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THE KUNAMA PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Dear our fellow Kunama, at home and abroad, your fellow-Kunama abroad have formed a political party in your name and called it: “The Kunama People's Democratic Party (KPDP); Kunama Agara Demokratika Buluka (KADB)”.
With the following messages, the “KPDP/KADB” is sending you the package of its political programs, and is very cordially inviting you to join it in its first congress.
1.- What is the Kunama People's Democratic Party/Kunama Agara Demokratika Buluka (KPDP/KADB?)
2- Why has the KPDP/KADB come into being?
3- What is the KPDP/KADB going to be?
1- What is the KPDP/KADB?
It is the Party of the Kunama People, striving to make the Kunama people's voice heard. It is the party struggling for and demanding for justice, equality and for the land and for the personal property rights of the Kunama people..
2.- Why has the KPDP/KADB come into being?
The KPDP/KADB has come into being because of the evil activities carried out by the past governments and the ill-treatment the Kunama Land and the Kunama people had to endure during the armed struggle for the Eritrean independence and because of the present PFDJ regime's oppressive. policy, upon the Kunama people and upon their native and ancestral land.
The following are the governments and the forces which had oppressed and persecuted the Kunama people:
- the Italian colonial government;
- the British;
- the Ethiopian government;
- the Eritrean Liberation Front/Jebha-Al-Tahrir armed struggle group;
-the Eritrean People's Liberation Front/Hizbaui-Gmbar and
- the present Eritrean PFDJ's regime.
The Italian colonial government declared the Kunama Land as "STATE LAND", without any regard to the people of the region as if that were an uninhabited land.
The Jebha-Al-Tahrir armed struggle group accused the Kunama of siding with the Ethiopian government and, in 1967, it burned the village of Karkasha and other Kunama villages, killing a considerable number of Kunama people, among the first ones:
1.- Adana Celestino,
2.-, Frut Talla,
3.- Kontalle Cassiano
4.- the Amos family, with eight (8) of its family members, burnt live inside their home.
The Jebha-Al-Tahrir raided herds of Kunama cattle.
The EPLF had always had deep-felt grudges against the Kunama people and ever since it came to power, in the independent Eritrea and established itself as the PFDJ's regime, it has been conducting untold criminalities of ethnic-cleansing proportions, far exceeding the injustices committed, against the Kunama people, by the previous rulers of Eritrea. It has confiscated the Kunama people of their native and ancestral land and turned it into its own economic play-ground and resettlement projects.
The Kunama people today are experiencing and witnessing ongoing evil activities by the Shabia regime against them in a manner totally unknown, in their century-old-history.
It suffices to mention the cruel massacre of our people in Sikinibia (Shambakko).
The Tigrigngna speaking local police-force there, chased some Kunama people, as if they were hunted wild animals and, for a very trivial reason, gunned them down on a bright day-light.
Likewise, the civilian Tigrigngna speaking people, living there, joined their policemen, ill-treated our people and killed them.
Recently, the PFDJ's regime, through the evil hands of its own military commanders, “mass-poisoned, mass-murdered and buried in a mass-grave, 26 ethnic-Kunama members”.
There are countless ethnic Kunama members; men, women, under aged children, and even young Kunama mothers with their infants, imprisoned and languishing in many parts of their land and in other regions. Many others have disappeared at the hands of successive non-Kunama rulers in the Kunama land.
The Kunama people today, have become very suspicious of and very deeply distrust any ruler and force exercising in their territory and therefore they have been and are urgently calling for their own ethnic-Kunama members to take up the affairs of their own people and of their own native and ancestral homeland.
After having carefully documented and studied all the above enumerated sad social and political events, which have been following the destiny of the Kunama people, throughout their entire history, the present KPDP/KADB's members have been sensitize to rise up to defend the Kunama people's lives and their ethnic, human and territorial property rights.
3.- What is KPDP/KADB going to be?
The KPDP/KADB is going to be the herald of the federal provincial or regional government of the Kunama People and of the Kunama Land.
It will be the emblem and the source of good service to the Kunama People, to the Kunama Land and to the politics of the Kunama Federal State.
In short, the Kunama Land and the Kunama people will be governed and served by their ethnic Kunama members.
No one shall ever attempt to chase us, like wild animals and gun us down.
No one shall ever try to mass-poison, mass-murder and bury, in mass-graves, our ethnic Kunama members.
No one shall ever attempt to cleanse our Kunama race:
Guidelines for the future Kunama People's federal provincial or regional government:
A) – The Kunama people's federal provincial or regional government shall be made up of the ethnic-Kunama members.
- The Kunama people's federal provincial or regional government shall be democratically elected by its ethnic Kunama members.
- The Kunama people's federal provincial or regional government shall be one that engages itself in developing the region and cares for the welfare and well-being of its people
- The governor of the Kunama federal state, his/her civil servants, the regional and local police forces and the Kunama districts' chiefs shall be ethnic Kunama members.
- The representatives of the Kunama people at the Eritrean government's national level, shall be elected by the Kunama ethnic-memebrs.
B) - LAND:
1 - The Kunama state's, provincial or regional capital city is Biara, (Barentu/Barenku).
2 – The Kunama land shall be the property of the ethnic Kunama members.
3 – The Kunama land shall neither be bought nor sold.
4 - All the local agricultural plantations, like those in Aligidir,, Bimbilna, Sikinibia (Shambakko), Dokimbia, Ingkota (Haikota) and so on, as well as the crop-fields, dwelling places and other personal properties that had unlawfully been confiscated shall be returned to their own legal owners.
5 - It is forbidden, in the Kunama Land, to cut down trees.
6 - Hunting is forbidden in the Kunama Land.
7 - Magula, Antore and Biakundi shall be the provincial or regional reserved-land and wild life-parks.
The following three projects shall be of priority:
a) - digging of water-wells and building of dams and reservoirs;
b) - building of clinics and hospitals;
c) - building of schools and recreational facilities.
Schooling and education shall be compulsory, for the Kunama people, in the Kunama Land.
C) - LANGUAGES:
The languages, in the Kunama Land shall be:
a) - Kunama;
b) - Marda (Nara);
c) - Arabic.
4. - D) - RELIGIONS:
a) - Kunama Belief:
b) - Christianity;
c) - Islam.
5.- E)- NAMES:
a) - In the Kunama Land, the names of the various territories, localities, cities, towns and villages shall be those given by their natives and not those of foreign origin.
b) - In the Kunama Land, avenues, roads, streets, public places and so on, shall carry only local names.
THE FINAL MESSAGE:
Should, the statements like:
1.- Federal government;
2.- provincial or regional government and other concepts, expressed in this message, be unclear or cause some uncertainty, it is advised to seek for clarifications from the members of the Kunama People's Democratic Party/Kunama Agara Demokratika Buluka (KPDP/KADB).
May Peace and Justice Reign Upon Our People, Country And Land!.
THE KUNAMA PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC PARTY (KPDP);
KUNAMA AGARA DEMOKRATIKA BULUKA (KADB);
KPDP/KADB: (June 1st 2009).
ON The KUNAMA
By the “Kunama People's Democratic Party Kunama Agara Demokratika Buluka” (KPDP/KADB)
1.- PEOPLE AND LAND:
Some foreign historians, anthropologists, missionaries and researchers have tried to retrace the origin of the Kunama people, but, up to the present days, they have not been able to offer concluding findings, although they came to classifying the Kunama language in the “Nilo-Sahran languages” and therefore there is a certain ground to assume and retain that the Kunama, had in fact, originated from the “Nile-Delta”. On the other hand, there is the concrete history, substantiated by the Kunama elderly generation itself, that the Kunama “King Bada/Baza, Baden/Bazen”, together with his wife, “Queen Kuname”, (from whom, the Kunama, as a matriarchal society is known to have inherited its name), are said to have reigned, (long B.C.), in the ancient city of “Axum”, (in the present Ethiopian state of Tigray), and in many parts of today's Eritrea. The “King Baden's/Bazen's” tomb and his history are still preserved in that city. According to many elderly Kunama, there are some Kunama names of localities, of villages and of towns of which names do prove that they had, not only, been given, but also originally inhabited by the Kunama ancestors. The name itself of “Axum”, (retained by the Kunama, to have derived from the Kunama ordinal adjective “akussuma/the “fifth)”, is said to be the geographical description of the ancient city of Axum, known by the Kunama as situated on the “fifth” hill, surrounding it. Similarly, the names of many other localities and towns like, “Kuala-Suka”, translated into Tigrigngna as “Addi-Kuala”, in the Eritrean Serae region, is said to have originally been the village of a Kunama, by the name of “Kuala”, (a typical Kunama male name, said to be absolutely non-existent in the list of the Tigrian traditional male names, and therefore proving the fact that traces of the Kunama ancestors' history are to be found in Tigray and in many parts of Eritrea. Other localities with Kunama names, randomly chosen from other Eritrean regions are: in Akele-Guzai, “Segeneiti”, ( in Kunama, “segene-ita” = the home/dwelling place of ostriches, said to have abounded in those surroundings and in those times and therefore that, in the past, “Segeneiti” too was one of those localities in habited by the Kunama ancestors.
Even today, there are names of many Kunama villages ending in “iti”, a suffix usually describing a locality and its environmental surroundings.
Compare with and consider the names of the following localities, to be found now, in the Kunama land:
Asi-ti,
Ammale-ti,
Ash-itti,
Dabolo-ti,
Mar-iti,
Shinggale-ti,
Shumun-iti,
Tugul-iti,
Un-iti, and many other villages' names, describing the association of those localities with the nature and with the natural elements, surrounding them.
In the Semhar region, the name itself of “Massaua”, (in Kunama “masa-ua”, = the war's eye), is known to the Kunama elderly generation, as the village/town/city of which the name means, “open/exposed to wars”, waged from the open sea. Such traditional Kunama names and their historical connections, though neither historically known to and therefore recorded and documented by the foreign historians and anthropologists, nor are they to be easily found in and proven by other sources, do however remain, in the minds of many Kunama people, as the living proofs of the past history of the vastness of their ancestral land. The basic principle that the Kunama language belongs to the “Nilo-Sahran group” of the African languages, and has nothing in common with the other Eritrean and Ethiopian languages, very strongly proves and supports the theory that the Kunama had originated from the western and north-western “Nile-Delta”. The history that they had penetrated as far as, settled in and ruled from “Axum”, may only have been due to their military and political might at the time, but that their language had neither been influenced nor had any connection with those of other populations and ethnic/folk-groups, does indicate that the Kunama must have always been fiercely protecting their own ethnic and culturo-linguistic identities and the property rights of their own native and ancestral land. It was and it is in fact, the history and the destiny of their native and ancestral land which have always caused them serious problems. The Kunama today, are openly stating that, just like the earlier immigrants to the Kunama land, had forcefully invaded, conquered and confiscated much of it, forcing the Kunama to retain only their present territory, the new wave of different Eritrean populations, from the Eritrean highland and other regions, is similarly invading, conquering, settling in and confiscating, the Kunama rural and urban dwellers, of their remaining native and ancestral homeland. This is the biggest reality today worrying the Kunama people. Today, they are seeing, living and experiencing the repetition of the past sad history of their people and of their land. The new policy being adopted by the present rulers of Eritrea, to implement their projected conquest of the Kunama land, is based, not only, on the Italian colonial principle of “TERRENO DEMANIALE, STATE LAND, and MERIET MENGSTI”, but mainly and specifically on the new redrawing of the traditional geographical and administrative borders of the Kunama land. The bottom-line idea today is to confuse the Kunama people about the traditional geographical borders of their native homeland, and, at the same time, entire the other Eritrean populations, particularly those chronically ill from land-grabbing search and aspirations, to massively pouring into the Kunama land, settling in and forcefully and uncompromisingly possessing it. What are the Kunama people to do, confronted with such grave a situation, threatening their own very existence as individuals, as people and as members of the Kunama ethnic-group, for whom their native land has always been the only provider of their own subsistence? The present PFDJ's regime is being, not only the major force supporting and implementing the conquest of the Kunama land, but that regime itself is the prime conqueror of the most fertile parts of it. Just like, and even more than the past rulers, this regime, today, is aiming at confiscating the last piece of the Kunama people's native and ancestral land.
It is our Kunama people's and our own belief that today, there will not be anything like the repetition of the “past sad history” of the Kunama land. The Kunama people today, are and will be using all means at their disposal, to claim, reclaim, obtain, hold, promote and defend the property rights of their own native and ancestral. They cannot and will not afford to let their remaining land be sequestrated for good and make their people alien and beggars in Eritrea, once the land of their own ancestors.
2.- THE NAMES:
As already mentioned, the name “Kunama”, derives from the Kunama Queen “Kuname”, the wife of the Kunama King “Bada/Baza, Baden/Bazen”.
Based on their “matriarchal genealogical and social structures”, the Kunama use only their ancestral maternal name for their:
“Kunama People”, “Kunama Agara”;
“Kunama Land”,(Kunama Laga);
“Kunama Language”, (Kunama Ngela);
“Kunama Culture”, (Kunama Furda);
“Kunama Religion”, (Kunama Kobina);
“Kunama Customs and Traditions”, (Kunama Usule/Kunama Damane).
The Kunama people's immediate neighbouring populations, namely the “Beni-Amer” (Shila) and the “Baria” (Bura-Marda), based on their patriarchal social system, call the “Kunama” (Baza/Bazen), thus referring back to the Kunama forefather, the king “Bada/Baden Baza/Bazen”.
The Kunama people therefore have their own names for their own native and ancestral land, for their regions, districts, localities, villages, mountains, rivers and special places.
Following the colonial decisions and imposition, the foreign rulers in the “Kunama Land”, (Kunama Laga), as the Kunama people themselves call it, had turned it into and referred to it with the names of two rivers: “Gash” and “Setit”, which are respectively the names given to those two rivers, by the Sudanese and by the Ethiopians, in their own respective countries but the Kunama people know those two rivers and call them only as: “Sona” and “Tika-Suba/Bahara” it is therefore, extremely disrespectful and very contemptuous an attitude, towards the Kunama people, by those rulers and their followers, to ignore the proper name, and arbitrarily impose an other an improper. Up to now, a lot of Kunama names of towns, villages and localities have either been distorted or even changed into other names, by non-Kunama populations. As already mentioned, it is to remember that the Kunama names of localities always have a meaning, either describing the surrounding environment or the elements having some connection with those localities. It is therefore of a paramount importance that the names of all those Kunama localities be written in their correct ways and be pronounced accordingly, so that they retain their proper meanings.
3.- The geography of the Kunama Land:
a) The Kunama Land borders, in the North, with the land of the Baria (Bura -Marda) populations.
b) In the South, as it has been recently determined and defined by the international “Eritrea Ethiopia Border Commission”, (EEBC), the Kunama Land borders with the Ethiopian State of Tigray.
c) In the East, it borders with the Eritrean-Tigrian Serae region.
d) In the West, the Kunama Land borders with The Sudan and,
e) In the North-West; with the Eritrean-Barka region.
4.- The Kunama regions:
The Kunama Land is divided into four major regions:
I) Aimasa: in the North-West, bordering with The Sudan;
II) Barka: in the South, bordering with Ethiopia;
III) Itana (Marda) in the North-East, bordering with the land of the Baria (Bura-Marda), and
IV) Tika: in the South/West, bordering with The Sudan.
The Kunama inhabitants of the four regions are recognised and defined as such and through their different dialects.
The KPDP/KADB, very categorically rejects the new borders and the new administrative centres, drawn, defined and established by the present PFDJ's regime, in the Kunama Land, which is and remains within its traditionally recognised geographical regional and administrative borders.
The KPDP/KADB: (June 1st 2009).
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