Day: May 14, 2022

When Biniam won at Gent- Wevelgem classic (one of the oldest and most prestigious classics in cycling) in March, he decided to forgo the Tour of Flanders in order to go home and see his family for the first time in almost three months. “The Tour of Flanders is not on my schedule. I wish I could stay but I stayed almost three months without my family so I have to go back home and see them”, he said. In hindsight, it might be the best decision he made. In the ongoing Giro D’Italia, The Intermarche- Wanty Gobert rider looks fresh and with a mission to prove to everyone in the cycling world that his win at Gent-Wevelgem was no fluke, and boy, he is doing that with style.

The Giro is into its eighth stage, Biniam has so far finished in the top five in four of the stage races, his highest coming in the opening race of the Giro, coming in second place behind Mathieu Van Der Poel. Yes, you read that right, second only to none other than Mathieu Van Der Poel, winner of three major classics and a stage winner in the 2021 Tour de France.

Fabian Cancellara, a Swiss cycling executive, businessman, and former professional road racing cyclist, in re to Biniam’s win in Belgium said he was both surprised and not surprised at Biniam’s win back in March, adding when Girmay opens up the sprint from the back with 250 meters to go into a headwind against more experienced riders, you’re sort of not surprised. He was the closest one to Van Aert and Laporte on the Paterberg, and that says it all. E3 is the hardest classic outside Flanders and Roubaix, so to go there and do that on your debut, you can’t bluff it. It’s pure talent.

It is once again that pure talent that sees him brush sides with the likes of Mathieu Van Der Poel, Mark Cavendish, Caleb Ewan, Simon Yates, Arnaud Demare, and a host of other seasoned riders for a stage win.

“It’s going to be, I think, the best moment ever. It’s a dream of all African cyclists to win a Grand Tour, especially the Tour [de France] or Giro.” Biniam said before the beginning of the Giro.

On the opening stage of the race which covered a distance of 195 k/m from Budapest to Visegrád, Eritrean riders Biniam Ghirmay, Natnael Tesfatsion, and Mehawi Kudus took part in the race representing their respective teams. After Biniam’s win Gent-Wevelgem, it was quite obvious the spotlight was going to be on the young rider and his team Intermarche-Wanty Gobert. Biniam didn’t however shy away from the challenge and attention. In the final sprint to the finish line, Biniam found himself in the mix with Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel, Pello Bilbao, and Caleb Ewan. Caleb crashed after touching Biniam’s back wheel and with 200m remaining the stage was set for a scintillating race finish between Van der Poel and Biniam. It was Van der Poel who piped the young rider of the day Biniam to the finish line. This in itself was a hefty achievement from the Eritrean rider, setting the stage for what is to come in the next three weeks of the competition.

Biniam didn’t put a foot wrong on his debut grand tour race saying at the end of the stage race “I never did a sprint like that before, I was on the limit. I’m really happy with this result. Van der Poel was the strongest today but I will try again on Sunday.”

In stage two of the race, wearing White Jersey for the best young rider on the tour Biniam who is naturally a sprinter, took part in the time trials, at the end of the race he was quick to praise the support he was shown by the fans, “It was an amazing experience to become the first rider of our team to wear the white jersey on a Grand Tour, cheered by the wonderful people of Budapest,” he said.

Stage three of the tour was won by veteran Mark Cavendish. Making it a remarkable 16th stage win for the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider. Biniam once again showed his ability to stay in the race up to the end, finishing fourth in the race. Biniam who is now quickly being kept at an eyes length by his follow competitors found himself boxed in leading up to the finish. He however couldn’t hide his excitement at the way he has started his first Grand tour saying, “What an amazing start to my first Grand Tour. I’m happy with 4th place against the best sprinters in the world. Thanks to my teammates for the fantastic job!”

Stage Four was back to Italy and saw Biniam, once again in the Maglia Ciclamino keep pace with Van der Poel who attempted to break away in the early stages of the race. Stage four however was a day for climbers, which saw Eritrea’s Merhawi Kudus finish in a respectable 64th finish while Natnael and Biniam finished 128th and 130th.

Stage five consisted of a bunch of sprints and a climb which saw sprinters Cavendish and Caleb drop out, setting up for a tantalizing finish in the end. Biniam reached the final 10 kilometers of the race protected by his teammates ahead of the sprint in Massina. In the lead-up to the finish, Bini impressively avoided a crash in the final 100 meters to finish 5th. “Everybody did a good job. I had good legs but I’m happy to get out of trouble. I almost crashed twice in the final 100 meters,” he said after the finish. Amazingly, Natnael, also a young talent both in sprint and climbing, took on Biniam’s wheel on that day and managed to come in 8th, giving Eritrea two top ten on the same day.

On stage six, Biniam continued his impressive start to the tour by beating Demare in the intermediate sprint & scored 4 more points for the Ciclamino jersey. For the final stretch of the stage, Biniam reached the sprint race protected by his teammates. On a full flat finish, Biniam came fourth. At the end of the race Biniam attributed the great result to his teammates for putting him in an ideal position, “Even though my profile is more adapted to harder races, I also appreciate pure sprint stages like today. In the final 20 kilometers, the battle toward the sprint was very exciting and tough. It was extremely nervous, many risks were taken and crashes were avoided. My teammates guided me to the front for the final 700 meters, enabling me to rival again with the fastest sprinters. During the sprint, I had to brake several times, and in the end, I was defeated by Démare, Ewan, and Cavendish, who were the fastest today. I really loved this battle and I’m already looking forward to the next one!” he said.

In four of the six stages carried out at the Giro, Biniam has finished in the top five in four of them proving he does have the raw talent to compete with the best. On his debut grand tour, Biniam’s impressive ran might come as a surprise to some but to the majority it was expected, his win at the Gent-Wevelgem classic back in March signaled what was to come from this young rider from Eritrea.

To come up against the most seasoned of riders and hold your own is by no means a fluke but pure talent. It shows in the way his team protects him leading up to a sprint race and it very much shows in how these seasoned riders keep an eye for him when that final stretch to the sprint race approaches. Currently, Biniam sits in second place in the Maglia Ciclamino with 94 points, 16 points ahead of Mark Cavendish.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

The very existence of writing systems in antiquity implies the sophistication of the cognitive map of early societies across the world. Written symbols, letterforms, and full-fledged alphabets, as well as scripts, have provided the most effective system devised by humans to describe the world around them in as much as allowing the administrative organization of complex societies and the transfer of their accumulated knowledge. Among the literate civilizations (communities with writing systems) of antiquity, pictographs, inscriptions, written records, and scribes represent the dearth of ancient writing traditions that evolved in the course of human history. Ancient literature in all its variety provides rich insights into the world of the great civilizations. The accurate and effective use of such evidence requires understanding of the social context and historical genesis of the use of writing in different societies in antiquity.

The antiquity of Eritrea represents the carving of inscriptions on monumental forms, particularly by the 1st millennium BCE. The position of the northern Horn at a nexus of major areas of the world has had significant consequences for the development of the region as an important and unique center for the origins of language groups and cultural exchange, among which the development of the writing system in the region becomes an important cultural transformation. The expansion of interregional culture contact and exchange seen during the 1st millennium BCE in Africa and the Red Sea area influenced the development of complex societies. Regional polities greatly expanded in the northern Horn and southern Red Sea area during this period, and the genesis of writing systems particularly in these regions was impacted by these events and processes. The development of writing systems in the northern Horn of Africa, thus, largely seems to have been associated with state development in the region.

With particular reference to the genesis of writing systems in the northern Horn, the dichotomy Sabean/Geéz has prevailed over centuries since the recording of inscriptions by epigraphers over much of the highland urban centers that flourished in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia by the 1st millennium BCE. In this respect, the origins and evolution of the Geéz writing system (an African script found in Eritrea and Ethiopia) have been strongly tied to the processes of interregional culture contact and exchange seen during the 1st millennium BC- 1st millennium CE in Africa and the Red Sea area.

Epigraphic and monumental evidence of South Arabian influence in the 1st millennium BCE suggests interactions between the human groups living in the Horn and the South Arabs, in particular, the Sabeans who dominated the highlands in Yemen in the 1st millennium BCE. Yet, the nature of the interaction is widely debated. Currently, the available archaeological evidence is very fragmentary. The evidence does not support any south Arabian migration and/or colonizations although it does not exclude the penetration into the highlands of small groups coming from different regions of Yemen, including Saba.

Scholars have long suggested the use of terms such as MKRB (mukarrib) and MLK (malik) and reference to Saba and South Arabian cultural features on inscriptions with ancient Sabaean script found from archaeological sites in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia implied the dominance of Sabaean influence. According to the current paradigms, the use of inscriptions in Sabaean script by 1st millennium BCE communities in the northern Horn of Africa was, however, limited to ways of describing elite political titles and religious references. There is a general absence of epigraphic information concerning administrative function, trade, accounting, or other essential aspects of the 1st millennium BCE communities in the northern Horn. Therefore, current scholarship pinpoints that writing in a South Arabian-like script does not suggest a wide-scale adoption of a South Arabian language by these communities or the existence of Sabaean migration events, colonization, and Sabaean primacy.

At present, the archaeological evidence points a distinction between the elite who used South Arabian symbols of power and an indigenous people maintaining their local traditions. A South Arabian influence is evident in monumental architecture, inscriptions and small votive altars. The recording of sphinx in an Egyptian/Merotic style also implies that both South Arabian and African symbols merged into one religious system in the mid-1st millennium BCE. This evidence, therefore, may indicate that indigenous leaders in the northern Horn of Africa used foreign elements with a different origin to express ranks and power, and it can be said that the genesis of writing systems in the Horn as early as 700 BCE is attributed to the interplay of these processes of cognitive mapping. It is understood generally that the inclusion of such elements may have taken over the course of generations rather than attribution to a limited number of South Arabian colonization or migration events. The genesis of writing systems in the northern Horn of Africa is the result of the agency of the 1st millennium BCE and the incorporation of features from a diverse range of elements in the southern Red Sea cultural environment. The writing systems and their epigraphic recording represent the dynamism of cultural transformation in the 1st millennium BCE. The archaeological record from 1st millennium BCE- 1st millennium CE sites in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, therefore, constitutes writing systems representing a South-Arabian-like a script, non-vocalized Geéz (Proto-Geez) elements, and a full-fledged Geéz writing system.

The Geéz writing system is one of the oldest working systems in the world. This African writing system has remained unchanged for 2000 years, owing to its adaptability and innovative method of organizing sounds. The writing system provides not only a system of grammar, but an interface to the ancient world of Africa, its philosophies, belief systems, and advanced early societies. It is generally agreed upon that the writing system achieved perfection by the fourth or fifth century. Ge’ez was kept, in practice, across a wide range of sacred and scholarly activities from the thirteenth through the seventeenth centuries, known as the “classical period” of the Geez literature. The genesis and evolution of this African writing system culminated in the production of texts and scribes constituted in parchments (Branas). Old parchments housed in historical monasteries of Eritrea keep the dearth of chronicles and narratives of particularly the medieval period. Similarly, as far as the evidence of writing systems and written records from Eritrea is concerned, the Dahlak islands store a rich heritage of classical Kuffic inscriptions (classical Arabic script). The islands saw the development of the Arabic writing system from the 8th to 12th centuries.

In conclusion, the richness of the archaeological and historical evidence for writing systems and written records in Eritrea bears testimony to one of the few indications of writing systems in the African continent. The variety of evidence begs a multi-disciplinary approach to tackle the origin, evolution, and development of the writing systems comprehensively and the preservation of these records for posterity is very important.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

President Isaias Afwerki sent a message of congratulation to Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan today, 14 May, for his election as President on the United Arab Emirates.

In his message, President Isaias Afwerki wished good health to Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and peace and prosperity to the people of the United Arab Emirates.

President Isaias also underlined his conviction that the solid and brotherly ties between Eritrea and the United Arab Emirates will be strengthened in the period ahead

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea