The Other Side of Eritrea

Eritrawi
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History built from archives, not myths. This channel explores Eritrea and the Northern Horn of Africa through research, primary sources, and forgotten records from early printed texts to private letters and overlooked moments in global history. Beyond propaganda. Beyond stereotypes. Reconstructing the past through what people actually wrote, built, and lived.

  1. Massawa The History and the Earthquake That Nearly Erased The Red Sea City

    3d ago

    Massawa The History and the Earthquake That Nearly Erased The Red Sea City

    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 buildings to its shaded alleyways, carved balconies, and centuries-old urban fabric shaped by climate, trade, and local craftsmanship. Drawing on research presented at the International Conference on Eritrean Studies, we follow the city's dramatic reconstruction after the disaster. We examine the ambitious plans to replace the historic city with a modern colonial grid, the debates surrounding preservation and redevelopment, and the unexpected circumstances that ultimately helped save Massawa's heritage. We also explore how local artisans, property owners, engineers, and government authorities worked together to rebuild the city, preserving its unique character while improving its resilience against future earthquakes. This is the story of destruction and recovery, of tradition and modernization, and of how one of the Red Sea's most remarkable cities survived a disaster that nearly erased it from history. #Massawa #Eritrea #RedSea #Architecture #Earthquake #UrbanHistory #Heritage #Conservation #HistoryPodcast #HornOfAfrica #CulturalHeritage #TheOtherSideOfEritrea

    24 min
  2. The Difficult Years: Eritrea and the Great War (1914–1922)

    May 10

    The Difficult Years: Eritrea and the Great War (1914–1922)

    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, inflation, food shortages, disrupted trade routes caused by the British naval blockade, and the collapse of local agriculture during years of drought and locust invasions. It also explores how certain wartime industries such as hides, salt, and potassium generated immense profits for a small group of merchants while much of the population endured severe hardship. As the postwar recession of 1920–1921 struck Eritrea, bankruptcies, unemployment, and social frustration intensified among Italian settlers. The episode traces how these crises contributed to the rapid rise of fascism in Eritrea and the formation of the Fascio d’Eritrea in 1922. Drawing from historical research and archival material, this episode examines how war, economic collapse, colonial extraction, and political radicalization reshaped Eritrean society during one of the most turbulent periods of the colonial era. #Eritrea #WW1 #WorldWar1 #ItalianColonialism #Asmara #Massawa #EritrawiPodcast #AfricanHistory #ColonialHistory #Fascism #HornOfAfrica #RedSeaHistory #ItalianEritrea #HistoryPodcast #EastAfrica #Colonialism #EritreanHistory #HistoricalResearch #AfricaHistory #LibyaCampaign

    22 min
  3. From Warriors to Urban Dwellers

    May 3

    From Warriors to Urban Dwellers

    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 European elite and the wider colonized population. Through spatial segregation, racial zoning, and controlled urban design, colonial authorities transformed Eritrea into a laboratory of social engineering. This episode explores how power was embedded into the physical structure of cities, how loyalty was manufactured through military and economic incentives, and how these systems contributed to the long-term formation of Eritrean identity. Uoldelul Chelati Dirar's From Warriors to Urban Dwellers Ascari and the Military Factor in the Urban Development of Colonial Eritrea #Eritrea #Asmara #AfricanHistory #Colonialism #ItalianColonialism #Askari #EastAfrica #UrbanHistory #DecolonizeHistory #HornOfAfrica #EritreanHistory #HistoryPodcast #HiddenHistory #AfricanStudies #ColonialArchitecture #ModernHistory

    24 min
  4. Hade Zanta – The Conscript Rewriting the Foundations of African Literature Episode 3

    Apr 26

    Hade Zanta – The Conscript Rewriting the Foundations of African Literature Episode 3

    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 daily life continue, but he cannot re-enter them as he once did. The war does not end at the battlefield—it persists in the body, in memory, and in the subtle fractures between people. This episode explores the quiet aftermath of conflict: the invisible distance between survivor and community, the failure of reintegration, and the way trauma embeds itself into ordinary life. What appears as normality is, in fact, a system quietly altered. Through Tuquabo’s experience, the narrative expands the definition of loss. The true casualties of colonialism are not only counted in deaths, but in disrupted families, altered identities, and the generational transmission of psychological fracture. This is not a story of return.This is a story of what remains. #Eritrea #HadeZanta #TheConscript #AfricanHistory #Colonialism #PostColonial #EritreanHistory #HistoricalNarratives #DecolonizeHistory #Podcast #Storytelling

    20 min
  5. Hade Zanta – The Conscript Rewriting the Foundations of African Literature Episode 2

    Apr 19

    Hade Zanta – The Conscript Rewriting the Foundations of African Literature Episode 2

    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 recognizes the humanity of the men he is ordered to fight while losing faith in the authority that commands him. In a harsh desert environment where survival is uncertain, the real struggle becomes internal holding onto identity, memory, and moral clarity under relentless pressure.This episode explores how power operates not only through force but through control of perception and how resistance can exist silently in thought, in memory, and in small acts of humanity that refuse to disappear.#EritrawiPodcast #Eritrea #HornOfAfrica #AfricanHistory #ColonialHistory #DecolonizeHistory #HiddenHistory #Ascari #ItalianColonialism #LibyaHistory #NorthAfrica #EastAfrica #AfricanStories #UntoldHistory #HistoricalNarrative #WarAndMemory #PsychologyOfWar #HumanityInWar #Resistance #MentalResilience #Identity #OralTradition #AfricanLiterature #TheConscript #GhebreyesusHailu

    23 min
  6. Hade Zanta – The Conscript: Rewriting the Foundations of African Literature

    Apr 12

    Hade Zanta – The Conscript: Rewriting the Foundations of African Literature

    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 ascari forced to fight for the Italian colonial army in Libya, not just as a victim of empire, but as someone made to function within it. This episode examines how Hailu exposes the deeper logic of colonialism, a system that does not only dominate from the outside, but reshapes the inner world of the oppressed, turning survival into complicity. Blending modernist prose with traditional oral poetry, The Conscript breaks away from linear Western storytelling, creating a recursive, layered narrative rooted in African verbal traditions. The result is not just a story, but a structural critique, a novel that rewires the form itself to reveal the mechanics of power. This is not simply forgotten literature.This is early African intellectual resistance. #Eritrea #AfricanLiterature #TheConscript #HadeZanta #DecolonizeKnowledge #History #Podcast #EritrawiPodcast #Colonialism #AfricanHistory

    20 min
  7. Amelia Earhart’s Red Sea Transit: Massawa to Assab (1937 World Flight)

    Apr 5

    Amelia Earhart’s Red Sea Transit: Massawa to Assab (1937 World Flight)

    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 reconstruct the route, the conditions, and the technical realities faced by Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan.Beyond the headlines, this is a story of navigation under pressure, fuel management across remote regions, and the global network of colonial-era airfields that made such a journey possible. This is not just the story of a disappearance.It’s the story of the journey that led there.#AmeliaEarhart #AviationHistory #Eritrea #RedSea #WW2History #History #AfricaHistory #FlightHistory

    20 min
  8. Recovering Eritrea’s Lost Printed Past

    Mar 29

    Recovering Eritrea’s Lost Printed Past

    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 and 1941. Using a self-reliant, low-tech approach, this initiative demonstrates how cultural heritage can be preserved without dependence on external funding. The episode also traces a critical shift in written culture during the early 20th century. Military service in Libya exposed Eritrean askaris to new forms of communication, accelerating the use of private letters and photography. For the first time, individuals from subordinate social groups began documenting personal experiences in their own voices. These letters and printed materials mark a transition away from purely religious and administrative texts toward a more personal, lived archive one that allows us to reconstruct everyday life, emotion, and social dynamics in colonial Eritrea. Together, these sources reveal how fragile documents, often produced on cheap materials and nearly lost to time, have become essential tools for understanding the social and cultural history of Eritrea

    25 min
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History built from archives, not myths. This channel explores Eritrea and the Northern Horn of Africa through research, primary sources, and forgotten records from early printed texts to private letters and overlooked moments in global history. Beyond propaganda. Beyond stereotypes. Reconstructing the past through what people actually wrote, built, and lived.

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