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"Eritrea History Sources."
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Treasures of Ethiopia and Eritrea in the Bodleian Library, Oxford
In Ethiopia and Eritrea, manuscripts, often beautifully illustrated, have been for centuries the principal means of recording not just the Scriptures but also historical information. Ethiopic manuscripts thus provide a unique window into the life and culture of Ethiopians and Eritreans up to the twenty-first century. This collection of Ethiopic manuscripts in the Bodleian Library in Oxford is one of the most significant in Europe.
Book
African Diplomacy of Liberation. The Case of Eritrea’s Search for an “African India”
Conflicting views of the Eritrean independence war as a solitary, single-handed struggle against the Ethiopian Empire on the one hand and assertions about Eritrean diplomatic ineptitude on the other abound in the discourse on Northeast Africa. Both positions defy the age-old adage that war and diplomacy are enduring features of human interaction, and overlook African experiences with liberation diplomacy. This article revisits Eritrean nationalists’ hydra-like diplomatic dealings with an array of forces in the region and beyond to show that their diplomacy of liberation was indispensable to the heated battles (1961-1991), and that, as a result, they received materiel, political and humanitarian assistance without which their movement would have been hard pressed to succeed. They particularly forged political-military alliances with Ethiopian insurgents to clinch the all-important but elusive international recognition after military victory in Asmara and parallel regime change in Addis Ababa.
Journal Article
The First Line Against Second Class Citizenship: The Eritrean Muslim League, Islamic Institutional Autonomy, and Representation on the Eve of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Federation, 1950–52
[...]the League's reformation throughout 1953 and subsequent years as an outlet to address concerns among both the Islamic leadership and the wider public demonstrated how its leaders reacted to increased Ethiopian domination by learning \"the political value of their Islamic connexions. [...]the ongoing debate about the precise role of Arabic as well as the use of indigenous \"mother tongue\" languages within Eritrea's educational institutions also continues to have major relevance within the country's Muslim communities, particularly among activists who assert that Muslim-majority ethnic groups such as the Tigre, Saho, and others have not been accorded equal status with Tigrinya in post-independence Eritrea. [...]the Muslim League and its allies' broader cultural concerns about institutional protection and legal equality of Muslim groups remains a relevant concern long after they were first articulated through direct political action.
Journal Article
From Warriors to Urban Dwellers
In the process of urbanisation experienced by Eritrea, between 1890 and 1941, under Italian colonialism a major role was played by the military component. Military priorities were crucial in determining lines of development in the early colonial urban planning in Eritrea as the criteria of military defensibility, rather than economic or functional priorities, had significantly influenced the main patterns of early colonial settlements in the region. The military factor was also important in determining the nature and extent of the interaction between colonial urban planning and Eritrean society. In this process a major role was played by Eritrean colonial troops, known as ascari. In virtue of their close relation with the colonial authority ascari became a sort of buffer between colonized and colonizers and, therefore, were partially involved in the colonial strategy aimed at reshaping the social and economic landscape of Eritrea. Ascari were instrumental in the colonial attempt to set up the composite set of relations and strategies which constituted the colonial milieu. Urban history of colonial Eritrea represents one of the ideal subjects for the study of the development of the colonial society in which colonial soldiers were important actors as builders of social and territorial urban spaces.
Journal Article
The Seen, the Unseen, the Invented: Misrepresentations of African \Otherness\ in the Making of a Colony. Eritrea, 1885-1896 (Le vu, le non vu, l'inventé. Trompeuses représentations de l'altérité africaine dans la construction d'une colonie. L'Érythrée 1885-1896)
At the turn of the 19th century the production of knowledge of African otherness and colonial reality was a process that availed itself of many different gazes and perceptions, amongst which a far from secondary role was played by photography. The essay identifies its themes and methods at the beginning of Italian colonial rule in Eritrea, as a first step towards clarification of the origins and articulation of the historical memory it helped to create, which still survives, in many ways unchanged, into the present days. Decoding the way Africa has been viewed means comprehending the mechanism through which it was possible to create a specific perception of Africa and casting light on the ideological framework which, in colonial society, determined relations between the colonised and the colonisers. /// Au tournant du XIXe siècle, la production de connaissances sur l'altérité africaine et sur la réalité coloniale était le résultat de divers regards et perceptions, parmi lesquels la photographie a joué un rôle non négligeable. Cet article identifie les thèmes et méthodes de la photographie au début de l'autorité italienne en Érythrée comme une première étape vers la clarification des origines et de l'articulation de la mémoire historique qu'elle a contribué à créer, et qui perdure aujourd'hui, à bien des égards inchangée. Décoder la manière dont l'Afrique a été perçue signifie comprendre les mécanismes par lesquels il a été possible de créer une perception spécifique de l'Afrique, et mettre en lumière le cadre idéologique qui, dans la société coloniale, a déterminé les relations entre les colonisés et les colonisateurs.
Journal Article
Correspondence as a new source for African history : Some evidence from colonial Eritrea
Discusses the use of colonial biographical documents as a documentary resource in African studies, with focus on private epistolography in 19th-century Africa. Letters (the great majority in Amharic) addressed from colonial subjects to Italian administration preserved in two archives in Italy & Eritrea testify to the use of correspondence as a new phenomenon in colonial Africa. The emergence of a private correspondence in Italian Eritrea reveals the political attitude of Eritreans toward colonial government, shows many aspects of daily life, & offers rare biographical material. The importance of this unpublished & underinvestigated documentation is discussed; such documents reveal the extreme variety & complexity of the human condition of colonized people. 46 References. Adapted from the source document.
Journal Article
Meret Shehena, ‘Brothers' Land’ S. F. Nadel's Land Tenure on the Eritrean Plateau Revisited
This article revisits S.F. Nadel's study on land tenure in highland Eritrea from the mid‐1940s, and presents the current framework of the communal land tenure system of meret shehena. Under the meret shehena system, all land under the domain of the village is perceived as the common property of the village inhabitants. To restrict outsiders access to land, habitation rights (tisha) to the villages is guided by agnatic descent, and individuals obtain usufruct rights to land through residence in the village. The article proves that since Nadel's study almost sixty years ago, descent rules defining habitation rights have been changed, in order to restrict distant descendants returning to the village and claiming their land rights. Nevertheless, the overall workings of the system that redistributes all shehena land every seventh year to the village inhabitants, shows a remarkable resemblance to the observations made by Nadel. It appears that the customary operational guidelines of the system are virtually unaffected by wars and political turbulence during the last fifty years, following the core principle that each male adult individual with habitation rights (tisha) who marries and establishes a separate household, will be entitled to an equal share (gibri) of the village land, in order to secure the livelihood of all household members. Cet article revient sur l'étude menée par S. F. Nadel dans les années 40 sur le régime foncier dans les régions montagneuses d'Erythrée et décrit brièvement le cadre actuel du régime foncier communal meret shehena. Au titre de ce régime, toutes les terres situées sur le domaine du village sont considérées comme des biens communs. Pour limiter l'accès des personnes extérieures, le droit d'y vivre (tisha) est déterminé par filiation agnatique et les personnes jouissent d'un droit d'usufruit en vertu de leur résidence. Cet article montre que depuis le temps de Nadel, les règles de filiation qui défmissent les droits d'habitation ont changé afin de dissuader les parents éloignés de revenir pour revendiquer leurs droits fonciers. Néanmoins, le fonctionnement global du système qui consiste à redistribuer toutes les terres shehena tous les sept ans est remarquablement similaire aux observations de Nadel. Les règles coutumières semblent ne pas avoir été affectées, ou peu, par les guerres et l'agitation politique des cinquante dernières années et continuent de suivre le principe fondamental selon lequel tout homme adulte jouissant de droits d'habitation (tisha) qui se marie et forme son propre foyer peut prétendre à une part égale (gibri) des terres du village afin d'assurer sa subsistance.
Journal Article