Wednesday 16 November 2016

مقتل الشهيد عبدالقادر كبيرى في عام 1949م on the assasination of martyr Abdukader Kebire

Some details on the assasination of martyr Abdukader Kebire 1949
مقتل الشهيد عبدالقادر كبيرى في عام 1949م

http://mukhtar.ca/%D9%85%D9%82%D8%AA%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D9%83%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%89-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%85-1949%D9%85/
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Here is a summary of the notes written by the Grand Mufti, the late Ibrahim Al Mukhtar Ahmed Omer on the assassination:

There were many attempts to get rid of him. The martyr was great concern to the elements loyal to Ethiopia due to previous  contact with them and he was very knowledgeable  of their plans and their methods. He had written a number of articles in the newspapers. Therefore there were many attempts to kill him and get rid of him, especially after they learned of the decision of the Muslim League to send him to the UN. Many dignitaries have warned and advised him to take be cautious and prudent, but he was indifferent to the dangers that surrounded him, but he always said, 'I will die only the day that are destined to me.' Before his assassination he had survived several bomb attacks. One time they went to his farm in Filfil, vandalized it and looted all the livestock there.

How he was killed:
Based on the decision of the Muslim League to send him as a member of a delegation to UN, he was preparing for the trip. The other members of the delegation were Ibrahim Sultan (the Secretary General), Mohamed Osman Hayouti  (from the Massawa branch) and Ibrahim Mohammed (from the Adi Kaieh branch).
On the night of his assassination, he was at the hotel of Calipha Aberra woth his companions discussing matters of travel to the UN. He left them 9 pm to go to his home. The criminal was following him in Calleri street and and when he got the right opportunity he shot him with a pistol among the crowds of passers by. He was transferred to the government hospital in Asmara, where he was operated by senior Italian surgeons, but that does not help save his life. He died on 29th of March 1949 at 9 pm, on the third night after his injury.


Police investigation on the assassination revealed that the criminal who shot him and his collaborators were following his foot steps. They parked four cars at each corner of Calleri Street so that the criminal can escape in any one of the cars. When kebire reached a dim part of the street, the criminal shot him and the criminal was made to escape to Ethiopia. Kebire was the first victim of the ‘Mahber Andinet’ terrorist activities. Following the police investigation, the British Governor General issued a decree on the 6th of April 1949 to dissolve the party and confiscate all its properties. The police searched the headquarters of the Andinet party and its hiding places and found there a list of the Muslim League leaders that were targeted for assassination. The Muslim League issued a strong statement condemning the assassination and stated that those involved were few who were at the service of forces who are against the Muslim League. It called on all Muslims to close their shops and on all schools to close the day he died. He was buried in a big procession.

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According to Alemseged Tesfai book, Aynifelale:

The killer was identified as Gebremedhin Abraha, according to British documents, a Tigrayan who escaped to Adwa after the killing. The British Administration knew that Gebremedhin used to boast that he killed Kebire. He was a member of the youth wing of Mahber Andnet which was later regarded as a terrorist organization and banned 6th October 1949. Tedla Bairu and the Ethiopian agents Colonel Negga Gebremedhin and his assistant Tekola Gebremedhin were widely believed to have given orders for the killing, according to documents found on the premises of Mahber Andne, but were not officially charged. Though the the British stated they will bring the killer from Tigray and bring him to justice, this was never done (Source: Alemseged Tesfay's book, ' Aynefelale', Arabic translation, P. 342), On this occasion. I post again the original driver's license of the late Abdul Kadir Kabire, picture courtesy of Jelal Yassin.

Culture and agency in a colonial public sphere: Eritrea

Culture and agency in a colonial public sphere: religion and the anti-colonial imagination in 1940s Eritrea a 2011 article by  Fouad Makki

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03071022.2011.610632?needAccess=true

Tuesday 15 November 2016

Mind in Africa, Body in Europe: The Struggle for Maintaining and Transforming Cultural Identity

Mind in Africa, Body in Europe: The Struggle for Maintaining and Transforming Cultural Identity - A Note from the Experience of Eritrean Immigrants in Stockholm: with focus on the Bilin, a 2004 article by Kiflemariam Hamde

This paper describes how individuals and groups who had crossed ‘physical, national boundaries’, and who live in a different social context make sense of their lives make sense of their lives by re-constructing their identities - of the sense of who they are, and who they want to be, which is an ongoing process. This is done by narrating the experiences of African men and women who live in Sweden and who struggle to both maintain their cultural identity and at the same time change aspects in their culture due to the context in which they find themselves

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6264063.pdf

Some articles on the Bilin Language مقالات عن لغة البلين

Blin documents available at:



BILIN: SPEAKER STATUS STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS
by Abbebe Kifleyes
مقالات عن لغة البلين

Because encroaching diglossia from Tegrä and/or Tegreñña resulting in the gradual subititutionf Bilin by these languages has been observed in the area of Sänhit, the present contribution is directed towards examining speaker status health and death and disseminating general and specific information on the causes and effects of language shift in Eritrea using Bilin as a case in point... This essay examines Bilin linguistic interaction with Tegrä and/or Tegreñña speaking populations, investigates the tremendous expansion of Tegrä and/or Tegreñña, and the social and economic provisions which may have led to a rapid increase in the Tegrä and/or Tegreñña speakers and hence caused the linguistic and cultural absorption of the Bilin, and discusses the linguistic and cultural elements that contribute to Bilin language drift and shift in the context of the cultural character of language and identit

http://daberinet.com/Blin-files/Main-pBlin-files/Abebe%20Kifleyesus,%202001.%20Bilin%20speakers%20status,%20strength%20and%20weakness.pdf

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Blin Orthography (spelling system): A History and an Assessment by Paul D. Fallon

The language policy of the Eritrean government is to encourage mother-tongue education for native speakers of each of its nine ethnolinguistic groups through primary school (Chefena, Kroon and Walters 1999). When this was implemented for the Blin in 1997, the government provided Blin curricular materials in the language using a new Roman-based alphabet. This overturned a 110-year tradition of writing Blin in Ethiopic script. This paper will focus on the history of writing in Blin, and examine the linguistic and sociolinguistic factors of each writing system

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.528.759&rep=rep1&type=pdf

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Some Phonological Processes in Bilin by Paul Fallon:

http://journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/index.php/BLS/article/viewFile/3421/3119

Discussing ethnohistory: The Blin between periphery and international politics in the 19th century, a 2006 article by Wolbert Smidt 

http://journals.openedition.org/cy/1373




Saturday 5 November 2016

بناء جامع الخلفاء الراشدين بمدينة أسمرة The construction of the Grand Mosque in Asmara 1900

The construction of the Grand Mosque in Asmara 1900
بناء جامع الخلفاء الراشدين بمدينة أسمرة


The original version of the mosque built in 1900
Picture: Courtesy of Ahmed Raji


The Grand mosque in Asmara was built in 1900. The Saint Mary Church objected to the building of the mosque, but the Italian Governor then rejected the church appeal and contributed money to building the mosque.


بنى جامع الخلفاء الراشدين ، وهو أول جامع في العاصمة أسمرة ، في عام 1319هـ الموافق 1900م في أيام لجنته الأولى برئاسة الكوليري أحمد أفندي الغول ( المصري الأصل وكبير التجار)* وقد قام ببنائه المعلم “عامر الجداوي” من مواليد مصوع على أرض منحتها الحكومة بناء على طلب لجنة مشروع الجامع. وقد عارض رواد كنيسة “القديسة مريم” المجاورة بناء الجامع ، ورفعوا عريضة إلى الحاكم الإيطالي ، ولكنه لم يلتفت إلى تلك المعارضة ، ولم يكتفي بالموافقة على بناء الجامع بل ساهمت حكومته بمبلغ 300 فرنك إيطالي لبناءه. وقد إستغرق بناء الجامع العام تقريبا ، وفور إتمام بناءه أقيمت فيه صلاة الجمعة والصلوات الخمسة. وقد رمم المسجد في عام 1917م الموافق 1337هـ في أيام لجنته الثانية التي كان في مقدمتها المسلمانيين محمد فرج لما ، وأبرها تسفاي.

http://mukhtar.ca/%D8%A8%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D9%84%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%86%D8%A9-%D8%A3%D8%B3%D9%85/