Category: General

According to the United Nations (UN), “International days are occasions to educate the public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity.” In the last issue of Eritrea Profile (18 November), I discussed World Diabetes Day, providing a general overview of diabetes and reviewing the situation in Eritrea. Today, I shift to discuss another important international occasion, World Children’s Day (WCD), providing general background about the day and reviewing some of Eritrea’s important commitments to children.

WCD dates back to 1954, when it was then referred to as Universal Children’s Day. The day offers the world an important opportunity to promote international togetherness, raise awareness about children’s rights, challenges, and issues, and strive to improve children’s welfare and standard of life. WCD is marked annually on 20 November, usually featuring a broad array of activities and initiatives in countries around the world. (Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, most gatherings and activities this year have shifted to a virtual format.) Notably, 20 November is also the date in 1959 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, as well as the date in 1989 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Children are the most important and dynamic segments of society, representing the vast opportunity of today and tomorrow. Since the onset of independence nearly three decades ago, supporting and promoting the health, development, protection, well-being, and rights of all children, regardless of gender, background, religion, or other distinction, has been a foremost priority in Eritrea. One clear reflection of the priority that the country accords to the welfare and rights of its youngest citizens is that the first international convention ratified by the Government of the State of Eritrea was the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). As explained by the World Health Organization (WHO), the CRC is “the primary instrument for the promotion and protection of children’s health, well-being and optimal development.”

Eritrea has also taken significant and tangible steps to put this commitment into action. In particular, it has put considerable investments into its children, seeking to ensure that all have a basic quality of life and are empowered to achieve their full potential. Two of the leading areas of commitment to and investment in children in the country are education and health.

In terms of education, recall that not only is it a fundamental component of human rights, supporting the realization of many other human rights, it is also a powerful tool for individual empowerment and a critical driver of economic growth and sustainable development. A large body of work has demonstrated that higher levels of education and literacy enable greater participation in the labor market; improve child and family health and nutrition; can help to reduce poverty; increase participation in communities and the political process; and greatly expand life opportunities. A glance at global income figures illustrates the existence of a strong correlation between national average incomes and literacy, with higher literacy rates being associated with higher national average incomes.

Since independence, Eritrea has built hundreds of schools and learning centers, in both rural and urban areas. Basic education is also compulsory for both girls and boys, and it is offered in the various languages spoken across the country, thus helping to ensure equitable access to all ethno-linguistic groups. Furthermore, the country has adopted a policy of universal free education from pre-primary to higher education, ensuring that every child, irrespective of background, distinction, or status, has the opportunity to enroll in education, become literate, and maximize their potential. Countless roads have also been established, alongside substantial expansions in public transport services, thus improving ease of travel and accessibility to education for all children.

The result of these investments and commitments is readily apparent. Eritrea’s primary enrolment rates are now approximately 90%, while total student enrolments have grown tremendously. For example, in 1961 there were 50,286 total students enrolled in Eritrea, a figure that would grow to 247,567 by 1992/3. Over the past several years, around 700-800,000 students have been enrolled annually. Also, literacy rates for youth in Eritrea, averaging a remarkably high 92%, are not only the highest throughout the region, they are also higher than the continental or global average. In fact, according to UNESCO, Eritrea has had one of the largest increases in youth literacy anywhere in the world over the past 50 years. Also worth noting is that Eritrea’s literacy rate is higher than that of many other African countries, despite the fact that all the African countries (bar one) became independent decades before Eritrea.

Alongside education, the health of children has also been a national priority. Again, note that health is not only a fundamental human right, promotion and protection of child health is also an investment for tomorrow, since the healthy development of children is crucial to the future growth and well-being of any society.

Among the best and clearest testaments of Eritrea’s commitment to child health is the country’s significant improvement in child mortality. Also known as the under-five mortality rate, the child mortality rate is the probability (expressed as a rate per 1,000 live births) of a child born in a specified year dying before reaching the age of five. Generally, child mortality is considered one of the leading indicators of the level of child health in countries. While there has been considerable global progress in child mortality (it was about 38 in 2019), it remains a challenge. Last year, approximately 14,000 under-five deaths occurred every day around the world, while the child mortality rate in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which at about 77 is the highest in the world, puts it about 20 years behind the global average.

In Eritrea, since independence, the child mortality rate has steadily improved. To recap, it reduced from 152.7 in 1990, to 85.4 in 2000, and was 40.5 in 2019. By comparison, in 2019 the other countries in the region had the following child mortality rates: Djibouti – 57.4, Ethiopia – 50.7, Somalia – 117, South Sudan – 96.2, and Sudan – 58.4.

Beyond the considerable improvements in child mortality, there are other reflections of Eritrea’s commitment to and prioritization of children’s well-being and health. For instance, there have been numerous other national health interventions, including free immunization campaigns, antenatal and postnatal care, supplementary feeding, and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, while the country has sought to address poverty, malnutrition, gender and structural inequality, harmful traditional practices (such as FGM/C and child marriage), violence, stigma and discrimination, and lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Initiatives have also been undertaken to support families and communities learn how best to bring up their children healthily and deal with children’s illnesses when they occur.

Additionally, Eritrea’s significant investments in developing and renovating roads and health facilities have greatly helped improve access to health services for children. In 2015, about 60% of Eritrea’s population had access to health care within 5km, while 40% had access to a health facility within a 10km radius. Of note, these figures have been further improved since then due to the continuing development of roads and health facilities across the country.

In Eritrea, children are our greatest and most precious resource. Commitments and actions to ensure their survival, development, education, health, and well-being are not only matters of basic dignity and fundamental human rights, they are also important investments for a bright, prosperous future.

 

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

©MEXICO CITY — Some 600 migrants from 12 countries were rescued Saturday in Mexico after they were found crammed into two tractor-trailers, the country’s National Migration Institute said.

The 145 women and 455 men, who hailed from Central America, Africa and the Indian subcontinent, were found in the southeastern state of Veracruz, the institute said in a statement.

The vast majority were from the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua but a total of 37 were from Bangladesh, six from Ghana, and one person was from India and Cameroon each, the institute added.

The migrants were crammed into the trailers of two trucks, said Tonatiuh Hernandez, the local head of the Human Rights Commission.

“There are children, minors, I saw pregnant women, sick people,” Hernandez said.

As the corridor between Central America and the United States, Mexico has seen vast numbers of migrants flow through its territory.

Two caravans of several hundred migrants are currently making their way through southern Mexico, aiming to acquire documents that allow them to transit through the country.

The flow of undocumented migrants has surged with the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden, who has taken a more humane approach to the border crisis than his predecessor Donald Trump.

The United States has recorded 1.7 million people trying to enter illegally from Mexico between October 2020 and September 2021, an all-time high for the period.

Source: Voice of America

In the 1950s, most Asmarinos and, to a lesser extent, city dwellers outside Asmara spent their Sunday afternoons inside packed movie houses, watching John Wayne hunting down bad guys or maybe Errol Flynn assaulting pirate ships.

“Watch out! He is sneaking up on you…..Sock it to him….. Attaboy John Wayne…..” shouts the crowd.

It felt like a real Turkish bath inside the movie houses and if you happen to be in Cinema Croce Rossa, it was a rare enactment of Finnish Sauna.

But I can say with certainty that a feeling of joy obtained from watching cowboy and pirate films had a cooling and salubrious effect on the audience.

What about those who couldn’t collect enough money during the weekdays to be able to buy themselves a seat in the movie houses? They had been running errands with their big brothers and obtain paltry donations in vain. Now, they have nothing to do except hang around movie houses or stroll along Liberation Avenue feasting their eyes on items displayed on shop windows or, as a last resort, set off to the wood in search of adventure.

What kind of adventure? I would ask my Grandpa. Watching amore a L’Italiana, i.e. playing the peeping tom while Italian inamorati kissed and hugged under the bushes.

We were too young to have sweethearts in those days and even if we had, it was more or less a platonic love and then our semi-traditional upbringing did not permit us to unleash our passions in public.

Enter Kebron, the lone wolf who prefers to stay indoors, brooding and making his mother feel miserable on Sundays. It is 1 P.M. in the afternoon.

“Why don’t you go out and play like the rest of the neighborhood kids?” says his mother.

“All my friends have gone to the game arcade and you want me to go out and play football on a hot Sunday afternoon?” retorts Kebron. Well, to some extent he is right.

The gloomy mood dissipates as aunt Tikea arrives for a visit. It is 2 p.m. in the afternoon and you wonder how this lady in her late seventies managed to walk all the way from the other side of Asmara carrying five loaves of himbasha (leavened and decorated local bread) and some dates.

“Yeeesssss!” shouts Kebron unable to contain himself.

“How are you, dear Tikea? You never come empty-handed, do you? You shouldn’t have done that. It was not necessary….. Kebron, would you please put the loaves in the cupboard…..”

“Yessiree!” shouts Kebron.

Kebron darts out of his blues. His spirit is refreshed and the smell of himbasha and dates imparts in him a new lease on life. But he has other plans too. His mother is now ready to exploit the situation by sending him on errands after errands.

“Kebron dear, would you be kind enough and go buy me some coffee beans and sugar….and would you please……” she hands him 100 Nakfa to go shopping. He goes to the shop on the corner and buys the required items and keeps the change. As the chat between his mother and Addey Tikea passes from first-degree gossip to third-degree backbiting, Kebron sneaks out of the house and disappears.

“Kebron, would you please…..”

But Kebron is long gone. He is in the Game arcade playing FIFA 22 with his friends who had given him up for dead.

“I did it!” he whispers to Senay, his best friend, inside the game store.

“I am sure you stole the money from your mother,” says Senay.

“She will only know about it in the evening…..”

“Evening or morning, you will sure be belted.”

“I would go through hell just to play this game.”

And sure enough, Kebron was severely punished by his father and mother that night, who lashed his skin by turns. He expected it and bore the pain like a Spartan warrior.

What do people think about on Sunday afternoons? Frankly speaking, women have no problems putting Sundays to proper use. They know where to go and whom to visit, what to carry, and what to say. There are always relatives and acquaintances here and there who have just lost a member of the family, who are having their son or daughter baptized, who has an ailing mother in the house, a pregnant woman who has just given birth to a child, another one who is celebrating a child’s birthday….and sometimes they just invent excuses to be able to see each other and more often than not, they visit each other just for the hell of it.

Sometimes I look out my window on Sunday afternoons and watch people go by, women in their Sunday best, full of life, chatting, giggling, shouting….

“I think the sun has fallen down…or is it shining along with other suns…tee hee….”

Asmara city buses are packed with womenfolk. Their loud talks and giggles bother a man who looks like he has given up on life altogether.

Most men don’t know how to create excuses. If we exclude those who go to bars to play billiards and those who start booze before the socially accepted time, we have those that curse the day, put on their hats, and head toward the parks that we have in Asmara, sit there and contemplate. They remember the time they made people tremble with a single shout of command. They look at their surroundings and utter:

“Things are no longer the same since we retired.”

“Why don’t you go to the movies?” asks an acquaintance.

“You call these movies? They don’t make films like they used to do back in the 1940s anymore.”

Young girls are very creative. As long as they feel attractive, they go out even in the mid-day sun, for adventure. For Senait it is a blind date with an unknown lover. She is simply drifting.

“Hello, Yodita!” ventures a Romeo.

“I beg your pardon.”

“Sorry, I mean Astier.”

“I am sorry but you are talking to the wrong person.”

“What difference does it make…”

That’s how Senait came to know Filmon one Sunday afternoon.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

For attorney Esther Agbaje, the desire to make a difference sealed her case for seeking elective office.

“I have always had jobs that were in this space of helping people,” said Agbaje, who worked on human rights cases with the U.S. State Department, defended tenants from eviction as a law student and currently tries to aid sick or injured individuals through medical malpractice lawsuits.

But those roles left her asking, “How do we help more people at once? Often that means going to a lever of government.”

Agbaje is wrapping up her first year in the Minnesota State Assembly, helping pull the legislative lever in the Upper Midwestern state. Elected in November 2020 as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party — Minnesota’s version of the Democratic Party — she represents District 59B, encompassing downtown Minneapolis and parts of the city’s near north side.

“It’s a pretty vibrant district. It’s got diversity in its economic classes, and it’s got diversity in its ethnic groups and racial groups,” Agbaje said. “And it’s really just a fun place to live.”

The 35-year-old was born a few kilometers away, across the Mississippi River in St. Paul, the state’s capital. Her parents had come from southwestern Nigeria — he from Ekiti state, she from Ogun state — and met as students at the University of Minnesota. They married and had Esther and two younger sons.

Agbaje’s father, John, is an Episcopal priest. Her mother, Bunmi, a retired librarian, at one point ran a homeless services center.

“As a child of parents whose mission was to serve others, I have followed in their footsteps throughout my life,” Agbaje wrote on her campaign website.

While majoring in political science at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., she advocated for labor rights. While earning advanced degrees — a master’s in public administration from the University of Pennsylvania, and a law degree from Harvard — she worked on building healthy communities, preventing homelessness and assisting renters. In between, she worked for the State Department’s U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative managing projects to build more independent judiciaries and to advance women’s and minority populations’ rights in Egypt and in Gulf countries.

“After law school, I wanted to come home,” Agbaje said. “And home to me is Minnesota.”

‘Hands in the dirt’

Agbaje returned to Minnesota in 2017, joining the Minneapolis law firm of Ciresi Conlin as an associate, mostly working on its medical malpractice team. She also volunteers with Hennepin County Housing Court, St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral and local environmental justice organizations.

Many Saturday mornings find her alongside youngsters in lower-income neighborhoods, pulling on work gloves to plant saplings or clean up debris.

“She’s showed up to do the work with us, to plant the trees, to start a new garden,” said Analyah Schlaeger dos Santos, who coordinates youth programs for Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light. The nonprofit organization’s projects include building up the tree canopy to improve climate and community health.

Schlaeger dos Santos praised Agbaje’s ongoing engagement.

“She puts her hands in the dirt with community members, and that speaks volumes,” she said.

Agbaje, whose lawmaking duties are considered part time, also volunteers at pop-up workshops on rental assistance and legal aid.

“My role is really to help the community where I can,” she said, “whether that’s putting forward policies and legislation to (address) problems that help all Minnesotans or directing people to resources at other levels where they can receive direct help.”

Changing demographics

Agbaje’s district has sleek and soaring downtown buildings, sports stadiums and parks, businesses large and small, tidy neighborhoods and tent communities.

Its nearly 50,000 residents are minority-majority, with white residents accounting for the largest share (42%), then Black residents (37%), followed by a mix of Asian, Hispanic and other residents, Census data show. There’s “a significant population of African Americans, East Africans, Hmong Americans and some Latin people as well,” Agbaje said.

Agbaje said she wants to make sure “that the voice of this community also resonates with the rest of the state.” She stressed that Minnesotans are “people from all types, all walks of life, and that our policies across the state should reflect that.”

One in five Minnesotans identify as “other than white,” state data show, While earlier waves of immigrants came from Europe, in recent decades they’ve come from Mexico, Somalia, India, Laos and Vietnam, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

As the general population’s composition has shifted, “the demographics have been changing in the legislature in some pretty important ways,” said Christina Ewig, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs and director of its Center on Women, Gender and Public Policy. She has analyzed data from the current state legislature, where 12.4% of its members self-identified as Latino or Hispanic, Hmong, Native American and Black or Somali American — up from 3% two decades ago.

Agbaje represents part of that change, Ewig said, adding, “It’s really important to have a diversity of views in your legislature for a healthy democracy.”

Lessons in negotiating

In the Minnesota Legislature, Republicans control the Senate, and the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party controls the House. The division has taught Agbaje more about the art of negotiating.

“When you’re campaigning, you’re very full of ideas, and you’re full of hope, and you’re full of vision, which stays with you once you start legislating,” she explained. But then, it’s a matter of convincing Minnesota’s 200 other state legislators “to bring your idea and your constituents’ ideas into fruition to create policy and change. So, there is much more negotiating once you become a legislator.”

Agbaje has brought forward ideas shaping a handful of new measures. Most involve housing, given her service on the Assembly’s Housing Finance and Policy Committee.

One measure protects renters from eviction for nonpayment, through June 2022, if they have applied for pandemic-related federal aid. Another, which Agbaje said she is “really proud” of sponsoring, allows individuals to retrieve personal records and medical equipment from rental storage units before the contents are auctioned off because of nonpayment. It’s aimed at helping vulnerable people, such as those fleeing domestic violence or who otherwise are homeless.

Agbaje was disappointed when Minneapolis voters in early November defeated a controversial and closely watched proposal that she endorsed to revamp the city’s policing and fold it into a new Department of Public Safety. The proposal arose from demands for racial justice following the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer who knelt on the Black man’s neck.

“It’s unfortunate that it didn’t pass,” Agbaje said of the proposal, which she said nonetheless may have laid a foundation for change.

“The fact that 44% of people said that they wanted to try something different is good news. And also, even the people who voted it down, if you talk to them, do still want some type of police reform.”

Asked about Nigeria’s #EndSARS protests last year against police brutality, Agbaje drew a parallel.

“Young people were rising up, standing up against a government” that should work for them, she said.

“I applaud their efforts,” she added, along with those of “young people across the United States and across the world who are standing up and saying, ‘You know, our rights count for something.’ I wholeheartedly agree with them and want them to succeed in their efforts.”

Source: Voice of America

The archaeological site of Matara is located about 1km south of Senafe in the southern region of Eritrea. The archaeological site has for long been recognized by surrounding communities as Belew-Kelew. Matara´s visibility in various documents started to feature during the 19th century when various Europeans visited the site and documented their observations. Different aspects of the site, including fragments of ancient inscriptions, architectural remains and pottery fragments were recorded during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Matara´s prominence, however, came in the 1960s and 1970s when Anfray conducted multiple seasons of field surveys and excavations. The excavations involved a sustained archaeological research at Matara, though destructive, as the excavations did not allow proper conservation in the aftermath.

Matara is most closely associated with the 1st millennium A.D. (100-900 A.D.) cultural period as much of the focus of research in the area has been on the architectural features pertaining to the period. Yet, 1st millennium B.C. (900-100 B.C.) deposits were documented by Anfray´s excavations. Excavated levels at Matara have shown two phases of occupation dating to the 1st millennium B.C. (900-100 B.C.), represented by architectural features and pottery that belongs to the period. Researchers interested in the archaeology of the Horn believe that the pottery uncovered from the 1st millennium B.C. levels at Matara are comparable to those documented on the Asmara Plateau at the ancient site of Ona Hashel. The strong resemblance with the Greater Asmara site dates form 800-400 B.C. is an indication of the ceramic tradition that flourished in the region by the 1st millennium B.C. Moreover, inscriptions that belong to the 1st millennium B.C. recovered from Matara include reference to the goddess Dât- Ba´dan, who, as in South Arabia, may have been associated with the solar cult. Two other inscriptions from Matara refer to the star deity Athtar and moon god, Almaqah, both commonly represented as important deities in the southern Red Sea world of the 1st millennium B.C.

Excavations at Matara also involved approximately one-half of the visible 1st millennium A.D. buildings, producing much valuable information on architecture and material culture of the period as well as on coins and imported objects that provided relative dating. Amphorae of likely Mediterranean origin, ceramics with painted or stamped Christian crosses, blue-glazed pottery from the wider Indian Ocean World and a bronze lamp of Hellenistic style were also useful for relative dating at Matara.

The 1st millennium A.D. settlement occupation at Matara has been divided into elite residences, churches and commoner as well as intermediate level domestic buildings. The early phase of the 1st millennium A.D. at Matara corresponds to the erection of the famous stelae. Originally located at the base of the Gual Saim hill, the stelae includes an engraved disc and crescent symbol often associated with the moon god Almaqah and a four line inscription in an early Ge´ez or proto-Ge´ez script that reads as´´ this is the stelae which Agaz has erected for his ancestors for their defeat of the forces of Aw´a and Tsebelen.

Rectangular shaped church or church –like structures were also revealed through the excavations at Matara, perhaps dating to the 5th to the 7th centuries A.D. Moreover, stone tomb features are found in several locations of the Matara archaeological site. The elite residential structures at Matara follow the conventional 1st millennium A.D. architectural design. Two residential quarters of densely packed neighboring stone and mud mortar dwellings interpreted as commoner residences were also excavated at Matara. Evidence of social hierarchy has been suggested from differences seen in architectural designs. A plethora of rock-cut tombs and special use areas such as workshops, stables, etc are spread over parts of the archaeological site of Matara. The research at Matara has been provided important insights into an ancient complex settlement. Linking the archaeological site of Matara to its more rural hinterland will help better understand the archaeological site, and the conservation of exposed architectural features at Matara should be the focus of future archaeological works.

While Matara represents a 1st millennium B.C. -1st millennium A.D. urban settlement in the central highlands, the archaeological site of Keskese represents a ritual site that belongs to the period. Keskese is located north of Matara on a highland valley near the edge of the eastern escarpment at an average elevation of 2000 meters above sea level and about two kilometers north of the Amba Tarika. The Keskese area is located near the starting point of the Komaile Valley that descends from the central highlands to the Gulf of Zula on the Red Sea Coast. The site has been described as a 1st millennium B.C. ritual center due to at least six documented, partially buried, monolithic pillars or obelisks visible on the site surface. The pillars are between seven and nine meters in length and are generally similar in form to those documented elsewhere in the northern Horn. An inscription engraved in a granite block found at Keskese includes the Epigraphic South Arabian name believed to represent a king of the 1st millennium B.C.

Systematic survey conducted in the area in 2001 resulted in the documentation of ten archaeological sites including two site areas with six obelisks and sites with extensive architectural wall and terrace features as well as substantial architectural rubbles. Stone artifact tools similar in form to the assemblage documented in the Greater Asmara sites were also documented in as much as ceramics resembling the ceramic tradition established for the Greater Asmara region were recovered.

Keskese´s position between the important urban centers of Mata¬ra and Qohaito and at the end of the Komaile valley directly link¬ing the highlands with Adulis on the Red Sea littoral must have played a great role in the site´s development during the 1st mil¬lennium B.C. (900-100 B.C.). – 1st millennium A.D. (100-900 A.D.) of the northern Horn. The remnants of substantial monu-mental architecture, multiple mounds, inscriptions and abun¬dant 1st millennium B.C. pot¬tery and stone tools indicate that settlement and religious activi¬ties took place over many years. Features such as the evidence of past agricultural terraces, walls and pathways across the site sug¬gest complex patterns that future research will reveal in depth. Keskese undoubtedly provides an important area to test hypoth¬eses concerning interactions in the northern Horn, including the much debated ideas about South Arabian influences in the devel¬opment of 1st millennium B.C. cultures and the subsequent roles and functions of ritual activities by the 1st millennium A.D. in the region.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

Conference to mark the 26th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that is currently underway in Glasgow, the UK, was conducted today, 05 November in Asmara.

In his keynote address, Mr. Tesfay Gebreselasie, Minister of Land, Water and Environment, said that while marking the prominence and the hope that the world attaches to the negotiation process of the Conference, it will be appropriate on the part of Eritrea to reflect not only on expectations from its deliberations, but also indicate what is that Eritrea has been doing and will have to continue doing to contribute to the success of the ultimate objectives and familiarize the youth in different government institutions the motive behind convening the Conference of Parties 26.

Minister Tesfay went on to say that even though Eritrea’s contribution to the worrisome global emission is negligible, as a country hit hard by the impact of climate change, adaptation has been priority strategy during the last three decades. He also said that Eritrea has been mobilizing communities in implementing integrated programs aimed at restoring degraded land, soil and water conservation, and rehabilitation of the ecosystem and that the achievements made are encouraging.

Ms. Amakobe Sande, UN Resident Coordinator in Eritrea, on her part said that unless drastic measures are taken to address the temperature that reaching new highs and biodiversity reaching new low, warming of oceans, acidifying and choking with plastic waste as well as to the uneven rain distribution, unprecedented flooding and droughts will make vast stretches of the planet dead zones for humanity.

At the Conference timely research papers were presented and the participants conducted extensive discussion and adopted various recommendations.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

Born in 1984 in Akrya, Asmara, Seid Anwar became interested in acting when he was in elementary school. He has starred in many Tigrinya feature films and TV series, including the current Eri-TV series “Machelo”. Menesey magazine conducted an inter¬view with him, here is a translated version.

• Let’s start with your current character, is there any similarity between Seid and your character “Josi” in Machelo…?

Absolutely not; I consider myself the complete opposite of the character I am playing. The character, Josi, is more self-centered and shameless, but in real life I am quite the opposite. But I hope I played the character well.

• How is the public reaction regarding the character?

Some people call me “Josi”. Some also hate me because of the eccentric character I played in the drama. In some occasions, some women even approach me, while in a real life, and advise me to get back to my wife and save our marriage. Even though it is just a drama and I just happened to play that character, it also shows that marriage is a highly valued social institution in our society. On the other hand, the reaction I get from people make me happy because it lets me know that I acted well.

• How did you get into acting?

It was when I was young, I was an elementary school student at Asmud and my class-teacher selected me to perform in a school stage drama. I was very happy to perform, and I became member of the school drama club from then on and performed at every school closing ceremony.

When I was in my Junior-high, I joined the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students NUEYS. During those times, the Union was giving capacity building training to students of different skills and talents, so I joined the drama classes and continued acting on stage drama at school.

• Akrya is best known for sports, so what influenced you to become an actor?

Yeah that is right; in fact almost all of my siblings are sportsmen. My older brother played football for Dahlak club, the other one is a cyclist and the third is also a soccer player. Besides, we can’t deny the fact that Akrya is also home to many renowned artists, even though that wasn’t my reason to join. I think it’s my personal hobby. Besides, I also remember the late artist Omer Mohamed Burhan taking me to theatre shows when I was a kid. This could somehow be an influence for me to be an actor.

As I said, I frequented cinemas and theatre shows when I was young. Because of that, my interest to becoming an actor started to grow. Hence, during junior school, I and schoolmates of similar interest organized a group and established a drama team, which later evolved into making a drama called “Langa Langa”. Later, I invited Omer Mohamed Burhan to watch the drama and see my acting performance, which may be the reason for him to cast me in one of his films called Newtsi and it became my first feature film. The film Newtsi played a great part in creating an opportunity for me to introduce myself with great artists and to know how a film is made. Next I was cast on a film called Seri, shortly I got a part on Nibat Wshti. Now, I am a member of a cultural troupe called Awla.

• Your favorite movies?

I have acted in over 50 movies and I love them all, but to mention some Afro and Guramayle are my favorite ones. By the way, I would like to thank Awel Seid, the writer and director of film Afro. Besides, I am also one of the main characters in the Tv series Machelo. My character in the Tv series is an eccentric family man who become infamous among the society, and I believe my part in Machelo has helped me boost my acting in many ways.

• I heard that you are good at portraying antagonist characters

Maybe yes. And even though acting as the bad guy has its own toll in real life among our society, I don’t mind taking the roles. Besides, I don’t choose any of my film characters by myself, the cast directors do, and they mostly base their selection mechanism on previous characters. Even though I am always ready to act in whatever part the directors give me, I also want to try something different sometimes.

• What do you consider is your reward from acting in so many movies?

First of all, I believe I am living my dream, because I always wished to be an actor in popular movies. Secondly, it introduced me to many great individuals in the film industry, but above all I am blessed to be introduced to the general public.

• If you have any message to the young Eritreans?

I don’t think that I have any advice to give to the young generation, I rather believe to get one from them. But I would like to remind the youth to have a vision, and work hard for it. Besides, they have to have discipline and patience in order to change their dreams into reality.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea