Kunama Perspective
Back in the end of 2014 beginning of 2015 there was a conference held between the Kunama people and kunama mena (VKP/KAM) with regard to the Kunama land and Kunama people.
We Kunama had made our stand clear from the beginning that the Kunama land is a traditional land inheritance, ownership, distribution and administration system, they own their native and ancestral land, as members of the Kunama people, and therefore that, their Kunama ethnicity is the absolute and rightful owner of their land.
The Kunama ethnic-members, however, are free to occupy, anywhere, the land they need for building, houses, hamlets and temporary and seasonal encampments; for cultivating their various and varied crops and, leaving free, vast grazing chunks of land for their numerous and, equally, varied live-stock.
The Kunama people do neither buy, sell nor in any way trade with their land, they being only the rightful users, but, individually, not being the absolute owners of their ancestral land.
But today this is not the case in the Kunama land. The Kunama people’s traditional land inheritance, ownership and administration systems are in line, with the “Resolution 61/295, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, on 13 September 2007“,which, under the title of “Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to their Native Lands“, states:
“1.-Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired.
2.- Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, develop and control the lands, they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired.
3.- States shall give legal recognition and protection to these lands, territories and resources. Such recognition shall be conducted with due respect to the customs, traditions and land tenure systems of the indigenous peoples concerned“.
We are reposting to remind those that are gearing to administer Eritrea in the near future not to be surprised by these claims. WE hope the coming new Eritrea and its rulers to respect each ethnic rights according to their traditional and beliefs so that we can live in harmony.
At the present time, Eritrea being ruled by an absolute and ruthless dictator, who lacks every regard, to us Kunama who, though hearing and listening to the loud cries of our Kunama people voices at home, being overpowered by the land-grabbing drives of the regime’s forces and supporters, are incapacitated to come to their help. For the time-being, for us, it remains only to state and re-iterate that the Kunama native and ancestral land is the absolute property of the Kunama ethnicity, and that the Kunama ethnic-members have an absolute and limitless right to use their native land, unhindered.
Concerning the “Kunama People today the Kunama people, at home, are living the darkest times of their entire history, and that, this phenomenon is what is causing many Kunama urban, as well rural population, to abandon, for the very first time in their long history, their native and ancestral land, and seek refuge in the neighboring countries of Ethiopia and of The Sudan. Many Kunama, today, live, as refugees, in Ethiopia, (Shimelba), and in various refugee camps, in the Sudan. Many others are resettled in third countries: Australia, Canada, Europe and USA. Those who are unable to leave their home state and family are facing great pain from the government itself and their supporters. Those that are new settlers ignorant to the tradition of the Kunama people and generosity, taking advantage of their generosity are mistakenly translating it to weakness and are causing great harms to their neighbors and to whoever they come in contact with. Is, this the Eritrea we want for ourselves and our children?
AS a Kunama native we would like to share our plights with you non Kunama Eritreans and raise the awareness of our helplessness and demand your utmost support so we can enjoy the little freedom that you get at home to trickle down to us.
This was posted by VKP/KAM in (January 31, 2015). |
