Part 01JN05 :-  “Kunama, un’antica eredità culturale”:  (Kunama, an old cultural heritage)  By the “scuola italiana di Asmara”

(the Italian school in Asmara). VKP (June 21, 2005)

Part 03   THE MINISTRY OF CULTURAL HERITAGE:

Part 3

THE MINISTRY OF CULTURAL HERITAGE:

Dear ERKUKODISU’s leadership and the Eritrean-Kunama Liberation Forces,

it seems to me that, as, in any government there is a defence ministry, an education ministry, an interior ministry and so on, in the ERKUKODISU’s cabinet too, there should be a department for the Kunama cultural heritage. Such department or ministry has a lot of work to do. It is to develop and care for that the Kunama pageantry, the Kunama name, the Kunama belief, the Kunama tradition and the Kunama language do not disappear. In short, in the Kunama cabinet, the minister of the Kunama cultural heritage, whether a chief, a Christian or Muslim cleric or a politician is to keep the Kunama tradition. If we noticed, since the 4^th century A.D., the Tigrians have been converted into the Christian faith and 85% of their names are of Jewish origin: e.g. Amaniel, Daniel, Michael, Rufiel, Zemichael and so on; 15% of them have retained their traditional names: e.g. Habte, Hagos, Tesfai and so on. From the 8^th century on, 100% of others names were converted into Islam and given Arabic names and meanings. It was due to this fact that we today have two main sections of our society: Christian/Muslim and Arabic/Tigrigna. To my understanding, this is exactly what is defined as the “religious and psychological colonisation”. And we Kunama ? We are still living in the same times and according to the traditions of our ancestors. To me, this is very good; we are lucky. We know/have our names; we know/have our traditions, our own belief and we have our own land. We have preserved our own culture; we have not let it get changed. And now, in the computer age, we should be teaching our children still more intensively so that we ourselves do not get forced into changes; be cheated, looked down on and uprooted. It is because of this reason that I am bringing up the idea of and insisting on that we should have a “ministry of cultural heritage”. Like the shepherd pasturing his flock, the Kunama “minister of cultural heritage” should see that the “dominant cultures” do not assimilate us. Such minister however should not be alone in his/her job but, directly or indirectly, supported by erudite and capable individuals with versatile minds in arts, ethnography, history, science, philosophy, theology and so on. The minister and his/her team therefore would establish an “Institution for the Kunama Cultural Studies”. In other words, we would be thus having three elements:

1.- our “Political Organisation”;

2.- our “Ministry for Cultural Heritage” and

3.- the “Institution for the Kunama Cultural Studies”.

Beginning from now, the life like that of a flock without a shepherd will stop and the Kunama ethnic-group would have found its own leaders and start living in high morale as its suffering would come to an end. This is to be a very good lesson not only for the Kunama but also for the other Eritrean ethnic-groups. In Eritrea, there are nine (9) ethnic-groups but, the damages the Europeans and the Arabs had done, we Eritreans seem to have become only two (2) ethnic-groups: linguistically, Arabic/Tigrigna and religiously, Christian/Muslim. We Kunama shall not let ourselves be changed: linguistically, we have our own Kunama language and religiously, we have our own Kunama belief. One day, two Eritrean Muslims made the following statement to me arguing that: “the Kunama Muslim will be represented by the Arabic language”. I too gave them my prompt answer. “if you don’t have your own language, let the Arabic language represent you but we Kunama Christians, Muslims and those practicing our own Kunama belief have our own Kunama language to represent us”. Running out of further arguments and, since that day, the two individuals call me: “the great Chief”. As I stated in my previous writings, “faith does not turn ethnicity into a creed”. Four are the elements constituting ethnicity:

1.- language;

2.- tradition;

3.- own territory and

4.- culture.

If they have ears to hear, let them hear.

The Eritrean National Alliance (ENA), in its Addis Ababa meeting established three principles:

a) the principle of self-determination;

b) religious equality and

c) the principle of de-centralisation.

This is good; very good, but in the religious equality, they brought up only Christianity and Islam but what did they do with the Kunama Belief? Is ENA too still holding the mentality of the Kunama “not having a belief of their own”?

Although the ENA established only three principles, we Kunama demand more.

a)     The rights of the minority ethnic-groups;

b)     the rights of the minorities’ languages;

c) the rights of the minorities’ land;

c)     the rights of the minorities’ religious beliefs.

All these principles and rights should be included in the Eritrean, in the ENA’s as well in ERKUKODISU’s Constitutions, and right now.

In 1995, we Kunama met in Montreal (Quebec), debated a lot and decided that the Kunama belief should be recognised as the third creed in Eritrea. To our understanding and in order to stop the Christian and Muslim harassment, we established the Kunama belief be inserted in the Eritrean Constitution. It is not right that we drop what we have to be led by the white mentality. Your Christian Institutions, the Popes in Rome used to say:

“in 1964 by a large majority, the council (Roman Catholic) adopted a decree recognising that every man had the right to choose his own religion that, in the past, the Pope Gregory XVI, a 19^th century pope, had defined the practice of all other religions as foolishness”.(Encyclopaedia of Religions).

Besides, as we black have become aware and sophisticated that they dropped it in the Second Vatican Council in 1963/64 but otherwise the white people (to all Africans) used to state that the blacks had no soul. It was due to this fact that, the big governments, the English, the French, the Spanish, Portuguese, the Italians and so on, with their power, the rich people with their money, the Popes (of Rome) with their blessing, used to gather the Africans, as if they were animals, and sell them as slaves in North and South America and in the West-Indies. If you examine the Christians in their Gospel, there is an element which supports this bad deed of theirs. It states, “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven”. Their God in heaven too listens to them. To my understanding, politics as well as religion are “man-made”. In Eritrea, our Christians and Muslims practising what the whites had preached, defined the Kunama as “pagans and animists”. To me, it is better to be a pagan and animist than to be regarded as “without a soul”, as the whites used to retain us all black people.

NB. (I am going to write on the “Kunama Belief” where I shall be exposing the attitudes of all those who have been despising the Kunama Belief).

A.B. ( July 10, 2003 ).