Asmara: Home of Antique Cinemas

Asmara: Home of Antique Cinemas

Friday, 20 November 2009 09:05 | Written by Sirak Habtemichael |   

About Eritrea - Art & Sport

The history of cinemas in Eritrea dates back to 1920s during the Italian colonial period, when the Eritrean people were familiarized with the culture of cinemas. But not all the Eritrean citizens had the opportunity to watch movies in the cinemas which were abundant even back then. The only few privileged citizens who were allowed to watch cinemas were the ones who worked with the Italians and only with their bosses were they allowed to get in. Almost all the movies back then were in Italian, especially until early 1940s.
The construction of cinemas began in 1920s, where the first one to be constructed was Cinema Emberto and Eritro. Also among the first cinemas constructed in early 1920 and still standing as one of the finest ones architecturally is Cinema Asmara, (Theatro Azmara). The cinema has a monumental architectural style with a three story classic podium. During the first decades after its construction, the cinema was used for stage drama performances and ballet shows only to be watched by the Italian ‘first class’ families.

At present, Asmara Theatre is used for rehearsals of stage dramas and other related cultural shows, but it is not functioning as cinema now. The structure of the cinema and the area it is seated on is in the main streets of Asmara, which gives a scenic vintage beauty of art deco to the city.  

The Italians then constructed Cinema Hamassen for the local residents. It was among the first cinemas to be constructed around the area where there was a dense population of locals. This was around 14 years after the Asmara Theatre was constructed. To this very day Cinema Hamassen provides services for theatrical shows and movies.

Around 1940s, over 10 cinemas were constructed all over Eritrea, which makes it among the first, if not the first one to own grand theatres in Africa. The construction work, the sophistication of the engineering as well as the interior design of each cinema, especially the big ones captivated the eyes of a number of tourists over the years.

Cinema Roma, Cinema Impero, Cinema Capitol as well as the Odeon Theatre are four of the biggest cinemas in Eritrea. Located in the downtown streets of Asmara, the cinemas have magnificent outer view and a state of the art interior design. The first three were constructed in 1937, while Odeon Theatre followed a year after.

Records from the Eritrean Cinema Administration indicate that each and every single one of the cinemas was constructed for different purposes. The only people that were allowed to watch movies at cinema Impero and Capitol were among the first class from the colonizers, the Odeon Theatre was for the officers’ class and others.

The infrastructure, electrical installation and sound system posses a world class standard to this day. Although only a few of the cinemas underwent renovation, most of them still posses the genuine beauty and system from the time of the construction. Among the few that underwent extensive renovation is Cinema Roma, but the renovators applied great ingenuity to maintain the classic and original features of the cinema. 

Back during the days, of course the cinemas were using old equipments which still remain as monuments of antiquity in some of the cinemas. The 88 millimeter projectors and the fade cinema system which used real players are abundant in all the cinemas. The engraved wall sculptures, the monumental architectural design, the stairways to the first class VIP boxes and the red carpet hallways especially at Cinema Roma are indeed a sight to see.   After all these years, the cinemas inside Asmara and some other cities of Eritrea still maintaining the original designs and of course providing public services to this day readmore

Recalling La Dolce Vita in Eritrea

e star of the show, and for good reason, is the Fiat Tagliero gas station, designed in 1938 by Giuseppe Pettazzi to look like an airplane, a spaceship or possibly a bat. Mr. Pettazzi’s extraordinary flourish was the concrete wings that jut out a total of more than 90 feet. The municipal authorities at the time required him to build pillars under the wings so they wouldn’t collapse, which was an unforgivable insult to Mr. Pettazzi. According to local legend, Mr. Pettazzi installed detachable pillars, and at the station’s opening, he pulled out a pistol and forced the builder to remove the supports. Needless to say, the wings are still there.
We saw many of these modernist gems as we strolled around Harnet Avenue. The whole city, with its broad boulevards and wide sidewalks, was laid out with the passeggiata, or evening stroll, in mind. At sunset, thousands of people hit the main drag and you can feel the communal spirit, going back to the days of the struggle. “Do not talk about self,” read one sign in English. “It will be done when you leave.”
It was in this collective, understated spirit that Eritreans built a most original war memorial. Eritreans chose not to put up a statue of Mr. Isaias or some other famous man but of a pair of giant sandals — yes, sandals. The shida sandal, a $3 black plastic shoe that is actually quite uncomfortable unless you’re hiding in a bunker and have bigger worries, is the official symbol of the struggle. In the center of town is a pair of 20-foot-long sheet metal shidas. In the 1980s, Eritrean rebels built a mobile shida machine underground that survived countless bombings. The sandals became legendary.
We found most people here friendly, unless the subject was politics, which then seemed to bring out a prickly side. Eritreans are fiercely proud of their independence and reluctant to criticize their government, which has jailed political opponents. “The problem with Eritrea,” explained an Eritrean friend who has left the country, “is that half of my friends are in prison and the other half put them there!”
After a few days in Asmara, we headed to Massawa, Eritrea’s swelteringly hot and therefore not surprisingly sleepy beach town. We took the steam train about a quarter of the way and then had a driver meet us and went by road for the rest. The train was built by the Italians starting in 1887 and still operates, though mostly for tourists. Along the way, the train stopped many times to load up on coal.
“The engine’s good,” the train’s equally ancient engineer, Seyoum Kidane, reassured me. “Just a little leakage.”
Massawa is hot, moist, quiet and battle-scarred. It’s a place where you can see the cost of the struggle, like the Ottoman-era buildings with their roofs blown off and sea walls raked by machine-gun fire. There is a beautifully decrepit old bank building along the water where we picked our way through the cobwebs and rubble and found an enormous safe still half open (somebody had already cleaned it out).
Some of the world’s most spectacular diving is in the Red Sea. There are a few dive shops in Massawa with rentable gear and boats to take you to the Dahlak Archipelago, which includes more than 200 islands and dozens of wrecks.
At night, when it cooled down a bit (it was still probably about 90 degrees), we took a stroll. The roads by the port are straight, wide and empty. The 300-year-old Ottoman quarter, on the other hand, is a maze of little alleyways and crumbling coral houses. The smell of frankincense wafted from under the beaded curtains of the bars. Shirtless old men sat at tables in the open air, draining beer from unmarked brown bottles and slapping down dominoes.
There is not a lot going on in Massawa but that’s part of the appeal. We had dinner at an outdoor fish restaurant called Sallam. The fish was barbecued Yemeni-style by slicing it in half, smacking the whole thing against the walls of a fire pit and baking it to a black crisp. It arrived on plastic plates with the meat dropping off the bone by the handful. It was cheap — $20 for four. And delicious.
In many ways, the story of Eritrea is the story of modern Africa, so much promise melting into so many problems. In just 15 years, Eritrea has gone from being the darling of the West, the egalitarian, crime-free, little-country-that-could, to a struggling, closed-off society, which, in a way, makes it all the more interesting to peek into.
Modernity will eventually come, hopefully peacefully, and until then Eritrea will remain a remarkably authentic, singular place to visit.
IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE
One of the cheaper ways to get to Eritrea from the United States is to fly on EgyptAir (www.egyptair.com.eg) from New York to Cairo and then connect in Cairo to Asmara. A round-trip ticket is around $1,700. Other flight options include Lufthansa (www.lufthansa.com) from Frankfurt, with a short stop in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Or Eritrean Airlines (www.flyeritrea.com) from Frankfurt or Rome. There is also Nasair (www.nasairgroup.com) from Nairobi, Kenya, which we used.
A good travel agent to finesse these details is Travel Inn, in Marbella, Spain (34-952 82-9017; www.arrakis.es/~travel_inn/).
WHERE TO STAY
Italia Albergo (13 Nakfa Avenue; 291-1-120740; www.albergoitaliaasmara.com) is a gorgeous old-school hotel right in the center of town. The Albergo was actually Eritrea’s first hotel, opened in 1899 and refurbished three years ago. Its lavishly appointed suites include big marble bathrooms, Corinthian columns and balconies that swing open to the street. Single rooms are $88 and double rooms are $132. (In Eritrea, prices are typically quoted in either dollars or nakfa, the local currency, with a current exchange rate of 15 nakfa to the dollar.) Book ahead for October and November, the busiest tourist time of year, thanks to the idyllic weather. The hotel does not accept credit cards.
In Massawa, we stayed at the Red Sea Hotel (291-1-552839), right on the water. The rooms were clean, simple and, thankfully, air-conditioned, with a double room costing $32.
WHERE TO EAT
Asmara has excellent, inexpensive food. Lunches are usually no more than $10 and dinners $20.
The Albergo serves up tasty Continental cuisine in a dining room that is nothing less than elegant.
We also enjoyed Casa Degli Italiani (Mengesha Yohannes Street, 291-1-120791), the old Italian club from the Fascist days, with a huge Italian flag still flapping. The service is slow, but it lets you admire the pigeons in the courtyard. Most importantly, the mozzarella is home-made and the spaghetti Bolognese (110 nakfa, or about $7) is excellent.
There are also some great local finds, like the Blue Bird Restaurant (291-1-117965). Eritrean food is a lot like Ethiopian food: mashed-up lentils; beef with peppers; spongy injera bread — all washed down with tej, a honey wine served in grenade-shaped decanters. Dinner for two should run about 160 to 200 nakfa.
We found a very helpful travel agent in Asmara — Tedros Kebbede, of Travel House International, (291-7111-487, www.travelhouseeritrea.com). Mr. Kebbede can arrange guided tours, drivers and trips on Eritrea’s steam train. He can also help with hotels in Massawa. readmore

THE CONTESTED LEGITIMACY OF ERITREAN STATEHOOD:THE EFFECTS OF ARAB INTERVENTION, (1941-1993)

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Eritrea: The Effects of Arab Intervention, (1941

-

1993)

Abstract

This report has embarked on to contribute to the understanding of the diplomatic history

of Eritrea‘s war of independence. Its primary p urpose is to assess critically the genesis

and effects of Arab interventionist policies in Eritrea. The underlying arguments are:Arab intervention was base on a flawed perception of Eritrea, as an Arab nation, whichcould rather be explained in light of their ̳national interests‘ across the spectrum of ideological, political and security concerns. Second, that intervention was not critical to

the victory of this largely self reliant struggle. This work has also probed into the core of

the matter in an endeavor to piece together a rough balance sheet of thee interventions to

show that they were even detrimental to the struggle. Though it has put much emphasis

on the diplomatic circumstance that surround the struggle, as the formative years of the

struggle had contributed to that end, as a way of introduction this academic inquiry has

started two decades before the start of the armed struggle, stretching the time frame from

1941 to 1993. The year 1941 marks the ending of Italian colonial rule and the start of

the British Military Administration, and 1993 signifies the rebirth of the country as a

legitimate sovereign by its admission to the United Nations readmore

What It’s Like Inside Asmara, One of Africa’s Most Isolated Capitals

ASMARA, Eritrea—In one of Africa’s most isolated and picturesque capitals, little is what it seems.

Cloistered for decades by war and a reclusive policy of self-reliance, Asmara is a study in contrasts: Stunning modernist architecture clashes with deep poverty in a nation facing one of the world’s fastest emigration rates.

Those paradoxes were immediately visible when a Wall Street Journal reporter landed in the city last month, becoming one of only a handful of foreign journalists to report from Eritrea since correspondents were deported in 2008. The reporter had been told there would be a handler, but there was none. Her movement was restricted to the capital, home to about 600,000, but she was left on her own.

Slow-paced, manicured and perched at 7,900 feet altitude, Asmara looks like a film set: Hundreds of people idle at cafes and bus stops, like extras waiting for the next scene to be shot.
They have been waiting for a long time.
In 1993, Eritrea won its independence from Ethiopia after a 30-year struggle. Just five years later, it fought another war against its powerful neighbor. Despite a U.N.-sponsored peace agreement, Ethiopia still occupies Eritrean territory, an accusation Addis Ababa denies.
The single-party Eritrean regime, headed by former rebel commander Isaias Afewerki, has had the country in a state of emergency for 17 years. It has never held an election, and a constitution drawn up after independence was never implemented. Asmara has stayed in a time capsule circa 1935: unspoiled but economically stagnant.
European colonial influences are on bold display in the Red Sea nation of 4.5 million people.
Palm-tree-lined Harnet Avenue, the main boulevard, is dotted with modernist and art-deco buildings, a legacy of Eritrea’s erstwhile colonial masters, the Italians. Fascist leader Benito Mussolini saw Asmara as a jewel in his “new Roman Empire” but left in a hurry in 1941 as the tide turned against Italy in World War II.
The British took over. A pristine war cemetery in the outskirts of Asmara, on the edge of one of Africa’s most dramatic escarpments, is the final resting place for hundreds of young British and African soldiers who died here fighting the Italians.
Isolation has stunted development, the sluggish pace of life interrupted only by young cyclists in bright Lycra whizzing past, evidence of the country’s growing prowess in international cycling.
At the popular Zara Bar, six different flavors of Absolut vodka were being served to young men and women who, like their peers across the world, gathered around smartphone screens and flirted into the night.
But unlike their peers, young Eritreans face the prospect of mandatory military service that could last decades.

All 15,000 or so Eritrean boys and girls who finish high school each year are conscripted and receive military training. Most are later assigned state jobs on a pittance—a starting salary equal to $10 a month. They aren’t allowed to change jobs or leave the country until they are demobilized.
European Union officials said they proposed spending part of a €200 million, or $227 million, aid package on demobilizing a group of conscripts. Regime officials said they declined because this would violate the principle that no one is exempt from patriotic duties.
“National service is for two purposes: to defend the country, but also to engage in economic development of the country and to train them while we are in this [emergency] situation,” said Hagos Ghebrehiwet, the ruling party’s economy chief.
Mr. Ghebrehiwet drove the Journal reporter around in a battered white Toyota Corolla at least a decade old. Diplomats here say there is no evidence local elites enjoy luxuries common among Africa’s ruling classes.
But the split between older fighters invested in Eritrea’s independence and their freedom-craving offspring is driving a wedge within families and between generations.
Bissrat Ghebru, a scientist in charge of standards for the country’s higher-education degrees, studied at Birmingham University in the U.K. and the University of California, San Diego and now earns roughly $200 a month.
“My friends and family tell me that I’ve achieved nothing after all these studies, because I don’t even own a house,” she said. “But it’s not about money.”
Her 29-year-old daughter Batseba had a different vision. While her mother returned to Eritrea voluntarily, Batseba left illegally, without demobilization papers, five years ago. She is in London, close to getting U.K. citizenship, and dreams of working as a photojournalist.
“She can’t come home to see me because she left illegally,” Ms. Ghebru said. “But one day she will, and until then, we meet abroad when we can.”

Write to Matina Stevis at matina.stevis@wsj.com
     readmore

I arrived in Asmara in January 1968

May 24, 2015

I had flown out of JFK airport in New York, along with several of my classmates from the language school at Monterey California, where we had completed a 47 week total immersion course of the Arabic language.
We knew relatively little about Kagnew Station or Asmara, where we were going, but expected it to be an adventure. We had spent several hours sitting in a lounge at the airport with my parents and my girlfriend, waiting for the flight which didn’t leave until after midnight. readmore

List of conflicts in Ethiopia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Map showing the present-day location of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia within North Africa.

This is a list of conflicts in Ethiopia arranged chronologically from medieval to modern times. This list includes both nation-wide and international types of war, including (but not limited to) the following: wars of independence, liberation wars, colonial wars, undeclared wars, proxy wars, territorial disputes, and world wars. Also listed might be any battle that occurred within the territory of what is today known as the, "Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia" but was itself only part of a operation of a campaign of a theater of a war. There may also be periods of violent civil unrest listed, such as: riots, shootouts, spree killings, massacres, terrorist attacks, and civil wars. The list might also contain episodes of: human sacrifice, mass suicide, massacres, and genocides.

source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_Ethiopia

Eritrea - History & Background

Eritrea, Africa's newest nation, celebrated its tenth year of independence in 2001. In May 1991, Eritrean liberation fighters swept the besieged remnants of Ethiopia's occupying army out of Asmara, the Eritrean capital, ending four decades of Ethiopian control and Africa's longest continuous modern war. In April 1993, Eritreans overwhelmingly endorsed independence in a UN-monitored referendum. On May 24, 1993, Eritrea declared itself an independent nation and four days later joined the United Nations.
The armed struggle for Eritrea's independence began in 1962, after a decade of Ethiopian violations of a UN-imposed Ethiopia-Eritrea federation, and following Ethiopia's annexation of Eritrea as its fourteenth province. In the early 1970s, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), was organized and, throughout the next decade, emerged as the dominant liberation force. The Eritrean independence struggle became synonymous with "selfreliance"—a 30-year war fought from wholly within the country by a politically mobilized population supporting a large, well-trained army using captured weapons. The historical and political necessity of Eritrean self-reliance forced Eritreans to plan and test—while fighting for—the kind of society they wanted, with education a vital factor in the liberation movement's success and a key element in the Eritrean model of development.

Read more: Eritrea - History Background -