The Blin: An ethnic bridge between Muslims and Christians in Eritrea and one of the most tolerant societies in the country and with tremendous contributions in the struggle for independence
Blin is a Central Cushitic language spoken by an estimated 100,000 in
Eritrea (about 2 %) – according to the scanty Government Statistics from 1996.
They are concentrated in the ‘Anseba region around Keren. The two major groups
are the Bet Tawqe (Muslims) and Bet Tarqe (predominantely Catholic). They are
sedentary agriculturalists with few pastoralists. The speakers of the language
call themselves Blin while their neighbours call them Bilen. Sandwiched between
the two largest linguistic groups in Eritrea, most speakers are bilingual in
the Semitic languages, Tigrinya or Tigrait. Perhaps it is only among the Blin
where you find Muslims and Christians in the same family. The Blin also embody
the huge sacrifices the Eritrean people paid in the struggle of Independence.
Although, relatively a minority, their presence is heavily felt not only among
the rank and file but among the number of political and military leaders and
among the veteran women who were enrolled during the early years of the armed
struggle. I asked once a colleague to write for me the list of political and
military leaders during the war for independence and the list was very long.
Their participation is also strongly felt among those opposing the dictatorial
regime.
According to Fallon, the earliest published form of Blin may be found in
in a Catholic mission report which contains a multilingual vocabulary list. The
Blin (also called Bogos, after the region) is given in both abugida and an Italianized
Romanization. One of those who has written extensively on the Blin is
Kiflemariam Hamde. Fallon also mentions that Daniel Yacob , in collaboration
with Blin speaker Tekie Alibeket, has pushed the Blin version of the abugida
into the computer age with computer encoding now accepted in Unicode 4.1
Upon its independence in 1993, the Government provided for a policy of
mother-tongue education in primary schools. A policy decision by the Eritrean
government required all non-Semitic languages to use a Roman-based alphabet.
The use of such an alphabet is said to make an easier transition to
English-language education, which is used exclusively in secondary and higher
education. According to one writer, Zeraghiorghis, The alphabet also represents
a compromise between those who associate the Arabic script with Islam and the
abugida with Christianity.
In 1996 the Eritrean Ministry of Education formed the Blin panel in the
Department of General Education and in 1997, a pilot program with six teachers
and 230 children began mother tongue instruction in Blin in the village of
Ajerbeb and instruction quickly expanded in 1998-1999, when Blin was used as
the medium of instruction in 27 primary schools, about half of which are run by
the Catholic Church. Language, math, and science texts are available in grades
1-5, along with civics and geography for upper elementary students.
Some Eritrean scholars wrote about the Blin include the late Michael
Ghabr and Kiflemariam Hamde and some of the recent ones include Sadia Hassanen.
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