This is getting more and more interesting, indeed. I hope a historian
is actually taking notes and that someday, from the archives of dehai,
an interesting mongraph can be edited and published based on our
exchanges on Hamid Idris Awate.
I thank Solomon for providing us with yet another rare eye-witness
account. This definitely enriches our understanding of Awate and the
definitive period under discussion. However, it also brings more
questions to my mind.
First, Markakis recounts that Awate was sent for training to Italy.
Further, he tells us of a letter written in Italian by Awate,
documented, to Idris Mohammed Adem in Cairo. I also definitely remember
seeing a copy of a document written and signed in Italian by Awate to
the authorities in Aqordat requesting for arms to defend the people
against raids from shifta in Wolqait. This was published in
commemoration of baHti meskerem in a 1989 or 1990 September issue of
"Sagm," the EPLF monthly published in Tigrinya and Arabic before
liberation. I don't have access to Sagm issues right now, but perhaps
someone can double-check that for us. I remember that particular issue
because it had a striking picture of Awate--not the more popular one of
him astride a camel during his late years, but on of his young days when
he was an Askari in the Italian colonial army. There he was, a handsome
shining Black Prince, in boots and khaki uniform, sitting straight atop
a white horse, with a confident look in his eyes, the image of the
liberator that he was to become in the future!
Second, a scholar worth his salt such as Markakis is unlikely to
confuse Ibrahim Toteel with Hamid Idris Awate. As a matter of fact,
Toteel is also featured at length in that book along with other ELF
leaders such Ahmed Nasser, Abdallah Idris, Herouy Tedla, Azein Yassin,
etc. He correctly identifies Toteel as a Nara.
On the connotation of the word "Barya," I am not so sure if the word
in Tigre has the same meaning as it does in Tigrinya, i.e, slave. I
suspect it does, as the two languages are closely related, sharing the
same origin in Ge'ez. I would like to share with you an interesting
anecdote realted to this issue. In the summer of 1989, I had an
interesting and most memorable conversation with the venerable patriot,
Ato Wolde-Ab Wolde-Mariam. Ato Wolde-Ab had come for a visit to New
York, and he was staying for the night at a friend's apartment. Towards
the end of the evening, as we were watching a cultural song and dance
video, and I commented that an exceptionally attrative performance was
the traditional style of the Nara people. Seeing a questioning look in
aboy Wolde-Ab's face, I hastened to add that the Nara were formerly
referred to in the front's literature as "Barya" but now the term of
referrence used for the ethnic group was Nara. He said to me, "You know,
back in the 1930s, when I was a young teacher fresh out of school in the
Kunama area, I used to argue with my supervisors that we should not
refer to this people by such an offensive name as 'Barya.' I was sure
that they would not call themselves in their own language by that name."
I was struck by the man's sense of justice of at such an early age when
it could be said that the national consciousness in our people's psyche
was almost non-existent.
Finally, I am pleased to point out that on September 1, 1994, the
remains of Hamid Idris Awate were gathered near Haikota and buried with
high national honor in a public ceremony in which the president and many
other veterans of the struggle were present. The site now has a monument
appropriate to the memory of Barka's most famous son. A complete and
accurate history of Awate, however, remains to be written.
zKrn mogosn nsema'etat ertra!
ms msganan senay tmnitn,
Elias Amare Gebrezgheir
Lawrenceville, NJ