Eritrea Wire

Written by Mr. Ghirmay Tekle, a biography of the legendary singer and songwriter, Estifanos Abraham (aka Zemach), has recently been launched. Here’s a translation of Estifanos’s interview with Hadas Er¬itrea’s Abraham Zere.

Estifanos’s revolutionary songs inspired many young Eritreans to join the armed struggle. Besides singing and writing songs, Estifanos has been teaching young musicians since the time of the armed struggle.

• Congratulations on witnessing the publication of your biography!

Thank you!

• How do you feel about the book because biographies aren’t common in our country?

This question would have been addressed better by the author, but he is now abroad. The writer, Ghirmay Tekle, used to ask me to tell him my own story on a number of occasions without me being aware of his intentions. I knew he had written a book. So, when he kept on asking me questions about my personal story I did suspect that he was probably planning to write a story. Finally, he told me that he had a plan to write my biography.

Then I asked him why he hadn’t told me openly at the beginning. He said he was worried that I might reject the idea because Eritrean freedom fighters don’t want to talk about their personal stories, especially glories. Of course, I told him that I wouldn’t agree with his idea of writing my individual story because whatever was achieved during the struggle was an outcome of our collective efforts, not individual deeds.

Then Ghirmay gathered more information about me from many of my colleagues and other veteran freedom fighters. Afterward, he started to tell me my own story and convinced me that the story of mine is also part of the Eritrean struggle’s narrative, the story of those who gave their lives and those who are alive and should be published. He also added that my story would be a reference to young Eritreans. Then I gave him green light to go ahead and continue to write.

• How do you feel now and what’s the readers’ reaction like?

I feel very grateful that the book is so liked that some readers finished reading it overnight, and the feedback I see is encouraging.

• What’s the content of the book?

It’s my biography. It covers my childhood, my school life, the 1970s (a time when young Eritreans left home in droves to join the armed struggle), life in the armed struggle, life at Revolution School, and Red Flowers (a cultural troupe of which I was a member).

• Why is the book entitled “he has loved two”? Is that your idea or the author’s?

No, that’s the author’s idea. I also asked Ghirmay the same question. When he gave me the manuscript to read before it was published, I came across this sentence “His first love was Semira, but he also had another love, which he loves more than Semira.” Enraged by this, I confronted him because I didn’t get his idea. When he told me the one I loved more dearly than Semira was my country, Eritrea, to whom I offered my youth and all that I had, I had nothing to say. I thanked him for his appreciation of my modest contribution.

• How was the book launching ceremony?

It was amazing. I wanted to throw a big party because my story is also the story of all my comrades, freedom fighters, but due to Covid-19, I couldn’t. The ceremony was made colorful, though, with revolutionary songs sung by young artists.

• It’s mentioned in the book that your mother is very kind and you were pampered by her; how about your father?

My father was very kind, too, but my mother was a bit different. He was a priest who was serious and powerful.

• Many who read the book say that you can’t stop reading once you start. Does that show the story’s or the writer’s strength?

It’s absolutely Mr. Ghirmay’s strength. He wrote it in simple language and easy-to-follow style. Plus, the book was very well edited by an experienced journalist and writer, Solomon Berhe. Many scholars and veteran writers like Alemseged Tesfay, the late Tekie Beyene, and Eng. Tsegay Teklemichael also offered many essential comments on the manuscript before it was published. I think it is the cumulative effect of all these efforts that made the book readable. I want to thank them all for their great contribution.

• How many songs have you produced, and do you have a song that is connected with your real life?

Over the years I’ve produced around 90 singles, but the number goes up if I include the songs I gave to the cultural troupe.

And for the other question, yes. For instance, my song entitled “Semira”. It was a song dedicated to my first love, whom I met in Keren while I was serving as a teacher (Keren was a liberated city under the EPLF). Semira was one of my students and she was really beautiful. It was love at first sight, and she soon understood that I liked her. We had some fun together: she used to take me out to the cinema and come to our house and make coffee for us. Then along with many other students in Keren she joined the armed struggle in 1978 during the strategic withdrawal of the EPLF.

For several years I hadn’t heard about her whereabouts. But one day she came to Arag to perform with her unit’s cultural troupe and I met her there. We parted after promising to make our relationship official someday in line with the matrimonial norms of the EPLF. She said goodbye with tears in her eyes. This was in 1981.

The 6th and 7th offensive attacks made it difficult for us to get together. When I heard that her unit was in Nakfa I went there to find her but couldn’t because her unit had been redeployed to Halhal. It wasn’t considered a noble thing to think about personal matters at that time. So I convinced myself to stay calm until the situation stabilized. I learned later she died heroically during the 7th offensive.

Ok Zemach, thank you for your time.

Thank you for inviting me to this interview.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

Children are like sponge: continuously absorbing a great deal from their environment. You can also compare children to a blank canvas. However way you put it, the point is how impressionable they are. The Tigrinya proverb that goes, “??? ????? ???? ????” (an expression that means a child needs to be molded while still very young) sums it up rather well. As parents, we have the capability of “coloring” these “blank canvases” however way we want. We can color them vermilion just as easily as we can color them grey, or worse, let the world color them as it wishes. The things that we see, learn and read as children tend to stay with us for a lifetime. If you don’t believe me, take the word of French author Marcel Proust and his novel “In Search of Lost Time”, a literary work centered on childhood memories.

I still remember the first book I read by myself; I remember the color of the book: it was green and had a picture of a fat, orange cat on the cover, entitled “The Diary of the Killer Cat”. I can vividly recall the elation I felt when I finished it. I felt like I was capable of reading every book in the world. Most importantly, I remember thinking to myself, “Hey! Reading is actually fun!”

I was lucky as a child. My mother used to read to me every night before bed. I remember her reading Alemseged Tesfai’s “Gitano” and the Tigrinya translation of “Aesop’s Fables” to me. I couldn’t wait to get to bed and every night, I would fight the oncoming sleep so I can hear one more story or listen to her read one more page. Those bedtime stories with my mom are some of my most cherished childhood memories.

When I was eleven years old, my father gave me a notebook on which I could write book summaries, in whatever language I read them. On the very first page of that notebook, he wrote me a list of quotes with the title “Daddy’s Lifetime Advice”. The very first quote says: “Remember, you have three responsibilities as a student: Read, Read, Read.” Both my parents gave me a special childhood in that way and I would not be the person I am today if it weren’t for them.

Some of you may think I’ve digressed. Why do I bring up my own story when today is about Rahel and Etan’s books? Because, like Etan, I am a product of diligent and dedicated parents and, like Rahel, I am the product of the books I read as a child.

At first glance, children’s books may seem unimportant, of very little impact. Silly, even. Some people may look at them skeptically and say “How much value can they really hold?” I believe children’s books hold more power than we realize. They have the power to teach lessons on kindness, compassion, empathy, understanding, acceptance and so much more. Lessons that kids need to learn to become good people.

“Don’t schoolbooks already do that?” one could ask. Not as well as the children’s books that they choose to read. These kinds of books show them- in a rather subtle way- that learning is fun, that discovering is exciting and that books are the best kind of company. They give the child the possibility to delve into a new world, far from their own, where they can swim with fish, fly with birds, run with cheetahs and jump with kangaroos. Books help stretch their imagination, ultimately helping them become innovative critical thinkers. In short, these kinds of books- and the lessons that come with them- can lay the foundation to their personalities.

When I first met Rahel and had the chance to chat with her, she told me about her kids, Etan and Sephron. She told me about how she and her husband Dawit had a policy at home: their children had to read at least one page or paragraph a night before they could go to sleep. This was a non-negotiable rule. Every single night for years, she encouraged and monitored them to read a paragraph or a page. Sometimes, she even motivated them by leaving them a Nakfa or two at the end of a book! Can you imagine what kind of commitment that takes? I was blown away. I was even more amazed to hear that her twelve-year-old son Etan had already finished reading the Harry Potter series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians series- to name just a few. As if that’s not impressive enough, he even translated two children’s books from English to Tigrinya- Arnold Lobel’s “Mouse Soup” (??? ????) and Esther Averill’s “The Fire Cat” (?? ???? ?? ??)! Nowadays, she tells me that she has to beg him to stop reading and go to sleep! I can only imagine what kind of an adult he will be but I can say with some confidence that whatever he grows up to become, be it a doctor, scientist, singer or poet- he will be a good one because he discovered the magic of reading from an early age. It’s also important to note that Etan’s not-so-simple act of translating books can inspire and help other kids realize that they too can do the same.

I think by this point it is clear that Rahel is leading by example when it comes to the importance of reading in a child’s life. It’s been tried-and-tested! Her children are proof that this is not a case of “?? ??? ???? ?? ???? ??????” (this is parallel to the English saying “Do as I say, not as I do”). Her whole intention is to help other children follow in her son’s footsteps and other parents to follow in hers. She has now provided the Eritrean public with two series of books: Let’s Read Them Stories (or ?? ??????) and Let’s Learn (or ?? ????). It’s certainly a change from her previous books; but these may be the most impactful. Most writers focus on writing for adults, but their audience will inevitably be people who have already developed the habit of- and a liking for- reading. This time, Rahel shrewdly observed that in order to introduce a wider culture of leisure reading in the society, you start at the root.

I found the books to be colorful, attractive and warm. I appreciated that she wrote them in both English and Tigrinya, a great way to help children pick up new words as they read. I also valued how she used Eritrean characters with typical Eritrean names and pictures with which Eritrean children can identify. You don’t come across many English children’s books of the sort.

It is not lost on me that one of the series is called “Let’s Read Them Stories”, addressing the parents directly, rather than the children themselves. It is not common in our culture for parents to read to their children, something that was neither possible nor feasible a generation ago. We’ve come a long way since then and can now afford opportunities that were unthinkable a mere half-century ago. This parent-centric approach of reading to children allows a stronger bond to be created between parent and child, to even develop a kind of friendship and mentorship as opposed to the traditional authority-subordinate relationship.

I strongly believe that a single drop of water can create a substantial ripple. I think these books whose release we are celebrating today are the first of many more “drops of water” to come. And I suspect that that they will go on to create a ripple big enough to reach other children in Eritrea so that they too can discover the magic of books.

Rahel and Etan, I commend you on a job well done.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea