Warning:
This message is long and boring, you are better off stopping
right here. Otherwise continue at your won risk.
Mary Wrote:
>Sending the above to all dehaiers makes a foreigner in dehai dying to
>know what "sgay sgaKa", and "Hamley-HamlKa" mean (not to mention
>"SD-ROC"and "muhran akal"!). Please tell so we can "think about
>those two words he used" that say it all. Probably the full meaning
>is lost in translation.
merHaba (Hi) Mary and Dehai:
You see Mary, I had vowed to supply an English translation for every
non-English word I use in this post, but I am already feeling unease
about the wisdom of it. I am failing to even translate a word as easy
and as sweet as "merHaba". The only "bone-dry" word I could come up
with is "Hi". Every Dehaier who knows what the two words: "Hi" and
"merHaba" mean can agree with me that I have failed miserably at doing
justice to the word. I could of course use "welcome", but neither the
context of my use nor the message I want to convey is carried by
"welcome". In addition the English "welcome" has an "attitude"
problem. I don't know with the other English speakers, like the
Canadians, British and Australians, but with Americans "welcome" lacks
the main components of "merHaba": joy, cheer, and happiness. In fact,
at home, I mean in Eritrea, or even costal Kenya, you can associate
"merHaba" with the genuine and generous smile that accompany it (not
with the "see my denture" type of smile that we see around here.:-))
In any case, my ignorance of the English language and the natural
differences of the two languages is making it hard to translate
Tigrigna words or phrases into English. Please accept my apology.
Back to the main point. For the meaning of "SD-RSOC" or a permutation
thereof, ask the host of the MaGua group, Saleh. I used it because I
saw it in the title of his post. Also he is the professor of SD-RSOC
not me. The same with "mhuran akal". This too is his word. He loves to
use it, specially in conversations; AKWay (farmer) and Simba (Lion)
can testify to that. I think it stands for Eritreans who are so
educated to the point where the "education" had got all the way up to
their head. These folks are so "educated" that in order to give room
to the "education" they keep accumulating, they have to delete some
memory space. A memory space that was holding basic stuff like
identity, culture, language and what have you. This is, I think,
Saleh's definition of the two words. Of course he can correct me if he
thinks I am wrong or I am putting words on his fingertips.:-) For lack
of better word I will also guess it might also stand for "elite". Word
for word it means "educated body". Could it, by any chance, stand for
Eritreans who can write/speak better English, Arabic or French than
they can Tigre, Tigrigna or any of the other native tongues of
Eritrea? Or Eritreans who can give the exact coordinates of "The Mona
Lisa" of Leonardo da Vinci at The Louvre, or the dimensions of the Taj
Mahal, but have no clue where the Shrine of Sheikh Muzemil, or Mariam
DaArit are. What about Eritreans who can quote you Shakespeare,
Jefferson, Madison, Marx, Lenin, ... left and right but who can not
utter one word of Ibrahim Sultan, Woldeab Woldemariam, Bahta Hagos, or
Osman Buri. Please note here I am only guessing; Saleh the Professor
of conservative thinking is the real owner of the word; who better than
him can elaborate it?
Similarly the originator of "sgay-sigaKa" was Negga the Ras Teffarian;
he should be the one to translate it. This means I am left with the
humble word "Hamley-HamlKa" or out of being "pc" "Hamley-HamlKi". In
any case, let me leave "Hamely-HamlKa" aside and mumble my way through
the explanations of the possible origins of "sgay-sgaKa". Again, I am
going to give my version and understanding of it , Negga or any body
for that matter can take it from there.
Before European-want-to-be mentality invaded us, we used to eat our food
barehanded and from a common plate. No forks or knives were used. The
"fork-knife" etiquette (or was it "eatiquette"?), is some thing for
the (abzi-niere abtiniere) Asmarino's to show off. I believe God made
our hands in the shape of five-pronged fork, among other things, to be
used for eating. But having no fork or knife doesn't mean we didn't
have our own etiquette. Yes we had and that includes not eating
"ASmi" (bone) that was not given to you. If the person who related
this story in Dehai was trying to make a point against democracy given
to people, I agree, but he should have used another analogy. I don't
care where some one was, Europe or Mars, when he/she goes home he/she
has to confirm to the etiquette of the culture. I am tired and sick of
people who bend backwards to conform to foreign cultures and practices
but are very negligent and down right arrogant about observing decent
cultural values. If the Eritrean-European did indeed do what we were
told he did, he should carry a stone and dive into the Red Sea out of
shame.
By the way eating with hand is true for "Tayta" + "Zigni", (If
democracy is not like Zigni, then is it like "Andiel"; where are you
botanists? I really don't know what the name of this deadly plant is.
I have no idea why people who didn't care to define democracy were
objecting to its comparison with Zigni.) "GeAt" + "Tesmi", "qebat we
beharm" or "tukshm" are also good if you eat them barehaned . (Let's
not worry about the meanings of all these; they are all Eritrean
foods. For the moment we can call them any thing we like. What about
yummy home-cooked meal? But please not hamburger! The latter is so
cheap that is why they are trying to sell it for three score cents
less a nickle.) Eating from a common plate is very common in many
cultures but I have no idea why it is rare in the west. Does any one
know? For those who might like to know "milk" is also drank from a
common container. Have we stopped to think why people at home say
"fiiiiit" when they drink milk? What about the saying "se'an fiiit
gulTamo yimesl"? (Sorry Mary, as usual, I am taking off tangent.)
It is from this setting of communal eating that the word "sgay-sgaKa"
derives its origin. Assume you have been eating from the same plate
and there is a morsel left. Traditionally it is always left for the
other person with you on the table, oops I meant floor. You don't take
it; it is a no no. You have to insist that the other person takes it.
If you are lucky the person will insist that you take it as well.
After this a lively interaction called "weTeT meTeT, bejaKa, bejaKi"
will continue. Then if one of you happen to swear "sgaKa" , literally
"your flesh", (but it means "as I wouldn't eat your flesh, I am not
going to eat this piece.") then it is the end of it all. The person
who didn't swear has no choice but to take it.
Can we see how this fits in when it comes to holding public office? In
Eritrean tradition people neither campaigned nor ran for leadership
positions. It was the village that begged and pressured an able person
to be the leader. This used to be called "midaQ qoSli" meaning
electing. If this was not a form of democracy then what is democracy?
Negga had found fault and justly so at Adkeme-mlgae on the way it
dealt with "slaves", granted that is unacceptable. This and other
weakness aside, we have to admit that, that law as well as the other
laws had a lot of democratic values. Some might think human rights is
a new import from the west. Think twice. Any one who pays close
attention to the traditional laws will find out that beyond human
rights, there were even animal rights in Eritrean laws. As it was
inhumane and illegal to detain a person without charges, it was also
illegal by Hgi Logo Chiwa to detain an animal without charges. In fact
it is even more detail than this. Read it and you will be surprised.
A true "sgay-sigaKa" based democracy is what is needed in Eritrea. A
democratic system that brings not only political justice but also
social and economic justice and rights. As I tried to mention above, it
was unheard of and was considered arrogant for a person to
self-nominate or campaign for power. I have no idea what will happen
to our humane culture when campaigning for one's own position and
resume-writing begins. I believe people should volunteer for service
and this was part of the Eritrean culture, but they should never
campaign for power.
What we had and I hope we have and will continue to have is a culture
of "for you" not "for me".It is this culture of thinking for the other
person more than for one's self that the Eritrean culture encourages
or at least used to encourage. It was this "sgay-sgaKa" culture that
made tens of thousands of Eritreans to die for freedom. It was this
basic unselfish principle that made them sacrifice their lives and
some are still sacrificing. How else would we explain it? While some
were busy making money and pursuing "education" people where fighting
from fox-holes and were giving their lives. Had they thought of the
shop they could have opened in Edaga Hamus, or the degree they could
have earned, would we reach this stage? Had they had no "sgay-sgaKa" I
don't think we would have achieved victory. Some might not like to
hear it, but many aspects of Eritrean culture had democracy rooted in
"sgay-sgaKa" and is no less undemocratic than its counterpart here in
the western world. Democracy as we know it in the west is
self-centered, while democracy at home, the home-grown one, is
community centered. While the democracy of the west seems to be a good
catalyst for the decaying of the family and society, democracy at home
can be used to build and strengthen society.
Granted there were some abhorrable practices that have to go and most
are already gone. But we are better off to take off from own
experiences than that of outsiders. Shouting multi-party, the craze of
the day, just like communism was a decade or two ago, and advocating
party politics for the sake of looking like others is not going to
redeem us. What will redeem us is looking inside and making
grassroots change. Why is that people who talk about political
equality never talk about economic equality? They don't want to even
consider that economic justice and democracy should permeate every
level of our society. Can there be a true democracy without bread? I
say let's struggle for both as a unit not separate entities. Some love
to have "democracy" when it comes to politics but want "dictatorship
by the rich" when it comes to the economy. They tell us "free market",
will save us, to me free market means "exploitation" nothing else.
Finally "Hamley-HamlKa" (my vegetable-your vegetable) was meant to be
a joke, not a true substitute for "sgay-sgaKa".
-- Ghidewon Ghidewon@vcu.edu
** To UNSUBSCRIBE from dehai, send mail to: majordomo@primenet.com ** ** with the following text in the body of your mail: ** ** unsubscribe dehai your-email-address **