By Woldeyesus Ammar
01.09.2007
Eritreans are today solemnly marking
the 46th anniversary of the commencement of their armed liberation struggle
that they conducted for 30 years starting on 1 September 1961. That day, affectionately
called Bahti Meskerem/Fatih min Sebtember, has been a revered national holiday
to Eritrean patriots of all walks of life for decades. In addition, freedom
fighters, especially those of the ELF, aptly called it Revolution Day.
Twenty years ago (on 1 September
1987), Eritreans were, as usual, celebrating Revolution Day. But at the end of
that day, they learned that Ibrahim Sultan Ali died in Cairo. It was a
meaningful day and death. Ibrahim was a revolutionary in his own way and a
great liberator not yet well known by many Eritreans who should know. His
comrade-in-struggle Woldeab Woldemariam once attested that there would not have
been an Eritrea as we knew it were it not to Ibrahim Sultan who had a big role
in averting its partition and again was instrumental in creating a sort of
status around which the trappings of patria and patriotism could be built by
succeeding generations.
This writer fully endorses this
conclusion because we would not have Revolution Days to celebrate or even a
cause worth a fight if it were not to the UN Resolution 390 A (V) of 1950, or
the democratic Eritrean Constitution of 1952 or the Blue Flag or the Eritrean
Parliament that patriots of those days bequeathed to us. Ibrahim Sultan was the
Greatest Patriot of them all. That is my personal conclusion.
I saw only a silhouette of Ibrahim
Sultan once. It was sometime in the year 1956: me a child in grade three, and
he a big leader of the biggest party of the day. The man was so popular, and my
friends from his neighbourhood shouted: Look! Look! Ibrahim Sultan! I looked
but saw only the back of a man in white jelabiya (garment) entering his office
somewhere near the only Mosque (then) of central Keren. That was all. But in
later years, I read and asked more about him, and today wish to share with
readers some of my pocket notes of this patriot I secretly admired in spite of
what I heard critiques said of him.
Historic Contributions of Sheikh
Ibrahim Sultan Ali:
• He was the key actor in the
emancipation of Tigre/serfs in Sahel and Barka who later filled the ranks of
his mass movement for independence, the Moslem League of Eritrea (given that
name, according to Sheikh Ibrahim, solely to counter the Ethiopian move to
annex Eritrea using religion).
• He was the firebrand leader who
helped found the Moslem League as the party advocating for self-determination.
• He had a significant role in
establishing Blocco Independenza (Independence Bloc) consisting six member
parties.
• He was the first Eritrean
political figure to widen diplomatic contacts, including a meeting with the
Pope in Vatican.
• He was the voice of Eritrea at
meetings in the United Nations.
• After federation, he was the
Secretary General of the Eritrean Democratic Front (EDF).
• In the late 1950s, he became one
of the exiled political leaders who became the conscience of the new liberation
movement building up inside the homeland.
• Till death claimed him in 1987,
Sheikh Ibrahim sided with the liberation movement and always talked about unity
of Eritreans without distinction of region and religion.
Below are some more detailed pieces of info about the man from my casual notes:
Who, then, was Ibrahim Sultan and
what did he do?
Birth and family: Ibrahim Sultan Ali was born in Keren in March 1909 of a farmer/trader
Tigre/serf from the Rugbat of Ghizghiza district in Sahel. He attended Quran
School under Khalifa Jaafer of the Halanga of Kassala. In Keren, he attended
technical training at Salvaggio Raggi and at Umberto School in Asmara. His only
son Abdulwahab, lives in Paris.
Working life:
Ibrahim Sultan worked as chief in
train station (1922-26), served as civil servant in Keren, Agordat, Tessenei,
Adi Ugri and even Wiqro near Mekele for six months. He had good command in
speaking and translating Italian, Arabic and Tigrinia. From 1926 to 1941, he
was head of Islamic Affairs section in the political affairs office under Italian
rule. Under the British, he served as head of Civil/Native Affairs Office till
April 1943. He resigned and established a modern cheese plant in Tessenei which
he ran till end of 1945. The Eritrean Chamber of Commerce was established that
year and he became one of its senior staff members till end of September 1946.
Political life:
In May 1941, he was a founding
member of the Patriotic Association till he helped found the Moslem League of
Eritrea on 3.12.1946. The League took Keren as its headquarters till parties
were shut down by Ethiopian interferences in the late 1950s. As noted earlier,
his activities in the emancipation of Tigre/serfs lasted between 1942 and 1946.
The movement is usually known as the Emancipation Movement of Serfs (Harakat
Tahrir al Aqnan).
Ibrahim Sultan, who was the key
figure in the establishment of Blocco Indipendenza in July 1949, had attended
the 3rd UN General Assembly on 3.4.49 and the 5th Session of UN General
Assembly in November 1950. In January 1951, he partook in the establishment of the
Eritrean Democratic Front (EDF) and became its Secretary General.
He was a member of the first
Eritrean Parliament when he won election on 15.5.1952 representing the Rugbat
tribe of which he was the traditional chief from 1948 to 1950.
Jaafer Assad, a relation of Ibrahim
Sultan who ran errands for the man in Asmara in his childhood, told this writer
a few years ago that Sheikh Ibrahim Sultan loved to watch films on daily basis
in Asmara in the early 1950s and read the local daily Italian press. We could
thus see that the commencement and growth of the Eritrean political struggle
for national independence is linked with big patriots like Ibrahim Sultan Ali.
He and his friends formed the Patriotic Association in May 1941, long before
any political awakening in Africa. That era in the twilight of liberation
struggle was deficient in experience and lacked examples that could be emulated.
Woldeab Woldemariam said of Sheikh Ibrahim: 90% of the credit of preserving
Eritrea in one piece goes to Ibrahim Sultan Ali. He added: “Ibrahim Sultan is a
heroic patriot who deserves the praise, the gratitude of the entire Eritrean
people”.
At UN, Sheikh Ibrahim is quoted to
have said: “If a wrong decision is taken forcing us to struggle to safeguard
our identity and obtain our independence, then the members of this Committee
will shoulder the responsibility for the hostilities that arise in East
Africa”.
Exile and participation in struggle
According to Jaafer Assad, Ibrahim
Sultan left Eritrea in February 1958 together with Idris Mohammed Adem. Abdalla
Idris Abdalla of Ad Hashel, member of the Sudanese army, took him from Agordat
to Khartoum. In Sejana, Kharoum, Ibrahim Sultan and Idris Mohammed Adem were
kept in the house of a Yemeni married to Eritrean, Abdurebu Selami. Egyptian
embassy provided visa in 12 days. Train tickets to Cairo paid by Jamiyet Tahrir
Abnae Eritrea (Association for the Liberation of Eritrean in Khartoum.
Also according to Jaafer Assad, a
long-time ELF member whom I befriended in Iraq in the 1990s said Ibrahim
Sultan, Woldeab Woldemariam, Idris Mohammed Adem and Mohammed Saleh Mahmoud,
member of Rwaq al-jabarti and former editor of Voice of Eritrea, were meeting
constantly in Cairo. Ibrahim Sultan was later dropped out of the newly formed
ELF by Idris Mohammed Adem because Sheikh Ibrahim liked transparency but the
key ELF man of the day did not like this outspokenness. In later years, Sheikh Ibrahim
attended the first ELF congress in 1971 and the second congress in 1975. He
stood with the ELF tendency, and was against disunity and thus remained opposed
to the PLF of Osman Saleh Sabbe.
This writer was informed that Sheikh
Ibrahim told Isayas Afeworki in 1976 that the latter was wrong to secede from
the ELF in 1970 and again from the PLF in 1977 because “this was not good to
the unity of the people”.
This same message was repeated to
the EPLF congress in 1987 that Sheikh Ibrahim sent them. As already noted,
Sheikh Ibrahim died on Revolution Day in 1987 in Cairo, at 4pm after having
been sick for many years. Buried at 6 pm on 5 September in Kassala, 5000 people
attended the funeral procession. He was buried at Khatmia near Mount Taka.
What Homeland is Isayas Afeworki’s
Eritrea that could not even think of receiving with respect the remains of
Great Patriots like Ibrahim Sultan Ali and Idris Mohammed Adem, and Osman Saleh
Sabbe, all buried in Eritrea’s neighbourhood before and after independence?
At this 46th anniversary of Revolution Day, we all should salute our heroes, scattered here and there – dead and alive.
Woldeyesus Ammar
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Additional Note:
The escape of Ibrahim Sultan was not taken lightly by the Crown. Col. Aseghagn Araya, the top Ethiopian intelligence officer in Eritrea, then, was called to Addis Ababa to explain the matter. In addition the Chief Executive and his top advisors went to Addis Ababa for 3 weeks right after Ibrahim Sultan’s defection. From Addis Ababa, Brig. General Aman Andom, Maj. Gen. Kebede Gebre, and Brig. Gen. Merid Mengesha went to Eritrea to review Ethiopian troops in Eritrea “including those stationed near the Sudanese”. He also opposed the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and was jailed for that by the Italians.
The following article sheds light on the life and times of Ibrahim Sultan
No comments:
Post a Comment