MUSIC-ERITREA: Using Music to Promote Unity

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jennie Street

ASMARA, Nov 28 1995 (IPS) - Peace in Eritrea, after a 30-year war for independence from Ethiopia, has been a mixed blessing for muscians here.

Once a powerful force for mobilisation among separatist groups many musicians are now broke and unemployed. Aspiring artists now are hampered by a chronic dearth of equipment and facilities, formerly provided free by the liberation movements.

There are 14 bands in the Eritrean capital of Asmara but only about three places for them practice. Established bands manage to hire instruments from a handful of music shops, and then only for a concert, due to the steep hiring rates which are beyond the wallet of others.

There is no music teaching in schools and only one private piano teacher. This means musically inclined youngsters have little access to training, other than on traditional instruments such as the stringed ‘krar’.

“Youngsters come to me asking to be taught. What can I say to them? Simply to go and hang around a band?” says ex-combattant Ibrahim Ali, better known as ‘Akla’.

But the plight of musicians here belies their position in society.

The kick-off to a recent 32-show national tour by 11 popular local singers, wowed fans in the Odeon Theatre in Asmara, including President Isaias Aferworki, who slipped in as the lights went down.

Noted for his modesty, Aferworki sat in the dress circle among the audience, with no sign of the fanfare and security guards that are the hallmark of most other leaders around the world.

The longstanding link between politics and music came with the first number ‘Haday Bagenar’ (We are United in Our Wishes), which brought the 11 stars on stage clad in ‘Unity’ T-shirts.

Unity, the show’s theme, is the plank of the ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), which drove out the Ethiopian army in 1991 and led the country to independence in a referendum two-years later.

‘Haday Bagenar’ speaks of a new unity for a country with nine ethnic groups and a population split equally between Muslims and Christians. The song is based on a poem by singer Bereket Mengisteab, a former fighter in the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) which was routed 1981 by the PFDJ, then known as the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF).

Its tune was composed by Tesfai Mehari, called ‘Fihira’ an ex- EPLF soldier in collaboration with Kahsai Berhe, a singer with no political affiliations who lived in Asmara during the Ethiopian occupation. (MORE)