First of all, Hamid Awate was NOT from Nara(Baria) tribe. Unless, your
sources were thinking of Ibrahim Totil. Hamid Idris Awate was from the smallest
tribe of BinAmir called `habereda'. This tribe lived mainly in the Gash
region - South of Haicota/Tessenei down to OmHager, and between the borders of
the Sudan in the west & Ethiopia in the east. Beside the BinAmir, the Lebbet &
the Kunama/Bazen inhabit the area.
Initially, Hamid Awate was shifta/rebel. As it was said by a dehair,
his main purpose was to fight the Hadendua & Zubed who were coming from the
Sudan into Eritrea to steal cattle and camel. When he succeeded in stoping the
thieves from coming to his area, he became self-appointed governor of Gash
region. People liked him & believed in his judgement. There was no tax levied,
but people provided free food whenever he and his group arrive. Hamid was
totaly against any shifta member who was using his fire arm to take anything
from the local people. He use to tell his men and others that if they were
brave enough, to go and fight the Hadendua & Zubed of the Sudan.
Beside Awate's group, there were two other groups in the lowlands -
that's Barka and Gash region. One group was led by MoHamed Hamid and the other
group was led by Ali BinTaz. MoHamed Hamid was as popular as Hamid Awate. his
area of fighting the British Police was in the Barka region - Akurdat and
surroundings. In the late 40th he was defeated and caught by the British
Police. Did they kill him? No. He was made the district officer(DO) in
Kerkebet, a small town not very far from Akurdat.
The two men, Awate & Hamid respected each other very much, but not Ali
BinTaz. BinTaz's group was robbers. Hamid Awate disliked BinTaz so much that he
chased him & his group out of Gash region whenever was possible. BinTaz was
sending Awate threatening letters written in Italian language. Awate had fair
knowledge of Italian, but could not read or write the language. I am not sure
who was reading the letters to him, but one of the letters was read to Awate
by my father. My father use to farm and trade in the Gash area I mentioned
above. The story I am presenting today I was told by no one else, but my father
and listening to him telling the same stories to other people over & over
again.
Correction: There was a group of four shiftas in the Barka/Gash region
and not three only. The fourth one was a kunama group, from Barentu area, led
by Kalala. For your surprise, he was killed by Awate himself in the area that
was declared to be Awate's. More or less around the same time there were well
known shifta leaders in other parts of Eritrea. Among them, were Hagos Temnewo
of SenHit, and Asresei of Seraye.
In early 50th, the Nigus(king) of Ethiopia declared mercy on all
shiftas. People were tired of Italian & British rule and believed that this
African (nigus) was God fearing leader. Awate stoped being a rebel. He had
great hope for peace to be restored in his area. He(Awate) got married and
settled in a place not very far from a small village called Gherset - a Kunama
village. He had one son. I believe he's still alive. In the fall of 1959, Major
Abdulgadir Maselem of the Gherset police station got an order from Tessenei to
threaten and /or arrest Awate. Major Abdulgadir sent Awate three letters,
telling him to come and report to the police station on his own or else...;
indicating the third letter was the last and final one before forcing
themselves into his place & arrest him. Nobody knows Major Abdulgader's intent
as to why he did not go ahead and arrested awate without warning him, but
people believed that he did not want to arrest Awate, and wanted him to leave
the area, which he did.
Awate took his `abu Ashera'(gun), left his family behind and went back
to the wilderness. Imagin folks, at that time when no one knew as to what was
going to be done, he left his own son & his wife behind to fight for his own
and his people freedom. One thing that I can never forget is what the police
force in Tessenei did to Awate's wife and her son, an incident I witnessed
myslef. I believe it was in the rainy season of 1960. I was a young boy. The
Tessenei police force sent some of its officers to Gherset to arrest Awate's
wife and bring her into town. She came with her son. They also brought Awate's
cattle, sheep, goats and horses to be sold at an auction. The Cruelty: the
policemen ordered Awate's wife and her son, who was about 6 years old, to stand
in the blaze of the sun, while they were conducting auctions. The policemen who
who were in charge of the auction were Eritreans, and the auctioneer was a
Somali. I can hardly imagine how I would feel, if the same thing had happened
to my family.
Thanks,
Solomon Paulos
AFTERTHOUGHT:
The South, South-East of Eritrea is mainly inhabited by Kunama/Bazen
tribe. They are known as Bazen among tigre language speakers & Baza in arabic.
As I described above, the area I am talking about is south of Haicota/Tessenei,
about one hour drive from either town, and north of OmHager. And east of Galuj
to the border of Ethiopia. Just to enlighten you on this, I am not talking
about Barentu/Tokhombia Kunamas. If you go south of Haicota or south east of
Tessenei you would find small villges like Fanco, Arguji(Upper & lower),
Gherset(Hamid Awate's home village), Janitti, Odar, Inguleb, Iyifafa, Akaten,
Emelli, Magula or Magbula, and Tabeldia. All these villages, with the exception
of Tabeldia, are kunama villages. They are not very far from Galuj. Few months
ago I had no oportunity to respond to Araya Kasa's postings on Kunama people,
but I remember him saying: `two kunama men appeared from nowhere'. That
happened, I believe, while Araya was in an area between Galuj and OmHager.
Their tradition & social life is more or less like the Barentu kunama, but their
language is slightly differnt. Religion wise, they are animist, but those who
practice religion do believe in Islam. No Christians. Just like their brothers
and sisters in Barentu area, they are very good in handcraft & very hard
working people. Although they own cattle, sheep and goats, their main source of
income is through farming.