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FEEDBACK 2001
Reference No. 203
C/O Webmaster@andEthiopia.co
Dear Mr. Simon,
the same content was written in our Kunama Guestbook on 16.07.2001 from a certain Mr. Kessete Birhan.
See Feedback Ref.No. 187
We repeat again, we have no answer about your question on the “DISCUSSION FORUM”: http://www.andethiopia.com held on 17/19/04/2001, because we ourselves did not take part in that discussion.
If you know that Michael and Berhe are, why are you trying to press the http://www.ndh.net/home/kunama Website?
With greetings,
The RKPHA, October 2001
Reference No. 202
Dear “Kebeswit”,
we thank you very much for your reaction to that lady you refer to as “ISAYA JR”.
We have in fact often stated that, some Eritrean Tigrians are either ignorant or embarrassed to recognise, accept and be proud of their origins from the Ethiopian state of Tigray. There is where the Ethiopian as well as the Eritrean civilisations habe originated from……..
We Kunama too have our roots in that state and we are not at all embarrassed to admit it.
We are in fact proud of that ancient civilisation.
To use “AGAME” as an insult word is first of all, very inappropriate because, as, you say, “it is the name of an area” and therefore whoever uses it otherwise is proving a complete idiocy.
We only hope that, sometime and somehow we Eritreans get over these petty name-callings and start looking at and respecting people as human beings as our own selves.
Greetings and God bless.
The RKPHA (September 2001)
Reference No. 201
Dear “Another CHRISTIAN ERITREAN WOMAN-KEBESAWIT”,
Thanks a lot for imparting such an appropriate and valuable lesson not only to that “Christian woman”, but also to many other fellow-Eritreans who are still incredibly incapsulated in their little world and see nothing longer that what lies in their own immediate surrounding.
We totally agree with your analysis of the negative factors you have identified in the Eritrean society and condemned them. We believe that we Eritreans lack not only of the knowledge of each other’s traditions and culture but we seem to be not even interested in approaching those who hold political opinions different from ours. We need to grow into a tolerant and broad-minded citizens. It is failure to openness and compromise which is afflicting not only us on grass-root level but, above all, the higher echelon of the Eritrean society.
The typical example of this narrow-mindedness is being given us, these days, by the events taken place at home between the so-called “REFORMERS” and the rest members of the EPLF/PFDJ regime. It is an unfortunate reality for this government that, with such an inconsiderate act of revenge against its own once trusted members of itsinner circle, is ruining the whole of its past and present history. The Eritrean society is suffering from the same sickness affecting its leadership and that is, the “DISCRIMINATORY SYNDROME”.
Time will tell whether the president and his immediate ministers will be satisfied only by jailing their comrades and not going further and eliminate them.
God forbid that, such act of savagery does not have damaging consequences on our innocent civilian population. The PFDJ regime is playing with fire in the Eritrean arena.
Dear sister, Eritrea has a lot of mess to clean up starting from the people now in the government till the last Eritrean citizen and your friend who, talking about the Kunama, says that, “these people were too savage to take care of their land and they have no use for it, you know the eat rats and roots-they do not farm, they have no religion or culture”.
Sister, please, inform your friend that, today the Kebesa population is, for the first time in its history, depending on “MESHELA” as its daily meanof sustenance and that is being imported from the Kunama land, provided by the Kunama crop-fields cultivated by the Kunama farmers. The Kunama land is being regarded, for the first time in its entire history, as the “BREAD BASKET OF ERITREA”.
Please, tell her that, if the Kunama “were too savage to take care of their land and had no use for it”, her own people in the highlands would be starving today.
Tell her that, the country mice and not “RATS”, are just as tasty as the fish she eats which the ordinary Kunama people compare with frogs and therefore loath them.
To you sister, many thanks, regards and greetings,
From the RKPHA (September 2001)
Reference No. 200
Dear Amel Berhe,
we thank you very much indeed for, not only thanking us “A MILLION FOR OURW WEB-SITE”, but also for being so sincere and honest to admit your ignorance of the Kunama people, their land and culture. You are not to blame for that as many of us Eritreans have somehow been away from home too long to know each of the nine Eritrean ethnic groups and their cultures. We too are in fact longig to get to know more about the other fellow-Eritrean ethnic groups, their traditions and social set-ups. Let us inform each other on those aspects.
It is a blessing that today, through the cyber-world, we are in a position to get as many pieces of information as we desire and are interested in.
We therefore very much appreciate your interest in our Kunama people and culture and thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for distributing our web-site address to “SEVERAL FRIENDS AND RELATIVES” of yours.
To you, all the best of luck in life and a brotherly greeting,
From RKPHA (September 2001)
Ref.No. 199
Dear M. Mohammed,
we thank you very much for your response to our appeals for compassion and comprehension of the plights our Kunama people are being subjected to by the present Eritrean regime.
Many people keep telling us that the Kunama are only concerned with the sufferings of our Kunama people, but we have, time and again, invited every Eritrean ethnic group members to care and bring up the kinds of problems afflicting their own ethnic member at home.
Unfortunately there are only a handful of such web-sites strictly covering such topics.
We oft wonder why?
Many fellow-Eritreans would rather talk or write about the social, political and economic problems of Eritrea and of the Eritreans in general as if they were all the same and having the same burden on each Eritrean ethnic group and causing equal social disruption and damage in all Eritrean regions. Reports on objective and localised problems could be of great help.
Eritrea, we believe, is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and a multi-cultural society with as many and different kinds of social, political and economic problems of their own.
We Eritrean therefore need as many different forces to face so many different calamities.
We believe that certain problems afflicting certain Eritrean ethnic groups are not only of Shabia’s creation, but the continuation of the already existing ones which the present regime has intelligently developed and making use of. We need to break that evil chain.
Brother, we thank you for your support and, at the same time, we invite you and other fellow-Eritreans like you to join hands to clean-up the social, political and the economic mess in Eritrea.
With greetings,
The RKPHA (September 2001)
Ref. No. 194.
Dear Al jabarti,
we thank you very much indeed for your “very goooood website” definition of our Kunama home page.
We are trying to do our best, as you Jeberti are doing your utmost, to put forward your legitimate rights as an ethnic entity having a cultural identity of its own to be proud of and safeguard.
We Kunama support your Jeberti struggle to have your social, political, religious and cultural rights to be recognised, respected and protected.
We have always insisted that, Eritrea is a conglomerate of cultures and distinct social identities which, not only exist, but also beautify our geographically and demographically small but culturally vast and rich Eritrean society.
Keep up and on with the great job.
Greetings from , the RKPHA
Ref. No. 193
Dear Yousef,
we very much appreciate your sincerity in, not only admitting what we said about the Kunama women mal-treated by that unit of the Jebha armed-struggle group in the Kunama land, but also having such a high moral courage to feel “sorry that such things happened in our Eritrean history”.
To tell the truth, Yousef, there are not so many honest people like you, who, nowadays, would see negative realities and have the guts to condemn them clearly.
How nice when even one person among many, makes an exception and a big difference!
We therefore admire and appreciate your very positive attitude in this respect.
We thank very much also for having fought , as a Tegadalai, thus personally and directly co-operating in the independence struggle of our country Eritrea.
Remain as you are brother, because Eritrea and we Eritreans need open-minded people like you to be proud of and form an open-minded Eritrean society
May God bless you and brotherly greetings,
from ,the RKPHA (August 2001).
Ref. No. 189
Dear Merhaba,
we thank you very much indeed for “sincerely congratulating” us on our Kunama home page and the information material we
provide on our cultural heritage.
We totally agree with you that, our country is at the moment,
“living” under an absolute and cruel dictatorial system.
We often ask ourselves whether it was worth for our people to have fought for over 30 years for our independence to immediately fall again under another dictatorship.
We however, have that little hope and trust on our fellow-
Eritreans, like you, who are able to detect the afflictions of our people and are ready to share their sufferings, struggle and work for a second, but hopefully, the last fight for the independence of our country and the establishment of a genuine democratic system of government for our people.
We are always ready and willing to meet and co-operate with any good-intentioned fellow-Eritrean prepared to offer some of his/her available time to dedicate to and care about our fellow-Eritrean brothers and sisters.
We therefore, very much appreciate your invitation to join forces to “expand our web-sites”, but we would like you first to present and identify yourself who you are and what your real plans and intentions are in suggesting to establish a “team-work”.
Anyhow, we salute you brotherly hoping you would use our E-Mail address to reach us directly.
Yours,
The RKPHA, July 2001
Refer.# 187
Dear Mr. Kessete Birhan,
we have no answer about your question on the "DISCUSSION FORUM"-(http://www.andethiopia.com)
held April 17-2001, because we ourselves did not take part in that meeting.
With greetings.
The RKPHA/KUNAMA
Ref. N°. 186
Dear Tesfay Embaye,
we thank you very much for visiting our Kunama Website and appreciating its content.
We really hope you will, one day, be able to visit, not only Barentu, but also some of the Kunama countryside to get to know the real Kunama people, their Social life and Cultural values.
From us warmly greeting .
The RKPHA, July 2001
Ref. No. 179
Dear DUTTA,
thanks a lot for appreciating our Kunama "web page".
It is a great encouragement for us to get words of praise from our own fellow-Eritrean brothers and sisters for the little contribution we make by bringing up to light the plights afflicting our people at home and strive for their better welfare.
We shall always do our utmost to provide our compatriots with as much informative material as we can on our Kunama culture, language, tradition and so on, hoping that other ethnic group members too would do the same, because, as you yourself put it, such kinds of "web sites help to shed light and answer questions".
Please, keep supporting us and others with such an objective feed-back.
Thanking you again and greeting you, we wish you the best of luck in life.
The RKPA, June 2001
Ref. No. 180
Dear Mebrahtu,
we thank you cordially for your great feed-back and for the very valuable experiences you had in the Kunama land and the views you offered us on the people involved in that region and the evil deeds they are committing.
We are in fact, bluffed by your insight of the problems afflicting the Kunama people in their own land.
We very much appreciate both your recent visit to Barentu and to the Kunama countryside as well as your intelligent decision not to buy the "piece of farm-land" you had proposed yourself.
With this great gesture, you have set an unprecedented example to all those other Eritrean Tigrians, including the members of the present Eritrean government, whose dreams and plans are to turn the Kunama land into the
"American type of ranch-land", breaking all the Kunama traditional land distribution, ownership and administrative systems.
We thank you very much, brother, for your sensitivity and morale courage in coming out and telling the whole truth about the state of affairs in the Kunama land. An eye-witness always provides an indisputable piece of evidence.
As far as our fellow-Kunama, Mr. Aurelio Giacomino (Tukka), Mr. Franco Kobaba and others, who have literally turned against their own people, harassing and mistreating them in the most cruel manner, we can only agree with you as we are very well-informed on their non-Kunama-like behaviour and inhumane deeds. The Kunama themselves have been always aware of their evil conduct.
Taking and following your suggestions, we are officially making them aware and warning them that, what they are today doing to their own people will, one day and in its due time, surely turn against them.
Time will tell how long or short their present conduct and activities may last for.
The Kunama character is not so emotive and vindictive against its own members, at the first instance, but its patience is neither to be pushed to the limits nor its emotions underestimated as it may take very drastic measures
to correct the course of events threatening the existence of its ethnic group members and territorial values.
This message is for everyone intending to deal and come to terms with the Kunama people and their traditions regulating their society and land tenancy.
This, dear brother Mebrahtu, is exactly the dangers we too are afraid of, in the same manner you "fear a civil war in Eritrea", when ethnic and cultural values are infringed upon and human sentiments and emotions are provoked and let to grow to explosion.
Brother, we thank you very much again, for all the detailed descriptions of the depreciative attitudes and arrogance your "schoolmate" and other Eritrean Tigrians like him, are having and showing to the Kunama people.
Perhaps, such individuals are neither aware nor able to estimate the destructive
consequences, conducts of the like, may have in the future, but their present short-sighted views, deeds and behaviours are and have to be deplored.
We only hope that, those broad-minded Eritrean-Tigrians like you, Mebrahtu, would not only clearly distance themselves from the present government members, buying and owning land in the Gash/Setit region, and their supporters following the same plan and sharing identical aims, but also strongly condemn the whole of the EPLF/PFDJ dream of turning the Kunama land into a "mechanised agricultural land". It was in fact, this principle that has launched the whole idea of considering the Kunama land as the "Eritrean bread basket".
Such plan, for the Kunama people, would surely mean a considerable reduction of their numerous livestock, source of their subsistence, the termination of their extreme dependence on their fertile land and the destruction of their very social structure. Social and geographic changes not called and promoted from within a given folk or ethnic group are usually counter-productive.
To you, Mebrahtu, goes all our gratitude for bringing up a very sensitive
but extremely important topic that needs serious consideration.
We greet you dearly.
The RKPA, June 2001
Ref. No. 181
Dear Mohamed,
in the feed-back you gave to Mebrahtu, we Kunama noticed a lot of positive statements, words of praise and encouragement also for our "web page".
We thank you very much for that, hoping that, as you yourself pointed out, "others follow and finish what has been started".
On our part, we shall always be trying our best, to keep up the momentum to inform our fellow-Eritreans, not only on the cultural heritage of the Kunama people, but also on the negative factors influencing and affecting their daily lives and those of their fellow-Eritrean ethnic groups.
The present social, political, economic and territorial affairs in our country Eritrea are worrying us all as we keep noticing their worsening standard.
The EPLF/PFDJ government, most of its party members, its faithful supporters
who are taking advantage of the present confused situation to create themselves a better welfare, are to be reminded that short-term interests are no guarantees of the long-term ones. That their present greedy enterprises are only destructive factors.
As you stated, Mohamed, "consequences of the evil deeds of few individuals and their followers", could prepare us Eritreans, very negative results.
In order to avoid such unpleasant surprises in the future, let us now only pray that, the majority of the sensible Eritreans make a difference by talking a strong stand against the present course of events at home.
We greet you brotherly.
The RKPA, June 2001
Ref .N°. 184
Dear Mr. Abdulbasit,
The difference between Kunama and Baza is:
KUNAMA is: our mother
BAZA is: our father
We call our matrilinear social structure.
Please, for more details consult in Main Menu HISTORY
Thanks
The RKPA, May 2001
Ref. N°. 182
Dear Mr. Feshaye Berhe,
If you are "affriade" of our being "agents of mr. isaisiae", we are "afraid" you should prove that we are "Mr. Isayas' " agents.
We are not sure whether you are referring to our "pur" or "poor" mind, but we would like you to describe our ethnic group not as "kunamaes peolpe" but as the "Kunama people".
The RKPA
Ref. No. 178
Dear Kunama friend,
we very much appreciate your friendship and interest in our Kunama cultural and territorial affairs.
Whenever and however we can, we are very glad to answer your questions on our land, people and traditions as we believe your interests to be very genuine.
Following the alphabetical order:
in the East, the Kunama land borders with Serae region;
in the North with Barka;
in the South with the two Ethiopian states of Tigray and Begemidir and in the West with the republic of The Sudan.
With the best greetings.
The RKPA May 2001
Ref. Nr. 177
Lieber Tesfa,
wir haben uns über Deine Nachricht von 17.05.01 sehr gefreut und bedanken uns dafür.
Mitkämpfer für Demokratie in Eritrea sind uns immer willkommen. Es können nie genug sein.
Wir machen weiter und werden nicht aufhören, für Demokratie in Eritrea und Gerechtigkeit für die unterdrückten Völker, nicht nur für das Kunama-Volk.
Unsere Kulturen, Traditionen, Sprachen und Länder müssen wir bewahren und schützen.
Deine Beurteilung unserer weiteren Beiträge hören wir gerne und verbleiben bis dahin
mit brüderlichen Grüßen
RKPA, Mai 2001
Ref. No. 173
Dear Kunama friend,
thanks a lot for visiting our “gallery on our web-site”.
We have to tell you that, before the beginning of the armed-struggle for the Eritrean liberation movement in the 1960s, the Kunama land used to shelter many more different kinds of wild animals than only the ones we included in our gallery.
The wild animal population in the Eritrean western lowlands has equally suffered like the people there.
Some species are said to be completely extinct
As for your second question: “what is the relationship between the Eritrean Kunamas and other Kunama Nationalities in Tigray and elsewhere?”, we do not absolutely understand your problem because, as there are Tigrians in Eritrea and in Tigray, Tigre or Beni-Amer in Eritrea and in The Sudan, Hadandua in Eritrea and in the Sudan, there are members of all the nine (9) Eritrean ethnic groups in the five Continents of the world, so there are Kunama too in many parts of Africa and in the world.
Their “relationship” is no more different than that of the other Eritreans.
To make another point clear, we Kunama do not consider ourselves as a “nationality” but an
“ethnic group” holding an Eritrean “nationality”.
Greetings.
The RKPA May 2001
Ref. N°.171
Hallo Ghebreghioris,
wir bedanken uns für Deine Nachricht in unserem Gästebuch und entschuldigen uns gleichzeitig für die Verspätung unserer Antwort.
Z Zt. Können wir Dir leider keinen Verleger für Deine Übersetzung nennen.
Sollten wir einen Tipp bekommen, wenden wir uns sofort an Dich.
Es ist uns bekannt, dass Werner Munzinger über BOGOS und KUNAMA einige Berichte geschrieben hat, die wir leider bisher nicht ausfindig machen konnten.
Kannst Du uns diese vermitteln?
Aus unserer Kunama-Homepage stehen Dir gerne die für Dich interessanten Artikel zur Verfügugn.
Damit wir unser gemeinsames Ziel erreichen, freuen wir uns auf eine co-operative Zusammenarbeit.
Good luck für uns alle.
RKPA, May 2001
Ref.no. 170
Dear Kunama friend,
we thank you very much for your support on behalf of our struggle for our “human and territorial rights” and we do relly hope we “will eventually win”.
We Kunama are very much aware of and understand that, not every “highlander, Orthodox Tewahdo, Catholic or Moslem” is to be accused of for the plights of the Kunama people, but only those, beginning with the present Eritrean government which, with its paternalistic and party-oriented plans, is creating hatred and division in the Eritrean society in general and in the Kunama in particular, as well as its blind loyalists and supporters who are motivated only by their personal, egoistic and temporary gains than by the welfare of all Eritreans.
Dear our friend, we Kunama can only rely on the broad-minded Eritreans like you who able to see beyond ethnic and political-party lines and, together, hope to “build” a hate-free and a just society in our “beloved country Eritrea”.
Remaining in this unshakeable faith,
we greet you dearly, brothe
The RKPA, April 2001
Ref. No. 169.
Dear Sem,
Thank you very much indeed for your interest in our home page and in our Kunama ethnic group.
For us, it is not a matter of concern if you “don’t know any Kunama in your surroundings”, as long as you are aware that, one of the 9 ethnic groups forming the Eritrean society is “the Kunama”; an ancient Eritrean ethnic group living in the far south-western part of the state of Eritrea.
As for your statement that, “Tigrigna being the major ethnic group, it is for my logic not surprising to hear that the Tigrigna suppresses other minor ethnic groups specially the Kunama”, let us, first of all, point out that, “Tigrigna” is a word defining the “language” spoken by the “Tigrian ethnic group”.
We take it therefore, that, what you are referring to is the “ethnicity” of the “Tigrigna” speakers.
The fact that, your “Tigrigna being the major ethnic group”, does not absolutely justify that, it should “logically suppress other minor ethnic groups specially the Kunama” if you are aware of the meaning the English verb “to suppress” implies
Being our time very limited, dear, Sem, we shall be commenting only on some parts of your
statements.
You wonder that, we do an “ethnic politics” meaning, we are mainly concerned with the social, political, territorial and economic plights afflicting our Kunama ethnic group.
There are a lot of reasons for this which are extensively exposed in our “Perspectives”
It is rather difficult for us to understand your main question “why you call yourself Eritrean while the ethnic group you represent is geographically to be found in Ethiopia and in Eritrea”
We are sorry, but we are turning the same question to you: “why do you call yourself (if at all) an Eritrean-Tigrian if your own Tigrian ethnic group brothers and sisters are also found in the Ethiopian state of Tigray?
As for your statement that, “the present Eritrea is a result of political consciousness and not based on ethnic policy like our southern neighbours”, we are asking you again: why is it then that, as you yourself logically believe, “Tigrigna suppresses other minor ethnic groups specially Kunama”
We believe, you have a difficulty in finding your own ethnic identity, because, like in many other parts of the African continent, in Eritrea too, the recognition, respect and protection of the different ethnic groups, no matter how major or minor they may be, are factors of a primordial importance before claiming of having developed a national “consciousness”.
Why, do you think, dear Sem, the present Eritrean government has theoretically, recognised the existence of nine (9) different Eritrean ethnic groups?
We are Eritrean nationals and represent our Kunama ethnic group members.
We hope this clarifies and answers your question, Sem:
Greetings and God bless.
The RKPA April 2001
Ref. No. 166
Dear A. Jafer (proud Eritrean Jeberti),
thanks a lot for your support of our struggle for our territorial and ethnic rights.
As we have often pointed out, a peaceful coexistence requires the knowledge, recognition and respect of other people’s cultures and cultural values.
We do not know which part of Eritrea you are from, but we assume that in your life, you have been exposed to such varieties of cultures which experience eventually leads you to respect other ethnic groups and their members as you yourself would like to be recognised and respected.
We agree with you that, such positive attitudes are not always to encounter in many members of the Eritrean-Tigrians; a messages also the present EPLF/PFDJ government has been sending with its slogans like: “nhnan ilamanan”, “hade hizbi, hade libbi” and so on and so forth.
The Eritrean-Tigrians seem to have a great difficulty in recognising and accepting the multi-ethnicity of the Eritrean society.
It is an obvious attitude of arrogance and contempt.
We Kunama therefore, believe that, if we would like to preserve a social and a political balance and create an equal and gradual homogenous society in Eritrea, we absolutely need to curtail the present political, linguo-cultural and territorial domination of the Eritrean-Tigrian ethnic group.
To you brother, Jaffer, a praise for your wider view of the Eritrean different ethnic groups and their valuable cultures
Greetings from
The RKPA, April 2001
Ref. No. 165
Dear Bilenay Tsaada,
Though rather late, we thank you very much for your visit of our web-site and appreciation of its content and intents.
We agree with you that, “every Eritrean Linguistic group should have its own web-site” so that we all Eritreans could get to know each other’s cultures and cultural values.
We also add our conviction that, we Eritreans should be very proud of our varied and reach cultures often manifested in our folklore and pageantry.
We salute you brotherly and wish you the best of luck in your life.
Yours,
The RKPA, April 2001
ef. N°. 164
Dear Hans,
many thanks indeed for your comments, moral support, courageous appreciation of our Kunama homepage.
It is really a great feeling and satisfaction that, some European like you come up with such supporting words.
We shall try our best to inform the other Eritrean ethnic group members on the customs, traditions and the whole of the Kunama cultural heritage hoping the others too would do the same.
Warmly greetings to you
Yours, the RKPA, April 2001
Ref. N°. 158
To you "Christian woman",
where on the earth have we Kunama, ever covered a "religious topic"?
Religion, to our understanding, is a personal, individual and private convinction which has no place in other public forum except in churches, mosques, synagogues, congregational halls and other places of worship.
We consider any kind of web-site to be an informative source a visitror, a reader is given a free access to evaluate, accept or reject whatever material he or she is offered by or in that particular web-site.
If we, therefore, have linked a Jihad "WEB-SITE" to ours it does not absolutely mean thtat we either support or reject that particular movement.
We simply intend and are only giving every Eritrean or any other visitors of our site, an ample opportunity to refer to and get acquainted with all the info material the Eritreans today are offering their countrymen and women.
If you, respectable "Christian woman", are one of those living in the world of "isolationism" and alergic to anything strange or foreign, then you are tuning in to the wrong music because our Kunama Web-site is intended to cover our own social, cultural and territorial matters but at the same time it is also eager to expose itself to getting acquainted with as many other different Eritrean cultural matters be they religious or civic ones.
Do not forget, honourable lady, that the Kunama ethnic group is made up of Christians, Moslems and others practising beliefs of their own and that, religion has never been of concern and has never played a dividing role in our Kunama society.
For God´s sake, do not instil in us sentiments which have never been parts of our cultural heritage as they are like deedly poisons and, please keep your worries and fears to yourself.
In our Kunama society, every person has his / her own place regardless of deferring religious orientations and therefore, your question: "where do you want the christian population of Eritrea to exist"? need no further answer.
By the way, "Christian woman", where are you right now?
Have you been sent wandering around the world perhaps, because of your "Christian faith"?
If you happen to be living outside Eritrea, was that not because of political or economic rather than religious reasons?
As a "Christian woman", we would have expected you to respect and accept all human beings as creatures of one God regardless of their creed, but regarding your reaction, we very much doubt of the depth of your "Christian faith".
Please, "Christian woman", try to enlarge your own Christian values before questioning other people's relationships with their God.
Learn to understand the world around you first before trying to swim in the dark eschatological waters.
The RKPA, March 2001
Ref. N°. 157
Mr. Kolkol,
if we Kunama, as you claim, "have to be punished" because we call "a spade a spade", we believe, you have a big problem facing and accepting realities.
In the whole of our Kunama home page, we have never insulted either "the eritrean government or iseyas".
Our main arguments have always been based on the injustices our Kunama ethnic group has been and is suffering because of the evil activities of the rulers of Eritrea whether they are called EPLF / PFDJ, the Ethiopian imperial government, the British, the Italian or just local villains like Hamid Idris Awate.
If you, Mr. Kolkol, do not have any background historical knowledge of the Kunama people and of their plights, then you had better mind your own business.
Let us stand up for and claim our social, economic, political and territorial rights by revealing facts and confronting issues, rather than, as you allege, "insulting the govrnment and the president", which has never been our style.
Mr. Kolkol, you just open your eyes and you will see how much hardship the Eritrean folk is being subjected to by the present Eritrean government.
The RKPA; March 2001
Ref. N°. 155
Dear "Proud Eritrean",
we thank your very much indeed for supporting us in our struggle for the recognition, respect and protection of our Kunama ethnic group.
We entirely agreed with the way you retorted to Yassin Frej's daring statement that "when he was fighting it was for all Eritrea and not for his ethnic poeple" and therefore we too "should neither be mentioning nor talking of ethnicity".
If he is lucky enough not to have face such government injustices against his own ethnic group, he should not ignore that the Eritrean society is made up of other and different ethnic groups, languages and cultures that are to be found in geographically well defined parts of the country where the present government is using a totally different politics.
If he is not blinded by such politics, he should be able to see how some Eritrean ethnic groups are enjoying a preferential status whereas others are being oppressed and persecuted.
Lacking this recognition and equal treatment on the part of our government as well as of an objective view of many fellow-Eritreans on our different ethnic groups, Eritrea is doomed to creating a serious social confusion.
As you very well pointed out, fellow-Proud Eritrean, the word "ethnicity" will not stop being used until the present Eritrean government does not stop classifying and persecuting people based on their "ethnicity".
From this perspective, dear brother, you have the qualification to define yourself as a "Proud Eritrean", unlike all those other fellow-Eritreans who pretend to have developed themselves above the ethnic level and try to downplay the policy of disintegration our present government is clearly practising among our ethnic groups in Eritrea.
One has to be a really "blind supporter" of this government if one does not see the present critical state of affairs in Eritrea and does not raise his or her concerned voice to cry for a radical change of government and politics in our country. We only wish that the GOE and its loyal supporters developed some sensitivity towards all Eritreans, regardless of their ethnicity and co-operate with the broad-minded Eritreans who are striving to forming a country and a society at peace with itself and with others.
Unfortunately the politics and the activities of the present Eritrean government so far can only be defined as leading to isolationism and a government "proud of" and engaged only in its external and internal conflicts characterised by its contraversial plans and programs based on its very damaging and counter-productive principles of "NHNAN ILAMANAN" and "HADE IZBI HADE LIBBI".
These are all slogans we consider to be very exclusionist ones.
We understand these principles to imply the development and implementation solely of the Eritrean Tigrian cultural heritage.
If therefore, "not talking of ethnicity" means adhering to one's de-culturalisation process, we categorically refuse it and hope that others too do the same.
The EPLF / PFDJ, whenever referring to certain Eritrean ethnic groups, particularly to the Kunama people, talks of "accommodating them".
What does this means?
Providing us with some kind of "lodging"? No, thank you.
We as Kunama, as well as every Eritrean ethnic group, do not need any "accommodation" as we are naturally "accommodated, occupying the land of our own ancestors.
We do not need, either to be forcefully moved, removed or displaced from our natural environment in order to make a room for the present government to carry out its well-known and so-defined plan of "mechanised agricultural development of the Gash / Setit region".
We consider such plan to be an obvious and purposely declared fight against our Kunama ethnic group and its land.
We appreciate and call for the agricultural development of our land but not at the cost of our very existence as and ethnic group.
If we Kunama, therefore, are to drop this "ethnic politics" once and for all, every Eritrean government, both the present as well as the future ones, have to recognise and guarantee us that each Eritrean ethnic group, including the Kunama, is as an important and integral part of the Eritrean society.
Facing the Kunama people to flee their native land is not to be explained and justified by an immoral plan to bring about an agricultural development in their territory. Our social and existential rights are of primary importance.
Only on the basis of the full recognition and protection of our Kunama ethnic group do we see ourselves as a part of the Eritrean society "united in its diversity".
The policy of "ethnic accommodation" is a policy of social "disintegration" and not of "unity".
Let our government and its supporters ponder upon this serious social reality:
We apologise to you, dear brother "Proud Eritrean", for having dragged on for so long, but it is an important message we had to send to whomever naively believes that the Eritrean society is so homogenised that plainly committed social injustices against certain ethnic groups are to be accepted or ignored so as to please the present Erittrean government's disastrous social, political and economic plans.
Sendig you our best greetings and wishes of good luck.
Yours, the RKPA, March 2001
Ref. N°. 154
Dear Yassin Frej,
you are quite right to ask us whether we are doing an "ethnic politics".
Our categorical answer is : "yes, we are and we will always be"and our reasons are that, the past and the present Eritrean authorities have always seen, considered and treated us, not as Eritreans, but they persecuted and are persecuting us only as "the Kunama ethnic group".
We will, therefore, be practising this "ethnic politics", even more intensively, until the Eritrean authorities recognise, respect and protect our human as well as our territotial rights.
Not knowing which Eritrean ethnic group you belong to , Mr. Y. Frej, we only hope that your own ethnic group had never suffered as much as ours did, otherwise, we believe, you too would have reacted differently if not exactly the same way.
Should you, Mr. Y. Frej and other fellow-Eritreans like you, think that, despite the on-going Eritrean government's injustices against the Kunama people, we, as their members, do not have the right to stand up, defend our ethnic group and claim for an equal status, then you all should mind your own business as we do ours.
The RKPA, March 2001
Ref. N° 151
awh123@mail.usack.ca<serw17@hotmail.co>
Dear nameless visitor of our Kunama Home Page,
with your very shameful and vulgar utterance, "fuck you people agame", you are unfortunately and stupidly insulting your own self, your own president, your own Tigrian brothers and sisters and your own entire Tigrian ethnic group and not us Kunama as you may be intending.
On our part, we feel extremely ashamend of having a fellow-Eritrean like you, with the lowest degree of incivility.
The RKPA; February 2001
Response to the „interview“of Ahmed Nasser by S. Younis
(Part I: The case of Kunamas & the role of
the ELF at this point)
By F.Solomon (Germany)
February 14, 2001 Ref. to Mr. F. Solomon
Dear M. F. Solomon,
first of all, we thank you very much for supporting and advancing our Kunama case by substantiating your arguments with our own historical material out of our web-site.
Secondly, we would like to bring to your attention the fact that, as you were so adamant to pin-point the atrocities committed against the Kunama people, by that extremist group of the ELF, you should have been equally adamant to mention and condemn also the on-going atrocities being committed by the government officials and by the military of the present PFDJ government.
If you have been following all our writings of the “Kunama Perspectives”, you will have read and noticed our statements that, what the present Eritrean government is doing today against the Kunama people in the Kunama land, have surpassed all the atrocities of the previous rulers and of their supporters in Eritrea.
Those rulers however, had never tried either to invade our land or had they persecuted our people to the point of forcing them to flee their own territory to look for a safe haven in the neighbouring and foreign countries.
Should you, therefore, Mr. F. Solomon, happen to be one of the loyal supporters of the present Eritrean government trying to deny and defend its deeds thus laying, all the responsibility for the plights of the Kunama people, only on the ELF, we would like to re-iterate your own points by using a similar language of yours and say that:
“nsscha’un natka gedifka nay kalot tzareb alocha”.
If you are not at all a supporter and defender of the present regime in Eritrea, then we apologise to you and ask you to excuse us.
Our last point is,
what is your undertone in repeatedly defining us: “so-called Kunama Liberation Front”?
Greetings to you,
The RKPA, February 2001
Ref.N°. 143
Dear Mohamednur Mohamud,
thank you very much indeed for supporting us by making the good point that, "The truth always hurts as it touches some deep hidden feelings".
We very often think that, those fellow-Eritreans who react to the material in our Home Page (Perspectives) more with insults than with reasonable arguments, are the ones who cannot take the truth nor can they tolerate anybody having an opinion different than theirs.
It is a sad reflection of the mentality of the present leadership in Eritrea.
"Don´t think and don´t let anybody else think differently".
To you brother M. Mohamud,
good health and mental prosperity.
The RKPA., February 2001
Ref. N° 144
Dear Ali Ahmed,
we are very happy to know that you have learnt something from our Kunama Homepage.
We appreciate your support and will work for the better future of Eritrea.
Many greetings to you brother Ali Ahmed.
The RKPA, February 2001
Ref. N°. 147
Dear Mehari Tesfai,
it is a great satisfaction and encouragement for us to experience that, our country Eritrea still breeds broad-minded, objective and understanding fellow-Eritreans like you brother who are able to see Eritrea in its entirety.
We thank you very much indeed for that.
We thank you also for supporting our idea of "equality between all ethnics":
Whether many fellow-Eritreans do agree or not, we Kunama believe that it is vital for all of us Eritreans to work together if we really inted to achieve a stable and lasting peace in our country.
We cannot otherwise think of a peaceful coexistence if we keep ostracising those ethnic groups we consider of a lower social class.
To you, our best greetings, brother.
The RKPA, February 2001
Ref.. N° 142
Mr. Mohamed Ali Osman,
who are you and what makes you think we "should rename the title,-from Kunama perspective - to from Wayane perspective"?
Unless you are called "alias", based on your name, we guess you originate either from Semhar or from our neighbouring region of Barka. If not, excuse us.
Whoever you are and wherever you from, as an Eritrean you should well-know, who the Kunama people are, where they live and, perhaps also, their history of being one of the first inhabitants of, not only Eritrea, but of Tigray too.
We wish you too could give us a similar background history of yours, but we believe you are short of that as you demonstrated in your illogical statement.
Since we are not at all obliged to take your suggestion as you do not specify your reasons for advising us to do so, we suggest you too should change your name and be called either "Hailemariam Teclehaimanot", or still better "Getachew Hailu".
By the way, what do you understand with the term "Wayane"?
Do you mean this "name" to be derogatory or socially discriminating?
Either or, you reveal to be socially immature, politically behind and educationally of low grade.
Let the Kunama and their "perspectives" be and remain what they are.
It is none of your business to interfere either in the titles or in the contents of our Kunama Home Page.
As we have never asked for your piece of advice, we reject, the same way, also your pretentious suggestion.
If we, true Eritreans "cannot be Eritreans" what could you be?
The RKPA, February 2001
Ref. N. x. RussomF91@cs.com
REPLY TO ( YOU ARE AGAME);
RUSSOM;
if you recognise, address and insult me, a Kunama, as an "AGAME", socially, I feel much better placed than your racist and full of racial hatred against your fellow-human beings.
Remember that, in the final analysis, you are insulting your own self, your own forefathers, your own parents, your own brothers and sisters, your own President and your own Tigrian race and not the Kunama of mine.
F. Mahmud January 2001
Ref. No. 141
Dear brother Mehary Bahta,
we thank you very much indeed for congratulating us for our Kunama Home Page and the information material we offer in it.
We are not at all surprised that, decent and broad-minded people like you, would in fact, be surprised that, the Kunama today, are showing characteristics which do not reflect the cultural heritage of their ethnic group.
We do not know precisely where you live and whether you are well informed on the plights the Kunama people in general are being subjected to by the present PFDJ government.
We have to confess to you that, we have time and again, pleaded to the present Eritrean government to take the necessary measures to control those elements who had been put in charge of the Kunama affairs in the Gash/Setit region, but they happened to have declared hatred against the Kunama people professing to eliminate them from the Eritrean soil. They are therefore committing all kinds of injustices until the Kunama, including us in diaspora, have reached the unfortunate state of openly taking an antagonistic “stand” not only against the “Eritrean politics” but above all, against the present government which, for us Kunama, has turned out to be a curse.
The Kunama are now fleeing their territory en-masse.
Up to these days, the number of the Kunama people registered as refugees in the border Ethiopian state of Tigray, is said to be well over 10.000. Why such an exodus?
We are asking ourselves and others, why should this happen to an ethnic group known as peaceful and conflict-avoiding? To an ethnic group which had never caused problems to others either by invading their land nor by trying to impose its own culture.
This is exactly what the PFDJ government is doing to the Kunama people, on daily bases, trying to impose its Eritrean Tigrian cultural and territorial domination.
Dear Mehary, you stated that you “never knew anybody in Eritrea felt that way about another Eritrean”. As we have already pointed out, we do not know where you live and which part of Eritrea you come from, but let us only assume that, in a matter of six-seven years, the Kunama people had invaded your home region at a rate three times bigger than the inhabitants of your region;
they changed the names of your villages giving them new Kunama names;
they occupied the most fertile parts of your region;
they bought and sold, at will, any piece of your land they could put their hands on forcefully silencing any voice raised against such injustices.
How would you and your people react o all that, brother Mehary?
You asked whether “after all the struggle we went through against the Ethiopian government, aren’t we better off now than we were then?
Based on the above reasons, we Kunama, categorically answer “NO!”
The Kunama today are experiencing the worst times of their entire history
Dear brother, Mehary Bahta, we really hope you understand our disappointment and anger against our own government for causing such a social havoc in our country.
We only hope and pray that, the PFDJ government will soon come to its senses and spare our Kunama people from facing still further calamities.
To you brother, our warm greetings.
Yours, the RKPA, February 2001
Reference to N°.127
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
To whom who has come up with the outrageous idea that we Kunama "dream and blackmail of the next Rwanda, of ethnic federalism", let us respond that, he or she does not and cannot understand the complexity of the Eritrean multi-ethnicity, let alone trying to understand and compare it with that of Rwanda, a country miles away from us.
As far as we Kunama are concerned, you anonymous Eritrean, have no the slightest idea of what a real "ethnic federalism" would imply and look like, if we, rather responsible and moderate Eritreans, did not have, among us, precisely those decayed individuals like you who rot the whole of our society. To accuse us Kunama of "crying foul" for raising our voices equals to stating that, in Eritrea no one should stand up for one's human and social rights no matter how often and to what degree these are trampled on and offended and, please, come up with reasonable arguments to prove that we, "are siding with agame".
Get also your mathematics right that "Mengistu" did not reign for so long. If you cannot reckon you cannot reason either.
You tell us: "you want to join Woyane you are not that far you just need to cross the Mereb river". Should that be the truth, for us Kunama, it is much nearer and easier to cross the Gash than the Mereb river. Please, go back to a classroom for retarded to acquire some better Geography and the basic of the English language.
You are very right to state that, "Eritrea is for EVERY eritran" but the Kunama land is absolutely not for every Eritrean in the same way as "Dankalia", Akkele-Guzai, Hamasien and Serae have never been and will never be for every Eritrean. By the way, "Dankalia" is a derogatory name but we believe it is too high for your itellect. For an Afari and a Kunama, to travel all the way to either "barentu or Assab", to open a "business" is just as far and foreign as crossing the "Mereb river to join Woyane". How do you spell and utter this name? "Barentu" is our regional capital town and therefore, it should be respected and spelt with a capital "B".
"The problem with people of your kind is you want every thing on a silver PALLTER". We Kunama might want everything on a "silver plate", but surely "every thing" could poison us if we had it on your "Pallter" as we are unable to figure out what it is. If our own fellow_Kunama keep praising and encouraging us for struggling on their behalf and for their rights, who are you to tell us to "leave them alone?" You rather leave us alone.
Though we too live in the west, we keep accusing and we shall always be accusing those other Eritreans like you who, having used all means and ways to escape from the Rwanda-like Eritrea, have nevertheless the audacity and the cruelty to condemn their own countrymen and women to live there under appalling social conditions. Before telling us to "go back and fight" for our people, what are you doing for your own people? You should be profoundly ashamed of even opening your mouth, but having a close mind, you can only and may as well carry on letting you very uneducated and foul mouth to "blab" freely.
Unfortunately, we cannot go back home and "fight, help, teach, educate and heal"our people because, someone like you, possessed by a crass idiocy, is preventing not only some of us Kunama but also every able Eritrean (and not an unable like you) who could be an absolute asset for our own country and people.
Finally, dear sensible fellow-Eritrean, it is the kind of divisive, destructive and poisonous ideas and attitudes of such pseudo-Eritreans like this one who are really sowing venom amid our own Eritrean society, ruining our good name in The Horn, in our African Continent and in the whole world. WE have to and must confront such pestiferous elements with decisive words of condemnation or else totally distance ourselves from the influence of such obtuse mind if we Eritreans, genuinely strive to prevent th Rwanda-kind of Eritrea such people are preparing it for.
To create our national unity in diversity, we need much brighter, moderate, open-minded and far-sighted than the usual "Ykalos and Warsays" who are prone to conflicts, talk, write about and dream of wars only. It will not in fact, be a sane "ethno-federalism, multi-partitism"or any other "ism" which could lead us to such social, political and economic disasters but the very idiocyncrasy of the individuals of this calibre.
The RKPA
January 2001
Ref. N°. 134
Hallo Mr. Bizen,
vielen Dank für Ihre moralische Unterstützung und Aufmerksamkeit. Die aktuelle Situation betrifft ganze Volk in Eritrea. Deshalb müssen wir gemeinsam alles tun, damit unserem Volk geholfen werden kann.
Mr. Bizen, es gibt so viele verschiedene Meinungen die wir akzeptieren sollten. Wir hören gerne wieder von Ihnen.
RKPA, Januar 2001
Reference N°.133
Dear Zecarias Habte-ab
we have read and re-read your comments on our website and its content.
We thank you for finding it "interesting and view-broadening".
We fully understand your surprises and concerns about our statements as regard to the conduct of some of your fellow-Eritrean Tigrian ethnic group members.
We hope you too understand some of our emotional reactions and hard wording.
It would in fact, be very concerning to us too if someone generalised the Kunama character based on the bad conduct of few Kunama he or she might have encountered and known.
The fact is, dear brother Zecarias, that today, in Eritrea, the PFDJ government is carrying out a socio-cultural, political and economic "Tigrignalisation"which is worrying not only us Kunama, but many of the other Eritrean ethnic groups.
It is a reality that our people are experiencing and dealing with on everyday basis.
It is therefore, obvious that, the evil activities of the present Eritrean government, ruled by a single man who has openly declared of representing not only a "party but a culture", are interpreted in relation with and as an extention of the whole Tigrigna ethnic group and culture.
The Kunama "generalisation" of the character and behaviour of the Eritrean Tigrians has to be considered and understood in the light of the long history of injustices committed different members of the Eritrean Tigrian ethnic group at different times. The present ones are only the culmination of the old times.
It is not, therefore, about people like you, brother Zecarias, our "emotional reactions" are directed to, but to all those, (and they are well-aware of this) who are carrying out a declared compaign of wiping out the Kunama race.
We apologise to you and to all those other good-hearted, good-intentioned and very broad-minded Eri-Tigrians who are really doing their best to make amends to the Kunama for the past and present persecutions by some of their members.
As for the land of the Good God has given us, you are right that, we human beings are only administrators, but without usurping the rights of others.
The term "ashamed of" has been used to describe only those Eritrean-Tigrians who, following the petty politics of the government they are loyal to, use terms like: "Agame, Weyane" and so on, to denigrate and look down on their own ethnic group members who, due to human-made decisions, happen to be politically and geographically, distanced but occupying, as you too admit, the very heart-land of our history and civilisation.
To you, brother Zecarias, a warm greetings.
Yours, The RKPA, January 2001
Reference N°.131
Ismail Adem,
where from did you get the foreign idea that, we Kunama, by proposing a regional or an "ethnic-federalism" in Eritrea, are trying to divide our country?
If you yourself "believe in one Eritrea with 9 cultures", are you not in fact, supporting us and our idea that, Eritrea is already regionally, ethnically and cultural / linguistically well-established in its "unity in diversity"?
That is exactly what we Kunama are preaching.
Please, take up some ethnological courses.
If you believe in the existence of only "3 religions in Eritrea", (by the way, which ones are they"? You are an absolutely narrow-minded person as you fail to recognise that, the one Eritrean who does not profess any of those 3 religions, has also a religion of his or her own and there may be many of such Eritreans.
Please, attend some courses on social sciences.
The RKPA
Reference N° 132
Ermias Stefanos,
Please, read our response to Ismail Adem.
The "Parrot-fever (= psittacosis) or just "parrotting" is a sign of rotting.
The RKPA, January 2001 |
