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

"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!

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!

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!

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.