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Discussing ethnohistory: The Blin between periphery and
international politics in the 19th century
Wolbert G.C. Smidt
Résumé
Les pays frontaliers sont souvent soumis à des tensions en tous genres
et peuvent être considérées comme des laboratoires pour des nouveaux
projets politiques ou culturels. Le pays du peuple Blin, situé au
centre-nord de l’Érythrée actuelle, en est un parfait exemple, tout
particulièrement entre les années 1840 et les années 1880. À l’origine,
ce pays était paisible du fait de son isolement, et la vie politique
s’organisait de façon autonome, avec un minimum d’interventions
extérieures.
L’intrusion de l’Égypte, en 1840, dans la région adjacente du Taka, au
Soudan, changea la donne.
Dans les années 1850 des « brokers » de tous pays – religieux, comme des
missionnaires catholiques, ainsi qu’académiques-explorateurs, comme des
orientalistes – apparurent dans la région, immédiatement suivis des
représentants de l’impérialisme occidental: les vice consuls
britanniques et franc,ais du port de Massaoua. À la même époque
l’Ethiopie réunie essaya de regagner son influence perdue sur ses
régions frontalières et notamment la province de Hamasen, dont les Blins
du Bogos étaient traditionnellement les vassaux. L’expansion de l’Egypte
au Soudan avait pour conséquence des raids violents et récurrents sur le
territoire des Blins, ce qui donna l’occasion aux consuls et
missionnaires – et leurs collaborateurs académiques concernés –
d’intervenir, de déclarer le peuple Blin sous leur protection, et de
libérer des femmes et des hommes Blins qui vivaient sous le joug de
l’esclavage. Les orientalistes, les missionnaires et les consuls
apparurent aux Blins comme les vecteurs d’une seule et même idée:
l’inclusion des Blins dans une sphère d’influence européenne. Ils
relevèrent activement les défis qui s’offraient à eux de toutes parts.
Pendant que les Blins du Bogos acceptaient leur allégeance aux /Hamasen,
ils assurèrent aussi leur protection internationale en se convertissant
massivement au catholicisme.
Les
Blins du /Hal/hal se convertirent à l’Islam, afin de parer aux raids
futurs des vassaux du Soudan Égyptien.
Cet article vise a montrer que la stratégie principale des Blins a été
de participer activement à la nouvelle présence des pouvoirs dominants,
que ce soit sur le plan politique ou religieux, et que cette adaptation
leur a permis de préserver leur système très sophistiqué d’autonomie
interne, fondé sur une confédération non centralisée, un réseau reliant
entre eux les différents chefs Blins.
Abstract
Borderlands, which are often experiencing challenges of different kind,
can be regarded as a "laboratory" for new political or cultural projects
or solutions. The country of the Blin ethnic group in northern-central
Eritrea was such a land, especially between the 1840’s to 1880’s.
Originally living in peaceful isolation, autonomously organizing their
political live with a minimum of external intervention, this changed
with the arrival of expanding Egypt in the adjacent Sudanese region of
Taka in 1840. In the 1850’s, international brokers of religion –
Catholic missionaries – and of academic exploration – Orientalists –
appeared in the region, immediately followed by agents of imperialism –
the British and French vice consuls of the port of Massawa.
Simultanously reuniting Ethiopia sought to regain lost influence in the
borderregions, including the Hamasen province, with the Blin of Bogos as
their historic vassals. The Egyptian expansion resulted in the regular
appearance of violent raids against the Blin, which gave a chance to the
consuls and missionaries – with the few academics involved as their
collaborators – to intervene, declare the Blin as protected by them and
free the enslaved Blin men and women. Orientalists, the mission and
consuls appeared to the Blin as agents of one idea: the inclusion of the
Blin into the sphere of European influence. The Blin actively responded
to the new challenges from all sides. While the Blin of Bogos accepted
their vassalry towards /Hamasen, they also assured international
protection by converting to Catholicism in great numbers. The Blin of
Halhal converted to Islam, thus avoiding future raids from vassals of
Egyptian Sudan. This article argues that the main strategy of the Blin
was that of an active adaptation to political and religious domination
by greater powers, which allowed them to preserve their highly developed
internal autonomy, based on an age-old non-centralized confederacy
(network) of Blin leaders.
Texte intégral
The study of borderlands
So far, classical historiography in the Horn of Africa has focused
almost exclusively on the centre of the Christian Ethiopian kingdom. The
Ethiopian kingdom (calling itself Ityop'ya, which refers to the
Aithiopia of the Bible1,
ruled by a Christian neguse negest (Ge'ez: 'king of kings') and his
princely governors and feudal vassals, appealed to historians either
fascinated by hegemonic powers2
or attracted by this quasi-medieval feudal kingdom of most ancient
origins, a living witness of eras long forgotten in Europe – forgotten
Christianity, forgotten heroes, forgotten feudal lords. Yet, local
history and ethnohistory3
deserve more attention and, as such, the history of borderlands and
peripheries stands as a particularly promising field of inquiry.
Accordingly, central to the study of Eritrea is an approach attuned to
the importance of those regions and peoples who were submitted by the
Empire (or integrated in other ways) and differed, culturally,
religiously and politically from the center. The history of these sites
and societies has not been mapped out yet. Writing the history of
peripheries implies discussing the merger of identities, often said to
exclude each other. It means studying the creative responses elicited by
cultural and political institutions to challenges by neighboring powers
and ethnic groups. Peripheries are particular geographical sites where
social transformation is best observed. Lying inbetween greater powers,
their political situation is often a rather precarious one. Peripheries
are places where cultures intersect and interact. This accounts for the
fact that they consist in a "laboratory" for new political or cultural
projects and solutions. To attend to these regions is to illuminate
social change and its constructive and disruptive effects. As regions of
challenge and change brought in response, peripheries are precisely
where history takes place.
Little has been written so far on such regions in the Horn of Africa.
Alessandro Triulzi’s book on the Beni Shangul (1981) stands as a
pioneering work. Borderlands often combine traits of more than one
dominant culture, and develop creative political responses to threats
against local stability. In a sense, the whole Erythraean area can be
framed in these terms4.
The Erythraean borderlands
In the second half of the 19th century, this region was subject to a
most dramatic reorganization of local political structures, which
preceded and, to some extent, prepared later Italian colonization. My
research on the pre-colonial history of the Erythraean area (started in
1999) tries to combine historical anthropology with political history –
both based on documentary and field research5.
International interferences (within the framework of rapidly growing
imperialistic interests) responded to local developments within and
among quite ancient local ethnic groups, and reciprocally. In order to
locate sources (e.g., diplomatic reports from Massawa, letters of local
leaders, reports of European settlers), I visited archives and libraries
in Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany,
Italy, among others. While carrying out fieldwork in Eritrea and in
Tigray, I got access to oral tradition.
To write a "History of Eritrea" before the foundation of the Colonia
Eritrea in 1890 would certainly be anachronistic. But it makes sense to
describe the pre-colonial history of this Red-Sea-region in other
respect: for centuries, this area has been a periphery of both Ethiopia
and its Arabic neighbors, e.g. the Ottoman Empire. As a range of
interconnected borderlands, it has a longer run history of its own,
albeit not in a modern national sense. Later, after the cession of
Massawa to Egypt in 1865/66 by the Sublime Porte, a phase started, in
which large swathes of contemporary Eritrea’s territory became
successively part of a single larger administrative unit6.
The Tigrinnya-speaking provinces Hamasen7
and Akkele-Guzay, the Blin-speaking Bogos lands (the country of the Blin8)
and the tigrephone Barka played a decisive role in the process of
Egyptian unification of autonomous regions and ethnic groups.
The country of the Blin in the 19th century
The Blin are an ethnic group located in the Northern Eritrean highlands
and, for the greatest part, living in and around the city of Keren and
north of it in the region of Halhal. They speak the Cushitic language,
Blin, a branch of Agew (Central Cushitic), which is mainly spoken in
Ethiopia. Scholars have studied them since the 1850s9.
Hence, one would expect the Blin to be thoroughly known by today. Yet,
knowledge on them is fragmentary and sometimes confused. This is partly
due to the fact that, as a rather small ethnic group (max. 100,000
members today – a figure including non-Blin-speakers who still identify
themselves as Blin), they always entertained close connections with the
dominating neighbors, diverse Tigre groups and Tigrinnya speakers. Thus,
obfuscated by these dominating cultures, they lost visibility.
Since the 1850s, not only were they studied, but they also acquired
relevance in Red Sea international politics. Virtually every report
emanating from French or British diplomatic representatives residing in
Massawa contains information about the “Bogos lands”. As stated in a
letter sent by a number of Bogos chiefs to the French government in the
1860s, they had lived isolated and peacefully for about two hundred
years, that is, after they got separated from the Christian Ethiopian
kingdom due to the latter’s loss of power and territorial extension10.
They complained about having lost peace following the establishment of
the Egyptians in nearby Sudan.
In effect, under the rule of Mehmet Ali, in the early 19th century Egypt
had become a regional power and virtually independent from the Sublime
Porte. The Sudanese kingdoms were subsequently annexed. In 1840 Kassala
(today the Sudanese border town on the road to Eritrea) was founded by
the Egyptian administration. The Barka lowlands (named after the river
Barka, Arabic Khor al-Baraka), mainly populated by the autonomous Beni
Amer herders and diverse Tigre groups, were officially included into the
province of Taka, with Kassala as its administrative centre. As the Beni
Amer did not submit, this annexation remained rather theoretic. However,
in the 1840’s and 1850’s the Egyptian troops’ recurring raids eventually
reached the areas of the Blin. Harassed by raiding neighbors too,
especially the Beni Amer, the Blin were subject to mounting pressure on
their habitat in their agricultural extensive, fertile highlands. The
northern group in Halhal succumbed and converted to Islam.
The ethnic subgroups of the Blin
To clarify the diverse ethnic (self-) designations of the Blin (in
Western tradition Bilin, in Tigrinnya Bilen, Bileyn), which are
sometimes confused in the literature, I shall now go into some details.
"Blin" stands for the Agew (Central Cushitic) language of the diverse
Blin groups, and is nowadays used as an ethnic term to refer to all
these groups, lumped together. Originally, the term "Blin" might only
have been a name serving to designate an important sub-group11,
which by extension lent its name to their language itself.
In local terminology, the Blin inhabitants of Halhal were called, after
their ancestor, Ta’a-qur, “the children of Ta’a”12
[Ta’a being the apic ancestor] (variants: Ta-qur, or, in Tigre, often
used by the Blin themselves, Bet Tawqe, Bet Taqwe, or even Beni Ta’a).
Their southern neighbors, the Bogos13,
with their centre in the city and ancient central caravan post of Keren,
stayed nominally Christian for most of them, but also got under pressure
- raiding groups and armies reached them from the Sudanese lowlands and
later the Abyssinian highlands. They were called Bet Gebre Tarqe (or, in
pure Blin, Gebre Tarqe qur or Tarqe-qur). Taken together, the
inhabitants of Halhal and of Bogos were known as Halhale Bogos (cp. KOLMODIN,
1915), especially by neighboring Tigrinnya-speakers (sometimes
simplified into Bogos, incorrectly meaning all the Blin), before the
self-designation Blin was generally adopted in the course of the 20th
century.
The internal political structure of the Blin seems to have remained
unchanged for centuries. Their traditional law (the best known being
that of the Keren area, the Fetha Mogareh14)
retains characteristics of the ancient law of the Ethiopian kingdom,
which, in turn, had been influenced by the Byzantine Empire's Roman Law
in late antiquity. Christianity was remembered in Blin society (called
Kistan by Muslim neighbors, i.e. “Christian”), but there were almost no
priests to convey knowledge on the doctrines of the Church. Political
leadership rested in the hands of chiefs of kinship groups, who acted
autonomously. Leaders depended on their own families, who were bound not
only by their genealogical links to other leading groups, but also by
their duties to their vassals. The hierarchical Blin society encompassed
a large number of leading families (shmagile, literally “elder”) and
vassals (mostly called tigre, “vassal”) – following the model of
neighboring Tigre-speaking groups. However, in assemblies bringing
together representatives of all Blin groups, questions of law and other
matters of mutual concern were discussed by all Blin kinship groups,
thus representing both social strata. Every representative of a Blin
sub-group could act quite autonomously – a fact which prevented any
great leader to emerge and dominate all other Blin groups. This, again,
reinforced the general need for collaboration among all groups, despite
repeated internal conflicts15.
The Blin formed a sort of loose confederacy which also included non-Blin
groups. The neighboring small Tigre-group Bet Juk, located in the 'Anseba
valley (MIRAN, 2003), was closely associated with the Blin, at least
until the 1880s, to the extent that they practically became part of
their confederacy. This formula provided for mutual help in crisis
situations, including attacks by raiders.
Most Blin were living in small rural settlements, scattered over
“Halhale Bogos”, but also controlled a trade center which quickly rose
to importance during the 19th century – and this added a new aspect to
their originally mainly rural identity and socio-cultural organization.
The caravan post of Keren – also the centre of the Catholic Bogos
mission dating from the 1850s – became a sort of urban centre at an
early stage, like the port of Massawa well before and the (later
colonial) capital of Asmera a bit later. One effect of such far-reaching
transformation was that Keren became a multiethnic center, where many
languages were spoken. In the process the first urban identities
developed. An unusual feature – that is, for the Horn of Africa – was
that a few merchant families started picking family names, a commonplace
phenomenon in urban centers elsewhere, especially in medieval Europe. In
the Horn of Africa, however, family names were largely unknown, the
second name normally being the name of the father, and the third, if at
all used, the name of the grandfather. Now urbanized families emerged,
who adopted names referring to their origins. For instance, the Keren
family Habash chose this very name as an allusion to their origin from
the Christian Tigrinnya highlands. Merchants from Keren also settled in
the port of Massawa and selected the family name Karani (“from Keren”).
The Blin in 19th century imperial and religious politics
A closer look into the involvement of the Blin in international politics
reveals some interesting details, which foreshadow late 19th
century-colonisation. The arrival of a French-sponsored Catholic mission
in the early 1850s in Keren had a lasting influence on the future of the
Blin, especially those of Bogos.
In an attempt to respond to the growing British influence in the Red Sea
area, the French had sent a consul to Massawa by the 1840’s. Their
friendship seemed to appeal to the Blin. When Blin elders complained
over attacks perpetrated by Muslim neighbors coming from Egyptian
territory16,
the French managed to exert enough pressure on the Egyptian government
to extract generous compensations. This did not put an end to raids, but
from that time onwards the Blin resorted to the services of the
Christian powers present in the area to shield themselves from such
attacks. In one instance, the British too advocated that Egyptians paid
compensations.
Religion was traditionally identified with political alliance. The
conversion of many inhabitants of Keren and surrounding villages to
Catholicism led to a growing identification with French influence. In a
letter, the Blin leaders even call their territory a "devlet fransa"
(Ottoman Turkish for “French province”). French settlers arrived and
cultivated tobacco. The French government de facto accepted to exert a
weak protectorate over the Blin people, which was managed by the French
consul residing in Massawa. Simultaneously, however, the traditional
leader of Hamasen, from the local Deqqi Teshim dynasty, would still
regard the Bogos lands as his dependency. A curious, but interesting
manifestation of their ambiguous political status is the fact that in
the late 1860’s the leader of Hamasen appointed a local French settler
as governor (a post which consisted mainly in tax collection). In sum,
from the 1840’s onwards, the Blin, preserving their age-old local
political autonomy, had to accept their quasi-incorporation into the
Egyptian province of Taka, while remaining a dependency of the Christian
province of Hamasen. To the former was added the establishment of a
French protectorate. Stemming from the French “protection of Oriental
Christians” (here, Catholic converts), this status was subsequently
coined into the terms of “our protectorate over Bogos” – a process
readily observed in the French documents written in Massawa over these
years.
Yet, neither the French government resolved to make active use of the
mission, nor the French settlers and the converts to establish a true
colony. They actually disappeared from the scene after Germany defeated
France in 1870. New insecurity erupted, making it necessary to find a
new “protector”. In July 1872, the Blin were occupied by large Egyptian
military forces from Massawa and formally included into East-Sudan.
Interestingly enough, the Egyptian governor responsible for the
operation was one of the scholars who first described the Blin in the
1850s (MUNZIGER, 1859; see also MUNZIGER, 1864); he then married a Blin
woman, and now turned into a local “Erythraean” politician: Werner
Munzinger, the son of the former Swiss Head of State Joseph Munzinger.
The Blin unknowingly acquired a certain salience in European debates on
international politics in the Red Sea area (SAPETO, 1857; MUNZIGER,
1864; ÍSSEL, 1876; de RIVOYRE, 1885; TRAUB, 1888–89). More than once the
“Bogos” contributed to hectic exchanges of diplomatic notes between
European powers on the “Bogos question”: Egypt claimed Bogos which
connected the Sudanese province of Taka with the port of Massawa, and so
did emerging Ethiopia, basing its argument on the old
vassal-relationship of the Bogos with Hamasen. At the time when the
Ethiopian Empire extended again and stabilized under the reign of ase
Yohannes IV (ruled 1872-89), raids by ras Alula Qubi, the new governor
of Mereb-Mellash (central Eritrea, mainly Hamasen), threatened the
political and economic stability of the Blin. After the occupation of
Egypt by the British (1882) and the emergence of a powerful rebel state
in the Sudan, the Mahdiyya, the British and Egyptian officials were
ready to give up Bogos. For a short time, the area was actually ceded to
the Christian Ethiopian State under Yohannes IV, according to the belief
that this would contribute to a greater stability in the region
(1884/85)17.
However, shortly thereafter the Italians took over Massawa (1885) and,
having struck alliances with a number of local ethnic groups like the
Tigre-speaking Habab in Sahel (1887), they peacefully annexed Keren
(1888). Thus, the Blin again changed their political affiliation and
became an important territory, the province of Senhit, part of the new
“Colonia Eritrea” (proclaimed in 1890).
The Blin as a peripheral group
The case of the Blin epitomizes a specific instance of borderlands.
Their constant change of alliances, including of religion, helped them
preserve their inner cohesion and their local cultural traditions within
a framework of growing involvement in regional conflicts18.
Until the arrival of the Egyptians in the area, the Blin appear to have
lived a rather calm, but isolated life. Within a few years they got
involved in regional power struggles and international imperialism. The
responses the Blin elicited to this new situation stemmed from their
already age-old position as a borderland people – culturally linked with
the Christian highlands of Abyssinia, politically autonomous, and
neighbors to Muslim groups. These responses demonstrated a great
capacity of adaptation and accommodation. By effecting quick changes of
religious affiliations, which went hand in hand with the constant change
of political alliance, the Blin transformed, and thus preserved their
conscience of “Blin-ness”. Challenge and change seem to have been an
integral part of the group's identity before the advent of imperialist
expansion. This proved to be the most appropriate response in a
situation where only changes of affiliations could save them from
complete assimilation into other groups. Only by accepting these
changing affiliations, that is, a partial assimilation, the group's
internal structure could be preserved. This adaptive strategy was the
most productive response to the issue of safeguarding the
socio-political and cultural identity of the group. Identity, in this
case, was not defined only or mainly by religion or language (many Blin
being Tigre – oder Tigrinnya-speakers), but by the Blin’s internal
political system, based on a loose confederacy led by elders and relying
on genealogical networks. The 19th century was the “laboratory” in which
Blin-ness derived from the idea of membership to a genealogically linked
network. The heir of a Blin is a Blin. The lineage carries the duty to
and the offer of alliance. A Blin is the one who defends the Blin
because he is a Blin, whatever language he speaks and whatever God he
worships19.
This seemingly tautological definition is based on a simple and stable
concept: Blin society is modeled after the idea of an extended family,
in which the “We-group” is formed out of inheritance – one of the
strongest possible responses of a traditional society to cultural and
political challenge. In fact, 19th century’s transformations never
challenged this dimension of society. Well into the 20th century, local
autonomies remained unchanged under every government, and local affairs
were in the hands of widely autonomous networks of leaders. The sense of
belonging assumed the practical dimension of mutual solidarity and help
– a powerful stabilizing factor.
Many Blin participated to the Eritrean liberation struggle, both as
fighters and as intellectuals. The aspiration to Eritrean independence
nicely fitted in with the older dream of an open and tolerant Blin
society, trading with everyone in all languages necessary, while
preserving its internal autonomy. Only at the end of the 20th century
were local-patriotic feelings challenged by the rise of a modern
independent state of Eritrea – the latter fearing nothing more than lack
of control. While issues of language and religion did not alter the
stability of Blin society in the 19th century, the challenges posed in
the 21st century might well demand new solutions20.
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1890: Géographie de l'Ethiopie, Paris
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Rubenson (S.)
1978: The Survival of Ethiopian Independence, London – Addis Ababa (2nd
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1994: Tewodros And His Contemporaries 1855-1868, Lund (Acta Aethiopica
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Sapeto (G.)
1857: Viaggio ai Mensa, ai Bogos e agli Habab, Milano 1857
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2006: „Erythräa – Eritrea, Kurze Entstehungsgeschichte bis zur Ankunft
der Deutschen Aksum-Expedition“, in: St. Wenig (ed. in collaboration
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2003: “The St. Chrischona Pilgrim-Mission’s Private Archives as a Source
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Traub (P.)
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neuchâteloise 4, p. 96-191
Trimingham (J. S.)
1952: Islam in Ethiopia, London – New York - Toronto
Triulzi (A.)
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Notes
1This,
however, is a self-designation, which was adopted at a comparatively
late moment. The Aksumite kingdom started to identify the
highland-centre of the kingdom with the biblical Aithiopia only in about
the 4th century, after the kings had converted to Christianity and the
Bible had become the central reference book for politics and culture.
The biblical Aithiopia, however, originally rather meant the Sudanese
kingdom of Meroe or Nubia or simply the areas of the "blacks" south of
Egypt; the term was coined long before Aksum came into existence.
2Characteristically,
the eminent historian and specialist of modern Ethiopian history, Harold
G. Marcus (Michigan), never discussed in any detail the history of
populations of the peripheries. He rather focused on great personalities
and actors of history such as the Emperors Haile Sellassie I. and
Menilek II, the conqueror of the southern kingdoms and ethnic groups
(e.g. Marcus, 1995). However, an approach confined to the subject of the
centre tends to remain content with writing history from this sole
perspective. Easily blocked out is that "multi-faceted" countries such
as Ethiopia are marked by a plurality of historical identities. Regions
that were part of the Empire from time to time, and then again part of
other polities or autonomous, are misrepresented as simply "Ethiopian".
This has also been the case with the Blin.
3This
article was the basis for my presentation on the importance of
ethnohistory for modern research on culture(s) at the “Workshop su
‘Etiopistica oggi’”, Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, 25
March 2004. It is based on archival research, especially in the
ministère des Affaires étrangères, Paris (Consulat de Massouah), in
2001, and research carried out in the Blin area (Keren) and with Blin
informants in Eritrea during my research trip of 1997/98 and my field
research in summer 2000 and January 2001. I thank CEFAS for the
financial help, which made the latter trip possible. Special thanks
should go to my main informant Awet Ermias Eyasu from Keren for his
explanations and all his help during my stay in Eritrea, and to Nair
Fessehatzion, Sweden, for his explanations on Blin terminology and
genealogy.
4To
avoid confusion with today's Eritrea: The term “Erythraean area” should
describe the culturally closely interconnected and also quite
diversified borderlands between the core of the Christian Ethiopian
kingdom and the Red Sea, i.e. the “Mare Eritreo” (as it was sometimes
called in 19th century Italian), “Erythräische See” (old-fashioned
German) or “Ba/hre Eretra” (a term used in the Ge'ez Bible). All these
terms derive from Latin “Mare Eritreum” and Greek “Erythra thalatta” (=
the Red Sea and Indian Ocean). – The Pseudo-Greek “Erythraea” already
appeared as a geographical term in the 1870s, similar to “Abissinia
Eritrea” in the 1880s. Originally “Erythraea” meant, rather vaguely,
both the Red Sea and the adjacent areas (on the African shore). For the
use of that geographical term see Hildebrandt, 1875, pp. 14, 27. For the
Italian term “Abissinia Eritrea” see Sapeto, Íssel, NN., 1885,
“Gl’italiani...” [based on a conference with Giuseppe Sapeto and Arturo
Íssel], p. 188-98. – The choice of the name “Colonia Eritrea” for the
Italian Red Sea colony (proclaimed in 1890) is evidently influenced by
the earlier use of the adjective “Eritrea” (meaning “Erythraean”);
instead of calling their colony “Colonia del Mar Rosso”, the Italians
chose the more romantic term, thus somehow recalling ancient Rome.
5Volume
to be published in 2007 (forthcoming).
6There
is now a number of Eritrean books on that topic published in Tigrinnya
(e.g. Yis/haq Yosef, 2000), but very few in European languages. See for
one of several possible perspectives Erlich, 2005, pp. 358-59, and his
book on ras Alula (1996); a most excellent work from the Massawa
perspective is Miran, 2004; for an overview over Eritrean history until
1906 see Smidt, 2006. Further publications on that period include:
Smidt, 2003, pp. 39-58 (based only on missionary archives, which are
quite rich, but limited in perspective). See also my biographical study
focusing on the same pre-colonial period: Smidt, 2005, pp. 1-36. The
best studies on the neighboring (and sometimes dominating) powers
Ethiopia and Egypt, from which one can learn most about pre-colonial
Eritrea are Rubenson, 1978 and Douin, 1933-41; see also Caulk, 2002.
7Its
leader ras Woldenki'el in the 1870s allied himself for some time with
the Egyptians (1876-79). For that time, he took refuge in the Egyptian
Bogos country, running his yearly raids on his province Hamasen; his
inherited province was mostly under control of chiefs appointed by the
Ethiopian Emperor.
8Often
“Bogos” has been used as a synonym for “Blin”. Strictly speaking, this
is not correct. The northern Blin are the inhabitants of Halhal, the
southern Blin those of Bogos (with Keren as their main city). To
identify and refer to the area of the Blin in the 19th century,
Europeans started to call it (and adjacent regions) “Bogos lands”.
9E.g.,
Munzinger, 1859; Sapeto, 1857.
10Letter
to Emperor Napoléon III., 21 April 1864, in which they also formally
asked to become a French Protectorate (more on this odd episode below);
reprinted in Rubenson, 1994, no. 145 (pp. 236-37).
11The
1840s' Basque traveler Antoine d’Abbadie notes that a subgroup living
north of the Bogos in the plains West of the `Anseba river was called
Blin. However, it is established that, as early as in medieval times,
the Tigrinnya-speakers identified a big Agew group living north of
Hamasen with the “Bilen”; the 14th century leader of the Adkeme Milga'
was called Bilen Segede, literally 'the conqueror of the Blin' (see
Lusini, 2003). It is quite plausible that, due to the hierarchical
socio-political organisation of the Blin ethnic group, the term "Blin"
originally meant a leading group, the other Agew groups in the area
being their serfs.
12Reinisch,
1887, p. 24. (NB: The phonetically wrong use of the spelling “Bilin” by
European scholars originates from this publication; Reinisch, however,
used special diacritica, which made clear that the two “i” are
different, a trait forgotten later. I suggest therefore to give up the
spelling “Bilin” and replace it by “Blin”, which is much closer to how
the members of the group pronounce their name themselves; it is also
used by Mikael Ghaber, a Blin himself).
13See,
e.g., Mikael Ghaber, 1993.
14See
Favali, 2005, compare also Munzinger, 1859.
15Blin
historiographical tradition summarizes this experience as follows: There
had been great feuds between competing Blin kinship groups, but they
were always completely set aside at the time of attacks perpetrated by
non-Blin. Historical detailed studies yield a slightly different account
than the aforementioned: attacks against one group (e.g. by Barka slave
raiders in the 1850s) often did not result into action taken by other
Blin groups. But it remains true that Blin networks were far-reaching
and many Blin groups who were normally living independently from each
other could assemble and offset an attack by "outsiders". Also,
decisions regarding change of political affiliations, that is, aiming at
enhancing Blin collective security, like the decision to join the French
Empire (see below), were taken collectively.
16Chiefs
of Bogos to Vice Consul Lejean, 1 January 1863, in: Rubenson, 1994, no.
119 (= p. 204−205).
17By
the so-called Hewett Treaty (1884).
18The
latest publications on the Blin from the point of view of social and
historical anthropology are: Abbebe Kifleyesus, 2000, p. 69-89; Smidt,
2003, p. 585-88. See also Adhana Mengeste-ab, 1988, p. 747-50, and Id.:
1990, p. 247-52.
19It
is most typical for Blin families that the patronymal names of a person
show different religious affiliations, which does not affect at all
his/her belonging to Blin society. This stands in sharp contrast with
neighboring Christian Tigrinnya-speaking highlanders, where many define
belonging through religious affiliation. There might be an Iyasu
Abdallah Kiflu – showing that the grandfather was a Christian, the
father a Muslim, and the son a Christian again. In a given family,
cousins (regarded as “brothers” by the traditional society) might be
Christians and Muslims, a fact which does not affect their relationship
– and their obligation for mutual help.
20A
great potential lies in the Eritrean policy to respect local culture and
language. Local languages are taught at school. It is believed that the
one who masters his "own" language will more easily master other
languages. The multi-linguist reality of Blin society is acknowledged
and even positively valued. Even in a situation of great economic
pressure and political insecurity, at the very local level, people used
to chose their rural representatives for local decision-making bodies.
Though transformed, the Blin political society endures. However, due to
economic pressure and to military conscription, youngsters are leaving
their regions of origin. The traditional networks of belonging might be
replaced by new political structures, which may make the ethnic
dimension of identity and culture less and less important. An aspect
illustrating Blin peripheral position is the modern discussion over
which script should be adopted for the language. In the 1960s Eritrean
autonomy was subsequently destroyed and the official Ethiopian language
Amharic started to dominate. However, the Blin language remained
prominent in rural areas. Especially in communications among Blin, one
switched actively to the Blin language, as an expression of the strong
identification with the ethnic group, thus also underlining the strong
connection between both speakers (I thank my informant Awet Ermias Eyasu
for his explanations on this subject). During a short period of reform,
teaching in local languages was discussed and reading material developed
in Blin language. The fidel script (used by Ge'ez, Amharic and Tigrinnya)
was adapted; a consonant not known to these Ethio-semitic languages (ng)
got its own newly created sign. However, language committees set up by
the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) later gave up this idea. A
general Latin letters system, which was to be applied to all non-Ethiosemitic
languages of Eritrea, including Blin, was introduced. This is yet
another example of changes affecting Blin language and, possibly,
identity.
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