fredag 28 december 2012

There is nothing called an African culture.

I used to hear people in Sweden saying “I am going to Africa” or “I am attending a course in an African dance”, etc. A continent of 55 countries easily clustered together to a single entity.


The variety of this continent is remarkable. Africa is a continent of great contrast and diversity. Its vast size is more than three times the land area of the continental United States. The democratic republic of Congo alone is as big as the entire Western Europe.

The languages spoken on the continent are perhaps as many as a thousand, which are as distinct as English is from German (Martin and O´Meara:1995:13).

I wonder why grove generalizations are always made concerning the African continent despite the amazing diversity. The impact of colonialism and slavery in perpetuating racially based bizarre ideologies towards black people is enormous and is still felt in every corner of the planet.

“The invention and reinvention of Africa and Africans” by Europe and “The scramble for Africa” are still continuing unabated though in a different form now compare to the colonial era.

The very origin of calling the cradle of humanity - the African continent: “The darkest and most exotic continent” by Europeans, has to do with their inferiority complex and need to justify their “civilizing missions”in the 18th century. Everything was allowed in the rampancy of ignorance and arrogance.

Even now when we are supposed to be “enlightened” and “inter-connected” with all sorts of social media, people continue to have the same prejudice as before. Using zoological and derogatory terminologies regarding black folks is a quite “normal” phenomenon. These negative connotations do not even engender any reaction from the public anymore.

The term “ethnic” is a creation of colonialism along with “tribes”. One can ask why the same terminologies are not applied on people of European origins. This is the question Antoine Lema raises in his book Africa Divided – The creation of “Ethnic Groups” (1993).

It is beyond any doubt that ethnic groups, as a form of static and dogmatic markers of identity, have not always existed in sub-Saharan Africa. Lema (Ibid) questions why sixteen million Igbo in Biafra, Nigeria and sixty million Hausa in Northern Nigeria are called tribes and ethnic groups and not nations in terms of peoples or socio-cultural groups.

While the Austrian people, the Swedish people and the Danish people under the same period and with populations that are less than ten million are called nations. For Lema, it is obvious that some process of ethnic marking and ethnic management has taken place when it comes to the African population.

He further questions what an ethnic group is and how old ethnic groups are in Africa. Why European immigrants in Africa are never called ethnic groups, whereas Africans in their own continent are.

Colonialism has historically contributed immensely in the creation of ethnic identities through the policies of assimilation, division and sub-division, and on the bases of belonging to certain physical and socio-cultural features.

Aiden Campbell´s book ‘Western primitivism: African Ethnicity: A Study in Cultural Relations’ (1997) is a path breaking work in demystifying so-called “African tribalism” and “savagery primitivism”.

He argues that tribal barbarism from Africa tend to be employed by Western commentators with the intention of emphasizing humanity´s potential for evil, rather than solely laying stress upon African atavism.

The only logical conclusion that one can draw here for the sake of humanity is: There is nothing called an African culture or dance. There are distinct cultures and cosmologies within the continent but not a single entity that is the embodiment of Africa and Africans.



måndag 24 december 2012

Nigeria, we belive in...


Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe are just two of the many legendary writers from Nigeria. Soyinka and Achebe have written quite a lot of books and articles about subjects ranging from the colonial legacy to the “failure of Nigeria”.

 Being the largest country in the African continent with an estimated population of 150 millions and huge oil resources, Nigeria should have been the “success story” from the outset. 

The country has rather attracted the attention of the world for all bad and wrong reasons: the Biafra war in the 1960s, numerous military coups and dictatorship, tension between different groups that claim sectarian and religious affinity like Boko Haram, Niger Delta and so on. One wonders what has gone wrong with Nigeria with so much potential but nothing to show for it.

The monumental failure of Nigeria as a nation-state is beyond anyone´s doubt. The state has not lived up to its  missions of creating a climate of peace/security, prosperity, development, democracy, national identity by providing equal rights and opportunities for all citizens of the nation, no matter sex, ethnicity ,etc. The question is whether the state of Nigeria has ever had the will, ambition and aspiration to realize its full potential. I doubt it.

It is probably as the political scientist Claude Ake once wrote: it is not so much about failure because genuine democracy and development has never even been on the agenda at all. The resources of the state have been embezzled by most of the leaders after independence. The politics of the belly has been the order of the day. 

Corruption has also been endemic in all sectors of the Nigerian society. A country that is so rich in oil resources continues to import refined oil from other countries despite the millions of barrels of crude oil that leaves Nigeria´s shore on a daily basis. 

The disenchantment and disfranchisement of the population has been exasperated even more by the lack of any fair distribution of wealth along the years. The sense of belonging on the basis of citizenship has never existed. People identify themselves first and foremost as Muslims, Christians, Igbos, Yorubas, and Hausas, etc. 

The current president with the funny name Good Luck Jonathan seems to be trying to consolidate the power of the state in order to provide basic human needs for its citizens. His wife is called patience and this fellow really needs all luck and patience on earth to finally change things in Nigeria for the better. I want to see a Nigeria that we all can believe in and look up to in the African Continent because South Africa is betraying humanity us as usual. 

 The Nigerian economy has started moving into the right direction and many exiled Nigerians are returning home as never before as they eventually see some lights in the tunnel. Boko Haram remains to be the greatest threat for now but widespread unemployment and poverty are the most dangerous ones not only for Nigeria but for the whole world.   

måndag 17 december 2012

Revolution united

I saw a documentary called  "Revolution united" on Aljazeera the other day. It was  about the Japanese “Red Army”. Japanese young men and women had joined the front for the liberation of Palestine and gone to Israel where they participated in the bombing of an airplane in 1972.


27 people died in this action and two Japanese Red Army members are among the dead. A third one was captured alive and sentenced to a long time jail sentence in Israel. He was eventually freed in an exchange of prisoners between the front for the liberation of Palestine and Israel. He still lives in the Middle East in Lebanon where he is seen as a national hero.

Another Japanese citizen who was among the original founders of the group was sentenced to 26 years imprisonment for her alleged involvement of an attack on French embassy in Holland in the early 1970s. Many other Japanese citizens were also handed long jail sentences for having stayed in Lebanon “illegally”.

I wonder what drove people from the Far East to join the Palestine cause. Many other nationalities have also fought for causes that are not of their immediate concerns. These individuals that transcend their own self-cantered, local, national, cultural and other boundaries are mesmerizing.

The Japanese group started organizing themselves first against the increasing union fee at their university. They were also demonstrating against the involvement of “an Imperialist Japan” in indo-china and its support for the USA in the Vietnam War.

Making local issues into a national one is a grand task in itself but going from a local student issue to an internationalism of Palestine liberation is a different matter. It is always regrettable when civilian lives are taken in the name of “a revolution” or “radical change” but resurrection to violence and revolutionary movements seems to be very characterizing of the 1970s. The military coup in Chile in 1973, the Ethiopian revolution that toppled Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 and the Iranian revolution of 1979 are just some examples of that remarkable decade when I was supposed to have been brought to this world.

Terrorism is probably the term that has been used extensively to explain all sorts of “violent resistance” these days. The sad association of Islam with that term shows how media always selects to focus on violence that erupts from other regions and religions than the occident.

The memories of radical groups from Germany and Japan from the 1970s may have been blurred but barely forgotten. Historical conditioning is perhaps in favour of those who hold the economic and political power in the world but the very creation of the state of Israel is the product of “terrorism” too. So it is a question of definition about what constitutes terrorism and who commits it.

I have always felt that an individual can make a difference in peoples lives whether a positive or a negative one. I do not like though feeling guilty for doing too little to bring about a change in the right direction in the fight against poverty, insecurity and injustice in the world. I am not guilty of being a critical citizen of the world. I am not an innocent anthropologist either. I am just a bewildered man who keeps wondering and questioning……………..

måndag 10 december 2012

Swedish neutrality literally means Swedish hypocrisy

I do not understand what it means to be “a neutral country” as Sweden claims to be. There is nothing called “neutrality” in my vocabulary because human relationships are based on “subjectivity” and not “objectivity” as many baldly claim. You are either for racism/Nazism or against it. How could one stand by and look indifferently when the world around you is falling apart as never before. There is no any middle way here. You should take a side on issues like this and fight against it wherever the bell for freedom rings.

Swedish history is full of indifference and hypocrisy. Sweden managed to avoid a direct involvement both in the first and second world war. The country might not have been involved in colonialism and slave trade directly but did of course benefit from that inhuman treatment of coloured people. God knows the number of people who perished because of colonialism and slavery but a moderate estimation is 50 million. This is tantamount to genocide.

500 years of western domination across the world has cost the lives of 500 million people. 10 million in Congo alone! No western leader has yet faced trial for these crimes against humanity. Impunity is their trademark as they control the” international criminal court”.

Sweden allowed Nazi German soldiers to go through its territory on the way to Norway during the Second World War. It also deported a number of refugees from the Baltic States to the despotic Soviet Union after the war. Individual Swedes took their own initiatives and fought against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union alongside fellow Danish, Norwegian and Finnish people.

The Swedish state/government was passive for most of the last century and never stood up against genocide/holocaust/extermination/pogrom. It was first during the 1960s when Olof Palme became the prime minister that he put Sweden on the international map after condemning the USA for its barbaric war in Vietnam. This single incident though can not make Sweden a self-gratifying “moral superpower” as it wrongly is perceived.

Sweden still keeps hundreds of refugees in custody for months and in some cases up to a year before deportation. It deported two Egyptians to Egypt a decade ago. The two guys were arrested upon arrival in Cairo, tortured and imprisoned for years. The then Swedish government of Göran Persson “was promised” by the dictator Hosni Mubarak that nothing was going to happen the two guys. You might call this blunder a blue-eyed naivety of unmatched magnitude but Sweden has not got the guts to tell Africans what is best for them as long as it keeps its double standards on course. The track record of western countries on human rights violations speaks for itself and does not call a genius mind to grasp the fallacy here. Guantanamo, Abu Ghrabi and Bahram are just a few examples of “the global age” under the banner of “restoring hope” or “imposing universal values of human rights and democracy”.

The west in general and Sweden in particular needs to set its house in order first before imposing the Swedish/western values of complacency, neutrality and indifference on other folks. Universal universalism is not euro-centric universalism which emphasizes the values of decadence, aggression, inferiority/superiority complex and impunity. We need the respect for human rights and the rule of law and democracy that accommodates everyone in Sweden as much as in many  other parts of the world.

fredag 30 november 2012

Life is lived off-line

Feeling vulnerability, uncertainty, stress and a sense of emptiness is part and parcel of being a human. Admitting your own shortcomings and trying to learn from your mistakes is strength and a great gift. Openness to the outside world beyond your social sphere and sharing your challenges in life to others in a forum like a blog is currently seen as a normal procedure.


I have also been talking about “sharing is loving” or so. I only wonder where this telling instinct comes from. The very existence of language has formed our lives and given us structures and institutions that are peculiar to human-beings. Our sophistication is not solely dependent on linguistic, rational thinking and planning but our curiosity and restlessness.

Hoping for a better tomorrow is what drives us all. Sharing each other’s journey in the bumpy road of life is probably the most human thing to do. It gives us magnanimous recognition from other fellow citizens and a sense of communality in a way. Confidence among people is always built on words that are materialized in actions.

The ups and downs of modern life and the rapid changing of information technology put us under pressure 24/7. We are always “online” these days and the “off-line” life is not recommended. I do not embrace this development wholeheartedly as I do not think it suits us all well. I do not think either that we have the need to be online all the time.

It is in our imaginations that we feel that “the world goes down” if I do not check my email, facebook, sms etc. Now. Life is lived off the line. Let us keep ourselves away from the wire at least most of the times. We are actually the cause of our vulnerability sometimes.

tisdag 20 november 2012

Freudiansk frid och fröjd?

Sigmund Freud föddes den 6 maj 1856 i Freiberg, Österrike och dog 1936. Hans banbrytande analys av människan som utgått från hans egen barndom, är fortfarande aktuell. Fritänkandet och förmågan att analysera och reflektera/planera sägs vara kännetecknande för människan. Att analysera vår barndom och ifrågasätta vilka vi är och försöka att förstå oss på varför vi har gjort de val vi har gjort och beteer oss som vi gör , förutsätter en viss psykologiserande.


Selektiva minnen och endimensionella förklaringar av ens personlighet , gagnar inte ,på intet sätt, den komplexa människan i hennes strävan att berättiga sin blotta existens. Freidrich Nietzche menar att allt som en människa visar utåt föranleder frågan: Vad är hon ute efter att dölja. Ärlighet och autenticitet krävs i berättelsen av vår barndom. Frågan är dock hur mycket av dessa berättelser är äkta händelser eller efterhands konstruktioner som fyller en viss funktion av självhävdelse.

Fragmenterade minnen och diffusa bilder av det förflutna förföljer oss hela livet. Freuds självanalys och introspektion betonade vikten av att vända inåt. Sök inte utanför dig själv! Vänd dig inåt; i den inre människan dväljs sanningen. Samvetsrannsakan och självbiografi kännetecknar introspektion och inriktar blickarna mot det dunkel som omger medvetandets ljus. Självanalys strävar efter att i nattsidans inre verklighet upptäcka grundvalarna till det som framkommer i dagsljusets värld.

Vad gör sexualldriften och dödslängtan/dödskräcken med oss människor? Kan allt mänskligt beteende förklaras utifrån den hämmade sexualldriften i barndomen och föräldrarnas förhållningssätt gentemot oss under de tidiga åren av livet?

Freud hade upplevt en hel del sorg under sitt liv och den tragiska tillvaron hade satt sitt spår i hela hans liv. Han var oftast mycket pessimistisk i sin syn på tillvaron.Hans pessimism kan ha tilltagit tiden efter första världskriget . Dödsdriften var också uppenbar i hans skrifter. Han skrev förljande om människan:

”Människan är frestad att tillfredställa sitt aggressionsbehov på sina medmänniskors bekostnad, att tillgodogöra sig deras arbetsmöda utan vederlag, att utnyttja dem sexuellt utan deras samtycke, att tillägna sig deras ägodelar, att fördmjuka dem, att tillfoga dem lidanden, att göra dem till martyrer och att döda dem. Homo homini lupus: vem skulle i ljuset av livets och historiens alla läxor våga bestrida detta ordspråk?”

Vi är många som vill bestrida detta ordspråk och vägra att tro att människan är född ond vars öden är förutbestämd. Det determinstiska synsättet ger upphov till känslan av uppgivenhet och likgiltighet. Människan är en produkt av sin miljö, brukar det sägas. Den långsiktiga inverkan av den miljö som vi växte upp, i kombination med det genetiska arvet gör oss till de människor vi blir beroende på de val som görs i livet.

Min grundmurade förhållning är dock som J.P. sartre uttryckte det väl: existensialism är humanism! Vi är inte alltid offer till omständigheterna utan möjligheter att agera och reagera mot omvärldens ondska. Jag känner, tror, tycker och tänker, alltså, existerar jag på heltid. Jag är en god människa i den mån jag tillåts vara min egen herre i en värld av orättivisor och försöker att göra något åt den hemska situationen. Vilka medel som tillåts i denna strävan är dock en annan fråga.

söndag 11 november 2012

Jag såg Karin Boye och Gunnar Ekelöf på Afrikas horn, i Art Decco staden Asmara, Eritrea.

I Karin Boyes Samlade Dikter står följande beskrivning (på omslaget) av denna geniala poet och människa:

”Karin Boye (1900-1941) är en av den svenska 1900- talslitteraturens främsta lyriker. Hon ger en intensiv och originell tolkning åt det inre livets konflikter eller stämningar av befrielse. Hennes lyrik har med sitt äkthetskrav behållit sin livskraft, stark och uppfordrande talar hennes röst till oss.”

Jag kunde inte ha sagt det bättre. Karin Boye är för mig den bästa svenska som funnits på denna jord. Det är alltid tråkigt att folk av hennes dignitet inte finns med oss. Blott 41 år fick hon vara. Livets konflikter och motsättningar fascinerar mig. Det paradoxala beteendet i människan och hennes sårbarhet beskrivs bäst i Boyes dikter.

I Härdarna från 1927 skriver hon så här:

I Rörelse

Den mätta dagen, den är aldrig störst.
Den bästa dagen är en dag av törst.

Nog finns det mål och mening i vår färd –
Men det är vägen, som är mödan värd.

Det bästa målet är en nattlig rast,
Där elden tänds och brödet bryts i hast.

På ställen, där man sover blott en gång,
Blir sömnen trygg och drömmen full av sång.

Bryt upp, byt upp!Den nya dagen gryr.
Oändligt är vårt stora äventyr.

Gunnar Ekelöf är en annan svensk geni som jag hör läsa sina dikter här i Asmara nästan varje dag.Jag har honom på min dator. Det är alltid befriande och rörande att höra honom. Det svenska språket känns hemma när jag hör Gunnar. Männsikan finns ju genom språket. Gunnar säger:

En värld är varje människa,
Befolkad av blinda varelser
I dunkelt uppror mot jaget
Konungen som härskar över dem.

I Varje själ är tusen själar
Fångna, i varje värld är tusen
Världar dolda och dessa blinda,
Dessa undrevärldar är verkliga
Och levande, fast ofullgångna,
Så sant som jag är verklig.
Och vi konungar och furstar av
Tusen möjliga inom oss är
Själva undersåtar, fångna själva

I någon större varelse,
Vars jag och väsen vi lika lite
Fattar som vår överman sin överman.
Av deras död och kärlek
Har våra egna känslor fått en färgton!!!

Det finns mycket att förundras över här i världen men som min bortgångne vän och Poet Jan Kucinicki (i vin och poesi) brukade säga :

Det är enkelt att leva,
Men det är ännu enklare
att uppleva en dag än
att skriva en dikt.

Jag vet att den svenska vintern är på frammarsch nu och kylan och mörkret håller på att få ett starkt grepp om det avlånga landet i utkanten av Europa. Jag rekommenderar därför Augustinus (354-430) en av västerlandets mest inflytersika teologer. Han uppmannar oss oavsett väderlek:

”Människorna, gå ut att beundra höga berg,
Havets väldiga vågor,
Flodernas breda strömmar,
Oceanens vida krets och
Stjärnornas kretslopp –
Och gå förbi sig själv.”





Down with material consumerism!

I actually do not know how many people follow my blog on a regular basis or read it at all. I just presume from my own reality and try to make sense of my life here in Eritrea. People say that life ends when you stop dreaming, hope ends when you stop believing, love ends when you stop caring, and friendship ends when you stop sharing. That is why I usually say Sharing is loving. I feel good about telling others who exist virtually or are real friends what I experience. I do not write for the sake of writing but to soften my heart and mind.

My way of life is writing - “Mi manera de vivir es escribir!” is what the Nobel Prize winner in literature Mario Vargas Llosa said once upon a time. I feel the same at times. This blog is just a forum for my reflections of the current situation. I am still in a period of transition and do not want to be lost in the implementation of my dream to settle down here and have a normal life.

I have my ups and downs as anyone else but have made up my mind not to let the challenges of everyday life to harden me. It is better to be humble and allow things to have their natural course. I have not started working as yet and spend most of my time reading, writing and consuming media critically. I have applied for some jobs and still waiting for the “verdict”. I have also my own plans of writing a book or two and translating some great works to Tigrigna and Amaringa.

I feel on the top of the world when I write and feel privileged to live like I do right now. The weather is amazing here, the sun shines everyday and we have around 25-30 degrees in Asmara on a daily basis. It is much warmer around the coast and the port towns of Assab and Massawa where it could get up to 45-50 degrees summer time. It is a “winter season” there currently and the temperature is only around 33 degrees.

I study Arabic in the evenings and travel within Eritrea sometimes and make participatory observations as a philosophical anthropologist to understand the country. I could have been in Ecuador with my wife Rahel this week but refrained from travelling because I did not feel comfortable in spending thousands of dollars just for a week. She is attending a conference organized by the world federation of democratic youth (WFDY).

I have been offered a job at a social science college in Adi Keih which is almost 4 hours drive from the capital Asmara but I am not keen to move out from Asmara at this moment even if it would be great to teach anthropology there. I am not ready for Adi Keih for the time being and shall find something else here in the capital instead.

I hope that my economic situation would not deteriorate and I shall be able to realize my full potential in this country. Economic hardships in one´s own country should not lead to migration. It is said: “Necessity is the mother of invention” and temporary socio-economic setbacks are not going to be detrimental of the future.

I am not a fan of material consumerism and accumulation. I saw a nice program on the stream on Aljazeera about this theme. Somebody, who is a film director from Hollywood, said in the program that the simple life is the high life. Serving a community and working for a cause which is beyond oneself is the best source of happiness.

Love and sense of belonging are the most important factors for a happy life. It might be difficult to abandon consumerism entirely but questioning its magnitude and trying to share with others who are less privileged could be a step in the right direction. There is nothing wrong in consuming books, music or film for that matter but too much of everything is not good for anyone.

Success can not and should not be measured in terms of material wealth and ownership of the biggest house, the best car or the latest Iphone. We all know the fact that the need to consume is the result of a void people feel internally and consumption has been seen as a way out of that emptiness. This attempt has failed and an ever increasing of the world population is becoming ecologically conscious citizens who question the status quo and the despotism of consumerism.

I am not who I am because of my consumption but my sense of communality and endeavors to make a positive difference in peoples´ lives. Desmond Tutu says: “we are because we belong”. We belong to some groups for some reasons like ethnical, racial, religious, professional, educational, sexual preferences, etc.

But this sort of belonging is not what humanity needs in the 21st century. I advocate for a kind of belonging that transcends the “tribal” and “primitive” form of identification and embraces the human race as one.

A Fanonian phenomenon of cosmopolitan citizenship for social justice on a global scale. Equal rights and opportunities to all engender freedom and responsibility.

What we demand is a sense of ownership in issues that determine our fate. We want to be the masters of our own destiny from Georgetown in Guyana to Freetown in Sierra Leone.

onsdag 31 oktober 2012

Anthropology is indeed the creation of colonialism..


Anthropology is the  creation of colonialism during “The Scramble for Africa”. Missionaries had taken the lead in providing important information for the colonial powers about the “exotic” and “unknown tribes” of Africa. The “dark continent “as they called it and portrayed it as a continent of “Terra Nullius” to be claimed by any one with a gun powder.

This historical burden of “objectifying” the people of less privileged countries is continuing unabated even now. The continuous process of creating “us” and “them” is tantamount to maintaining western supremacy. One can ask why one group should have the monopoly of “studying” and “writing” about others as if they have a monopoly on truth too. History is always in the making and everybody should be able to have a say about it. Diversity and multiculturalism should be the rule of the day.

I never felt comfortable with this classification and aired my views back in the days as a university student in Lund, Sweden. My teachers were not happy with my critical mindset towards anthropology and its association with colonialism.

They refused to approve my bachelor thesis at some point. I was not ready to compromise and back down which irritated them even more. The department of anthropology in Lund was full of people who really believed in colonial paternalism. I actually wanted to study anthropology to understand Europeans and get some explanations for their bloody history. I had thought that I would understand myself better by understanding them first. I ended up more confused than ever before because Europe is as Frantz Fanon says the place where they talk about the Blackman and universal human rights eloquently but chase the black man in every corner they see him. Leave therefore Europe before it is too late.

“Professor “Kajsa Ekholm Friedman and her husband professor Jonathan Friedman together with Mr. Silly Christer Lindberg were the avant-gardes of the colonial residue. Kajsa went even further and participated in a conference that was arranged by a racist group in southern Sweden. She also wrote an article in the leading Swedish news paper “Dagens nyheter” in April/may 1997.

The main message of her article was that Sweden was being “invaded” by immigrants and the country would eventually end up like the former Yugoslavia. There are many Anthropologists who are obnoxious and have racist agendas in the academic world.

The ever increasing anti-immigrant sentiments that are being heard across xenophobic Europe are not news anymore. It is so liberating to be in one´s own land where I do not have to feel stress and anxiety because of my skin color or origin.

Anthropology should play a leading role in bridging gaps of civilizations and creating understanding between different cultures. My mere existence is always dependent on the confirmation by others but this otherness is not a permanent sanctuary. The world changes as much as culture does. I have become who I am through different processes of giving and taking at various times.

I understand myself better now than ever before because of my exposures to challenging and enriching realities of life here in Eritrea. Understanding others and feel their pains makes my life more holistic and blessed. I am because we are. Unbuntu

torsdag 25 oktober 2012

"Ascaro Ignoto"

Gli Eritrei Furono splendid!

Tutto quello che potremo
Fare per L`Eritrea Non
SARA`Mai quanto L`Eritrea
Ha Fatto per Noi….

These words of the Italian Gen. Amado Guillet are inscribed on his grave in the Eritrean garrison town of Keren. I spent the weekend in this mountainous and beautiful town. It was a focal point of fighting between Britain and Italy during the Second World War when the Italians eventually lost the war. Eritrea was an Italian colony 1890-1940, under a British rule 1941-1950 and a federation with Ethiopia 1951-1960. The Ethiopian despotic emperor Haileselassie (Ras Tafari) eventually annexed Eritrea in 1961 and made it the 14th province of Ethiopia. The Eritreans had no other option than fighting for their liberation and independence which lasted for 30 years until 1991.

Colonialism has always been a malign and an evil form of human degradation. In the case of Eritrea, the Italians never thought that they would ever be forced to leave this beautiful land. They planed and acted as if they were going to stay here for good. All the Art Deco monumental buildings which still are here are reminiscent of the recent past which is haunting us up to the present time. Thousands of Italians had moved to Eritrea and many Eritreans were forced to serve as colonial soldiers as so called “Ascaris” to conquer neighboring countries like Ethiopia, Somalia and Libya.

Thousands of Eritreans died in these wars. It is one thing to be colonized and forced to live under the yoke of colonialism and its bondage but it is something else to be forced to wage their wars outside your territory. God knows how many Africans have perished in this sort of wars fighting for the sake of “the white man” against other colored people in the name of “humanity´s civilizing mission”. I saw hundreds of graves in the Italian cemetery in Keren and the saddest moment of my visit was when I discovered the fact that people are not equal even in death.

There were the graves of Italian soldiers on the left side with their full name and date of death and on the other side; the graves of Eritreans without any information whatsoever except the words “Ascaro Ignoto” meaning an unknown and nameless soldier. No body deserves to be treated like that in his own land. This crime against humanity is not discussed at all as the west has always managed to get away with whatever crimes they commit. Impunity is their trademark as they control both the mechanisms and institutions of the “international system”.

Glory and honor to the martyrs of Africa! Africa for Africans!



fredag 19 oktober 2012

Why I still want Barack Hussien Obama to be reelected

I remember vividly when Obama was elected president roughly four years ago in 2008. I was in the countryside of southern Peru with Peruvian journalists covering a story about the socio-economic development in the region. Deep in the jungle where people had never seen a man of my origin as odd it may sound. Some folks even seriously asked me if we Africans practice cannibalism. I was not amused by that sort of “joke” or so but my focus was on the USA election as Obama had electrified us all across the world from a remote Peruvian village to Adi Guadad in Eritrea.


There was no access to television where I was and could not therefore follow the result of the election in that night even if I had walked miles around the area looking for one. I woke up in the woe hours of the morning and asked people who had a radio and listened to the result. A young boy informed me of Obama´s victory and I was thrilled and exulted. I felt that the dawn has eventually come to black folks at last. My friends started calling me Obama after that. I also remember vehemently his inauguration as I was in a small and rundown kitchen with a Colombian friend in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I know Obama has not lived up to our expectations and aspirations under any circumstances. He has deported more immigrants than all other previous presidents combined. He has killed a lot of civilians using the drones more than ever before. He has expanded the war in Afghanistan, Guantanamo has not been closed yet, and poverty among the poor in the USA has not diminished at all. 46 million Americans live on handouts and food stamps.

He has also accused Eritrea of human trafficking. He has done everything possible to distance himself from the African continent and black folks. He has participated in the persecution and execution of black people in Libya. He is guilty of killing Muhammar Al Khadaffi too. The only time he came to the continent was when he passed by Ghana and stayed there for a few hours. He is indeed Uncle Tom and a house Negro embodied unlike Malcolm X who was a field Negro and a real human rights advocate who paid a heavy price. Some people even ask if Obama is black enough which is a bit irrelevant and disgusting to make a point of as long as he claims to be a Blackman.

I have every reason to hate him and be indifferent about his reelection endeavors but I have to admit that I have failed in that effort. I call Obama though Mr. White Burton for his politics as he is pursuing the policies of Bush, Regan and Clinton and thereby the name Burton. Something in the history of black people and the existing racism in all countries of the planet in general and in the USA in particular, makes me still sympathize with Obama. A black man in the white house, which is reserved for white folks, is still a good news. Mitt Romney is the last man who deserves to beat Obama. I would not be devastated if Obama would lose against all odds. Victory to the masses!

tisdag 9 oktober 2012

Why Frantz Fannon still matters...


Frantz Fanon died almost 51 years ago at the premature age of 36 but he is more omnipresent than ever before. His great works:

“The wretched of the earth” and “Black skin, white masks” are almost like the Koran or the bible for many people across the planet. What makes this world citizen from Martinique in the Caribbean and freedom fighter in Algeria still a source of inspiration and enlightenment is his advocacy for the total abolishment of racism by the creation of an alternative “mankind” or “a new humanity”.

He writes in Black skin, white masks:

“The body of history does not determine a single one of my actions. I am my own foundation. And it is by going beyond the historical, instrumental hypothesis that I will initiate the cycle of my freedom. The disaster of the man (black) of color lies in the fact that he was enslaved. The disaster and the inhumanity of the white man lie in the fact that somewhere he has killed man (black). And even today they subsist to organize this dehumanization rationally. But I as a man of color, to the extent that it becomes possible for me to exist absolutely, do not have the right to lock myself into a world of retroactive reparations.

I, the man of color, want only this:

That the tool never possesses the man. That the enslavement of man by man cease forever. That is, of one by another. That it be possible for me to discover and to love man, wherever he may be. The black man does not exist, not any more than the white man. The tragedy of the man is that he was once a child. It is through the effort to recapture the self and to scrutinize the self; it is through the lasting tension of their freedom that men will be able to create the ideal conditions of existence for a human world.

Superiority? Inferiority?

Why not the quite simple attempt to touch the other, to feel the other, to explain the other to myself?

Was my freedom not given to me then in order to build the world of the you?”

Fanon concludes by saying:

“I want the world to recognize, with me, the open door of every consciousness. “

Some accuse Fanon of worshiping and advocating violence which is completely baseless and beyond any content of truth and sanity. I do not see anything wrong in advocating for the oppressed, damned, wretched and colonized people of the planet who only liberated themselves from their enslavement and colonialism by using the same methods of violence as their colonizers and slave drivers.

I listened to a very interesting radio program on the BBC today:

“The museum of broken relationships”. It is about broken hearts and pleasant/unpleasant memories of the past. Collections of different items and objects that people value and treasure a lot. They have left these things to this special museum in Zagreb, Croatia once their love affairs have come to an unfortunate end. The cabinet of failed promises and animosities is a very exciting project and reminiscent of how powerful love is. Be it eternal, temporary or rusty. What would be your particular contribution to this museum? A 50 dollars note, a love letter, a book, an underwear, a shaver, pictures of romance, dried flowers, etc. Let us know.

The Nobel Prize has become a congregation of westerners and the justification of white supremacy. I do not get what sort of function it fills except the perpetuation of a racist establishment. The Swedish academy is an institution of western sentiments and values. They value their own “science” and cultural set ups more than others.

I do not anticipate, any man or woman of color, being given this prize this year either. We Africans may have to set up our own alternative “Nobel prize” to encourage the African youth to invest in science and research. Few people of color have ever won the Nobel Prize. When they won it, it was for peace or literature and not for economics, medicine, physics, or chemistry.

Somebody said:

“I am either nobody or I am my nation.”

Transcending my own nation and limitations of mental and physical borders, is my challenge as a human-being. I exist, therefore, I care.

My final prayer is like Fanon who still matters a great deal :

O my body, make of me always a man who questions!

fredag 5 oktober 2012

Vad är ett liv värt?

Livets värde bör nog alltid sättas i relation till döden. Döden skrämmer oss om vi inte bejakar livet. Jag hittade följande kloka ord i Sven Lindqvists bok ”Utrota varenda jävel(1992)”: Det var en norsk filosof vid namn Törnnessen som gästföreläste i praktisk filosofi. Han sa:


” Att födas är att hoppa från toppen av en skyskrapa.
Att leva är att oavbrutet störta mot döden.
Döden är det enda vi behöver bry oss om.
Att tänka på något annat än döden är undanflykter.
Samhället, konsten, kulturen, hela den mänskliga civilisationen är bara undanflykter, ett enda stort kollektivt självbedrägeri, vars avsikt är att få oss att glömma att vi hela tiden faller genom luften och med varje ögonblick kommer närmare döden”.

Sven motsätter sig denna slutsats som förespråkar passivitet och likgiltighet inför det som händer oss och vår omgivning. Han menar att:

”Livet är inte som att hoppa från en skyskrapa. Det är inte sju sekunder utan sju decennier man har på sig. Det räcker för att hinna uppleva och uträtta en hel del. Livets korthet ska inte paralysera oss utan hindra oss från att leva utspätt och okoncentrerat. Dödens uppgift är att tvinga människan till väsentlighet. ”

Man kan alltid ifrågasätta sitt yrkesval, val av plats att leva på eller sin blotta existens men ingen kommer undan det faktum att man är ansvarig för sina val/handlingar oavsett förutsättningar och kontexter eftersom man väljer hur man ska förhålla sig till den rådande omständigheten och göra det bästa av den.

 Min egen väsentlighet är språket arabiska just nu. Jag har börjat studera det språket eftersom det är ett av de nio officiela språken här i Eritrea och ett av de största i denna region vid Röda havet. Människan finns genom språket och språkfilosofi har alltid fascinerat mig. Multikulturalism och mångfaldighet är den bästa gåvan som mänskligheten någonsin fått. Jag kan aldrig förstå mig på människor som förspråkar enfaldighet på alla fronter.

Solen skiner här i Asmara varje dag och vi har cirka 25 grader i huvudstaden ,40-45 vid kusten i Massawa eller Assab. Detta är landet där man kan uppleva tre årstider inom ett par timmar. Den svenska vintern fattas inte mig, helt sonika .

Jag har sökt jobb bl.a. på högskolan I Halal, Adi Keih, UNICEF, Norska Ambassaden, EU – kontoret här i Asmara, en privat skola som heter SMAP och bedriver egen frilans forskning om de olika folkgrupperna här i Eritrea. Frilansande och filosoferande antropolog/journalist tilltalar mig.

Jag kommer också att ägna mig åt översättningar av stora verk av legendariska författare och filosofer till Amaringa och Tigringa under tiden. Att skriva egen bok på sikt är en nödvändighet för mig och jag har världens chans just nu.Livet är därför väldigt värdefullt och inspirerande för tillfället.

Det är vägen till våra destinationer som gör livet mer intressant än själva det slutliga resultatet av våra ansträngningar för att berättiga och rättfärdiga vår blotta existens.Descartes motto ”Cogito, ergo sum” ( Jag tänker, alltså finns jag) är mer aktuellt än någonsin.



tisdag 25 september 2012

Culture, Heritage and Liberation...

The following article is the best piece that I ever read when it comes to culture, heritage and tradition. It is derived from the South African Airways IN – Flight Magazine which is called Sawubona, September 2012. It is of course based on the reality of South Africa, the history of the ANC and refers to the existing structures and institutions in the country:


“Quite often in South Africa when someone defends something questionable, claiming that it is his or her culture, the stubborn little fact that refutes that claim is that that person would be talking about tradition or custom. Tradition and custom are not culture; they are petrified aspects of what at some point might have been cultural. It is what some cling to because it saves thought and often protects patriarchal privilege.

On the other hand, culture is dynamic; it is always in motion, always developing as a result of human action and interaction; it does not tolerate stasis. Culture is the sum total of what is produced by a people´s creative genius; this creativity is collective. Every society has a culture, at times several cultures. Some cultures are exploitative and others are not. All cultures have a material base.

Art and education are expressive of a people´s values and, therefore, of their culture. It must be pointed out though, for the sake of clarity, that tradition and, along with it custom, is static, but does serve a purpose in the development of culture. No one creates from nothing. For instance, in the creation of the arts, as in the production of anything else, it is what has been created or produced in the past that informs, influences, guides, and inspires the development of the new. No new development just happens accidentally.

Heritage is what is preserved from the past as the living collective memory of a people not only to inform the present about the past, but also to equip successive generations to fashion their future. It is what creates a sense of identity and reassures rootedness and continuity, so that what is brought about by the dynamism of culture is not change for its own sake, it is a result of people´s conscious choice to create a better life.

The birth of a liberation movement, then, is a conscious cultural choice. A liberation movement, to summarize Amilcar Cabral, is an organized political expression of the culture of oppression and exploitation.

As we celebrate the centenary of the ANC I think it is important to note that the founding President General and the Secretary General of our liberation movement were both cultural icons. President John Langalibalele Dube was an essayist, philosopher, educator, publisher, editor, novelist and poet. The ANC´s first Secretary General, Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje, was an outstanding intellectual, a journalist, linguist, translator, orator, teacher, editor. Their vision is an integral part of the history and heritage we celebrate as we cast our eyes forward to the future we must create.

Everything in society results from human activity, interaction and interests. This applies as much to the creation of art as it does to mobilizing workers against exploitation or creating mechanisms to manage social transformation. It therefore follows logically that what happens in life and social consciousness finds expression in artistic creativity. That should also explain why there has never been a shortage of writers and other artists in the ANC since its formation. In clarifying the relationship between literature and life, the late Alex la Guma, who was a prominent, internationally acclaimed writer and a leading cadre of the liberation movement, says:

“When I write in a book that somewhere in South Africa poor people who have no water must buy it by the bucketful from some local exploiter, and then I also entertain the secret hope that when somebody reads it he will be moved to do something about those robbers who have turned my country into a material and cultural wasteland for the majority of the inhabitants”.

What we glean from La Guma´s statement is that literature is a site of struggle; it must serve the interests of the people in the quest of their lives, which is fulfillment. When there are stumbling blocks to this fulfillment, which is a crucial aspect of liberation, there can be no peace because the majority of the people will experience misery, suffering and despair.

As we celebrate this centenary we must also be determined to strengthen the democratic cornerstones on which our economic, political and cultural well-being must stand as part of the heritage that the young will use to create a better life as they soar into the future”.

Från Lund, Eslöv och Höör till Asmara, Adi Guadad och Emboito..

Jag fyllde 41 år i fredags men det kändes inte som något ”stort” som jag behövde fira eller göra något extra inför den. Det är sällan jag firar födelsedagar och just denna udda ålder känns ännu mindre intressant. 42 är dock meningen med livet och kommer att firas någorlunda.Jag gjorde istället en ”deltagande observation” av dagen som en god antropolog jag är  och försökte att begripa vad innebörden av det hela var.


Att se det mennigsfulla i det menningslösa och tvärtom blir nog den mest sannolika händelseutvecklingen med åren. Cynism och kritiskt tänkande i all respekt men likgiltighet inför det mesta som det inte går att påverka, skrämmer mig. Klokskap och visdom må tilltaga med åren men så länge vi gör anspråk på att vara människor, är det väl plikten och ansvaret inför andra som gör oss till tänkande och planerande varelser.

Ifrågasättande av de val vi har gjort och gör förföljer oss alla levande tills vi går bort men själva livsgnistan och drivkraften att fortsätta andas in och ut varje dag , ligger nog i nyfikenheten och kunskapstörsten. Mitt val att bosätta mig här i Asmara, Eritrea just nu får mig att tänka på hur mitt liv hade kunnat se ut och om jag hade valt att befinna mig någon annanstans istället. DEN FRIA VILJAN kan vara överskattad i vissa situationer men viljan att leva så fri som möjligt utan något bindande och betungande är något människor drömmer om.

Någon skånsk poet sade en gång i tiden: ” det slog mig i morse att mitt tak är någon annans golv och mitt golv är någon annans tak.” Jag slås ibland av min egen resa här i livet och den ständigt återkomande känslan av främlingskap inför omvärlden oavsett var jag befinner mig. Jag präglades av exilens livsvillkor i Etiopien och Sverige i nästan 40 år.

Begrepp som ”hemland” och ”moderland” är inte främmande för mig men den totala samhörgigheten med andra människor behöver inte nödvändigtsvis ha med land och blod att göra i alla dess bemärkelser. Minnena av det förflutna förföljer mig och jag försjunker i ingenmans land rätt ofta.

Det finns nog inget land som är fullkomligt perfekt för någon men att alltid sticka ut och inte vara en i mängd någon gång, tär på alla människor.Lagomlandet Sverige där mellanmjölk dricks och jantelagen fortfarande härskar, har sina för och nackdelar som alla andra länder. Det som är jobbigt med Sverige är oftast klimatet och kulturen.Den fina naturen, Kunskapskanalen och Radions p1 saknar jag mest.

Skillnaderna mellan Lund och Asmara, Adi Guadad och Eslöv, Emboito och Höör må vara stora men det finns en hel del likheter dessa städer emellan också.Tristessen och avsaknad av kosmopolitanism kan vara riktigt mördande i små städer oavsett var man är men bortom det geografiska, kulturella och historiska landskapet, är det människorna som utgör själva essensen och själen av ett ställe.

Ett agrart samhället är klart helt olikt ett informationssamhälle men behovet av att ses och höras skiljer inte så mycket samhällena emellan även om förutsättningarna är vittskilda. Jag är fortfarande i skuggan av min ändlösa livsresa trots åldern påminner mig om att mitt förflutna är nu längre än min framtid. Det är dödens blotta närvaro som egentligen tvingar oss att göra val och vidga våra vyer. Det är därför man säger att livet är summan av alla de goda krafter som håller döden på avstånd.Morgondagen finns inte utan gårdagen och denna dag. Jag är väl medveten om det och gör mitt yttersta att vara här och nu så länge det går.



fredag 21 september 2012

Al Jazeera - the Arab penninsula!

Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, France 24, Press TV, Reuters, AFP e.t.c. The role of News and media in our lives has probably never been as important as now. 24/7 updated and online. One can ask the purpose of this need of in being informed? Is it simply a habit that we are used to? What do we do with all the information that we gather from media on a daily bases? We exist through others and want to feel the pains of those who are in difficult situations. Solidarity and compassion may be our common denominator wherever we might happen to be. The risk is though always there that people end up getting indifferent when they are confronted with too much biased and negative news every day.


There is nothing called objective journalism per se. We are all subjective in our assessments of different scenarios depending on which media that we have been exposed to. The analysis and historical background is mostly missing when sensational journalism is the agenda. Making news of “no news” is another phenomenon. The tabloid pictures of the young British couple have been dominating news media across the western world in the last week or so because they happen to be from the royal family. Who really cares about that incident? Not us here in Eritrea anyways.

We always confront naked pictures, veiled or unveiled faces, people wearing burka or nikab but the prophet being mocked in an American video and the Danish cartoons are always distasteful. I have never understood the purpose of provoking “the Muslim or Arab world” as if they have their own world. The predictability of the outcome after such provocations makes the advocates’ of “the sacred freedom of speech and press” as ridiculous as ever. Every media outlet is biased and has its own interest to defend depending on who finances it. Media is after all about propaganda to win the heart and minds of the masses that in most cases are the asses, unfortunately.

“The Arab spring” was hugely covered by all sorts of media and some people overstate the impact of “social Medias” in facilitating the ingredients for the “revolution”. I am not a fan of “revolutions” being televised and do not believe Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen went through “true revolutions. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the western world being the sponsors of these uprisings make the whole thing questionable. Qatar finances Al Jazeera, the British government BBC and all other Medias are either state owned or corrupted corporate owners like Murdoch own them.

The future in the countries, that have toppled the old guys, is very much uncertain even if not too many people miss Mubarak, Ali and so on. Syria is in the middle of a civil war now and the so called “opposition” is not ready to negotiate with the incumbent president whom they say, should resign immediately. This is a very arrogant and costly approach to the conflict. Assad is not an innocent guy for sure but negotiating even with the devil could sometimes be the only option out of the quagmire.

måndag 10 september 2012

Strömmen är alltid på.........med rätt inställning till livet..

I mörkrets hjärta är inte människan dömd till en fullständigt underkastelse av naturen och dess onda krafter. Det finns förvisso goda krafter i mörkret också men människan ,inklusive mig själv, tänker oftast på vad det inte går att göra när strömmen är borta. Jag tänkte på tankenskraft och började läsa böcker som jag aldrig blev klar med i Sverige. Använde då levande ljus, solenergiljus och en lampa som går att ladda om.


Jag har tagit med mig hundratals böcker från Sverige hit till Eritrea och är evigt tacksam för mina samlingar och mitt lilla bibliotek här.Jag har läst klart ,under de senaste dagarna då jag har varit sjuk och nästan sängliggande med irriterade ögon, sömnlöshet och astma, : ”The Prophet ”av Kahlil Gibran, ”Stavrogins brott” av Fjodor Dostojevskij, ”The Alhambra of Granada” som är mer eller mindre en fotobok av Liuis Casals och Félix Bayón.

Min fru är i Namibia och deltar i en pan-Afrikansk ungdomskonferens. Hon är nämligen vice-president för PYU-pan-African youth union på Afrikas horn. Avsaknad av sömn har haft en negativ inverkan på mig i flera veckor, ens världsbild och relation med omgivningen påverkas markant. Jag blir deprimerad och saknar all initiativförmåga för att göra något åt min situation. Jag började ifrågasätta mitt beslut att bosätta mig i Eritrea. Jag saknade Sverige stundtals vilket är naturligt eftersom jag bott i Sverige under hela mitt vuxna liv.

Jag vet att det jag känner är en tillfällig svacka och det mesta kommer att ordna sig så fort jag hittar en sysselsättning som jag tycker om. Övergångstiden efter en återvändning och omställningen samt återanpassningen skulle kunna ta 2-4 år.Det är naturligtsvis olika från person till person och beror helt och hållet på ens förutsättningar, vilja och motivation i kombination med livsvillkoren i landet i fråga.Jag har inga problem med språket och kulturen vilket är en stor fördel.

Det är ändå här i Eritrea som jag har mina rötter och bör försöka att stadga mig så mycket det bara går. Det innebär inte att jag är fast här för all framtid utan det bara känns rätt att vistas här just nu trots alla utmaningar och problem som det innebär att flytta till en annan ort på ålderns höst.

Född och uppvuxen i Etiopien där jag bodde tills jag var 18 år för att sedan flytta till Sverige som flykting på grund av kriget mellan Eritrea och Etiopien. Bodde i Sverige i drygt 22 år när jag begav mig in på detta nya projekt av att bosätta mig i Eritrea vid årsskiftet 2011/2012. Jag har varit här I Eritea nästan hela detta år förutom de två månader i våras då jag kom tillbaks till Sverige för att bryta upp med mitt liv där och packa.

Det var en av mina svåraste stunder i livet då det inte handlade om bara mitt liv utan andra människor som varit mig nära och kära i flera år. Hur kan man följa sitt hjärta utan att såra andra männsikor? Jag vet vad som hade kunnat göras annorlunda då men jag är inte i färd med att försvara min ställning och mitt beslut. Jag bara vill redgöra för min sårbarhet utan att hamna i någon polemik med någon annan än mig själv. De bästa samtalen kanske äger rum med sig själv en söndag morgon som denna . Vad vet jag? Det enda jag vet är att vi är här på jorden under en begränsad tid och urval av livsöden inte alltid är i våra händer.



Man väljer dock hur man ska förhålla sig till alla dessa alternativ och hur man vill gå vidare med de val man gjort.Min egen lycka just nu och i framtiden känns ovidkommande för tillfället men allt kommer nog att bero på min egen ambition och styrka att fokusera på det som jag brinner för och hitta en platform att förverkliga dem.

Allt avbrott och uppbrott sätter klart sitt spår på mig och är kankse därför som jag är ständigt på språng. Denna rastlöshet har inte släppt mig ännu. Jag har varit i över 50 länder och borde känna mig lugnare vid det här laget som en medelålders gift man vid snart 41 år. Livets menning är 42 brukar man säga av någon anledning. Jag får återkomma vid ett annat tillfälle just varför 42 är den magiska åldern. Det finns nämligen skäl till det.

Jag läser ” Förförarens dagbok” av Sören Kierkegaard just nu. Det känns häftigt att läsa denna existentialist (1813-1855) i artdecco staden Asmara. Människan har alltid sökt efter sin plats på jorden och det är fascinerande att inse att det är mycket som förenar oss i våra drömmar, rädslor och fantasier oavsett vilken bakgrund vi har och varifrån vi kommer.

Sören Kirkegaard skriver bl.a. : ” Jag är en vän av tankefrihet, och ingen tanke är så absurd att jag inte vågar tänka den.” Han skriver vidare att : ”Kärlekens gud är emmelertid blind, men med klokskap kan man nog narra honom. Konsten är att vara så mottaglig som möjlig för intryck, att veta vilket intryck man gör och vilket intryck man får av alla unga flickor. På det sättet kan man till och med vara förälskad i flera på samma gång eftersom man då är förälskad på olika sätt i var och en av dem. Att älska en är för lite, att älska alla är yttligt, att känna sig själv och älska så många som möjligt, att låta sin själ gömma alla kärlekens makter i sig, att var och en får sin bestämda näring medan medvetandet ändå omfattar helheten – det är njutning, det är att leva.”

Tanken behöver inte alltid leda till handling men själva tanken på att överskrida ens egen begräsning på alla fronter ger mig hopp inför det nya året 2005(enligt vår Geez/julianiska kalender) som nu faller på tisdag den 11 september 2012(enligt den gregoriska kalendern som härskar i Babylon).Det nya året firas rejält här i Eritrea,folk köper sig nya kläder,skor och slaktar höns,getter, får och tjur. Det är rätt vanligt att se folk bärandes en get eller ett får på ryggen knuten runt midjan samtidigt som de cyklar eller ha djuret på pakethållaren. Begreppet djurplågeri finns inte i ordboken ännu.

Gott Nytt År på er alla!

Mamuk is my hero!

Mamuk is a 12 years old boy who is a 7th grade student and a shoeshiner here in Asmara, Eritrea at the same time. He is at school half of the day and working the other half.His father is dead and his mother is sick and unable to support her family. Mamuk has literally been forced to be the breadwinner of the family at this early age. He has been working as a shoeshiner for over a year now and he feels proud in being able to provide for the family. He could make up to 100 dollars a month which is not enough for the family but at least helps them make ends meet.


I usually get my shoes polished by Mamuk and do not feel comfortable with the whole situation. A young boy who is supposed to be playing instead of doing my shoes. I always keep on asking him questions about his family and school. I would like to help him in some ways and covering his schoolexpenses is what I intend to do when he starts school again next week after the winter vacation.

Mamuk is just one of those millions of children across the world who have to work to help their family. One could be against childlabour and denounce it but what other options do these children like Mamuk have? Eritrea is a very poor country but tries to stand on its own feet by any means necessary. Aid is not the solution for Eritrea and self-sufficiency and self-relience is the only way out of poverty. Neither west nor east are our saviours but ourselves. Eritrea´s future could be bright if the so called “international community” and neighbouring Ethiopia left us alone. Every country has its own issues and need to deal with it on its own premises based on the preconditions of the country.

The Ethiopians are scared of revolution?

The Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi died of undisclosed disease recently and western and other leaders have been paying him tribute ever since. Does he deserve it? Was he a statesman? I personally do not think that he deserves it and he never became a statesman of his time. He came to power in Ethiopia in 1991 thanks to the help of the Eritrean people liberation front which had an interest in overthrowing the brutal military rule of Mengisu Hailemarian whose dictatorship left the people of Eritrea and Ethiopia in total destruction and misery. Meles launched war against Eritrea in 1998 backed by the USA and others and deported over 100 000 Eritreans from Ethiopia.

Some Ethiopians who accuse him of allowing Eritrea to become an own country, are ignorant or ill-adviced because the Eritreans liberated their own nation without the help of anybody after 30 years of bitter struggle. 21 years in power is pretty long time. Is Ethiopia a better place now than 1991? I do not know as I have never been in that country for over 20 years but reality speaks its own language.The majority of the 90 millions still live in deep-rooted poverty and seem to have given up on their government. Ethiopia is divided on the bases of ethnicity in the name of “being a federal state” which only has meant more division and tension in the country.

Meles did of course a good job in being the messenger of the west by invading neighbouring countries like Eritrea and Somalia where the Ethiopian army was defeated and humiliated by the people of the respective countries. One could therefore ask why all the cry and crocodile tears around his natural death as it seems to me unless he is poisoned by the CIA or so?

His death is not even a news here in Eritrea at all which I think shows the wisdom of the Eritrean leadership in not choosing to capitalize on an individual´s fate. I am though dead sure that the Ethiopian media would have made a big noise if something had happened to the Eritrean leadership. How come these differences among two nations just miles away from each other? History, geography and culture may explain some issues but not everything. The bottom line is though that Ethiopians are scared of revolution. Ethiopians like all sorts of balls: football, basketball, volleyball e.t.c. but let the white men kick their balls whereas Eritreans like bicycle and let white folks rumble in the jungle :-).

Democracy and development has never been Meles´s agenda. The Ethiopians have an opportunity to do something for themselves now but I am afraid that they will squander it. The monopoly of power in the hands of TPLF will continue even if the Amharas, Oromos and the southern people and others shall try to voice their concerns.



The incoming/acting prime minister Hailemariam Dessalegn is not anymore an acting one but named as a vice prime minister by the state media in Ethiopia. Vice to a dead man or his own shadow? What does it tell us about the power struggle within the ruling party EPRDF which calls itself as a revoutionary democracy? What does it really mean? I am not optimistic about the future of Ethiopia as the Balkanization of the country seems inevitable which might be in the interest of all negibouring countries as the American hegemony would lose its biggest “ally” and the region might seek and grab its own destiny by itself.Equal rights and justice is the only solution.

Happy 2005!

torsdag 5 juli 2012

Nyala Hotel...

I am sitting at Nyala hotel and using my laptope there. The internet connection is quite alright and I am making my participant observations as usual. A lot of sudanese men and women live in this particular hotel for some reasons. The men have painted their hands and feet with hinna:-). It looks abnormal but they seem not to care that much about it. They are probably having their honeymoon here in beautiful Asmara. The rainy season is pretty interesting. It usually rains cats and dogs in the afternoons and the sunshines in the mornings.

People say that Money is not everything and it can not buy you  all you want in life. That is actually what money does. No funny without money is in fact the melody in every corner of the world. Eritrea is not an exception, unfortunately. Money has become the alpha and omega of a modern man. Human values rotate around it and you are judged by what you have in your pockets.

Wealth or knowledge was the thema of our arguement in 8th grade english lesson back in the days.  I argued that knowledge was more important than wealth as wealth without the knowledge and wisdom of how to handle it would be to no avail.Futile. We are not always the masters of our destiny but we decide often how to relate to different issues and which standinpoints to have about them.

I am still in the very start of my long journey in Eritrea and prefer to take just a day at a time.

Martyrs day in Asmara, Eritrea,,,

We got up at 06.00 A.M. on the 20th of june and headed to the martyrs cemetry in Tsetserat where thousands of people had already gathered. The last time I attended this kind of event was in 2005. This is the most emotional moment for all Eritreans as it is a day when all Eritrean martyrs are commemorated and honoured.


Mothers, sisters, wives, husbands, daughters, sons and other relatives burst in tears and remember their fallen heroes and heroines. Eritrea owes a lot of gratitude to these martyrs forever. Our mere existence as a nation and a country has cost so many lives and we shall never forget that.

I have been in Eritrea several times and I am intending to stay a longer period this time around. Two and a half weeks have gone since my lates arrival. Have had a lot of ups and downs and my impressions are of mixed natures. Questioning and doubting my courageous decsion to settle down in my native land, continues.

Having lived almost 23 years in Sweden and used to a different sort of life there, I did not anticipate an easy integration. It is going to be a long process that will demand patience and subservience. My determination to remain focused and see the positive aspects of my life in Eritrea, is being questioned at times.

I have not started working as yet but hoping to be able to work as a teacher in Mai Nefih College from September. I am open for all options and shall try my utmost to give this journey an effort that it derserves.

I have left the life in security in Sweden for a more adventurious and rewarding challenge in Eritrea. The wisdom and rightfullness of this bold move, remains to be seen.

onsdag 30 maj 2012

Give 50 years of imrisonment to Tony Blair and George Bush too!!!

I am sick and tired of seeing  white folks acting as judges, generals, "peace-makers" e.t.c.. in every corner of the planet, even in mars for that matter!You sometimes wonder and get the impression as if they are the majority ethnical group in the world, if you see the amount of time they get in media thanks to cultural imperialism. I do not see any logic in this tribe being the most dominant in global  politics and economy as it only composes  10% of the world population.

It has rather to do with their access to weapons of mass destruction. Russia, England, France, China and the USA (Under Satan´s Authority)  have had nuclear weapons and other heavy armaments for sometime. India, Pakistan, Israel e.t.c. have also that. Iran and North Korea should be able to obtain it too. My policy is a simple one: if one has the "technology", everybody has got to have it too or no body should have it, as simple as easy as that!Cooperation rather than competition on all fronts. No discrimination in holocusting and exterminating  ourselves either ,as a matter of principle.

The security council in the united nation is just another undemocratic  forum to legitimize the arrogance of the west.

Some countries in the African continent should aspire to obtain Weapons of Mass Destruction too and I hope Eritrea will be the first nation to have it in the sub-saharan Africa. Muhammar Khadaffi of Libya was on the brink of  obtaining  it when he was compelled to abondon it. It was his biggest mistake! He trusted the west who eventually stabbed him to death. Never trust Babylone, brothers and sisters!

They sentenced Liberia´s former president Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison today.He might deserve it but I wish I could also give 50 years to the war criminals Tony Blair and George Bush for their crime against humanity in Irak and Afghanistan! They are murderers on full time bases , all of them but they always get away with it! Impunity for the west seems to be the order of the day. I hate it.

In the case of Julian Assange, I say: leave the man alone! He is innocent and he only had a one night stand with the three swedish girls who changed their minds because of other reasons.By the way, how did he manage to hook up with three girls in a few days? That is an incredible performance in itself!I feel sorry for the girls if they have been raped but Saying Julian´s condom was out of function and they had sex while one of the girls was asleep is such a silly and shallow arguement.Sex is a serious business and it takes two to tango! Period. Swedish hypocricy at the highest level. This is a morally bankrupt country trying to be a moral superpower. Ridiculous!

måndag 7 maj 2012

From Cape Town to Cairo, From Dar Es Selaam to Dakar is our land..

The spirit of Pan-Africanism right now is probably on the same level as in the 1960´s. There are some reasons for this development. The nation-state project which basically is the creation of europeans has failed. State fragmentations and ethnical strifes have been experienced in many parts of the African continent from south Sudan in the east to Casmance in Senegal and Timbukti in Mali in the west, from Namibia in the south to Western sahara in the North for the last 50 years.

The scramble for Africa has taken a different shape at this moment but the mechanisms for the exploitation of the continent remain the same even if the actors are different this time around.Globalization is not something new for "Africa" which never "joined" the rest of the world on its own conditions and premises. The continent was rather annexed into the rest of the planet under the banner of the Gun. The gun still speaks amidst beautiful speeches of peacefull living and cooperation across all sorts of ethnical, religious and mental borders.

Reality speaks for itself and Africans are yet the most discriminated and wretched folks on earth. Our strength is our unity!Victimization or victimhood has never been our trademark but telling the truth does not mean that we are digging ourselves too much in the past. It is rather part and parcel of our endeavours to pave the way for the future. Marcus Garvey said it all: a man without history is just like a tree without roots. One can forgive but not forget, the south Africans say. Many youngsters are Canoning themselves these days like Frantz Fanon did during his time.

This is indeed a very good news for humanity. Every generation has a responsibility for the world we are living in. Focusing on what we want and not on what we do not want, gives us a list of priorities to put our energies on. The secret for any success is knowing where to focus and to have the dedication/motivation and will to realize your own potentials. "Energy flows where attention goes!The universe is as a cathalogue".
The mind of humanity is always ready to embark on new projects.

"All power is from within and is therefore under our own control!" We are currently the designers and authors and drivers of our own destinies. We can impact the outcome out of the choices we make from the mundane of everyday life to the complex issues of being a human. The socio-economic and political unity and integration of the African continent is the most important issue of all times. We can only get out of the quagmire once we focus on the things that unite us rather than split us.

fredag 20 april 2012

Zstei tsrui mai! Drinkable, clean water!

Zstei tsrui mai! Drinkable, clean water!

This sentence sums up my stay in Eritrea over the past three months. All of these trucks that drive around all over Eritrea to deliver water to the people. Empty water carriers and small and large plastic containers on the roads. All of these queues to buy kerosene to cook. This people who endure the most difficult challenges in life. I am very impressed by the population and the stability of the country despite the current state of war.

It is neither war nor peace, an endless standoff with hundreds of thousands of soldiers from both Eritrea and Ethiopia at the common border that stretches over 1000kilometers. Ethiopia has about 85 million inhabitants, while Eritrea has nearly 4 million. The country is yet the safest country in the Horn of Africa. Crime is minimal and the risk of getting into trouble is very small.

Merdie, Melkes, Merea: obituaries, mourning, funeral rites and weddings characterize the life of Eritreans very much. There is a normal life in this country too: Ertra, Eritrea or Eritreeea .. as it is called in swedish.I have attended at various art and photo exhibitions, book fair, etc. Theatrical performances and Eritrean films are shown at different theaters that were built during the Italian colonial period.

In the capital, Asmara, there are plenty of Art Deco buildings. The town looks a lot like a sleepy Italian town. I enjoyed being in the country and has therefore decided to move to Eritrea and settle and live there for a long time. The time feels right to return and be part and parcel of rebuilding the country. I've been in Sweden for over 22 years but never felt at home here. I feel much more at home among the chirping of birds, cats mewing, barking dogs, crowing roosters and echoes of horse-drawn carriages that run along the Asmara clean streets.

There are of course a lot of difficulties regarding the economic situation. Crowded buses and a shortage of certain foodstuff is common, but people's determination and strong will to cope with everyday life is overwhelming. The border conflict with Ethiopia and the recent Ethiopian attacks and provocation is a big concern for the population.

Eritrea's response has been very prudent and wise. I understand Eritrea's handling of the latest attack as a badge of maturity and evidence of not seeing a direct confrontation with Ethiopia as a good option.

My search for the jailed journalist Dawit Isaak's fate has not resulted in anything new, but nothing indicates that he should have died in prison, according to the sources that I had contact with.Dawit Isaak is not a big issue among the locals there. I've talked to a lot of people about him, even his relatives and nobody believes that the Swedish media campaign has benefited Isaak in any way. It is rather the opposite.

The eritrean leadership experience the whole thing as an anti-Eritrea position and feel singled out. It also refers to Western hypocrisy and says that the U.S. and Europe, historically, had a worse record of human rights. It emphasizes that one does not not have much to learn from this part of the world. Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Egypt-Swedes who were expelled to torture in Egypt and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq are some of the West's hypocrisy, they say.

The Swedish handling of the case has been as clumsy as the Eritrean. I feel that some form of government change in Sweden could help Isaak fairly. There are a lot of conflicts rooted in cultural and ideological differences between Sweden and Eritrea right now.A friend of mine could not believe and understand that people are walking around with "Free Dawit Isaak" T-shirt in Sweden. "You must be kidding, white people go around in a T-shirt Which says free Dawit Isaak," she asked me. The MANDELANIZATION and ICONIZATION of a tragic human destiny in the west , has had an opposite and negative effect in Eritrea.

People ask themselves where Sweden was when Eritreans were bombed and murdered during the thirty Years liberation war against Ethiopia. Eritrea's motto "never kneel down against all odds" and its desire to stand on its own feet, has given good self-confidence to the whole nation and people. Eritrea challenges the world that wants to force the country to its knees.

The country refuses to obey any pressure to release political and conscience prisinors, and open up itself to foreigners. This mistrust of the outside world is understandable given its vulnerable geographical position and its history. Eritreans refuse to subjugate themselves to Western supremacy and arrogance. Dawit Isaak's case is also rightly considered as such by the regime in Asmara.

The president himself has said that he does not have a work permit for the mandate that he has, and performs but sees the mission as a lifetime commitment. He also claims that one does not believe in a general election for the sake of it because the right conditions are not present in the country at this moment. They believe that there needs to be a functioning economy, democratic institutions to defend human rights and educated population who can take responsibility for their rights and obligations without ending up in both ethnic and religious animosities.

The absence of all of this is blamed on the prevailing state of war stemming from the conflict with Ethiopia. The country's leadership sees itself therefore as the only guarantor of peace and stability in the country for a long time to come.
I passed by the building for Eritrea´s election commission in the center of Asmara, and wondered what its function was. It was shuttered and there was no one to talk to.

The recent gold discoveries in the country and the mobilized population in the form of military and national service, has helped the country's quick economic growth lately. Corruption still remains insignificant in the country.Eritrea had a GDP growth of 17% last year,which is, lo and behold, the highest in the world.

Dreams and visions are not missing but in the absence of understanding and support from the outside world, the country is forced to turn inward instead. What is the cause of this failure from the outside world despite the fact that Eritrea has been proven right and vindicated in the border conflict with Ethiopia and struggling to sustain self-sufficiency? Eritrea does not have powerful lobbies such as Israel has in the United States.

Eritrea is not willing to compromise its independence either.I can only assume from my own experience and my frame of references which include and cover my stay in the country over the past three months. I do not think that the Swedish debate on a 2% tax which exiled Eritreans voluntarily pay to the Eritrean government and the prosecutor's and legislators' initiative to ban it helps anyone, least of all Dawit Isaak. I just paid 33 558 crowns which is roughly 4000 dollars as a retroactive tax payment on my own free will.

The people who run Dawit Isaak´s -case here in Sweden, from journalists to MPs, lack a basic knowledge of Eritrean culture and history and its present situation. I am neither for the regime nor the opposition but for the country Eritrea and its population.Those who have been in Ertrea and seen the number of blind and disabled people in this small country, would never bring about this debate on an economic sanction and political punishment against the Eritrean people and government.

I consider that the 2% tax should be mandatory because the country uses the money correctly to the right purpose, among others to help orphans and elderly who have lost their children during the war. 2% tax should be deductible in the tax return for Eritreans in Sweden. It would be a form of self-help and a gesture of encouragement to a good development cooperation between the two countries.

No ethnic or religious conflict exists in the country thanks to the long conflict with Ethiopia that makes you stay together, against the great enemy. Western media and journalists have a negative attitude towards Eritrea and refuses to report on any positive development there at all.

They had once claimed that Eritrea had 2000 soldiers in Somalia, sent weapons on a flight to Al Shabaab and the country suffered a severe famine. All these rumours have proven, over time, to be false and Eritrea has been vindicated once again. A swedish journalist from DN-dagens nyheter , who has been to Eritrea, has once reported about "wanted Eritreans" after just seeing pictures of people who have died on a paper which is postured on bulletin boards around town. This is a normal way to provide information about funeral times and other details in the country.

Western journalists are clearly marked by ethnocentrism and assume that they have a monopoly on truth. There are of course socio-economic and political problems in Eritrea stemming mainly in the conflict with Ethiopia. These problems require an international commitment that respects the Boundary Commission's decision.

Eritrea's future still looks much brighter than I previously imagined. The people know their own good and I understand that the country's leadership, has a popular support which is pretty extraordinary, given the general circumstances there. The president is still seen as a symbol of the free Eritrea. He embodies the country's independence and many peoples´ desire for a life of dignity.

Eritrea is reminiscent of Cuba in many ways, and some compare the eritrean President with Fidel Castro. I find his relative popularity, after nearly 21 years in power, as a proof that there is a great need for a strong leader who cares about the country's liberation and independence. He is also easily accessible and visible in town dressed in khaki and sandals wearing a watch on the right arm.

I myself have run at him several times and his easy accessibility contributes to his unshaken position in today's Eritrea. The release of Dawit Isaak and other political / prisoners of conscience should be done as soon as possible. The issue now is not about whether these people should be prosecuted or not in order to face trial. It is rather a way of bringing an end to this tragic situation. Those who are alive to be given clemency and those who are dead to be granted a proper funeral in dignity. The time has come for a national reconciliation and amnesty. I shall move to Eritrea in early June.