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.

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.

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.

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!