in detail about this incredible historical figure. In Gannibal: The Moor of Petersburg, Hugh Barnes brings Abraham P. Hannibal out from the shadows of Alexander S. Pushkin, and projects him into a full blown biography. Like a good eye surgeon, Barnes removes the cataract that had been obstructing us from seeing the complete life of Abraham P. Hannibal. Barnes succeeds in removing most of the cataract that had been the cause of the blurriness before. However, like a cataract that has not been fully removed and keeps coming back, Barnes' Gannibal's original birthplace remains opaque. To be fair though, it is understandable that proving a birthplace is very difficult given the unavailability of original documents and strong evidences from 17th century Africa.

It is normal when people or countries tend to claim renowned personalities as their own. In Africa, the number of countries claiming Hannibal or Pushkin (through Hannibal) as their own is increasing. The latest addition to the fold is Cameroon. One thing should be clear, though. First of all, all of Africa should be proud of the extraordinary lives and brilliant accomplishments of Hannibal and his descendants, because as you will see, their stories should not be confined to a particular place and time, but should be hailed as a triumph for the resilience and perseverance of the timeless human spirit.

Historian Dieudonne Gnammankou is the first advocate of Cameroon as the historical birthplace of Abraham P. Hannibal. He believes that Logone-Birni, which is located south of Lake Chad is the birthplace of Abraham P. Hannibal. Gnammankou wrote his book on Hannibal in French, therefore, I couldn't follow his argument first hand. However, through Hugh Barnes and Frances Somers Cocks (both of them visited Logone-Birini for their respective books), I am able to follow the argument of Logone-Birini as Hannibal's birthplace. Since this is not a book review, I'm not going to go in detail and argue as to why Logone-Birni is not a potential place as Hannibal's birth, but rather I will put forth the argument that Eritrea is the best candidate as Hannibal's origin of birth.

Oral Tradition/Orature (Oral Literature)

Oral history has a long tradition in Africa. It is important to note that there is a tendency to believe that oral tradition is suspect when it comes to recording history. Even though oral tradition might raise a red flag, it should not be dismissed outright, however. Oral tradition can be preserved in the form of poetry, songs, music and stories. Before people invented writing, their history was preserved and communicated to the next generation through oral tradition. Eritrea has a long history of both written and oral history. As a matter of fact, Eritrea is one of the very few countries in Africa that has its own script and has a long written tradition.

Early on, written tradition in Eritrea was limited mostly to the clergy, therefore, churches were the main depositors and chroniclers of local history. Eritrea also has a long history of customary laws. These customary laws were both written and oral. Many villages in Eritrea had their own customary laws (Note: For more discussion of Eritrean customary laws by Memher Tewoldebrhan Amdemeskel, check out my post entitled "Eritrea: sketches of a trip" Sketch four, part two). Since Eritrea was and still is an agrarian society, these customary laws addressed land issues, such as land usage, etc; they subliminally also addressed genealogy and census. Therefore, in Eritrea there is a long tradition of knowing one's genealogy. To give you an example from my family, I can recite up to twelve of my ancestors on my father's father side and more than ten on my father's mother side and also ten on my mother's side, which were all written and handed down to me.

In 2000, I videotaped my late grand-mother-in-law, who was 92 years old at the time and who recited for me the genealogy of her husband's famous great uncle, Degieat Bahta Hagos, the Eritrean patriot who fought and was killed by the Italians in late 19th century. In the same conversation, she also told me stories of Diegeat Bahta that I had never heard before, from oral tradition. In part one of the series that I am writing now, I mentioned that the village of Lagwen had published its own genealogy. As I have tried to argue above, oral and written tradition about one's genealogy (whether at the family or at the larger society level) is not unique but the norm in the narration of Eritrean history.

Logon, Logo, Logone, Lagwen, etc.

Looking at the number of villages that start with the letter "L", it would not be surprising if all the villages in Africa that start with the letter "L" claim to be the origin of Abraham's birthplace.
How did the letter "L" became the first candidate? The main source of the story is Abraham Hannibal himself. In a letter addressed to Czarina Elizabeth in 1742, Abraham mentioned that he was born in a place called Lagone in Africa. He also mentioned that he was the son of a local ruler, hence the source of the idea that Abraham was the son of a ruler or was a prince. The last part could be an exaggeration on the part of Hannibal since he was petitioning Empress Elizabeth in the same letter for the rank of the nobility. The notion that Abraham Hannibal was the direct descendant of the Carthaginian general, Hannibal, was first advocated by Abraham's son-in-law, Adam Rotkirkh. Abraham, it must be noted, did not add Hannibal to his name before he went to France. Rotkirkh is also believed to be the source of the"Abyssinian birth" of Abraham.

Abyssinia is the former name of Ethiopia. With the "Abyssinian birth" theory the area of Mereb which borders Eritrea (Ethiopia directly ruled Eritrea from 1962 to 1991) was the main candidate as the birthplace of Abraham. Hugh Barnes and Frances Somers Cocks both visited potential villages that would have qualified as the birthplace of Abraham. None of the people who had ever written or searched for the birthplace of Abraham ever visited a village called Lagwen, which is located 12 kms. outside of Asmara(the capital of Eritrea). That means all the researchers had been searching in the wrong area. None of the places (Logo, Logo Sarda, Logone..) that were visited by the aforementioned authors or the previous authors claimed that Abraham was from there. Even Logone-Birini was not aware of its "famous son" until researchers came and start asking them about Abraham and Pushkin. Unlike all the other potential villages, Lagwen, on the other hand, has an oral history and written genealogy of Abraham Hannibal. According to the oral tradition of Lagwen, Abraham was abducted from a small hill called Gobo Una Mariam. Lagwen's claim should be studied thoroughly.


Turkish Rule

Abraham was taken from Africa and then taken to Turkey. Hugh Barnes pretty much has covered Abraham's life from the time he left Turkey up to his death in Russia. How did Abraham get to Turkey? What was the relationship between the countries who claim Abraham's birth as their own and Turkey? Again, Eritrea is a much better candidate than Cameroon for the following reasons.

1.Parts of Eritrea (especially Massawa and the coastal areas) were under the direct rule of Turkey for centuries. Turkey's incursion into highland Eritrea is also known (Lagwen is located in the highlands of Eritrea). One might hear the term "Gez'at Turki" (the rule of Turkey) in Eritrea. This is in reference to an authoritarian and brutal domination that Eritrea went through under the rule of Turkey.

2. Geography. Eritrea which is located in the Horn of Africa on the Red Sea coast is much closer to Turkey than Logone-Birini's which is located south of Lake Chad in West Africa.

3. Abraham was taken by ship to Turkey. Massawa, a major port in Eritrea, was under the direct rule of Turkey. Massawa was a major port for exporting slaves and other commodities to the rest of the world. Most of the slaves taken through Massawa were taken to the Middle East and India. (Note: There are a group of people in India known as Habishis who had been in India for four centuries who claim the area of the Horn of Africa as their homeland).

Finally, I highly recommend that people read Hugh Barnes' Gannibal : The Moor of Petersburg for detailed life of Abraham P. Hannibal. There are several important findings in Barnes' book. The first is the information of the newly found book written by Abraham Hannibal entitled Geometry and Fortification and an unpublished book entitled Artificial Fireworks. The second important information concerns Abraham's life in France. Abraham knew leaders of the French Enlightenment. According to Barnes, Montesquieu even praised Abraham as the "dark star of Russia's enlightenment". Third is the fact that Abraham's role in using fireworks to investigate the military potential of rocketry is highly significant. Barnes in his book quotes works by Simon Werret entitled Projecting Modernity: A Social History of Rocketry, which argues that (H) Gannibal's work on the 'secret howitzer' paved the way for the development of the first military rockets by the British inventor Sir William Congreve in the early nineteen century. And much more.

Below is what I had posted in 2003.


TO THE RUSSIAN DOUBLE-HEADED EAGLE
ABRAHAM P. HANNIBAL: THE ODYSSEY BEGINS


Double-headed eagle of Imperial Russia

J. A. Rogers in his book World’s Great Men of Color Vol. II starts Abraham Hannibal’s story like this: "History contains few figures more extraordinary than Abraham Hannibal. Stolen from his parents in Africa and sold into slavery, he became general-in-chief of one of the leading white empires of his day. Destiny was so kind to Hannibal from the beginning; instead of being sent to America, where he would have been at best a house servant, he was sent to Turkey…”

From Turkey he was taken to Russia where he became a general and one of the leading engineers of Imperial Russia. Abraham P. Hannibal’s odyssey begins in 17th century rural Eritrea. The Atlantic Slave Trade that took African people into bondage to the Americas and the Caribbean was beginning on the west coast of Africa. Turkey was ruling part of Europe and Asia. The coastal areas of Eritrea were also under Turkey. The Arab Slave Trade on the eastern part of Africa which predates The Atlantic Slave Trade had shown no sign of slowing down.

The destinations of the African people taken from East Africa were Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and India...). This was the situation of the world in which Abraham Hannibal was born. When he was eight years old he was kidnapped from Lagwen, Eritrea- according to Tweldi Lagwen from Gobo Enda Mariam- and was taken to Turkey. On his way with his abductors, legend has it that, his older sister followed them to Massawa and drowned in the Red Sea while trying to rescue her brother.

Once he was taken to Turkey he was sold as a slave to Sultan Mustapha II in Constantinople. While he was a slave at the palace, in a far away Russia, Czar Peter the Great (I) at the age of 25 was trying to “modernize/westernize” "old" Russia. He wanted to make Imperial Russia among equals of royals of Western Europe. He thus traveled disguised as a simple private individual among a Russian delegation of 250 supposedly headed by three ambassadors. Peter’s secret mission was two-fold. One, to secure Holland’s assistance in any future conflict with Turkey, and two, to apprentice himself and his men to Holland’s superior ship builders ( Lavlenko). This opportunity led him to personally witness the advancement of the various technological feats of Europe. He also witnessed the cultural aspects of the various European empires that he visited. As a sign of the times among royals of Europe, to have a portrait taken by famous artists with their black page boys was a sign of fashion, haute couture and vogue.

Back in Turkey, Russia’s Ambassador, Count Savva Raguinsky, was finishing up his duty and was returning to Russia. Being a “cultured” man himself whether through bribe or actual purchase he took back page-boys to Czar Peter. One of the pages was Abraham. It is not clear if Count Raguinsky took the boys from Turkey on his own or by a request from the Czar. Czar Peter was so determined to modernize Russia(the wife of Abraham or someone in her family) wrote the following : He (Czar Peter) wished to make examples of Russians and put them to shame by convincing them that out of every people and even from among wild men-such as “negroes”, whom our civilized nations assign exclusively to the class of slave, there can be formed men who by dint of application can obtain knowledge and learning and thus become helpful to their monarch.”(Pushkin Genealogy)

To Russia

Once in Russia, Abraham was unusually bright for his age. He quickly picked up the Russian language and alphabet. His inquiring mind was curious with numbers. The Czar realizing the potential of Abraham put him under his wings. Abraham started to accompany Peter through out Russia and foreign countries. It was during one of those trips, in 1707, in Vilno (Vilnius, Lithuania) that Abraham-since his days in Turkey was called Ibrahim- was re-baptized in the Russian Orthodox faith. His Father-in-Christ was none other than the Czar himself and Christina the Queen of Poland who became his god-mother (Hugh Barnes disputes that Christina Queen of Poland was even there).

In 1717, when Peter went on his second European trip, he took his god-son and private secretary, Abraham, to France and left him in Paris to study for a career as a military and civil engineer. He studied at the Ecole d’ Artillerie of la Fere under Bernard Forest de Belidor and afterwards, at the Ecole d’Artillerie of Metz, an institution founded by Sebastian le Preste, Marquis de Vauban. While in France a war broke out between France and Spain. He joined the French against the Spaniards and fought in many battles. It was in one of these battles in a place called Fontaine d’Arabie that he was hit in the head. After the war was over he returned to Paris. In Paris, he became the talk of town. With the women folk of Paris, shall we say, he was the most sought after, with his tall, dark and handsome complexion. His friends were people like Duke d’Orleans, who was the regent. According to J. A. Rogers, the Duke even asked him to remain in
France for a high position in court if Abraham transfers his allegiance to Duke d’Orleans. Abraham's allegiance was of course to Czar Peter.

To Russia with Love.

After his studies, it is believed that Abraham took with him over 400 volumes of books to Russia (Troyant). There is some debate whether the name Hannibal was added after he returned from France or when he was baptized in Vilno. After returning to Russia, Abraham Hannibal was appointed an officer in the perobrajensky guard-regiment. He became an engineer –lieutenant in the bombardier-company of which the Czar himself was the captain (Albert Parry). His career in Russia seemed to be promising. Czar Peter the Great appointed Abraham Hannibal to be the tutor of the crown prince, Peter II. His influence in the palace of Peter the Great became great. Consequently, with that influence came the jealousies, the distrust, and the hatred, ten-fold. Even though, he moved back from France to Russia with love to build Russia and serve his monarch, for those involved in the court intrigues, the response was from Russia with hate.

Tackling the Russian Bear.

On Czar Peter's death in 1725, the throne was seized by his wife, Catherine I, grandmother of Peter, the real heir (who was set aside). However, the real power was held by Prince Menshikov (J. A. Rogers). To diminish Abraham's influence on the real heir, Hannibal was first sent to Kazan and then to the Chinese frontier, where, under the pretext of being put in charge of fortification works, he was left to stagnate in a dreary exile (Troyant). Hannibal was sent to tackle the Russian bear (symbol of Russian beauty, wilderness, cold, country) in the hope that the bear would devour him. It was believed that Abraham would not survive the exile. The exile was imposed on him after Abraham declined a bribe from Menshinkov for trying to influence the real heir to the throne, Peter II. He was to remain in exile until the death of Catherine I in 1730. In the meantime, he was appointed to be in charge of the fortress at Pernau. It was here that
Abraham P. Hannibal resolved to marry Eudoxia the daughter of a Greek captain. After their marriage Eudoxia had a baby from a white navy officer. As a result Abraham asked for a divorce (which was ugly). The divorce would take almost five years to finalize.

Upon hearing of the ascension to the throne by Peter II and that of his old friend, Dolgouriki, Abraham decided to come back. But, he was arrested at Tomsk. Dolgouriki feared Abraham’s influence with Peter no less than that of Menshinkov's (who had been exiled). As a result, Abraham was held at Tomsk until Peter II’s death (J. A. Rogers). Peter was then succeeded by the niece of Peter the Great, Anna Ivanovna. Anna fearing that Abraham Hannibal belonged to a faction who wanted to put Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great(the real heir to the throne) wanted to arrest him. Field Marshall Munich, a friend from his France days, smuggled him out and sent him to the Swedish border near the city of Reval (modern day Tallinn in Estonia), where he would spent the next twelve years of Anna’s reign, forgotten (J. A. Rogers). In the meantime, in domestic life, Abraham Hannibal had remarried. His second wife, the daughter of a Baltic German captain, was called Regina Von Schellberg. Abraham and Regina had eleven children. And they were: 1. Ivan 2. Yevedkia (girl) 3 . Elizabeta 4. Anna 5. Peter 6. Ossip (grand father of Pushkin) 7. Agribna (girl) 8. Issac 9. Ekaterina (Catherine) 10. Yacov (Yacob) & 11. Sofia. I guess Abraham, despite being away from his birth place, had not forgotten the Eritrean psyche, Qol’U b’ Edlom iyom zAbyu , (children will grow up on their own luck), to heart.


General Abraham P. Hannibal (Barnes believes this is a picture of a white man not that of Abraham Hannibal's)

Engineering equipments of General Abraham
The Seal of General Abraham P. Hannibal


A Big Russian Bear-hug and an Offering of an Olive-branch from the Double-Headed Eagle.

While Abraham Hannibal was in exile and members of his family were increasing, Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great came to the throne. Instead of being devoured, Abraham had tamed the Russian bear and the bear had offered a big Russian bear hug. From St. Petersburg, the seat of Imperial Russia and home of the double-headed eagle (coat-of-arms of the Romanov's), Abraham was offered an olive branch. In her gratitude to Abraham's unswerving devotion and loyalty to the family of Peter the Great, Elizabeth Petrovna, Empress of All Russia, showered honors and riches upon him. Among the riches is found a vast property in the province of Pskov, where the estate of Mikhailovskoe is located. Mikhailovskoe would play a major role in Pushkin’s life. And it was in Mikhailovskoe that Pushkin would write his greatest works. The riches also included ten villages, with thousands of white serfs (Parry). Since all that exile life had worn Hannibal out he politely declined offers by Empress of All Russia, to stay in the royal court. He asked permission to return to Reval, for semi-retirement, where he was made a commander. With a border dispute between Russia and Sweden, he was recalled to active duty and was appointed head of the Russian commission.

By 1756, Abraham Hannibal had attained the rank of a major general. In 1759 he became the main director of the Lagoda canal, Kronstadt, and Rogervik construction projects. In 1762, fearing the “German coup” at the palace, Abraham retired to one of his estates in Suida(near St. Petersburg). Just before his death, around 1781, fearing the palace intriguers, unfortunately, he burned his memoirs. Speaking from his experience, Abraham advised his sons not to join the army, because of the intrigues involved. Finally, after a long extraordinary life, the lost son of Lagwen, Eritrea died in his estate in Russia. Allison Blakely in his book Russia and the Negro concludes General Abraham Hannibal' s life like this: "Hannibal appears to have been the first outstanding modern engineer in Russian history. He is credited with the building of a number of important fortresses, and his knowledge of canal construction surely made him a leading pioneer in an enterprise which had proven to be of utmost importance for Russia. As for Hannibal’s personality, it is difficult to see how he could have won such loyalty from his friends, allowing him not only to survive but to prosper during the turbulent politics of his era, if it had been devoid of positive traits."

General Abraham P. Hannibal’s study
The main house at Petrovskoe


The main house at Mikhailovskoe.


Next, part three.


Tackling the Russian Bear: the Second Generation
The Odyssey Continues

General Abraham Hannibal, General Ivan Hannibal, Alexander S. Pushkin and Descendants.

“I shall not wholly die-but in my songs my spirit will, incorruptible and bodies,
survive-and I shall be renowned as long as under heaven one poet yet remains alive”.
Alexander S. Pushkin


In mid-July 2008, I promised that I was going to re-post the articles that I had written in 2003 about General Abraham Hannibal, General Ivan Hannibal, Alexander S. Pushkin and his descendants . I waited until today to start reposting the articles, because I had to wait to confirm a good news that I was aware of for some time. With the news confirmed, I'm elated to let you know that a monument of Alexander S. Pushkin and a Pushkin Center (Library) will be erected in Asmara by May 2009. The agreement was signed between Asmara Administration and the Russian Federation earlier this year. It is worthwhile to note that the Russian delegation visited Lagwen and also Senafe area historical sites. The location of the monument of Pushkin will be adjacent to the Asmara Public Library and the Center(Library) will be adjacent to Milano Restaurant. According to the agreement, the pedestal of the monument, which is going to be from granite is going to be built by Eritrea, Central Zoba Administration, while the Russians are going to provide the life-size bronze statue.


A model statue of Alexander S. Pushkin to be built in Asmara, Eritrea.


Alexander S. Pushkin monument's future site.

Alexander S. Pushkin monument's future site.

The original articles that I wrote in 2003 had five parts. I will start reposting with part I. And in part II, I will add some new information, because two new major books in English had been published about General Abraham Hannibal since I posted the articles. I am keeping the original titles of the articles for old time sake.

Here is part I.

FROM THE ERITREAN CAMEL, TO THE RUSSIAN DOUBLE-HEADED EAGLE, TO THE BRITISH LION: The Odyssey of General Abraham Petrovich Hannibal, Alexander S. Pushkin and Descendants


Seal of the Government of Eritrea


PART ONE: FROM THE ERITEAN CAMEL

INTRODUCTION.

At the outset, I would like to note that this is an on going research that needs more fillers. The animals mentioned in the title are/were the symbols of the governments of Eritrea, Imperial Russia and Royal Great Britain, respectively. Even though, there was no country named Eritrea in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the protagonist (using film terminology) in this story, General Abraham Petrovich Hannibal, who was the maternal great grandfather of Alexander Sergeyevitch Pushkin, was born in a place in what is now Eritrea. (Troyant, Blakley, Fienstien).
When I decided to write this article -even though I had written about Abraham Hannibal for Haben in Tigrigna before-I thought hard as to how to approach the subject because I had to decide which part to write and which part to leave out. I must admit it is difficult to do. Therefore, I decided to start it with this long introduction, I hope you don’t mind. I even thought how much harder it would be to direct a film about the life of Abraham. In film, whether you are following the Hollywood genre which follows the Aristotelian (three act dramatic structure) focusing on plots with its protagonist/antagonist, catalyst,confrontation, plot-point, mid-point,
climax and resolution; or the European(Italian, French , Swedish..) model whereby the film concentrates on characters; or on the Soviet model with their own theory of editing (Kuleshov , Pudovkin, Eisenstein); or focusing on realist theory with its mise-en-scene; or formalist(fictional ,fantasy) with its montage ,the dilemma would still be the same. The lives of Abraham Hannibal and his descendents , Ivan, Ossip, Nadezhda, Pushkin ... touch all the theories that I mentioned above.

In 1994, when I was volunteering for the Research and Documentation Center (RDC) in Asmara, I wrote an article in Tigrinya on Abraham Hannibal for Haben, a publication of the Association of the War-Disabled Veterans of Eritrea. A few days before I finished my assignment at RDC and was ready to return to the United States, I got a telephone call from tegadalai (a Tigrigna word for a person who fought for the independence of Eritrea) Solomon Dirar (of the Eritrean Commando fame), who was editor of Haben. Solomon told me that there was another tegadalai who read the article and had some information on Abraham Hannibal. I was surprised, to say the least. I got the name and phone number from Solomon and called. Unfortunately, tegadalai Kahsai Russom was leaving for Keren on a job related trip. Nevertheless, he was kind enough to give me names to contact who would know more about the story through oral tradition.

When I returned to Eritrea in 2000, I still had the notes that I had taken from Kahsai in 1994. The notes had not left my wallet for six years. I called on my friend Solomon Dirar and decided to visit one of the persons on the notes. We set out to visit Lagwen and to talk to Aboi (respect form for elder) Abraha Gebre-Amlak, a retired judge of Lagwen. I had been waiting for this visit for six years. As the moment of truth was approaching I began to get nervous, because I have been researching Abraham Hannibal, Pushkin, etc., since the mid 1980’s, therefore I was anxious to find out what kind of new information, or if any, awaited me. Lagwen is a quiet small village located some 12 kms. south of Asmara. It did not take us long to find out where Aboi Abraha Gebre-Amlak lived in Lagwen. We found the house located near the village church. We found Aboi Abraha reading and he was surprised by our visit. After we explained to him the purpose of our visit, he opened a wooden trunk and pulled out a book wrapped in plastic. The title of the book was “Tiwlidi Lagwen” (The Genealogy of Lagwen). The village had published its own history during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie. How that book was published is a story by itself for another time.


Aboi Abraha Gebre-Amlak of Lagwen in front of his house in January 2000.


The Book of Genealogy of Lagwen


Aboi Abraha on top of gobo (hill) Una Mariam showing me the area where according to oral tradition of Lagwen, one of its son “Abrha Zerai wedi inkab Adi Lagwen” [Abraha Zerai son of the village of Lagwen] was kidnapped. It is also the vicinity where old Lagwen used to be located.

Back in 1994, Kahsai Russom, recalling from oral tradition that he had heard from the elders, indicated to me that Abraham Hannibal was kidnapped from a small hill called Una Mariam. I asked Aboi Abraha about it. He turned to the book of Lagwen to page 11. To my surprise, not only did it mention the place but also the name of the real Abraham Hannibal.

It says,“a certain ‘Abraha Zerai wedi inkab Adi Lagwen’ [Abraha Zerai, son of the village of Lagwen]was kidnapped and sold and then taken to Turkey. From Turkey he was taken to Greece and from Greece back to Turkey. He was then taken to Russia, and in Russia he became the right-hand man of Peter the Great. He became popular because of his bravery.
So were descendants, who among them became generals and intellectuals.”

This was a shocker! This was a unique finding in all my research for the following reasons:

1. The original name never appeared. There were arguments whether his name was Abraham or Ibrahim. At least, Tiwlidi Lagwen’s version testifies to the argument that the name of Ibrahim emerged in Turkey and reversed back to Abraham when he was re-baptized in Vilnius (modern day Lithuania).

2. Greece was never mentioned.

3. The origin of Abraham’s birth was debatable, even in discussions in Dehai forum. For example, Abraham indicated that he was born in Lagon (with its so many variation in Russian, French, German, Latin, Italian, English, etc., translations) the focus had been to the south. Adi Logo (near Debarbua), Logo Sarda, Logo Chiwa, etc., were among the major candidates. And here, in Lagwen, not too far from Asmara, is a small village that had written its own history and claimed Abraham Hannibal as its lost son. Incredible if you ask me.

4. During our discussion with Aboi Abraha, he mentioned that Lagwen in the earlier times had been looted, burned, etc., by various conquerors, and had to move to its present location -- it used to be located not too far from where it is now. Because it was located at a crossroads, it had become the punching bag of various rulers and conquerors. I think the University of Asmara’s archeology department should look into this story.

5. At the end of our visit, Aboi Abraha was gracious enough to take me to gobo (hill) Enda Mariam, where Lagwen claims that one of it’s sons, Abraha Zerai, was kidnapped from and taken to Russia via Turkey to become one of the greatest generals of Russia who had among his descendants, Ivan Hannibal, Osip, Nadezhda, and the soul of Russia himself, Alexander Sergeyevitch Pushkin.

This is their incredible story that would put any Hollywood film to shame. If the claim of Lagwen is proven, then Lagwen and its long lost son and his descendants would be the only village and
family in the world who would claim royals in Russia, England, Germany, and etc. as their relatives.


Next part: TO THE RUSSIAN DOUBLE-HEADED EAGLE
ABRAHAM P. HANNIBAL: The Odyssey Begins

Conversation with Mr. Costas Stylianidis

Mr. Costas Stylianidis

Note: All pictures are courtesy of Mr. Costas Stylianidis.


Issayas: Can you tell us briefly about yourself?

Mr. Costas : I was born in Asmara in the mid-forties. My father was a Greek from the island of Lemnos who, at the age of 14 in 1910, arrived at Massawa to join an elder brother in search of a better future. Those days Greece was still suffering the burden of occupation and Lemnos was still under the heavy influence of Turkish rule.

At Massawa with his brother, he started by making ‘Greek coffee’, a trade he had picked up from his mother and father in his native land. With a lot of hard work and personal sacrifice, he managed to establish himself as a merchant, opening trade with Greece and Italy and establishing a cigarette factory and retail business. Sadly when Italy declared war against Greece during the Second World War, he saw all his wealth disappear from one day to the next after the devaluation of the Greek currency, leaving him a relatively poor man with broken dreams but still lucky to have a roof over his head and a family with a faithful wife and five children.

I grew up when Eritrea was under the English administration but Italian was still a dominant factor in the market place. I was thus able to pick up simultaneously three languages which were spoken at the time. Greek spoken at home, Tigrinia spoken with the people that worked with my family at home, and Italian which was spoken everywhere else.

During the first six years of my school life I attended the local Greek Elementary School. I then progressed to Comboni College which in those days was headed by Father Gasparini; an outstanding and educated personality who was able to deliver a speech in fourteen languages. Comboni was a microcosm of society as it was in Eritrea at that time. A blend of Eritreans, Greeks, Italians, Indians, Jews, Christians, Moslems.. all working together in love, respect and harmony. Regrettably I was not able to learn Tigrinia at School because after 1952, Amharic was the compulsory language instead. Upon completing my High School at Comboni, I started work in Assab as a ‘Shipping’ clerk. Languages being a catalyst for my employment.

In 1967 with a lot of soul searching I took the ‘heavy hearted’ decision to look elsewhere for my future and I came to the UK. My knowledge of languages and my experience in shipping enabled me to find employment with the Greek Airline Olympic Airways. Thus I had the opportunity of traveling around the world and meet with other people from Eritrea who shared the same background as mine.

I discovered that almost all those who left Eritrea, treasured three things; their love of Eritrea, their love of the people of Eritrea (both natives and expatriates) and their insatiable appetite for ‘zighni’.

Today, 40 years on, I take advantage of these friendships and with my website http://www.mybaobab.com I try to stimulate their support for various good causes that need the support of these good ‘Friends of Eritrea’.

Issayas: Many people are aware of the Greek presence in Ethiopia before 1974. If I’m not mistaken there were about 4000 Greeks in Ethiopia. There were also a large number of Armenians. But Greeks in Eritrea? Can you tell us briefly about the Greeks presence in Eritrea before? As a follow up, are there Greeks in Eritrea now?

Mr. Costas: Greeks may have been present in Eritrea from the fifth century BC when Aeschylus left the first known record of the Eritrean Coast describing its seas ‘gentle ripples that are a warm caress’. In the year 522 , the Egyptian Greek known as Cosmas Indicopleustes ‘the Indian navigator’ described the caravan route to Axum and other ancient cities. Today you can see the ‘Greek’ features in present day Eritreans. You can see a similarity with Greeks when it concerns their pride and their stubbornness!

In Eritrea Greeks arrived as early as the mid 19^th century. They settled down in Eritrean cities such as Keren, Agordat, Massawa and Asmara and established various businesses. At some stage Asmara had about 400-500 Greeks leaving there. They run their own School and a Greek Orthodox Church and lived in harmony with the local community and its people. There were several Armenian families too who because of the similarity in their religion, were very close to the Greeks and a lot of them worked with Greeks and studied in Greek Schools. At the moment however, there are only a few Greeks left. The Greek Church is closed and what used to be the Greek School, now houses the Greek Consulate. Many children of Greek mix marriages now have Eritrean Nationality.

Note: For further history on Greeks in Eritrea, check out the following url:
http://www.mybaobab.com/Gallery2.aspx

D. SOUVLIS,was the founder of the famous DONGOLO WATER FACTORY.


The Greek Orthodox Church in Asmara, Eritrea


The former Greek school.. Now the Greek Consulate in Asmara, Eritrea.

Issayas: Eritrea as you know is a name given by the Italians based on the Latinized version of a Greek word for the Red Sea. It was a Greek merchant who wrote the "Periplus of the Erythrean Sea" in 1^st Century AD. Therefore, the connection between Greek and Eritrea is long. Is Eritrea known in Greece today?

Mr. Costas: Because of its connection with Ethiopia most Greeks do not differentiate between Eritreans and Ethiopians. In Greece there is a considerable number of Eritreans and Ethiopians who live and work there. I have met with some of their children who now have Greek Nationality. There are also a number of authentic Restaurants specializing in ‘Zighni’ and other delicacies and to my surprise they are quite popular with the local community.

Issayas: People of European descent who were born in Eritrea and left Eritrea before 1974 have been meeting regularly since then. Do you have an organization? What are their numbers? Where do you meet?

Mr. Costas: In Eritrea many nationalities lived and worked in harmony with each other. It was a very Cosmopolitan environment where everyone respected each other both in terms of culture as well as Religion. Italians of course were the vast majority of this population but there were Greeks, Indians, Arabs, French,Jews, British and Americans too. The bond of friendship that was formed in Eritrea lingers on to this present day. An Italian bi monthly magazine called MAI TACLI which is distributed to its members throughout the world.

To check out the website of the magazine: http://www.maitacli.it

Mai Tacli Magazine

Mai Tacli organizes every year around May, a get together in Italy, generally a place near Rimini called Riccione. There have been 33 similar gatherings so far. Attendance to these meetings has declined in the recent years from the 500 to 600 people to a few hundred delegates at present. A similar gathering is organized by an Italian website called http://www.ilchichingiolo.it. At these meetings which take place over a long weekend people from all over the world as well all over Italy came to meet old friends and acquaintances and renew old friendships. There are various causes linked to present day Eritrea which are sponsored during these events such as the School at Massawa, the Church at Keren and various individual efforts to support local people in Eritrea.

34th annual Mai Tacli reunion held in Italy, May 2007.

There is an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia for the people and the country that was once their place of abode. Of course no get together is complete without the traditional dish of ‘Zighni’in its menu. I must mention that apart from these meetings, ‘Asmarinos’ take any opportunity to meet wherever they may be and many a time we have had ‘Zighni’ evenings even in Athens.

Issayas: If your common denominator is Eritrea, do you consider yourselves as "the other Eritreans"?

Mr. Costas: Most of the people have kept their European identity, however I know some who have since applied and obtained Eritrean citizenship. All of them however feel like part of the ‘Eritrean diaspora’.

Issayas: Have you been back to Eritrea?

Mr. Costas: The last time I was in Eritrea it was in 1971. I hope however to be able to go early next year in time for the inauguration of the project that I have co-sponsored …’The St Francis of Assisi School at Massawa.’ which is being built by Father Protasio.

Issayas: What is the main objective of your foundation, mybaobab?

Mr. Costas: MyBaobab is a website which is used as a platform for reviving lost friendships and its aim is to maintain contact and networking with ‘Friends of Eritrea’.

It is also a platform for sharing views, news and exchanging ideas, but above all one that will pass on to the younger ex-patriate generation the wealth of experiences that we have had throughout our lives and so to enable them to form a better identity of themselves which I hope, will give them a firm base on which to construct their future.

Mybaobab aims to contribute towards the well being of those less fortunate than ourselves, to sponsor various good causes in Eritrea and to maintain an update of the projects now in progress.

Issayas: What is the symbolism of the Baobab?

The Baobab tree, also known as the ‘upside down tree’ is known to live well over 1000 years. It is a tree which grew in the regions of the Eritrean savannah where Greeks once lived. One of them particularly in Keren is a shrine to the Madonna and is a landmark of the region with a long tradition of the Christian faith and its beliefs.

As the Baobab is able to live such a long time, it must have witnessed Eritrean History with all its hardships and its good times. I thought that ‘MyBaobab’ therefore would carry these attributes in its contents!!

Issayas: Can you tell us about the status of the School that you support in Massawa?

Mr. Costas: This was a ‘project’ that I decided to support with www.mybaobab.com after meeting Father Protassio at one of the MAI TACLI meetings at Rimini. An impressive commitment which started in October 2005 and which is nearing completion early next year. This wonderful establishment will educate about 400 students of all walks of life and religious belief. It will provide them with all their educational needs and train them as well in the Hotel and Catering Industry which will hopefully develop and flourish at Massawa. Of course ongoing help will be required also in the future and this regards people who may volunteer as teachers, trainers, craftsmen who may be willing to pass on their knowledge to these students who are so ‘thirsty for knowledge’ and who are so keen to learn.

Plan of the school in Massawa.

The present status of the school in Massawa.

Issayas: Mr. Costas, thank you for your time.

Mr. Costas: You're welcome.

Interview with Dr. Nicole Saulsberry

Last week I stopped in Chicago on my way back from Springfield, Illinois to California. I visited my good friends Dr. Nicole Saulsberry and Merhawie Woldezion. I interviewed Nicole for a short time. It must be recalled that I interviewed Nicole a while back. And here are some of the excerpts:

Issayas: First, thank you for your time. It is nice seeing you after all these years.

Dr. Saulsberry: Don’t mention it. It’s my pleasure.

Issayas: Can you briefly tell my readers about yourself?

Nicole: I was born in Chicago, Illinois. I graduated from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. And then I went to Stanford University and got my Ph.D in history. After graduation, I moved back to Chicago, Illinois. Now I'm a Special Assistant to the President of Cook County. Cook county is the second largest in the country after Los Angeles County.

Issayas: Have you forgotten the fidel? Can you still read Tigrigna?

Nicole: No, I haven't forgotten to read ,but I need to speak the language frequently. Therefore, I need to practice the language with Eritrean people.

Issayas: How did you get interested in Eritrea in general and Aboi Woldeab Woldemariam in particular?

Nicole: Well, when I first entered graduate school I wanted to study South Africa, since it was the “in” thing to do at that time in 1993. But after I thought about it a lot more, I soon realized that South Africa was over-researched and had plenty of historians in that area. So I switched to Ethiopia because I had a familiarity with Ethiopian history as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I was taught by Bahru Zewde, a well-known Ethiopian historian. My advisor, Professor Kennell Jackson suggested that I study Eritrea since it was a newly independent country. The name rang a bell because of the course I had taken in undergrad. I started reading books on Eritrean history. The first book I read was Amrit Wilson’s book on Women in the Eritrean Revolution. I was hooked!

In the summer of 1994, I went to Eritrea on a Foreign Languages and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) to study Tigrinya. My tutor was Tuqabo Arresi, who wrote the English-Tigrinya dictionary. It was such a wonderful experience for me because the Eritreans were so hospitable and thought of me as an Eritrean. Eritrea was the first African country that I visited. As an African-American that is very rare and odd because, generally, most of us visit Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and other places in West Africa, primarily because of the historical transcontinental connections. But I wanted to study something that was cutting-edge, and Eritrea definitely fit the mold. Not many people had heard about Eritrea. Whenever I told people that I conducted research in Eritrea, they would say, “Who? Where?”. I thank God that I chose Eritrean history as my major field of specialty.

With respect to Woldeab Woldemariam, his name was just mentioned incidentally in the literature on Eritrea. I just figured that if he is revered as the Father of Eritrea, why hasn’t someone written about him? So I decided to take it up as a dissertation project.

Issayas: What kind of resources did you use for your dissertation?

Nicole: There were tons of interviews at the Research and Documentation Center (RDC) in Eritrea, such as interviews with Aboi Woldeab, his journal/newspaper articles, speeches, radio broadcasts from Cairo and Syria, secret Ethiopian documents, telegrams and British sources. I conducted research in Rome but I didn’t find too much there, just several documents to contextualize the time period. There were tons of sources at the London Public Records Office (PRO) about the British period.

Issayas: What kind of information were you able to find, especially in the British archives, about Aboi Woldeab?

Nicole: I found documents pertaining to his role in the political parties. The British made note of all of the political parties and their stand on Eritrean independence and domestic issues, who the leaders were, how various leaders from different parties felt about each other and their motives. There was mention of Woldeab specifically in some of the documents, but mainly I wanted to use the British archives to contextualize the period from 1941-1952.

Issayas: From your research on Aboi Woldeab, can one also understand Eritrea’s political history of the era of the 1940s through the 1960s? Can you give me an example?

Nicole: Most definitely. The period of the 1940s was very tumultuous for Eritrea. Eritrea was at that time thrown into the midst of a political whirlwind in terms of deciding for its future. There were several options on the table during the 1940s, i.e. total independence of Eritrea, union with Ethiopia, the Bevin-Sforza plan which would have partitioned Eritrea between Ethiopia and the Sudan, Italian trusteeship, Eritrean union with Tigray, etc. It is in studying this period that one can gain an understanding of international politics and how the West and Ethiopia determined Eritrea’s political future. Geopolitical interests were the primary factor in deciding the fate of Eritrea. One can also gain an insight as to the strategies that Ethiopia used to try to eradicate Eritrean self-determination, such as terrorism throughout the 1940s to the 1960s, and the illegal annexation of Eritrea in 1962 with the acquiescence of the UN. Moreover, in reading Woldeab’s newspaper articles, you get an understanding of how he operated within the context of Eritrean nationalism. He not only expressed his political concerns, but articulated his opinions about changing Eritrean society. He addressed the need for Eritreans to uphold values such as love, honesty, hard work, perseverance, education, and discipline. Woldeab had a heart for all Eritreans, especially the youth.

Issayas: I understand that there was a special Ethiopian intelligence/surveillance unit called “Mereb” whose assignment was to track down Aboi Woldeab, in places like Cairo, Marseilles and other places. Could you tell us about that?

Nicole: Sure. Ethiopian authorities had their own intelligence unit called Mereb that infiltrated Eritrean organizations and spied on the whereabouts of Woldeab and other Eritrean nationalists. The intelligence unit even reported quarreling amongst Ibrahim Sultan, Idris Mohammed Adem and Woldeab Woldemariam in Cairo. There were also rumors in Asmara that Woldeab would ask for pardon from Haile Selassie and return to Eritrea. People who were in contact with Woldeab through letters feared for their lives. As an example of Ethiopia’s sinister-like capacity to inculcate fear, this specific intelligence report ended by stating: “We have let the rumor spread widely.”

Ethiopia’s subversive strategies were exemplified in a top-secret letter to the Emperor from an Ethiopian intelligence member. It read: “I bow and kiss the land and wish God the Savior to elongate your age and bestow health to you. So as to spy on the Eritrean rebels abroad, we had devised a means by which we could take pictures of them and capture their worthless agents here in Asmara. So as we and the Ministry of National Administration could work jointly on this matter, I have sent the copy of the documents to Dejazmatch Kiflie. These documents not only are useful here in Asmara where they helped to capture the agents, but also in our intelligence work abroad. Most of all is the documents’ importance. It is a great thing to have infiltrated the Eritrean rebels.”

The government’s repressive activities forced Woldeab and others to develop code names in Tigrinya for Eritrean nationalist exiles, Ethiopian authorities and their sympathizers, various cities and Ethiopian and Eritrean political parties. This tactic permitted effective communication amongst the Eritreans in exile. For example, the code name for Haile Selassie was teKula (the wolf); Tedla Bairu’s code name was wo’Ag (the monkey), Governor Asfaha Woldemichael, Hasema (the pig), etc. Woldeab’s code name was Letezghi, and Tsehaye Abraha, another Eritrean exile in Cairo had the code name of kokeb (star). The list goes on and on. Woldeab and his associates were very shrewd in this respect.

Issayas: Was he such a threat for Ethiopia that they had to follow his activities in exile?

Nicole: Most definitely. Ethiopia considered Woldeab a threat because of his previous support base that had been built on his career as an educator and journalist and editor. According to one spy report, Woldeab was bent towards peaceful protests and political discourse and could, therefore, spark student and labor strikes and “threaten the status quo.”

Issayas: Did you find any intelligence information (Ethiopian or otherwise) that would reveal about the assassination attempts on his life?

Nicole: In terms of assassination attempts, I found the evidence mainly in Woldeab’s interviews and in the British records. Woldeab was able to vividly recall what happened with each attempt. For example, after the fourth assassination attempt, he was relocated to the Milano Pensione in Asmara. Since he was confined to his hotel room, two members of the Independence Bloc were assigned as his bodyguards and were responsible for twenty-four hour protection. However, eventually Woldeab was betrayed when they tried to poison him. Woldeab stated: “The assassins were so worried about where to get me. They were wandering around my hotel. Even the police knew, but they didn’t want to be involved in this case. At last, they wanted to bribe my guards by giving them 40 genae [pounds] each and promised to take them out of the city to join with the bandits if they helped them in the assassination. So when the guards brought me my meal they put poison in the food … I didn’t feel hungry. I just tasted the food. I only ate a morsel…Right after I ate the food my body… stopped moving. Tsehaye and others called a taxi [and took me] to the hospital.” This is really telling because here you have 2 bodyguards from the Independence Bloc who were supposed to be protecting Woldeab and yet he couldn’t trust them! This says two things: 1. the extreme length that Ethiopia went through to subvert the Eritrean independence movement, and 2. there were enemies within the Eritrean movement for liberation who conspired with Ethiopia in the 1940s.

Issayas: What can one learn from the life of Aboi Woldeab?

Nicole: By analyzing Woldeab’s life, one can trace the evolution of Eritrean protest politics. Woldeab was a pragmatic nationalist and one of the very few open-minded Eritreans who were prepared to try different political routes. This point shows that nationalists did not take a clear-cut line or linear road, and that the process of nation building is complicated and messy, oftentimes requiring compromises.

Furthermore, Woldeab is a fascinating figure because he served not only as a political figure, but also as a public intellectual who was interested in creating a new kind of Eritrean citizen. Woldeab is unique in that he is considered the Father of Eritrea, and yet he was not the leader of a political organization with significant power and control over international and local forces that were shaping Eritrea’s destiny. Most nationalistic father figures were presidents with direct access to the political power that was necessary to shape the outcome of events. Although Woldeab remained politically active throughout the armed struggle, he was in exile; and for the most part, he was unable to exert much authority on the ground.

All in all, what made Woldeab Woldemariam a father figure was his dedication and perseverance to the Eritrean armed struggle, and his constant encouragement to Eritreans at home and abroad that left an indelible mark on the memory of so many Eritreans. Moreover, his impact as a teacher, his newspaper articles, radio broadcasts, and the seven assassination attempts he survived each played a crucial role in his reverence as a political figure.

Issayas: How can one get to read your dissertation?

Nicole: Well it is in the library at Stanford University. But I have plans to publish the dissertation, preferably by a well-respected publisher. I pray that all will go well.

Issayas: I hope you transform your dissertation into book format soon so that it will be more available to people who would like to know more about this extraordinary man. Nicole, again thank you for your time.

Nicole: You are quite welcome. And thank you.

Lagwen, Eritrea and Vilnius, Lithuania : A Connection?

Vilnius, Lithuania.
I'm sorry that I've been away for so long. I went to Lithuania at the beginning of July 2008 for work related business.A tee-shirt that I bought in Vilnius (the capital city of Lithuania) asks, "where the heck is Lithuania?" And you might say, "who cares?" Hold on. But, did you know that there is a connection between Eritrea and Lithuania, but specifically between Lagwen, Eritrea and Vilnius, Lithuania? I didn't think so!

What's Lagwen, a small village outside Asmara (the capital city of Eritrea) got to do with Vilnius, Lithuania? It's not because of sister-cities or sister-city/village connection. And the connection is not now. Let's say the connection was in 1705 AD. And 1705 isn't a typo. In other words, what's Lagwen and Vilnius, a city founded by Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania (who based on a dream of an iron wolf that howled like hundred wolves) have in common? In short, Abraham Petrovich Hannibal.

You might ask who was Abraham P. Hannibal. Even though many countries claim him to be from their respective countries (Cameroon is the latest addition to the list: Eritrea, Ethiopia and Chad also claim him) but the strongest evidence places Eritrea as the birth place of Abraham P. Hannibal. Many renowned biographers of various nationalities of Alexander S.Pushkin (the great grand son of Abraham Hannibal) also support Eritrea as Abraham's birth place. In short, Abraham was kidnapped from Lagwen, Eritrea and was taken to Turkey and later to Russia. In Russia he became a general and became the maternal great grand father of Russia's greatest poet: Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. I wrote a five parts series on this subject a while back on dehai.org, shaebia.com and shabit.com. Using this article as a spring board, I will re-post the previous five parts soon.

I started writing this article from Hotel Narutis, which claims to be the oldest hotel in Vilnius (ANNO 1581) and finished it in the United States.



Hotel Narutis on Pilies Street, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Old town section of Vilnius is full of rich history. Tomas Venclova's City Guide is an excellent source about the richness of the city. Each building in the old section carries a multi-layered rich cultural and historical secret. Walking down the narrow alleys and roads, one feels like a time traveler. While I stayed in the old town, I dined at various Gothic cellar restaurants. The thought of Abraham Hannibal, who might have dined in one of the cellars, or who might have walked down one of the alleys of old Vilnius sent shivers down my spine.


Hotel Narutis is located on Pilies Street. It faces St. John's church: the church of Vilnius University (one of the oldest and most famous universities in Eastern and Northern Europe which was established in 1579). From Hotel Narutis going north on Pilies Street, there is a square where vendors sell their products. It is at this square that Pilies Street turns into Didzioji Street. On the left hand side is an old Russian Orthodox Church of Paraskeva (Piatnica). It was in this church in 1705 that Czar Peter I of Russia baptized Abraham P. Hannibal as his god-son. Every time I passed by the church, I got a sense of awe. A sense of tingling. Just think about it. In 2008, I knew how I got there and why I was there, but for a small boy who was kidnapped from Lagwen and ends up in Vilnius in 1705 to be the Son-in-Christ of a Russian czar is mind boggling!

Pilies Street, Vilinus, Lithuania.

Pilies Street turns into Didzioji Street


The Russian Orthodox Church of Paraskeva where Abraham Hannibal was baptized in 1705.


A plaque outside the Russian Orthodox Church indicating that Abraham Hannibal was baptized there in 1705. General Abraham Petrovich Hannibal.


At the main door of Vilnius University.

Inside St. John's Church of Vilnius University.



Formerly the summer home of one of Alexander S. Pushkin's descendants. Now Pushkin Museum, Vilnius, Lithuania.

The statue of Pushkin in Vilnius, Lithuania.




Narrow alleys and roads.

Examples of some of the magnificent buildings of Vilnius.

Finally, as I've mentioned earlier at the beginning of this introductory article, this will be a segue to re-post the previous five articles that I wrote about Abraham Hannibal and his descendants, soon.

As a footnote, however, I would like to add the following. Vilnius is not the only city that Lagwen, through Abraham Hannibal, had a connection with. Reval (now Tallinn the capital city of Estonia); Pernau, Estonia; Amsterdam, Holland and Paris, France were also some of the many other connections. General Abraham was a military commander of Reval for ten years from 1742-1752. Lagwen, through General Ivan, Abraham's oldest son, had also a connection with Kherson in Ukraine. General Ivan was one of the founders of the city of Kherson. Through the descendants of Alexander S. Pushkin, Lagwen's connections with other countries include Germany and Great Britain.

A conversation with Eritrean filmmaker Ambessa Jir Berhe

Ambessa jir Berhe

Issayas Tesfamariam: Can you tell my readers about yourself?

Ambessa Jir Berhe: I am an independent filmmaker based in Washington DC. I was born in Eritrea where I spent my early childhood and came to America through Ethiopia. When I think of it now, the seed of my film making career started as far back as Mendefera, Eritrea. Since I was very little, I have always loved films. I used to be very determined to see all the films shown in the local movie theaters even though my family thought movies were a distraction for my education. They never allowed me to watch as much as I desired hence I was a handful and obsessed with movies. Somehow I always found a way to watch all the movies in town at the expense of getting the whooping from my mom for staying late at the movie theaters watching new Indian films.

At the same time, I was equally intrigued listening to my grandmother and relatives storytelling’s; mainly during their visits I use to stay up all night listening to their stories about the villages and the bandits. From a young age, our people manner and methods of imaging the stories had me fascinated.

All throughout my education and especially in Junior high, I watched numerous movies and dramas while remaining an avid reader as well as short stories writer. However I never really seriously considered film making until I was in college after going through my freshman year in complete confusion, where I had the opportunity to discover my true call. From then on, I didn't even hesitate to pursue my objective because I knew in my heart that I was making the right decision for my life. Since then, I was able to graduate from Scottsdale Community College majoring in Motion Picture Production, continued studying film production at Howard University to finally obtain both my BA and MFA in film production.

Since I had to support myself, I had odd jobs as I continued to write, direct, and edit short narrative films like Africa (1998), Wondering (1999), My Fate (2000), Spice my What? (2001), Last night (2003), Shigara (2005), and Shikorina's Date (2006), A-Weight-With-Words (2007), Fragmented Lives (2008). Those films have been screened at the South West Film Festival, The Eritrean Film Festival in Washington, D.C., Prosperity Media College Film and Video competition, Paul Robson Award, Rosebud Film Fest, and DC Shorts Film Fest and Regal Cinema.

Issayas: What do you think of Eritrean films and Eritrean filmmakers?

Ambessa: This is certainly a hard question to tackle because talking about Eritrean films, I can only sound very pessimistic simply due the number of years I have spent studying film and my strong opinions. After many years of studying films, I am very critical of any film mostly those bad Eritrean films. It truly irritates me. Well, please let me warn the readers that this part of the answer might be critical, thus might be considered offensive or outright arrogant but if you want to know what I feel about Eritrean films, here it is:

To me filmmaking is a very serious medium, which allows us as filmmakers, storytellers and individuals to take on a responsibility on how we can project our own stories.

With Eritrean films, this misconception of producing quality film is only becoming impressive in technical terms but doesn’t mean that Eritrean films are improving or progressive. Quality and content have to be integrated for the film industry to grow. Of course when it comes to production quality in terms of clarity of image and sound, Eritrean movies have improved, though the value of the crisp high definition (HD) or digital video (DV) image is useless if the cinematic language and story telling is absent. This is what I call a waste of time, money and talent.

I allow myself to address the issue of content because story telling is firstly about content regardless of the medium. I have been examining most of the Eritrean films since the Independence of the country. In the early nineties, the content was all about the Ethiopian occupation and the effect on Eritrean people. Then in 1998 came the war, and most of the films switched to stories about “Weyanies” and their evil deeds. Unfortunately the last four to five years, it seems Eritrean filmmakers are mostly repetitively cliché love stories. I am unsure of the outcome for the next ten years though I can affirm that it is lacking a voice. I haven’t seen any Eritrean filmmakers with a unique voice, doing something interesting and revolutionary.

Although I feel like Eritrean films need to obtain their identity first before entering the International arena, even if I hear from friends why Eritrean films are not recognized at the international level. I do believe Eritrean people have a strong identity, but I don’t see it translated into our films. As people we have our own culture and tradition and complexities. We have our own storytellers who entertained us for centuries, telling our own stories through our own methods from generation to generation. It seems that our generation has disconnected and lost the traditional way of story telling. I remember growing up, my mother, my father, and my grandmother used to tell us the Eritrean stories, about the legends and mythology and they all had a unique way of telling it.

Our fathers, grandfathers and grandmothers didn’t have radio or TV to entertain them, rather each village if not family, had storytellers to provide historical stories, fictitious tales, fables, riddles (Tsintsuway, hinkil hinkilitey) complex poetry, jokes and messages oriented stories towards kids. They use to seat under the tree in the middle of the village and tell each other mostly unpreserved stories. Every ethnic group in our country has developed a way of telling stories and here we are with our generation that has forgotten the traditional way of storytelling. The irony is that the tradition and the culture is still around us dictating our daily existences.

This change is mostly due to our contemporary storytellers who are busy trying to be modern (what ever that is), they never developed those authentic stories and storytelling’s. For me if we start from there, our uniqueness will be really authentic and based on our reality.

I will give a simple example about love. A young man is in love with this young woman and he approaches her after such an ordeal refusal, finally she agrees to go out with him and one day he goes to her neighborhood to take her out. He couldn’t knock on her door because he is afraid her mother will catch him so he sends one of the neighbor’s kids to call her and she comes out to tell him to follow her from a far. So she starts walking towards the Lovers’ cafe on the other side of the corner street, and her lover follows walking one block across her in parallel and at every cross-section, they waited for each other until they glanced at each other from a block away to continue towards their destination. For the people who saw them, they were a block away from each other but for them it’s like walking side by side. When they get to their destination in a secluded area, they are able to seat together and enjoy the company of one another. To me this story will tell every thing about the society those lovers live.

In this day and age, the filmmakers are just copying Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks love stories with complicated plot into Tigrinya, with Celine Dion’s and Whitney Houston’s soundtrack on the background, which has nothing to do with our concept of love and the intricate habesha relationships. When you finish the film, you have no idea what the hell is going on. Now, it doesn’t mean that young Eritrean don’t express their love openly, which they really do. Nonetheless they do against the strict culture and tradition and no one is delving into that complexity and exploring it. I feel as storytellers we don’t yet have the core grip so I feel as an Eritrean filmmaker a need to bring out in our films, stories that are from our own experiences. We must also have ways of telling a story.

Another example is to look at the Iranian film industry, which is so respected around the world. Iranian filmmakers usually tell a story about their people, their traditions and the complexity of their culture as well as the modern world. They are very successful despite their difficulties with censorship and religious restrictions.

Therefore to me, until we recognize our older storytellers and are able to transfer their method into cinema we will be making a Tigrinya remake of Hollywood romantic movies. In fact it is also the problem with other African countries.

Issayas: What is your short film about? (Note: two clips from "Fragmented Lives" are presented at the end of the conversation).

Ambessa: “Fragmented Lives” is a 30 minute professionally produced short film. The story is about an Eritrean family in America. The story follows a young Eritrean American (played by Senai Medhani) who finds out that his father had left his troublesome younger brother back home in Eritrea when they went for vacation. As the film progress we see the effects of the abandoned little brother issue and how it manifests in the family and their different reactions toward that action. The mother is torn between her children and her husband, which shakes the already fractured Eritrean-American family that is already falling apart. The father is firm in his decisions. The older brother refuses to accept his brother’s abandonment thus confronts his father and decides to bring him back. The story is merely a glimpse of our problems as immigrants and dislocated people, though at the heart of the film the principal subject matter are communications and families.

All pictures courtesy of Ambessa jir Berhe

Behind the scenes : "Fragmented Lives"


Ambessa and Rob "Fragmented Lives"


Jordan Tesfay and Senai Medhane "Fragmented Lives"

Actor Senai Medhane

Actress Jordan Tesfay

Filmmaker Ambessa jir Berhe

Issayas: What do you think the role of Eritrean filmmakers (who studied film in the Diaspora: like you, me and etc.) be in the improvement of Eritrean films inside Eritrea?

Ambessa: I would've said enthusiastically yes we would help improve Eritrean films because we studied film in some university. But the reality is that we are very few and un-organized, scattered around the world doing our little film projects here and there. I don't know if the improvement of Eritrean films will come from the Diaspora Eritrean filmmakers. I think the improvement has to come out from the Eritrean filmmakers who are writing and directing in Eritrea right now. The Diaspora filmmakers are not making a Tigrinya film every month most of us in the Diaspora spend years to produce and get a project off ground.

As Eritrean filmmakers in Diaspora we can share the knowledge we acquired over the years and give film production workshops. Also we can crate an organization, start sharing ideas, information, and collaborate with promising local filmmakers. Well first we have to get a hold of our big egos in both ends and learn from each other. My believe is filmmakers who say they know everything about filmmaking, should stop making films. You learn a new experience from every film you make regardless of your prior experience.I think as Eritrean filmmakers in Diaspora if we tell our story properly and one at a time that should be a contribution.

Issayas: There are lots of Ethiopian films ( in Amharic) that are coming out, what do you think of them?

Ambessa: I get this kind of question all the time, except it is usually stated differently. People would ask me to compare between Eritrean and Ethiopian films. Some people get a kick knowing one side of film is better than the other side.

My mom told me this saying, if I remember correctly. A peasant was asked to choose which bandit is better, between a ruthless bandit from his village and a cruelest bandit from his neighbor’s village. His answer was ኩሎም ሓደ ኩሎም ሽፍታ kulom Hade kulom shifta (all the same, all bandits). So every problem that I stated above about Eritrean films also applies to Ethiopian films.

There are few Ethiopian filmmakers out side the Ethiopian film industry making interesting films. One of them is Haile Gerima a world-renowned Ethiopian filmmaker, he is making films that are internationally acclaimed and even used for film studies in universities. I might add that I have been fortunate enough to study under him and became his film student. As a filmmaker and storyteller he has tremendous influence in my progress.

Issayas: Film is a visual medium. Do you think there is a lot of dialog in Eritrean films?

Ambessa: What dialog? Every Eritrean film that I've seen is dialog- driven. I would’ve been ok if the dialog that I've seen on those films is real to life, but it's not. To me everything is spelled out and acted like a theater play. Which is also very dangerous for audiences, because audience stop participating in the story and wait for the filmmaker to spoon-feed them in a dialog format.

Film is a visual medium there is now way around it. Now if we are talking about soap operas then it’s a different question. I will demonstrate with a short scene written both ways with a lot of dialog and with limited dialog and more visual action.

An Example of dialog -driven scene.

INT. HOUSE - AFTERNOON

ABEBA and KESHI TESFATSION are eating enjera.

ABEBA
Please eat. You haven’t touched your food.

KESHI TESFATSION
Bless you my child. I am eating.

ABEBA
Let me add some stew. You didn’t even touch
in front of you.

Abeba adds more enjera and stew

KESHI TESFATSION
It’s enough. I have enough.

ABEBA
You have been out side all day. You must be hungry.

KESHI TESFATSION
Bless you my child. Bless this house.

Abeba adds more Siwa.

ABEBA
You are not drinking enough. Didn’t you like the
test of my siwa.

KESHI TESFATSION
Its good. It’s testy.

Abeba's ten years old son MERON comes and stands at the door wanting to eat but couldn’t say it. Keshi Tesfahtsion sees him.

KESHI TESFATSION
Come eat with us Meron.

ABEBA
No, he just ate his lunch.

KESHI TESFATSION
He is a kid he can still eat.

ABEBA
Son, go out side and play with your brothers.

Meron walks out.

Now lets see the same scene, but visually driven with limited dialog.

INT. HOUSE - AFTERNOON

ABEBA and KESHI TESFATSION are eating enjera. On his side of the trey it’s getting empty. Abeba sees this and adds a fresh enjera on the top of it.

She adds more stew on it. Keshi Tesfahatsion tries to stop her grabbing her hand holding the spoon full of stew.

KESHI TESFATSION
It’s enough my child.

ABEBA
Come on eat. You must have a long day.

Abeba puts away the spoon and adds more Siwa on the almost full Keshi’s glass. Keshi Tesfatsion picks the glass to stop her from filling it all the way.

MERON Abeba’s ten years old son comes into the room. He stands at the entrance and looks at the food they are eating.

Keshi Tesfahatsion catches Meron looking at the food and he feels uncomfortable.

Abeba catches this and she gives Meron the evil eye, which translates that you will be in trouble after the guest leaves the house.

When Keshi Tesfahtsion looks at her she immediately softens her look and smiles like nothing happen.

Meron understands the danger of this situation and he is terrified. He starts backing out.

KESHI TESFATSION
My son Meron, come eat with us.

Abeba furiously looks at Meron. Meron looks at the ground.

MERON
I am full. I just ate.

Meron runs out of the room.

I have more freedom and weapon to tell my story the way I want, if I make sure the story is communicated visually.

As people ,especially Habesha people, we don’t say what we really mean. If we must communicate a scene through dialog we should make it as complex as our daily lives and give the audience something to work with.

Before I end this question I have another example about telling story through visual method. When I was young ,my mom asked me to read a letter she received from a relative. I start reading very loud until I reached the third paragraph, suddenly I stopped reading. Little did I know the letter was carrying a bad news. The bad news was about a death of a sick relative. I remember standing there speechless and couldn’t continue with the letter. I knew that person was a very dear family to my mom so I couldn’t dare tell her his death. My mom could read my body language and she didn’t have to ask me what is on the next paragraph. She knew exactly what it was and she started crying uncontrollably.

If I decide to put this scenario in a movie, I am not going to waste time stating it with a dialog. The actions and reactions between me, my mom and the letter are there, all I have do is apply them into the film. So life is full of visual stories, as filmmakers we just have to look deeper than the surface and bring them alive into our stories.

Issayas: Ambessa, thank you for your time and your thoughts. I hope to see more of your works on the screen.

Ambessa: You're welcome.

Two clips below from "Fragmented Lives"

JUNE 20
ERITREAN MARTYRS' DAY






"THE PRICE OF FREEDOM IS ETERNAL VIGILANCE."

Rainbow International School. Asmara, Eritrea

Before I went to Eritrea six months ago, a friend of mine asked me to look into Rainbow International School, which is located in Asmara, Eritrea. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to visit the school at that time. However, I searched and inquired about the school after I came back to the United States. I also had a chance to talk to Professor Asmarom Legesse (when he visited the United States in May 2008) who is the chairman of the board of managers who run the school. It would be redundant for me to go in detail here (since the information can be obtained from their website), but suffice to say that the school is owned by parents who run the school through a board of managers. Their motto reads, "every child matters." This is a brief introduction to the public about a school run by parents.

The url of the school’s website is:

http://www. rainbow-eritrea.com

The pictures are courtesy of Professor Asmerom Legesse.

Alkmeya: " a secret to discover".

ALKEMYA: " a secret to discover".

Issayas Tesfamariam

I was introduced to Alkemya two years ago in a peculiar way. In 2006 in the lobby of the Britsol Hotel in downtown Asmara, I was waiting for a friend and I noticed a very beautiful calendar on the wall. Even though the calendar was a year old at the time, the colors, the photography,etc. like a magnet pulled my eyes. I thought it was a calendar produced by one of the major western outlet stores or a fashion company. To my total surprise, I was told that it was produced by Alkemya, a company owned and almost entirely staffed by women in Asmara. The daughter of the owner of Bristol Hotel informed me that Alkemya is located right in front of the hotel. And she introduced me to Nadia Biasiolo, the owner of Alkemya. Alkemya's motto is "a secret to discover". Once I was introduced to Nadia, Tedros, Fresewra and all the dedicated young women (whose products are beautifully modeled by the models in this post), I realized that Alkemya was indeed, a secret to discover.

The pictures below testify to the quality of Alkemya's product. However, I am writing this short article to introduce Alkemya and their products to the general public. Alkemya as its objective states, it uses pure Eritrean cotton, it is hand spun, and it is woven dyed on traditional loom.

I have over two hours of footage shot at Alkemya, which I'll use in an upcoming DVD on development. In the meantime, I have put the pictures as a slide at the bottom of this post.

The pictures are entirely reproduced with permission from Nadia Biasiolo. I'm very grateful for the permission. The original photos and graphics are by Lightscapes.

You can contact Alkemya :

e-mail : alkemya@gemel.com.er

Phone: Nadia Biasiolo- Asmara- tel (291-1-12-22-59)

E R I T R E A: sketches of a trip.

Issayas Tesfamariam

Note: This series has an introduction and five sketches. A total of six postings. This is...

Sketch Five (final)

One of Eritrea's motto's for development is to have a qualified human resource. To that end, Eritrea conducts endless seminars, lectures, workshops, training sessions, etc., to develop its human resource capacity. During my stay in Eritrea, there was an ongoing two-months training session for film directors, script writers, actors and actresses, cinematographers, etc.

The Eritrean film industry roughly produces twenty films a year. What is the most important and encouraging aspect of these film products is that they are locally financed and locally produced. However, if Eritrean films are to compete in the world market, they need to improve in quality. Recognizing this fact, the Eritrean Film Rating Committee (EFRC) was set up in 2007 to assign stars depending on the quality of the film that is being produced (four being the highest star). Every film produced in Eritrea is submitted to EFRC for artistic rating, and the Committee uses six categories in its rating system: 1) Screenplay, 2) Acting, 3) Makeup, Costume and Set Design, 4) Cinematography, 4) Editing, and 6), Directing.

Logo of the Eritrean Film Rating Committee.
Logo art by Ermias Ekube

As a sign of coming of age of Eritrean films, Mesghun Zerai 's (aka Wedi Feradai, who is director of Audio Visual Institute of Eritrea) latest feature film, "Ablel ",will be screened in the African Film Festival of Yokahoma, Japan, on May 22, 2008. Through the efforts of Eritrea’s ambassador to Japan, Wedi Feradai’s film was selected for the prestigious film festival in Japan.

I was asked if I could give a lecture and share my experiences with the participants of the film workshop in Asmara. I gave the organizers two films ( Vittorio de Sica's "The Bicycle Thief" and Ginno Pontocorvo's "The Battle of Algiers") so that the participants could watch these movies ahead of the lecture.

The lecture/workshop started at 8:00 AM and ended at 6:00 PM. There were about 100 participants. I divided the lecture/workshop into two sessions. The first session, which lasted half a day dealt with the theory aspect of film making (pre-production, production , post-production, script writing, film aesthetics, persistence of vision, psychology closure, the story of movies, typeset, graphic art, the use of Ge'ez alphabet as a graphic element, etc.)

Some of the objective of the lecture/workshop were as follows:

- To open a dialog among film makers;

- To make individual and collective effort in helping improve the Eritrean film industry;

- To identify various forms used in film making and standardize the forms (have authors and experts in Ge'ez participate in formulating the forms);

- Improvement or change starts within oneself (examples are learning English, read books to learn or improve ones computer skills, etc.);

- Criticism is important in film making therefore a culture of criticism should be encouraged. Criticism should not be taken personally.

After lunch break, the second session solely dealt with discussion and critique of the two films that they had watched a day earlier. We discussed "The Bicycle Thief" for two hours. One of the consensus was that the film is a simple story and yet highly engaging. Gizienesh Menghis, the wife of the popular comedian actor Habte Geresus (Wedi Shawl) eloquently summarized the film when she said that, “ misti seb'ay neta bishkiletit’u kenedaleyo mel’eti Roma kenkola we’einlaya” (“We spent the whole day searching for the actor's bicycle with him throughout Rome”). The consensus confirmed my earlier argument that films don't necessarily need to have a complex plot structure. One of my criticisms of Eritrean film making is that a lot of Eritrean directors tend to make their stories unnecessarily complicated, thus creating a lot of unnecessary characters and sub plots.

Another major criticism that I have is that a lot of them tend to favor lengthy dialog. We need to remember that film is a visual medium. To support my argument, I gave them the simple fact that most of the classic films are simple stories. Simple stories, I argued, can be found out on the streets, in everyday life. I gave two examples from stories that I had just heard a day or two prior to the film workshop. Both deal with signs of the buses that travel from Asmara to rural areas in Eritrea. The names of two of these buses are “Mesob” and “Guale’bat” respectively. In order to attract more customers, the owner of “Guale’bat, Mes ob’s competition, put up this catchy slogan on his bus: ካብ ምስ መሶብና ጎሰስ ምስ ጓል’ባት መሰስ “kab mes Mesobna goses, mes Gual abat meses!” (“Be right on time with speedy Guale’bat, instead of delaying with the slow Mesob!”) This gives one a great visual image. First, Mesob isGuale’bat’s main competition. Second, to put down the competition, it elevates its speed. The ironic part of the story is that the supposed fast bus, Guale’bat, always breaks down. This is a simple story, but with a lot of conflict, which is raw material for a good film. The second story is that when owners of the rural buses acquire them first, they name their respective buses, "Tiger", "Ambessa (lion)", Gazzele, Impala, etc., but once the buses start breaking down often, the names above were replaced by "St. Gabriel", "St. Michael, etc.

Finally, I donated three films so that the people who are involved in the production of Eritrean films can watch regularly films and discuss them. As a result, they have established a film club and have been watching different films every Friday for three months now. They are in need of a wide variety of international films; therefore, if Eritreans want to see Eritrean films of high quality, I challenge and encourage every Eritrean all over the world to send them DVDs so that Eritrean film makers could learn from world class directors. Therefore, you can contact them directly at : eritreanfilms@yahoo.com or call them at +291-1-121758 (or you can contact me at issayasm@yahoo.com to start a project to collect and send books and DVDs to Eritrean film makers inside Eritrea).

E R I T R E A: sketches of a trip.

Issayas Tesfamariam

Note: This series has an introduction and five sketches. A total of six postings. This is...

Sketch Four

Part Two

It was the last day of my visit. I was doing a last minute errand when I got a call from Senai Woldeab telling me that Memher Tewoldebrhan was in a pharmacy in downtown Asmara. Luckily, neither Senai nor I were too far from the pharmacy. After meeting with Senai, we waited along with another friend until Memher Tewoldebrhan left the pharmacy. Outside the pharmacy, after we greeted him, I asked him if he had time to be interviewed. He agreed to see us in the afternoon. At 2:00 PM, we went to his residence.

The interview took two hours, and it covered a wide range of topics from Eritrean history, to Ethiopian history, to customary laws, to the history of Islam in Eritrea, etc. Memher Tewoldebrhan is 89 years old. He has an amazing memory and encyclopedic mind.

Memher Tewoldebrhan had served the Orthodox Church in various capacities throughout his life. After he retired, he worked with Research and Documentation Center of Eritrea (RDC) for five years. He has compiled a complete history of twenty monasteries, thirty thousands Moya Kudusan (Works of the Saints) and etc. He researched and cataloged the various religious writings and parchments by looking at the way the script was written, the way the book was bound, etc. He has completed the aforementioned which is ready to be published. He has also completed cultural and historical history of Eritrea which is also ready to be published.

Note: I am presenting a seven minutes video clip of interview with Memher Tewoldebrhan (in Tigrigna).

Here is a translation of the clip.

"The anchor villages for the traditional law of Adkeme-Miligae were: Areza, Adi Mongonti, Kudo Felasi, Qene Hayela, Adi Hys, Mai Lham and Biet Gebriel. This traditional law was committed to memory, however when two antagonists differ on what the law says they are supposed to request a reading of the law. For example if two people had a disagreement in the lowland areas of Dembelas or Zayidekolom, they are supposed to have a first reading of the law from the book at Areza, then if they want they can head east to Adi Mongonti, and Kudo Felasi and for the fourth and final reading at Qene Hayela. Similarly when two antagonists start at Qohayin they will do their readings at Biet Gebriel, Mai Lham, Adi Hyis and finally Qne-Hayela. [Assuming that all the four readings agree (best of seven) the dispute is supposed to end at Qne-Hayle (a central location for all regions).] Qne Hayle is a village for Miligae while the other six are for Adkeme.

The traditional law was ratified at a conference in Mai Leham in the village of Zawil [few kilometers south west of Mai Nefhi]. The Logo-Chiwa anchor villages were: Adi Baro (for the Logo) and Adi Bezhans for Chiwa. If two antagonists from Logo had a difference they hear a reading of the law at Adi Baro and then they proceed to Adi BezHans and the others start at Adi BezHans and they go to Adi Baro.

On the traditional laws of Deqe-Teshim, it was legislated by the father-son rulers of the area Abieto Habtslus and Degiyat Gerekstos , respectively. It was written at a place called Adi Brhanu. These too had two anchor villages. Adi Qonsi and Adi Hans. When two people in the western part of this district (Anseba) disagree on the stipulation of the law they will have their reading at Adi Hans and then at Adi Qonsi, while those in the east will start at Adi Qonsi and will proceed to Adi Hans.

There is not much difference between these laws, except in some minor issues. The reason we had separate laws is due to ego than anything else. To mention a couple of the few exceptions: In Adkeme-Miligae a woman that had left her father's place through an official wedding ceremony had no right to inherit from her father's land even if she comes back to her village after a divorce, while the right of a woman who comes back to her village after a divorce to inherit her father's land is respected in the other traditional laws. The second exception was the compensation for a lost life under the traditional laws of Dimbezan (Adi Tekeliezan or Adzemat). Here a person who kills another person is supposed to pay 60 cows that are ready to give birth and 60 heifers (cows that haven't given birth yet); this was extreme and the law was amended with the coming of Italian colonial rule.

The traditional law of Adkeme-Miligae was ratified at a place called Mai Gief. It is said that the elders worked on the law at a special retreat where they only lived on dried garbanzo beans. There was a parchment of these laws at the Monastery of Abune Yonas, but the enemy stole it. What you have now in your hands is what Degiyat Mehari [of Debzana published in the 1940s].

These laws were always open to amendments involving new crimes that were not included in the laws. When a need to do arises the people are supposed to send representatives that will deliberate on amendments. For example in western lowlands of Seraye, Deqi Tesfa is how they are referred to, had several districts and each of these had particular places where the villagers meet to choose their two or three delegates. For example for the people of Afelba used to meet at Mai Hidmo and choose their delegates and those in the vicinity of Areza used to meet at Areza, the same with those from Dembelas and Zaidekolom. These delegates in turn meet with the delgates from the other delegates from the other regions of Adkeme-Miligae at Mai Gif, the traditional conference place of Adkeme-Miligae. These delegates divide themselves into committees that work on laws concerning inheritance, murder, injury, defamation or slander, marriage and divorce. When these people are done drafting the draft is deliberated article by article by the whole Mai Gif delegation; those articles that are accepted will make it to the law and the population is told about these new additions.

In case of new and urgent crime that was not in the books, it is handled by 14 representatives two each from the seven anchor villages if these don't agree on how to proceed they are supposed to send it back to the district chiefs who in turn appoint some wise men from each of the villages to do some further deliberation on it.

For example, the Adkeme-Miligae laws had a provision were a married woman is not supposed to be touched by a man even if he wants to get rid off dirt on her cloth. If he does he will be liable. On the other hand, any one who had heard a woman's cry or saw her tears can press charges on her behalf.."

Next: A summary of a film workshop (the last sketch)

E R I T R E A: sketches of a trip.

Issayas Tesfamariam

Note: This series has an introduction and five sketches. A total of six postings. This is...

Sketch Four

Part one

It is always hard to do so many things with so little time anywhere, but especially in Eritrea. I had a tight schedule when I was there, but I could not miss an opportunity to chat with Dr. Asmerom Legesse. My good friend, Senai Woldeab, arranged the meeting at Dr. Asmerom’s residence. Dr. Asmerom is a renowned Eritrean anthropologist known for his scholarly contribution in African anthropology -- especially for his marvelous work on the Gada: The Traditional Oromo democracy, Eritrean history, etc. He is also emeritus professor from Swarthmore College. But, what I wanted to talk to him this time was about his great grandfather, Keshi Zeratsion Mussie.

Keshi Zeratsion Mussie (father-in-law of Keshi Tewoldemedhin Gebremedhin) was one of the few priests who were leading a reform movement within the Orthodox Church in the 1860's of Kebessa (highland) Eritrea. The rest were Keshi Haileab Tesfai (younger brother of Keshi Gebremedhin Tesfai and uncle of Keshi Tewoldemedhin Gebremedhin), Keshi Solomon Atsqu (Keshi Haileab's brother-in-law), Keshi Gebremedhin Tesfai (older brother of Keshi Haileab Tesfai and father of Keshi Tewoldemedhin), Keshi Segid Zemuy and others.

In 1916 Keshi Zeratsion and Keshi Solomon Atsqu had written one of the earliest Tigrigna books entitled, Berhan Yikhun (Let there be Light), which is an autobiographical account of their reform movement. Also, the Swedish scholar, Dr. Gustav Aren, had written in detail about the reform movement in his book entitled “Evangelical Pioneers in Ethiopia: Origins of the Evangelical Church of Mekane Yesus”. However, I figured it would be important to talk to Dr. Asmerom for several reasons. Firstly, Dr. Asmerom knew his great grandfather, Keshi Zeratsion Mussie, personally and was with him for a certain period of time. Secondly, I heard that Dr. Asmerom has the original hand-written copy of his great grandfather's Customary Laws of Karneshim, in which Keshi Zeratsion was the teHaz Debter (secretary/chronicler).Thirdly, to understand more about this reform movement, which later became the Evangelical Church of Eritrea, which in turn through Keshi Gebre Ewostateos Zemichael, an Eritrean, and Daniel Lulu, an Oromo, who went to Wollega with their respective wives, and later through Onesimos Nesib, an Oromo, planted the seed which gave rise to the Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus in Wollega, Ethiopia. Followers of the Mekane Yesus Evangelical Church in Ethiopia now number over four million. Finally and most importantly, this reform movement in Eritrea was unique because it was totally internally driven, but it coincided with the coming of the Swedish Evangelical missionaries to Eritrea in the late 19^th century, whose main goal was to reach Oromoland and preach to the vast Oromo population of Ethiopia.

The following are highlights of the discussion I had with the great scholar Dr. Asmerom Legesse, which I am quoting from a broader discussion and context.

Onesimos Nesib

Onesimos Nesib translated part of the Oromo Bible in this house in Asmara. His translation started in Umkullu, then Geleb and finally in Asmara.

Picture courtesy of Senai Woldeab.

On his great grandfather, Keshi Zeratsion Mussie:

“I went to stay with my great grandfather because the British during World War II were bombing Italian-colonized Eritrea, so my parents decided that it was a good idea to move to my great grandfather's village of Geremi. It was an amazing life. I got to see a glimpse of another world. My great grandfather was a founding member of the Evangelical Church of Eritrea and yet he used to go every Sunday to St. Michael's Orthodox Church in Geremi to the point where he even donated a bell to the church. He became a bridge between the Eritrean tradition and the Church. When he returned to his village, he arrived as the most educated member in the community. He arrived at his village of Geremi when the surrounding villages of the district of Karneshim were in the process of breaking off from the Laws of Deki Teshim. When he returned to his village he became the chief scribe, the keeper and interpreter of the Laws of Karneshim. So the Customary Laws of Karneshim (hand written by Keshi Zeratsion Mussie) have been in the hands of Keshi Zeratsion and his descendants from then until now. Therefore, he did not see any difference between Eritrean tradition and the Church. He was the bridge figure.”

On the Reformers:

“The Evangelical Church of Eritrea is unique because it was initiated by a group of Orthodox priests in the 1860's who felt that teaching Christianity in the archaic Ge’ez language that people did not understand did not make sense. Their argument was to teach the Bible to people in the Tigrigna language that they understood. They saw themselves as Orthodox priests, but also as reformers. The reform movement was a completely local phenomenon. The achievements of the priests were twofold. First and foremost, to start a reform movement that would give people access to the scriptures in the language they understood, and, secondly, to make Tigrigna a written/literary language.

“The Reformers were persecuted. They had to flee to the coastal town of Umkullu (in Tigre language Umkullu means “the mother of all”). Umkullu at that stage had all kinds of people (people who were sold into slavery, people who were bought and freed, and various ethnic groups such as the Oromo, etc.) One of the amazing things that happened in Umkullu was that the pioneer Oromo writer and translator of the Bible into the Oromo language, Onesimos Nesib, after he was freed became a teacher along with Keshi Zeratsion Mussie at the girls school in Umkullu.

“One of the amazing historical notes about the genesis of the Evangelical Church is the fact that the founders of the Evangelical movement were themselves never ordained as Lutheran ministers because when time came for them to be ordained by the Swedish missionaries, they insisted that they were already ordained priests. So the original reformers remained Orthodox priests until the time of their deaths, although they were the founders of the Evangelical Church. That is one of the paradoxes in the history of the Eritrean Evangelical movement.

As is believed by some historians who have written about the evangelical movement in Eritrea, the reformers, far from being alienated, were deeply rooted in their culture and were the backbone of the society.”

And a lot of discussion on the meeting with the Swedes, discussion on the Valdezians, etc. was also covered.

On Eritrean Customary Laws:

“The dates vary. The oldest is 800 years old. Eritrean Customary Laws are comprehensive laws that encompass civil and criminal matters. They are written in some detail. The procedural aspects are, by the way, the most obscure because those have never been written and they have never been studied by lawyers, either.

“The most fascinating aspect of the Eritrean Customary Law is its dynamism. Laws are not written in order to be administered by law enforcement agencies. Laws exist as a background to intervention, to mediation, to conflict resolution. The purpose of law is to establish a framework for conflict resolution. Resolution of conflict is the most important aspect of Eritrean Customary Law. In my view, Eritrean Customary Law's backdrop to mediation, backdrop to peace making is what is the important aspect. In this regard, customary laws in Eritrea are quite unique. The uniqueness is not that they are customary but that they are written. And these Eritrean customary laws are written by communities and administered by communities, which did not exist in anywhere else in Africa.

“The Customary Laws of Karneshim were never published because the elders of Karneshim and surroundings believed that laws are a living thing that has to evolve continuously and publishing and rendering them in print freezes them. It makes the law unresponsive to change. In Karneshim’s Customary Laws, the changes in law are attached to the document so that the old law still remains in the text and the new law is written on a strip of paper, which is stuck with the latex of cactus to stick it to one end. So they are the amendments to the law. They are called “Hentiltil” in Tigringna, which literally means amendments. Every time you are administering the laws you have to be sure when the offense was committed. That is before or after the introduction of the innovation. If it is before, then what is in the amendment doesn’t apply; if is after then it applies, etc.

“In Eritrea, we have two traditions when it comes to Eritrean Customary Laws: One is a liberal tradition which believes that laws are a living thing and you write them and rewrite them continuously so that they remain alive. The other is the conservative tradition, which states that laws are not to be changed as you please, they were written by the founding fathers in the state of sanctity and in the final form, which doesn’t evolve.

During the reign of Haileselassie of Ethiopia, an attempt was made to confiscate the Customary Law of Karneshim by the Afe Negus (literally the Mouth of the King or the representative) of Ethiopia in Eritrea who ordered the grandson of Keshi Zeratsion Mussie, Memher Gereyesus Yosef, to hand over the book. Memher Gereyesus refused arguing that it was not his to hand over. He argued that it belonged to the community. As a result he was jailed for many months. Still, the book was not handed over to the Ethiopians. The Afe Negus ran into a case which was clearly a traditional case in relation to the Laws. He summoned Memher Gereyesus Yosef who resolved the case citing articles from memory. The Afe Negus checked the articles in the book and decided to release Memher Gereyesus arguing that there was no point of depriving the people their legal book while they have it in their heads and continue to administer it anyway; to do so would just be a pointless activity.”

This fascinating discussion with Dr. Asmerom Legesse took over three hours.

Next: Sketch Four (Part Two) Memher Tewoldebrhan Amdemeskel

The Picture is courtesy of Yared Tseggai

E R I T R E A: sketches of a trip

Issayas Tesfamariam


Note: This series has an introduction and five sketches. A total of six postings. This is ...


Sketch Three

A couple of days before a scheduled travel to Kohaito with Dr. Yosef Lebsekal, I visited the National Museum of Eritrea with a colleague from AVIE, Yared Teweldebrhan. The National Museum of Eritrea has different sections that represents different eras of Eritrea's long history. Pre-historic, historic, medieval (both Christian and Islamic periods), cultural eras are some of the examples that are represented in the National Museum’s exhibition. The pre-historic section houses a one-million year old fossil that was found by archaeologists in Buia, in the Southern Red Sea Zoba of Eritrea. There is also a fossil of an ancestor of the modern elephant, which is considered to be a missing link. There are many other unique historical artifacts, such as a small-sized sphinx, which make Eritrea an archaeological gem. The National Museum is a place where Eritrea’s rich history and culture is preserved. With minimum resources, the National Museum has managed to collect numerous historical/archaeological artifacts. However, for the National Museum to grow and prosper it needs financial, technological and human resources. As the motto states, “preservation is access, and access is preservation”! Thus, the first thing that the National Museum needs to do is to have its own website. Eritreans who would like to help in setting up a website for the museum, or help with resources can contact them at 011-291-1-122389.


From a copy of a brochure of the National Museum of Eritrea.
The National Museum of Eritrea had a pictorial exhibit in 2007
entitled, "From Buia to Nakfa: Journey into the Past."
The picture in the middle is the fossil found in Buia.



On the morning of our travel, my colleagues from AVIE (Yosef Habtai, Azemra Fitwi and Ruta Frezghi) and Hiyoba Ghirmay, and I met at AVIE's office and went to pick up Dr. Yosef. At 6:00 AM we left Asmara and headed south to Kohaito. After we ate our breakfast in Adi Keyih, we continued our journey. As we got closer to Kohaito, the fog and the sun were fighting for attention. The Kohaito plateau covered with aloe vera (E're') looked like Mongolian steppes. Half way on the plateau, we met Ibrahim Kelil, the very knowledgeable local employee of the National Museum of Eritrea. At the suggestion of Ibrahim, we went to Karibossa. Karibossa is not far from the famous Delhimna road construction that is being undertaken by Biddho Construction Company. The constant struggle between the sun and the fog rendered the scenery unbelievably fascinating. The shere size of the mountains in contrast to human beings and machinery makes one marvel with awe of nature. It is at this point that I realized that the pictures and the TV footage that I had seen before don’t do the scene justice. Firstly, one has to be physically present to admire nature; and second, the amount of brain, muscle and sweat that the dedicated workers are putting into this engineering feat is worthy of admiration. Seeing the construction workers working on one hand, at the edge of the cliff, and on the other hand at the mercy of the humongous rocks above them is heartening and at the same time fills one with pride. To top it off, the person who is in charge of this miraculous undertaking is a twenty-nine year old engineer.

Karibossa





Azmera Fitwi filming

After we left Karibossa, we headed back to the plains of Kohaito. We first visited the ancient trade route to Adulis. The ancient steps that are carved on the side of the mountain are astonishing. While Dr. Yosef was narrating for the film, an old couple in their sixties passed by us, returning from the same ancient caravan route that the people of Koahito had been taking for thousands of years. The couple told us that they had left the coast six hours earlier. It was at this point that Dr. Yosef mentioned to me that the National Museum of Eritrea had organized a caravan route to the coast three months earlier. It took the participants three days to reach the coast with their donkeys and camels. Ivory was one of the items that traders carried on the ancient trade route to Adulis. This Ivory Road was to Eritreans what the Silk Road was to people of Eastern Asia. I hope the museum makes the caravan route travel a yearly event. As I told Dr. Yosef, I would sign up for a travel like that anytime without any hesitation.


Ancient caravan route still being used.


Dr. Yosef Lebsekal

The crew filming


Yours truly, facing one of Kohaito's oblesiks.

We then went to the other part of the mountain where the landscape resembles the Grand Canyon. Still yet another amazing and spectacular scenery! After filming there we headed back to the place where the ancient market of Kohaito used to be. The sun by now had won over the fog, but the fog still was fighting its last battle. It was here that we filmed villagers who were collectively working to repair a fallen roof. The able-bodied villagers had turned out to help in this community endeavor. The elders were there in person entertaining and giving advice. We witnessed the traditional know how of constructing building of the villagers which were inherited from their ancestors. What Dr. Yosef had been narrating about ancient Kohaito and their masonry in the morning came alive through the traditional village masons in the afternoon. The hospitality accorded to us and the talk given to us by the elder of the village was what a filmmaker would dream of.

After the heart warming speech of the village elder we headed to Safira. Safira is where ancient and today's dam is located. It is a pleasant small village which is located on the Kohaito plateau. It has a big school and a beautiful mosque whose minaret can be seen from any part of the plateau. After Safria we went to the stele of Kohaito and the Egyptian tomb. At this time, the fog had a come-back and the sun was giving way to darkness. After we had tea in a small village, we headed back to Asmara. We dropped off Ibrahim where we picked him up earlier during the day. We had left Asmara thirteen hours earlier, and we still had to visit the rock painting not too far from Adi Keyih. After we had dinner in Adi Keyih we took a short tour from the main road to film the rock painting at Heshmele.

Finally, we hit the road and right before we arrived in Segenetti, the densest fog that I had ever seen blanketed us. Thanks to the driving ability of Yosef Habtai, we slowly arrived in Dekhemare. From Dekhemare, the fog had cleared and we arrived in Asmara at 11:00PM. We were up for a total of 17 hours straight and deserved a good night sleep.


Ibrahim on top of the world

Safira

The two pictures above are courtesy of Yared Tseggai

Next: A visit with Dr. Asmerom Legesse and Memher Tewldebrhan Amdemeskel.

E R I T R E A: sketches of a trip

Issayas Tesfamariam


Note: This series has an introduction and five sketches. A total of six postings. This is ...


Sketch Two

On the second week of my stay, I was notified that one of the steam-engine trains that have been meticulously renovated by Eritrean retired engineers, was going to Arbe-Robu’e. I picked up my digital video and still cameras and went to Ferrovia, as the train station in Asmara is known. We took off from the station with four or five wagons pulled by the main train engine. Each wagon has its own brake person. By the time we left the station was around 10 AM. The sound of the chu-chu train reminded me of the song by the South African Jazz musician, Hugh Maskela, who sang about the train that takes workers from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana to the gold mines of South Africa, but the big difference was that the sound of this chu-chu train was a sound of joy whereby after sitting idly for over forty years, the steam engine trains were resurrected from the junkyard by the highly talented former employees of Ferrovia who at the time of independence of Eritrea were in their late 70 and 80s. The ride was amazing. Looking at the train meandering like a snake along the steeply winding rail line, going into and coming out of tunnels is a must for every Eritrean. Looking through the window and get the feeling that one is suspended in the air is fun, exhilarating, joyful and exciting all at once. Once we got to our destination, the front engine was disengaged from the first wagon and reversed to be attached to the last wagon so that the journey of going up the mountains and back to Asmara begins. For the steam engine train, Arbe-Robu’e, serves as a water refilling station. At the station in Arbe-Robu’e a group of about 10 people who were friends and family members of a newly-wed couple entered the wagons to take pictures. Going up the mountains is as fascinating as going down the mountains. We returned to Asmara chuchu-ing around 2:00 PM. I thought it was an amazing trip until…..


A Ride in the Clouds


picture courtesy of Yared Teseggai.

Two days after the aforementioned, a group of about 20 German train enthusiasts came directly from the airport to the Asmara train station, having arrived at 4:00 AM flight from Cairo, Egypt, to go to Arbe-Robu’e on a 6:00 AM train ride. The morning was foggy. Some of the workers at the train station were dumbfounded to see a group of tourists going for a ride without resting or going to their hotel. This is the kind of enthusiasm that Eritrea generates! This tour had, as I found out later, an advantage than my previous trip because the tourists can request the train conductor and the coordinators to stop at any spot and ask the conductor to go forward, backward, come through a tunnel, etc. To do that, all the tourists would exit the train and run to the nearest hill to catch the best shot. The German tourists had all kinds of camera and video gear. The fog that morning was incredible. The train piercing through the clouds and chu-chuing down to Arbe-Robu’e was like riding in the clouds. I call the ride that morning the “Arbe-Robu’e Express”. We returned to Asmara around 11:30 AM to jump on a Litorina (a FIAT diesel engine train, which can hold about forty people) which I called “Janus of the trains” because of its double headed face. Again, a retired train conductor took us down back to Arbe-Robu’e with a young man as his co-conductor. By this time the fog had cleared away, but the trip was as spectacular as the previous ones with the steam engine train. At the end of the trip which ended around 2:00 PM, I had a total of 3 hours of incredible video footage of the journey. Even though the German tourists had reserved the steam engine train for the entire week so that they can travel to Massawa and back, I left the train station to get ready for my next trip to go to Kohaito, a most spectacular scenery and archeologically rich site in Eritrea with the first and foremost archeologist of Eritrea, Dr. Yosef Lebsekal, who is the director of the National Museum of Eritrea.









German tourists (train enthusiasts) relaxing .




Next: Kohaito: Archaeologically rich site in Eritrea.

E R I T R E A: sketches of a trip

Issayas Tesfamariam

Sketch One

After spending a couple of days with family members, I discussed with the director of Research and Documentation Center (RDC), Mrs. Azeb Tewolde, as to how to follow up on the previous projects that were started. I also checked the various documents and suggested various ways to preserve them. Every time I visit the RDC, I am flabbergasted by the wealth of documents archived there. For example, in the Ethiopian Collection, there are files of Ethiopian security reports on the activities of Idris Hamid Awate, reports of activities and lists of students during the Federation Era. There are also reports of the Ethiopian Consulate in Kassala reporting on the activities of Eritreans in Kassala in the 1960’s and much, much more.

During my first week stay in Asmara, I met my friend Senai Woldeab, a young Eritrean attorney (see his interview on my blog). He also introduced me to his group of friends who are highly talented and professional young people who are helping Eritrea in various capacities such as doctors, accountants, geologists, chemists, advisors to ministries, etc. I am glad to report that I see the future of Eritrea in these and other young people and the future looks great. One of the young people that I met, Dr. Bereket Tewolde, is a chemist and he is involved in collecting data of the various plants and their medicinal applications in traditional care and analyzing them scientifically (check out my blog: for the upcoming conversation with this young brilliant chemist soon). Dr.Bereket has come up with perfume extracted from chomer (Ocimum) plant.

I saw some of the research that these young people did on their own( some pictures are provided below). For example, they researched, interviewed the descendants and documented in a video documentary about the people who were involved in the translation of the bible to Tigrigna. They also produced pamphlets, brochures and calendars. It must be noted here that the first Tigrigna bible took 66 years to translate. The translation is a milestone because the impact of this translation on the development of Tigirgna and its literature is very substantial. Among the many prominent pioneers in Tigrigna literature were Aboi Woldeab Woldemariam (Welwel).

I also heard a lot of other research that they are doing such as the story of Mr. Zere Bekit, who traveled to Italy (by foot through Sudan, Alexandria, Egypt, and from there by ship to Italy) in 1909. After he arrived in Italy he became a business owner in the middle of Rome during First World War! Mr. Zere Bekit returned to Eritrea in 1916 during Italian colonialism and wrote an autobiography of his odyssey!

On the weekend of my first week stay in Asmara, I filmed the family (about 10 people) of the first Eritrean pilot. He received his pilot’s license in 1928 in Italy! What a fascinating story! You have to wait for my documentary on this story.

Keshi Teweldemedhin G/medhin one of the translators at the age of 20. Keshi Teweldemedhin G/Medhin spoke twelve languages.

Keshi Teweldemehdin G/medhin's original translations.

Interview with Wzr. Aberash Yehdego, the widow of Aboi Woldeab Woldemariam.

The late Aboi Woldeab Woldemariam and his wife, Wzr. Aberash Yehdego.

Young Eritrean scholars ( including a Georgetown University law graduate) learning at the feet of Eritrean elders.

Interview with Keshi Musa Aron.


Next on Eritrea: sketches of a trip: Ride in the Clouds.

E R I T R E A:
sketches of a trip.

INTRODUCTION

I returned to Eritrea on my regular negdet (annual pilgrimage) from December 28^th 2007 through January 18^th 2008. I went back to film more footage for my Eritrea DVD project in order to fill the gaps which I felt were needed from my previous trip in August 2006. As a result of the previous trip a picture book entitled “Eritrea: Colors in Motion” was produced. Also, a DVD entitled “ASMARA: City of Radiance” is on its final stages. In this trip, my colleagues from the Audio Visual Institute of Eritrea (AVIE) and I filmed over 11 hours of footage. I would like to express a heartfelt appreciation for my colleagues at AVIE for the success of the previous and this latest trip, and to Dr.Yosef Lebsekal and the National Museum of Eritrea for their incredible support in helping us film in the spectacular archeological sites at Kohaito.

Here are brief essay sketches of my trip.

NEW YEAR’S EVE

Two days after I arrived in Eritrea from Texas, after visiting my family there, 2008 was approaching fast and was staring me in the face. Fighting against my jet lag, it did not take me long to agree to an invitation by my friends who were going to hang out at Hidmona, a traditional restaurant/night club at the Expo ground in Asmara on New Year’s Eve. The place was packed to capacity, to the point where the people who were sitting in the two adjacent rooms of the restaurant were asked to dance in turns. The traditional band played various traditional, modern, revolutionary songs to the delight of the audience all night long. At midnight, champagne bottles were popped heralding the year 2008. Since I went from the US, my friends on my table believed that I was best qualified, or was it that they were being courteous of my guest status, to open the bottle of champagne. To their disappointment and to my chagrin, I was still struggling to open the bottle at 12:05 AM. With some help from competent people, I was finally able to pop up the bottle. With that ritual accomplished, we danced the night away! Despite the late opening of the champagne, my visit became very productive, compacted, educational, informative, as you will read in the sketches of my trip to be continued in the upcoming articles.

A conversation with artist and poet Ermias Ekube

“For my work is a manifestation of my intellectual and existential
behavior, I need both concentration and relaxation. Concentration
is sitting for the work and relaxation is playing on it”. Ermias Ekube

Issayas:Can you tell us about yourself?

Ermias Ekbue: I was born and brought up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
where I studied art at Addis Ababa Fine Arts College, which was
a social-realism school at that time, and graduated in painting,
in1990. I practiced art in my private studio, studying and
experimenting on modern art techniques and concepts, for seven
years with two other friends. After my first and last one man show
in Addis Ababa, in 1997, I came to Eritrea to exhibit my works.
Since then I have been teaching art and exhibiting my works
in the country.

Issayas: Let me start with Cezan's drawing of you.
What does Cezan mean?

 
Ermias: I call my son Cezan, not my self, because Cézanne,
one of the post impressionist artists, and called the father of modern art,
is one of my heros, and his name sounds good and simple.
Though it is French, I made it simpler and shorter the written form of the
name.My daughter’'s name is Iris, the flower, the colored part of the eye;
and in Dutch it means the color purple. And more, back to the Greeks,
it is the name of a messenger goddess.

Issayas: What does art mean to any society? And why do we need art?

Ermias: This is a very difficult question. But simply, Art is one of the major
knowledge of humanity. And since a human being is mainly a spiritual being
than other beings, perhaps that is why man’s life is more complicated than
other animals. The role of art, for me, is to feed a spiritual hunger,
and enhance beauty among people and societies, and reflect the soul of
existence in the mirror of Life.

Issayas: There is a tendency for parents to encourage their children
to study the sciences etc., but not the art why do you think that is?

Ermias: I understand the feeling both as a responsible parent and a
practicing artist. It is about uncertainty of life. A parent prefers to take
a risk for him or herself than on the future of his or her child. I think
most people know intuitively that an artist is out of the safe zone
of life, and the life of a real artist is unpredictable. Most of us
always want to plan the rest of our lives out of here and now,
but the artist lives right now and here. And so on…

Issayas: What kind of style is your art considered?

Ermias: I don’t believe in having a style or category. Every moment
I feel, I suffer, I think, I play, I love and  I live, and I realize my
existence then I paint or write, that is all. But I know how I started
practicing art. I know what styles I experimented with in the past,
which is as an experience as my life’s experience. Basically,
in my school period, I used to follow the social-realistic school,
and impressionism, and out of school I have studied abstract
expressionism and other modern and post modern schools, and
different literary and philosophical theses.  To follow all these
schools is meaningless, but to be inspired by different art
techniques, concepts and mediums is natural as your reaction
to any thing else in your life. Slowly and without a perceptive I
started falling in to oblivion of all those established aesthetic
criteria. And still I can see all my past tendencies in my works.
But I must be free from all these junk ideas and let my self
flow in my works. Don’t you think so?

Issayas: What are the inspirations for your work?

Ermias: LIFE! Basically my own life and lives around me. I think
I am not able to know beyond my surrounding, EVERYTHING that is
else where is here too, of course the articulation and the form varied
from culture to culture. My surrounding is my universe. This universe
of mine, perhaps, is decorated by invited aliens from other universes
through books, music, films, news, other works of arts, etc…ha!








Issayas: What struck me the most at your home is that you use
locally found materials and use them artistically. For example, the
numbers of fernellos (traditional stove) stack up like a tower adorn
the main door, the bed frames, etc. What do they mean to you?

Ermias: The found-object works are part of my universe. Let us quote
from a brochure of the exhibition ‘Frames of Consciousness’, 2008,
about this idea:

A story of object-personified

I try to assemble histories of objects (old and forgotten) to tell or retell
stories. Though the history of an object is factual and absolute it is not
really known but tells deferent stories to a soul or a mind that is able
to see the hidden light of the object in a new historical spot. Choice
and selection of an object is very much personal and an intuitive
fortune (but not an accident) that clicks the collective mental and
emotional experiences of the artist. You may not know what texture,
color or form of the object stands to what idea, feeling or concept
but it becomes a poetic object.

All the marks of time on the selected object tell of stories that
would be retold by every individual beholder; assembling different
objects change the stories again and again in the un-given mind
set and a given time and space.

History of an object-example:

·Made of (wood, metal etc.)
·Made by (a carpenter, a carver, a smith etc.)
·Owned by (a poor, a rich, a criminal, a woman, etc.)
·Stayed in (a house, a church, a garage, etc.)
·Functioned as (as table, as fork, a fence, no function at all etc.)
·How old (1, 3, 6, 7years, 37.345 years etc.)
·Etc…

To say something about these two pieces:
The fernellos are meant to be a tower entitled, ‘My tower, your
tower of day and night’. It is long back I came with the idea of
fernello as a tower.I got the image almost as it is in medeber,
perhaps with less number vertically. It is to represent small houses
shelved on a hill, which is a common scene all over Eritrea
(the number of the fernellos is 9) and the day and night idea
is the cycle of life begin from a day. And the idea of fire
represents basic energy of life which is derived from my nostalgia
of childhood siting beside my mother cooking on the fernelo. Etc…
The bed frame is found at a friend’s house. I had almost finished
the idea as immediate as I saw it. It took me only sometime to
fix extra elements and put some personal touches.
And the title is ‘Adam and Eve- perhaps in bed’.


Issayas: In a lot of your paintings, you use fanus (lantern), donkeys
and ladders. What are the symbolisms of the aforementioned?






Ermias: Most of my works tend to be poetic- symbolic.
I mean, not literally, represent infinite ideas and feelings with
few images that brought from my life’s vision and surroundings.
So I am not sure about the exact meanings. The symbolism of
objects and signs could be repeated here and there like syllables
but changes ideas or feelings contextually. But symbols such
as ladder, or wheels represent more or less constant ideas and
concepts with varied context.

Issayas: Are the messages that an artist sends to the society
important?

Ermias: Regarding my experience of reacting with great works
of art, art doesn’t have a message, but inspires or provokes the
established ways of seeing towards life and nature of an individual
or a society. But if it sends a message, that is only through the
interpretation of the beholder.

Issayas: When did you become a poet?

Issayas: I used to participate in art clubs in my elementary
school period and but later in the art school I start to read and
study poems by friends and other famous local and international
poets and slowly begun to write my own.

Issayas: Do poetry and painting go together as a visual and
audio medium? Poetry is written for the ear and painting
is  "written" for the eye?

Ermias: As I mentioned to you, when I started studying poetry
I found a very similar nature between art and poetry, except the
medium as object. But, for me, both play a visual role on the
imagination. A good painting is which makes you
see and listen and the same to a poem, it makes you listen
and see at same time. Both, beyond the medium they use,
write on the musical- visual- tactile- imagination of the beholder.

Issayas: Which ones are your favorite paintings and poem?

Ermias: Frankly speaking, I really don’t have a favorite painting or
poem. Of course I level my works in many ways: some give a new
light to the next consistent process, some strongly talk to many
people, some vibrate a kind of personal depth which never
happened to the previous works, and some reflect a new vivid
technical approach appeal to many eyes and so on. When most
of these behaviors happened in a single work, then that is
a master piece. But I don’t know which one is that among my
works or if I have done it yet.

Walking thoughts
Hasten to take a rest
In walking notebooks;

Haunting dreams
Captured on canvas
In clay or in stones;

Optical philosophies
Melt on paper
With analyzed light;

All these strange,
Transformed creatures
Are called ‘Works of Art’

 Erimias Ekube