The Other Side of Eritrea

What happens when the most influential voices of a nation emerge from places society dismissed? In this episode of the Eritrawi Podcast, we explore Christine Matzke's groundbreaking research on the women who transformed Eritrean music, theatre, and national culture. From the humble suwa houses of Asmara to the grand stages of the city's theatres, women such as Amleset Abay, Tsehaitu Beraki...

What happens when a society's most important stories survive not in archives, but in memory? In this episode of The Other Side of Eritrea, we explore the history of Eritrean theatre, performance, and cultural memory through the groundbreaking research of Christine Matzke. At the center of the discussion is Zehaleve (1947), one of the most important early Tigrinya plays, produced during a perio...

Missionaries and the Making of Colonial Notables How did institutions created to strengthen colonial rule help lay the foundations of Eritrean national consciousness? In this episode of The Other Side of Eritrea , we explore the unexpected intellectual legacy of European Catholic and Protestant missions in colonial Eritrea. Mission schools were designed to produce skilled workers, translators, cle...

In August 1921, a devastating earthquake struck the Red Sea port city of Massawa, damaging large sections of one of Eritrea's most historic urban centers. For a moment, it seemed possible that centuries of architectural and cultural heritage might disappear forever. This episode explores the history of Massawa before the earthquake, from its distinctive Red Sea architecture and coral-stone bui...

This episode of the Eritrawi Podcast explores the profound socioeconomic transformation of Eritrea during and after the First World War between 1914 and 1922. Although far from the European frontlines, Eritrea was deeply affected by the war as Italy extracted livestock, labor, and resources for its colonial campaigns in Libya. The episode examines the devastating impact of wartime requisitions, in...

This episode of the Eritrawi Podcast examines how Italian colonial rule reshaped Eritrea through military-driven urban planning between 1890 and 1941. Cities were not built for organic growth, but for control, designed around fortifications, surveillance, and strategic dominance. At the center of this system were the askaris, indigenous soldiers positioned as a buffer class between a small Europea...

Hade Zanta – The Conscript Rewriting the Foundations of African Literature Episode 3This episode of the Eritrawi Podcast In this final episode of Hade Zanta – The Conscript , the story follows Tuquabo as he returns home after surviving the brutality of colonial war. But return does not mean restoration. The village he longed for is no longer the one he left. His mother is gone. The rhythms of dail...

Hade Zanta – The Conscript Rewriting the Foundations of African Literature Episode 2 This episode of the Eritrawi Podcast follows Tuquabo, an Eritrean ascari navigating the psychological reality of colonial warfare. Forced into a system built on control, violence, and obedience, he begins to confront a deeper conflict not on the battlefield but within himself. As the campaign intensifies, Tuquabo...

This episode of the Eritrawi Podcast begins a three part series on one of the earliest and most overlooked works of African literature, Hade Zanta The Conscript, written in 1927 by Ghebreyesus Hailu in Tigrinya and later translated into English. Predating and challenging the commonly accepted timeline of African literature, this novel was long overlooked by Western academia. It follows an Eritrean...

In 1937, Amelia Earhart attempted one of the most ambitious journeys in aviation history, a flight around the world along the equator. This episode of Eritrawi Podcast follows a rarely discussed segment of that journey: her transit along the Red Sea coast, from Massawa to Assab in Eritrea. Drawing on archival records from Purdue University, historical flight itineraries, and press bulletins, we re...

This episode on Eritrawi Podcast explores the evolution of literacy and print culture in Eritrea through the lens of early printed materials, private letters, and recent preservation efforts. Drawing on the work of historian Dr. Massimo Zaccaria and the Research and Documentation Center in Asmara, we examine a major digitization project that documented over 750 local titles printed between 1867 an...

This Episode on Eritrawi Podcast During World War I, far from the battlefields of Europe, a factory in Eritrea was feeding an empire. In Asmara, a canned meat operation became a critical supply hub for Italian soldiers, processing livestock and sustaining military logistics across the region. On paper, it was efficient. Industrial. Controlled. But on the ground, a different story was unfolding. Li...

This episode on Eritrawi Podcast In the early 20th century, automobiles arrived in Eritrea as foreign machines, designed in Europe and built for completely different roads and conditions. But in Eritrea, something remarkable happened. Eritrean mechanics did not simply repair these vehicles. They reinvented them. Inside small garages in Asmara and across the country, Eritrean mechanics learned to:...

This episode of Eritrawi Podcast : In 1941, during the collapse of Italian East Africa, one of the most extraordinary and little known campaigns of World War II unfolded in Eritrea. Led by cavalry officer Amedeo Guillet , a force of Eritrean soldiers and mounted fighters launched a desperate resistance against advancing Allied forces. Outnumbered and facing modern mechanized armies, they fought wi...

This episode of Eritrawi Podcast uncovers the extraordinary and nearly forgotten story of Fessehatsion Beyene, an Eritrean pilot whose life collided with Fascist Italy, colonial Somalia, and the racial laws of the 1930s. Through archival records, military files, and official decrees, we trace his journey from decorated colonial soldier to political liability and the legal battle over his son, Clau...

Domenico Mondelli was born Wolde Selassie in Eritrea. He would go on to become the first Black pilot in Italian military history and later, an Army Corps General. Serving in the Regio Esercito during World War I, Mondelli distinguished himself as a reconnaissance pilot and assault troop commander, earning multiple medals for valor. He crossed no man’s land under artillery fire. He flew missions ov...

Before oil. Before global tech supply chains. There was pearls — a commodity that shaped empires, trade networks, and individual destinies. In this episode, we uncover the story of Al Nahari, an Eritrean pearl merchant from Massawa who wasn’t just successful, he was a global strategist long before “globalization” had a name. Traveling to Paris in 1924, investing in early aviation like Air Orient (...

How did we truly conquer the Earth? 🌍 For decades, the "Out of Africa" story seemed simple: a single group of early humans left East Africa and populated the globe. But new evidence is shattering that timeline. From mysterious stone tools in the Arabian desert to 100,000-year-old teeth found in Chinese caves, the real story of our ancestors is far more complex—and far more cinematic—tha...

For decades, the civilization of the Northern Horn of Africa has been explained through an external lens, attributed to South Arabian immigrants rather than to indigenous African societies. This interpretation did not emerge from evidence alone, but from long-standing Euro-centric assumptions that struggled to recognize African authorship and innovation. This episode challenges that narrative usin...

The Sabean Man’s Burden, for centuries, Eritrea’s ancient history was explained through an outsider’s lens attributed to South Arabian or Sabean immigrants rather than to indigenous African societies. This narrative, rooted in colonial era Orientalist thinking, portrayed local populations as passive recipients of foreign civilization and was later reused to serve modern political and nationalist a...

Adulis, Conclusion, Chapter 7. The political economy of the ancient port city of Adulis in the Northern Horn of Africa during the Classical Age (1000 BCE–700 CE). The author argues against the prevailing Aksumite model, which asserts that Aksum dominated the regional world economy, instead proposing the Adulis model, which positions Adulis as an autonomous center within a network of power dynamics...

Aromatic Trade At Adulis Chapter 6 Adulis, the ancient Red Sea trade in aromatics, focusing specifically on the highly valued resins frankincense and myrrh, which were considered necessities for religious and medicinal practices in antiquity. The chapter concentrates on the pivotal role of Adulis and its connection to the ancient trade partner of Egypt, the legendary land of Punt. Utilizing a comb...

Production Of War Elephants at Adulis Chapter 5: Adulis was the primary center for the production of African war elephants (Laxodonata cyclotis) used by major polities during the classical era. The analysis first details how these highly intelligent, non-domesticated animals required a resource-intensive, cooperative process involving specialized mahouts, making capture and training more practical...

Assessing Critical Artifacts at Adulis Chapter 4 examines critical archaeological artifacts from the site of Adulis to challenge the assumption that the city was merely a port dominated by Aksum, arguing instead that Adulis was a central power in the ancient world economy. The analysis focuses on three key data sets that support this thesis, beginning with the circulation patterns of coinage, wher...

Energetics Study At Adulis Chapter 3:A study aimed at determining whether the ancient city of Adulis functioned as an independent economic center or merely a periphery of the Aksumite world. The methodology relies heavily on energetics studies, which quantify the labor time (Person-Days) invested in construction to deduce household wealth and social stratification. Researchers utilized advanced Co...