Copyright 1995 Newspaper Publishing PLC
The Independent
June 1, 1995, Thursday
SECTION: GAZETTE; Page 16
LENGTH: 976 words
HEADLINE: OBITUARY:Waldeab
Waldemariam
BYLINE: Edward Ullendorff
BODY:
Waldeab Waldemariam is
generally recognised as "the Father of Eritrean
independence" as well as the man who established the Tigrinya (the main
tongue
of
His passing caused profound and universal grief in newly independent
he received a state funeral in the presence of the president of the country and
was buried in the martyrs' cemetery at
government declared a day of mourning.
Waldeab was born at Addi Zarna, in the Serae
He studied at the Swedish Evangelical Mission at
his studies that he was immediately employed as a teacher by the Swedish
which he served in this capacity from 1931 until 1942 - being director of this
excellent educational establishment from 1935 until 1942. In the latter year,
just over 12 months after the liberation from Italian rule of Eritrea by
British and Commonwealth forces, he was approached by the local office of the
British Ministry of Information, then for all practical purposes an arm of the
British Military Administration of Eritrea, with a view to founding and
editing the first regular newspaper in Tigrinya, next to Arabic and Amharic the
modern Semitic language with the largest number of native speakers - easily
outstripping modern Hebrew in this respect.
Waldeab readily accepted this task, and the
Tigrinya Eritrean Weekly News
was born in August 1942 and continued without interruption, under the same
executive editor, until the end of the British caretaker administration in
1952.
Not only did Waldeab possess a profound knowledge of
Tigrinya, his native
tongue, he also had a fine command of Amharic, the official language of
1889. His knowledge of English, at first rudimentary,
increased in no time by
leaps and bounds.
While the Italian government, at any rate until about 1935, had been both
benevolent and efficient, especially in the technical services, educationally
they were less energetic and promoted their own language steadfastly at the
expense of Tigrinya. The British administration reversed this policy, and the
use of the indigenous Tigrinya tongue was encouraged in schools and in everyday
life in general. The principal catalyst in this development turned out to be
the
new weekly Tigrinya paper which, under Waldeab's
guidance, became a cultural and
linguistic factor of great significance.
The journal was not merely a newspaper but became the repository of Tigrinya
intellectual life and the springboard for the creation of a literary and
stylistic tradition in that language. Increasingly Waldeab
came to be dubbed
"the Father of Tigrinya". The 30 years from the foundation of the
Eritrean
Weekly News from until the early 1970s witnessed the greatest flowering of
Tigrinya writing hitherto experienced.
As the Second World War receded from Africa and the prospects of peace
appeared brighter, the population of
concerned with their political future. A return of the Italians seemed remote,
and
be a number of possible solutions. The genie of democracy and of self-
determination, which had been so powerfully evoked by the war and its
concomitant propaganda efforts, refused to return to
the bottle. Waldeab,
compelled to be neutral as editor of the Tigrinya paper, developed as a private
individual very strong views in favour of an
independent Eritrean state. The
majority of the population in the highland provinces, to all intents and
purposes indistinguishable from the people of northern
with
United Nations as well as by a fair measure of physical coercion. Others in the
predominantly Muslim lowlands favoured partition.
In those years between the end of the war and the eventual federation with
Ethiopia in 1952 Waldeab was at the centre of the
independence movement and
became increasingly the target of enmity of all those who fought for union with
Ethiopia. From 1947 to 1952 there were no fewer than six assassination attempts,
in some of which he was nearly killed. When his principal opponent became chief
executive of
Waldeab had to flee the country and seek asylum in
that country, and elsewhere, writing and broadcasting in favour
of Eritrean
independence.
With the demise of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, the skirmishes in
dictatorship of Mengistu Hailemariam.
The deposition of the latter in 1991
brought relief to
Whether the centrifugal forces now powerfully active throughout much of the
Ethiopian polity are in the best long-term interests of the country is quite
another question. Perhaps a democratic federal structure, with genuinely
autonomous units, might eventually offer a solution to the problems now
besetting the Horn of Africa.
Waldeab, now in his mid-eighties, returned to his
own country for the first
time in 40 years. There were manifestations of great joy and esteem throughout
those long years of struggle had impaired his health. He died conscious of the
fact that the language and the country, for which he had fought so long and
valiantly, were now safe.
Edward Ullendorff
Waldeab Waldemariam,
newspaper editor: born Addi Zarna,
April 1908; married; died
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
________________________________________________________________________________
Copyright 1995 Xinhua News Agency
The materials in the Xinhua file were compiled by
The Xinhua News Agency. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Xinhua News Agency.
JUNE 1, 1995, THURSDAY
LENGTH: 162 words
HEADLINE: women organizations from horn of
DATELINE:
BODY:
some non-governmental organizations (ngo) and women
organizations from the
horn of
attending a one-day workshop on gender and women in all development expertise
here, said in a press release that "the objective of the consultation is
to
prepare a joint agenda to be presented at the world conference on women, taking
place early september in beijing."
these organizations represented some ngos and
women organizations form somalia, sudan,
ethiopia and eritrea. during the
consultation, they discussed women's role in
bringing and maintaining peace in
the horn of
conflicts in the horn. therefore, we decided to join
hands and have one voice
for peace," the press release said. the workshop,
organized by the royal
conference scheduled for september in
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE-MDC: June 2, 1995