Eritrawi Podcast: The Other Side of Eritrea

Eritrawi Podcast
  • 5.0 (6)
  • News Commentary

Eritrawi Podcast: The Other Side of Eritrea History built from archives, not myths. A research-based history podcast exploring the history, culture, archaeology, and heritage of Eritrea and the Horn of Africa through academic research and historical evidence. Episodes cover Adulis, Italian colonial Eritrea, the British Military Administration, the Eritrean struggle for independence, architecture, archaeology, theatre, music, and the people who shaped Eritrea's history. Beyond propaganda. Beyond stereotypes. Reconstructing the past through what people actually wrote, built, and lived.

  1. Sep 19

    British Military Administration of Occupied Territories in Africa - Eritrea 1941-1947

    In 1941, British forces took Eritrea from Fascist Italy and inherited an economy built to sustain Italy's imperial ambitions in East Africa. Behind the imposing marble banks and colonial infrastructure was a remarkably fragile system. As British forces advanced, Italian banks received instructions to destroy financial records, safeguard or conceal valuables, and deny the incoming administration a functioning financial system. Yet instead of complete financial collapse, something unexpected happened. Banks reopened. Depositors returned. Money began flowing back into the system. British administrators cut costs, introduced new banking arrangements, moved financial records across an active war zone and even used banking to contain emerging currency black markets. But the greater challenge was food. Italian colonial policy had distorted local production while Eritrea had become dependent on imported supplies. When wartime shipping was disrupted, the new administration discovered that military bureaucracy could not efficiently feed the population. What worked instead was much older. Camel caravans brought grain from Sudan. Traditional Red Sea trading routes connected Massawa and Assab with regional markets. Wooden dhows followed seasonal winds. Existing merchant networks moved food with remarkably little central coordination. Massawa's enormous salt reserves became economic leverage for securing supplies from Ethiopia. British administrators even discovered that attempts at official grain rationing struggled to compete with these informal trading networks, which could often move goods faster and more cheaply. The structures built to project power and permanence had fallen apart. The quiet networks of survival that had existed for centuries barely missed a step. And that raises a question for today: Our economy now depends on centralised digital banking, electronic payments, algorithmic markets and highly optimised global supply chains. If those systems stopped working, what would our equivalent of the camel caravan and the wooden dhow be? This episode draws extensively on Lord Rennell of Rodd's 1948 official account, British Military Administration of Occupied Territories in Africa 1941–1947, examining British military administration, banking, currency, trade and food supply in Eritrea during the Second World War. #Eritrea #EritreanHistory #Asmara #Massawa #Assab #AfricanHistory #EastAfricanHistory #HornOfAfrica #WWII #WorldWarII #BritishEmpire #ItalianColonialism #ColonialHistory #EconomicHistory #BankingHistory #RedSea #History #HistoryPodcast #EritrawiPodcast

    British Military Administration of Occupied Territories in Africa - Eritrea 1941-1947

  2. Sep 13

    How Eritrea Became a Nation: Newspapers, Politics and the Struggle for Unity

    How Eritrea Became a Nation: Newspapers, Politics and the Struggle for Unity How did Eritrea's people begin to imagine themselves as part of a single nation? In the 1940s, Eritrea emerged from Italian colonial rule into a period of economic crisis, British administration and profound uncertainty over its future. Independence, union with Ethiopia, partition and other possibilities competed for support as Eritreans debated what should come after empire. Drawing on the work of scholar Fouad Makki, this episode explores how vernacular newspapers and a new public sphere transformed that debate. Newspapers carried political ideas beyond a small educated elite, while public readings in markets, cafés and gathering places allowed those ideas to reach communities across the territory. But the Eritrean nation was not born fully formed. The Unionist Party advocated union with Ethiopia, while the Muslim League emerged as a major force for Eritrean independence. Religion, class, regional interests, land, economic hardship and foreign intervention all shaped where people stood. We examine British partition proposals, Ethiopian involvement in Eritrean politics, growing communal violence, the intervention of the United Nations, federation with Ethiopia, and how the gradual destruction of Eritrean autonomy ultimately transformed the political struggle. The story challenges the idea that Eritrean nationalism was inevitable. Modern Eritrea emerged from competing visions of what Eritrea should become—and from the struggle to create a shared national identity across those divisions. And it leaves us with a contemporary question: if shared print media once helped strangers imagine themselves as members of the same nation, what happens when we increasingly consume information alone, through personalized digital worlds? #Eritrea #EritreanHistory #EritreanNationalism #EritreanIndependence #HistoryOfEritrea #AfricanHistory #HornOfAfrica #Decolonization #ColonialHistory #BritishMilitaryAdministration #Ethiopia #UnionistParty #MuslimLeague #EritreanPolitics #Nationalism #PrintMedia #NationBuilding #PoliticalHistory #AfricanNationalism #HistoryPodcast

    How Eritrea Became a Nation: Newspapers, Politics and the Struggle for Unity

  3. Sep 6

    How Massawa, Eritrea Helped Defeat the Nazis in North Africa

    How Massawa, Eritrea Helped Defeat the Nazis in North Africa In 1941, the British captured Massawa, Eritrea — only to find one of the most strategically important harbours on the Red Sea deliberately wrecked. Before surrendering, the Italians had scuttled ships across the harbour, destroyed equipment and sabotaged the port’s vital dry docks. At the same time, Rommel’s advance across North Africa was putting increasing pressure on Alexandria and the British Mediterranean Fleet. Massawa suddenly mattered. Into this wreckage came Commander Edward Ellsberg, an American naval engineer and legendary salvage expert, with an extraordinary assignment: bring the port back to life. He had no proper shipyard, limited equipment and a strange collection of civilian contractors, Hollywood divers, mechanics, ironworkers and local labourers. And Massawa itself was brutal. Scorching heat. Near-total humidity. Harbour water contaminated by sewage and fuel oil. Divers working in suffocating canvas suits while breathing air pumped down from the surface. Wounds becoming infected. Equipment deteriorating in the heat and salt. Yet Ellsberg and his men improvised. Divers hammered timber into underwater blast holes, allowing the wood to swell and seal damaged structures. Workers sealed hatches and deck plates before pumping compressed air into submerged compartments to force the water out. Without the machinery needed to properly shape replacement hull plates, workers built wooden templates and cold-formed thick steel by hand with sledgehammers. And sometimes the greatest obstacle wasn't engineering at all. Ellsberg repeatedly found himself fighting peacetime regulations, union rules and colonial bureaucracy while trying to solve wartime problems — confrontations that occasionally required threats, improvisation and even the possibility of involving the American press. Against the odds, wrecks began rising. A supposedly ruined port began functioning again. This episode tells the remarkable story of Edward Ellsberg's salvage operation at Massawa — and how engineers, divers and workers armed with little more than experience, ingenuity and sheer determination helped transform a devastated Red Sea harbour into a valuable Allied naval base. It is a story of war fought not only with tanks, aircraft and battleships, but with pumps, timber, compressors, diving helmets, welding torches and sledgehammers. Sometimes history turns on the people who figure out how to make the impossible work. #Eritrea #Massawa #EdwardEllsberg #EritreanHistory #WorldWarII #WWII #AfricanHistory #MilitaryHistory #NavalHistory #RedSea #Engineering #HistoryPodcast

    How Massawa, Eritrea Helped Defeat the Nazis in North Africa

  4. Aug 23

    Madamato: Italian Men, Eritrean Women — Race, Intimacy and Power in Colonial Eritrea

    Madamato: Italian Men, Eritrean Women — Race, Intimacy and Power in Colonial Eritrea Between 1885 and 1941, relationships between Italian men and Eritrean women became deeply entangled with the construction of race, power and colonial rule in Eritrea. Drawing on the research of historian Giulia Barrera, this episode examines madamato, interracial relationships and the unequal domestic arrangements that developed during Italian colonial rule. Far from existing outside the colonial system, these relationships reveal how intimacy itself could become a site where racial hierarchy was created, negotiated and enforced. During the early military occupation, Italian officers openly lived with Eritrean women, sometimes using the resources and personnel of the colonial army to support these arrangements. The episode explores how local practices such as demoz were appropriated by Italian men while the protections and obligations traditionally attached to them could be stripped away. As Italian settlement expanded, racial boundaries were increasingly maintained through everyday mechanisms: gossip, reputation, social pressure and the policing of relationships between colonizer and colonized. Eritrean women nevertheless exercised agency within these structures, navigating colonial institutions, economic necessity, family expectations and relationships that could last for years and produce children. But the consequences were profoundly unequal. Italian men could leave Eritrea and their families behind with few consequences, while Eritrean women and mixed-race children could face poverty, stigma and uncertain legal status. Questions of paternity, recognition and belonging therefore became central to the colonial racial order. With the rise of Fascism and the invasion of Ethiopia, these contradictions became increasingly intolerable to a regime obsessed with racial separation. What had once been tolerated, and at times effectively incorporated into colonial military life, was transformed into a threat to the imagined racial purity of the Italian empire. By 1937, intimate relationships between Italian citizens and colonial subjects were explicitly criminalized. Through personal stories, colonial records and changing legislation, this episode traces the transformation from the unstable military frontier of the 1880s to the rigid racial regime of Fascist rule. It is a history in which intimacy and exploitation, agency and inequality, private relationships and state power existed simultaneously — challenging the enduring myth of the supposedly “friendly” Italian colonizer. #Eritrea #EritreanHistory #Madamato #ColonialEritrea #ItalianColonialism #ColonialHistory #AfricanHistory #Asmara #HistoryPodcast

    Madamato: Italian Men, Eritrean Women — Race, Intimacy and Power in Colonial Eritrea

  5. Aug 9

    Inventing Italian Eritrea Rosalia Pianavia Vivaldi and the Colonial Imagination

    What did Italian colonizers actually see when they looked at Eritrea, and how much of what they described was a projection of themselves?This episode examines the literary construction of Italian Eritrea through the writings of Rosalia Pianavia Vivaldi and other early colonial observers. Vivaldi's 1901 memoir offers an unusual perspective: an Italian woman operating within a deeply masculine military colonial environment, constrained by gender in Italy yet granted considerable mobility, status and authority within colonial Eritrea.Drawing on the scholarship of Professor Clarissa Clò, the episode explores how Vivaldi negotiated this contradictory position. She could challenge aspects of the male colonial establishment while remaining fiercely committed to Italian expansion and the racial hierarchy upon which it depended.Her domestic life becomes part of that project. The Italian home, food, architecture and landscape are reproduced in Eritrea as models of the colony's imagined future. Indigenous spaces are interpreted through European categories, while encounters with racial and cultural mixing expose anxieties about maintaining a clear division between colonizer and colonized.The episode places Vivaldi alongside writers including Sibilla Aleramo and Idelfonso Stanga, examining the scientific, ethnographic and aesthetic language through which Italians transformed an inhabited country into a landscape supposedly awaiting Italian order and civilization.It also connects colonial expansion to Italy's "Southern Question." At a time of poverty, social unrest and mass emigration, Eritrea could be imagined as an alternative destination for Italians who might otherwise leave for the Americas. People marginalized within Italy's own class and regional hierarchies could consequently acquire an entirely different status within the colonial system.Through memoirs, architecture, racial pseudoscience, migration and representations of the landscape, this episode asks a larger question: how was the illusion of absolute Italian control over Eritrea constructed on the page, in the home and across the landscape?#Eritrea #EritreanHistory #ItalianColonialism #ColonialHistory #Asmara #AfricanHistory #ItalianHistory #RosaliaPianaviaVivaldi #HistoryPodcast #Colonialism

    Inventing Italian Eritrea Rosalia Pianavia Vivaldi and the Colonial Imagination

  6. Jul 25

    Episode 2 The Livraghi Scandal (1891) Italy's First Colonial Scandal in Eritrea

    The Livraghi scandal did not end with the arrests—it transformed into one of the most consequential political and legal dramas in modern Italian history. Following Lieutenant Dario Livraghi's capture in Switzerland, the Italian government launched a parliamentary commission to investigate allegations of murder, corruption, fabricated evidence, and abuse in colonial Eritrea. Commissioners traveled to Massawa, interviewed witnesses and victims, questioned military leaders, and uncovered evidence that suggested violence had not been the work of a few rogue individuals but reflected deeper problems within the colonial administration. Yet as the investigation progressed, public opinion shifted. Military honor, national prestige, and imperial ambitions increasingly overshadowed demands for accountability. General Baldissera admitted ordering multiple executions in the name of security, witnesses changed their testimony, key officials escaped meaningful punishment, and colonial subordinates bore the heaviest consequences. The resulting trials exposed the tension between justice and empire, revealing how institutions often protect themselves when confronted with evidence of systemic wrongdoing. The scandal became Italy's first true media frenzy, captivating newspapers across the country and even leaving a permanent mark on the Italian language. The verb livragare entered public discourse to describe silent elimination, political sabotage, or suppression by those in power. Though it later faded under Fascism, the term survives today in parts of Canton Ticino, where it can still refer to manipulated or rigged elections. Drawing on contemporary newspapers, parliamentary records, court proceedings, and modern historical research, this episode explores how one colonial scandal reshaped public opinion, political debate, and even the Italian language itself. If you enjoy well-researched episodes on Eritrean history, consider subscribing, sharing the podcast, and leaving a review. #Eritrea #ItalianColonialism #LivraghiScandal #ColonialHistory #AfricanHistory #ItalianHistory #Massawa #HornOfAfrica #HistoryPodcast #EritrawiPodcast #Colonialism #MediaHistory #PoliticalHistory #Language #CantonTicino

    Episode 2 The Livraghi Scandal (1891) Italy's First Colonial Scandal in Eritrea

  7. Jul 18

    Episode 1: The Livraghi Scandal (1891) | Italy's First Colonial Scandal in Eritrea

    1891, the Livraghi scandal became the first major public exposure of Italian colonial atrocities in Eritrea. What began as an investigation into two colonial officials—Lieutenant Dario Livraghi and government prosecutor Eteocle Cagnassi—uncovered a system of corruption, fabricated evidence, extortion, torture, and extrajudicial killings that had operated with near total impunity. Drawing on contemporary newspapers, parliamentary debates, and historical scholarship, this episode reconstructs how the scandal unfolded, how forged accusations were used against Eritrean merchants and civilians, how colonial institutions enabled abuse, and how the Italian press ultimately brought these crimes before the public. The revelations shook Italy, sparked fierce debates in Parliament, and forced the country to confront uncomfortable questions about the reality behind its so-called "civilizing mission." Far from being an isolated incident, the Livraghi affair offers a rare window into the mechanics of early Italian colonial rule and the violence that underpinned it. If you enjoy well-researched episodes on Eritrean history, consider subscribing, sharing the podcast, and leaving a review. #Eritrea #ItalianColonialism #LivraghiScandal #ColonialHistory #AfricanHistory #Italy #Massawa #Assab #HornOfAfrica #HistoryPodcast #EritrawiPodcast #Colonialism #ItalianHistory #EastAfrica #HistoricalResearch

    Episode 1: The Livraghi Scandal (1891) | Italy's First Colonial Scandal in Eritrea

  8. Jul 12

    The Construction of Racial Hierarchies in Colonial Eritrea

    This episode explores one of the most misunderstood aspects of Italian colonial rule in Eritrea. Drawing on the research of historian Giulia Barrera, it examines how racial hierarchy was not an accidental by-product of colonialism but a carefully constructed system embedded in laws, bureaucracy, education, and the courts between 1897 and 1934. The discussion challenges the enduring myth that Italian colonialism was uniquely "humane" or free from racial discrimination. While early colonial Eritrea witnessed extensive social interaction and relationships between Italians and Eritreans, largely because of the shortage of Italian women, the colonial administration steadily worked to preserve European supremacy. Through restrictions on education, unequal access to authority, discriminatory justice, land policies, and legal distinctions between Europeans and Eritreans, the state institutionalized racial inequality long before the infamous Fascist racial laws of the late 1930s. The episode also examines remarkable court cases, the treatment of Eritrean Askaris, the contradictions of colonial justice, and why the Italian government considered the preservation of "white prestige" to be central to maintaining colonial rule. Rather than portraying colonial society through nostalgia or simplistic narratives, this episode investigates how everyday policies and legal decisions shaped the lived realities of both Italians and Eritreans. Based on Giulia Barrera's scholarship, this episode offers a research-driven examination of colonial Eritrea and invites listeners to reconsider long-held assumptions about race, power, and empire in the Horn of Africa. #Eritrea #EritreanHistory #ColonialHistory #ItalianColonialism #ItalianEritrea #HornOfAfrica #AfricanHistory #HistoryPodcast #HistoryMatters #Colonialism #DecolonizeHistory #Fascism #ColonialStudies #AfricanStudies #HistoricalResearch #Askari #Asmara #History #Podcast #EritrawiPodcast

    The Construction of Racial Hierarchies in Colonial Eritrea
See All (128)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Eritrawi Podcast: The Other Side of Eritrea History built from archives, not myths. A research-based history podcast exploring the history, culture, archaeology, and heritage of Eritrea and the Horn of Africa through academic research and historical evidence. Episodes cover Adulis, Italian colonial Eritrea, the British Military Administration, the Eritrean struggle for independence, architecture, archaeology, theatre, music, and the people who shaped Eritrea's history. Beyond propaganda. Beyond stereotypes. Reconstructing the past through what people actually wrote, built, and lived.

Information

You Might Also Like