"People die but they become immortal when
they have history" Author Bereket Amare
Written by Billion Temesghen | PDF Print E-mail
Articles - Q & A
Bereket Amare, a renowned poet, has recently published a
book on the historical and genealogical lines of the
Eritrean people. The 604-page long book that took 12 years
in the making has captivated the attention of many,
including young readers. Follow our talk to learn more about
this great piece of work.
.
Thank you for your time. When we first had
you on Q&A four years ago, you said you had a big project
coming. Was it this book?
Yes it was. I restrained myself from giving details as I
didn.'t know when I.'d be able to finalize my research and
compile it into a book. This is a research-based book that
tells the history of the Eritrean communities.
.
What is the book about?
What I tried to do was in fact document history. History of
the Eritrean people, from the 1700s up to the Italian
colonization. Local and foreign writers have documented the
history following the Italian colonization. The Eritrean
community didn.'t come out of nothing when the Italians
came. Our society always coexisted, as it does now, in this
land way before.
.
What questions does your book set out to
answer?
It addresses five key points. What is the foundation of the
Eritrean unity? The second question is "how did the Eritrean
community survive attacks from neighboring kingdoms?" The
third point was looking at the methods of conflict
resolutions in our communities. Fourth, in history, how did
people express the feudal system and the misery associated
with it, and the fifth point, also very important, was an
attempt to examine whether Eritrea.'s oral history is
factual or not.
.
You are a strong advocate of oral stories
and argue that they can be much more than just tales.
Oral history is not just tales. Not in our case. When people
didn.'t know how to document history in writing, they made
poems, long oral eulogies and elegies to keep their history
alive through generations. Eritreans have that gift of
storytelling. When grandparents talk they talk history. And
this needs to be documented. Of course, throughout time, as
our elderly pass, history dies too. So, our job must be to
run against time and document what the elderly have to say.
.
How did you manage to prove that oral
accounts are not tales? Let.'s say there is an eulogy to
someone. How can you prove the accounts are non-fictional?
Thanks for asking. A common trait of our traditional oral
history is the narration of kinship lines. When characters
are mentioned we find more than their names and
attributions. We find a line of kinship. Whose son or
daughter is he or she? And the grandparent? And their
parents and so on and on … Identifying the kinship line is
what helped me the most to scientifically prove that our
oral chronicles are not tales. Because the stories of
warriors, nobilities, wise men and women, young girls who
went in vendetta of their loved ones are not fictional but
recitations about real people, whose descendants we can
trace. Moreover, while tracing kinship I was able to confirm
not only that those people really existed but also the
setting of the event. Analyzing kinship helped me attain a
bigger understanding too.
.
And what is it?
The Eritrean community is one big family. Tracing back I
realized that every family or clan is interrelated. The
family of Adkeme Melegae, for example, from the Tigrigna
ethnic group is a sister family of the Bilen ethnic group,
which in turn are related to the Afar ethnic group among the
many other sister families.
.
And that seems to be the reason behind the
Eritrean Identity.
The population has always existed. The Italians merely drew
areas for their expansionist agenda. Certain communal
attitudes are hereditary, something that the newer
generations learn from the previous ones, make it their own
and pass it down. The unity of the Eritrean people is
certainly one of those. The fact that our society is law
abiding is also another learned and inherited attitude.
.
Could you please elaborate on that?
The Eritrean community is law abiding and accustomed to
rules that promote respect and harmony. That is the only
explanation to how this diverse community has coexisted for
so long. Cultural and religious differences drift people
apart both in history and now in our times, but not here.
The cultural richness is vast and one of the things I put my
focus on is the question of harmony. No matter how peaceful
communities are, disputes are inevitable. Dispute over the
land and generally over gains and interests of different
nature. However, that is not the key point. The key point is
dispute resolution. And the Eritrean community has
mechanisms for dispute resolution. Plenty, even. Every
ethnic group has its own customary law. In Eritrea, the
terminology Highi, literally translated as law, is a word
that has existed for many, many centuries. Some of the
customary laws in Eritrea are Highi Adkeme Melegae, Highi
Adginet Gilaba, Highi Logo Chiwa, Fithi Shum Mahari and
Highi Habte Silus Gebre Christos.
.
What other historical accounts does your
book include?
The historical chronology of the book ends with the fall of
Degiat Bahta Hagos. He was one of the renowned local
noblemen who stood against the Italians. Right before their
arrival in 1800s several nobilities such as Degiat Bahta
Hagos, Beremberas Kafil, Degiat Hadgembes Gulbet came
together to fight foreign invasions. They also taught their
people to be aware of the colorizers, to safeguard their
fertile lands and to hide their girls from the Italians as
they were ravaging villages abducting young girls. In
January 1890, when Italy officially claimed authority over
Eritrea, more people joined the fight against the Italians.
Degiat Bahta Hagos remained resilient fighting for his
people until he was killed in 1894. And that is also where
the chronology of events in the book ends.
.
Let.'s now talk about the methodology you
used in writing the book. You spoke mainly to the elderly
and collected as many oral chronicles as you could. How was
it?
It was a beautiful journey. I was speaking to elderly men
and women, who remembered the chronicles as if they.'d been
waiting for someone to get it out of them and record it. I
travelled a lot over a period of 12 years. Every bit of
information is valuable here. We.'re talking about our own
history that needs to be documented before the few elderly
people pass away. Technically speaking the main method I
used was long interviews with the elderly.
.
Wasn.'t it hard? What were your challenges?
I had to put every penny I earned into paying for my
travels. When I reached my destinations often times the
elderly, as it is the norm, would tell me they are in no
place to talk about the noble achievement of the their
forefathers. They were concerned that they might diminish
its value with their words. So I had to plead with them to
get them to talk to me. It would take me a lot of time
tracing people who could talk to me and when I finally
located them I.'d find that they had already been dead. One
time a man passed right by where I was sitting and as we
were talking all of a sudden he collapsed and soon died.
When a man dies a whole library dies with him. That was a
terrifying experience but I was so grateful that I was able
to talk to him. I thank all the elderly who agreed to
document their memories. Many challenges, yes, but great
rewards.
.
Now that your book is out, what do you feel
about young people reading it?
Honestly, I am grateful to all the people who are reading
and sharing it. But above all I want young people to read
it, learn from it and realize how lucky they are to be
owners of their own history. Nothing was given to the
Eritreans. Centuries back and still now our history is all
ours. I want to especially encourage the youth to know their
history. People die but they become immortal when they have
history. That.'s our case. Our young must be proud that we
have a history of our own.
Thank you, Bereket.
Source:
Shabait.com
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