A group of musicians headed to Eritrea last week to charm Eritreans with their songs. I am not sure if dancing some unresolved outstanding issues away is something that should be given a priority, but what do I know? That’s why I am not in charge, I guess…
The group initially consisted of members of one of the oldest musical institutions in Ethiopia. “The Ethiopian National Theater” performers, Dawit Tsige the winner of “Balageru” (the Ethiopian version of “Shingrewa”) and some other ‘B’ listed singers. Except, of course, the legendary Hamelmal Abate and Sileshi Demisse, a former Los Angeles area folk songs radio host, who once managed to bring Stevie Wonder on his Radio Show in the eighties. He’s an author, singer, social justice activist all around good guy, who Ethiopians affectionately call “Gash Abera Mola”, after one of his songs with comical lyrics.
To be fair, it was still a much better group assembled than the similar group of largely old men that the Eritrean government had sent to Ethiopia some ten months ago. They came with war songs and screamed in empty concert halls. I asked why a country that has Jemal Romedan, Robel Michael, Korchach…would send us these senior citizens? I was told that all of these young talents are unavailable because they have been exiled. But, I digress.
On Monday, when the group arrived, the government media had touted it as one of the dividends of the “peace process”. Their arrival was a leading news on “Eri TV”– the one and only media outlet readily available to Eritreans, especially to those, who couldn’t afford to install satellite dishes.
I am still having a very difficult time to understand how largely unknown and some “has been” singers would be symbols of the ‘peace dividend’ that got even my Prime Minister a Nobel Peace Prize. But….ok..fine..whatever…
Among the arrivals, many ‘hip Asmarinos’ were expecting some special guests. Singers they can relate to. Singers they really want to dance with. Singers they were told definitely would be there.
They were told that the continentally-acclaimed, (to some extent international) acclaimed Ethiopian rockers “Jano Band’ would be there. But, alas. They were not among the arrivals. So, Asmarinos just figured that the talk of coming of their favorite band is just ‘bado seleste‘ (a state concocted rumor) to get them excited. They got used to such rumors. They don’t get fooled by them anymore. But just in case, some Asmarinos went to the nearest internet cafe, where there’s a good wifi, and checked Jano Band’s Facebook page. There was a post that unambiguously declared they will be in Asmara. It doesn’t say, when. It just says ‘we will be in Asmara’.
Asmarinos waited for 24 hours, but Jano Band still didn’t show up. The other musical group’s show started in Keren without them. I have a friend who told me that young Asmarinos were debating the reasons that kept their favorite band delayed, mounting scenarios and conspiracy theories.
Their wait was over, 48 hours later. Another facebook page post, accompanied by couple of pictures from Jano Band confirmed to them that they in fact arrived in Asmara. Asmarinos would have loved to welcome them at the airport, with a reception that a rock band deserves from their fans. Still, they were happy they get to see their favorite band.
The Show (1): Keren
The show in Keren was unremarkable. Thousands of such kinds of shows have been held in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Old popular songs covered by mediocre singers, a subpar, but good natured comedian attempting to make people laugh for about ten minutes with some stale impressions, an MC, who murdered Tigrigna in broad daylight and tried some awkward jokes (Sorry Gash Abera Mola) That was it. Then It was over.
The Show (2): Massawa
Watching it on TV, the weather seems really pleasant. However, the faces of the audience (especially the ones seating in the front) were very grim. I saw some elder women who looked like they’d rather be anywhere but there. Then a gentleman came on stage and said the city’s mayor is about to speak to open the show. Then, another gentleman came and started to speak with a pleasantly-accented Amharic. I was thinking “wow Massawa’s mayor speaks Amharic well”.
I was wrong. That wasn’t the Mayor. He was just introducing the Mayor in Amharic. Then, the Mayor came up. Unlike most speechifying politicians like to do, his speech was short. I was relieved.
Wait…hold on…Another gentleman was coming to the stage.
Oh…He just repeated what the mayor said word for word in Amharic. No. It was not the previous guy with a cute Amharic accent. This one is different. I was also thinking “..why did they not use the previous guy?..I liked him…or did they just want to show off they have several people who speak Amharic in Massawa?..”
Ok..fine..now let’s go to the show..
The show started! Having learned from Keren, the performers changed their dancing numbers and tweaked the performance a bit. Hamelmal Abate walked to where the people sat, drawing them out to dance with her, to the delight of the crowd. The band played songs that were more familiar to the crowd. Songs that were popular some 30 or 35 years ago. Even the droopy-faced old men were smiling and dancing.
Then, Gash Abera Mola came out and told the audience that Jano Band was preparing for this so hard.
He requested the audience to stay there very long into the night, because Jano’s performance might take all night.
That announcement seemed to excite the few young people and made the old ones curious about these Jano Band thingy.
At about 10:30 PM local time, Jano started to perform.
Immediately, they got everybody on their feet. They had their signature funky outfit and they were as energetic as ever.
For about 48 minutes, they played several of their hit songs.
Then, it was time to play the fast-paced, loud rock sound song from their previous Album ይነጋል (It will dawn).
The audience went wild! Started to demand more and Jano kept promising more.
While the transitional intro to another song was playing, the co-lead singer Hailu Amerga was told they need to wrap it up. He awkwardly told the audience that was their last song. The confused audience started to protest.
The lead guitarist kept playing. The band leader and the co-lead singer Dibekulu Tafesse was heard saying to the guitarist “..Sami, stop playing. Stop it. Can’t you hear he’s telling us to stop..”.
The audience was still not convinced. Then, the band leader turned to the people and said “…We wanted to continue playing. We really did. But we were told that our time is over..” When the people continue to protest, he gestured in the direction of the folks who told him to stop, as in to say “..it’s them. not us..” during which a gentleman (who no doubt has some sort of authority) with a firm commanding voice went on to the stage and stared down the people telling them “..The night is over, please go home..”
That was such a demonstration of how the Eritrean government treats its people, particularly its youth. I witnessed that with a heavy (a little bit of angry) heart. I felt the oppression for them.
I was just watching that on TV. I am sure, my fellow Ethiopians, who were there, including members of Jano Band noticed up close, the cruelty and fascistic tendency of those, who are in charge of Eritrea.
The Show (3): Asmara
48 hours later, it was Asmara’s turn. At this point, I wasn’t expecting anything new. Except, maybe Jano Band completing the show they were forced to stop in Massawa.
There were some surprises in Asmara, though.
For some reason, the Eritrean government flew in some “star power” from Addis Ababa late Saturday night and early Sunday morning.
Three very popular female artists. Tsedeniya G/Markos, an AFRIMA award winner who had her song ‘Hilme’ became a soundtrack for some French Mafia movie; Rahel Getu, a former band member of ‘Yegna’ a wildly popular female teenagers band that managed to get funding from UK government and raised controversy why it should be helped by UK taxpayers money in Westminster; and Betty G. (Biruktawit Getahun) a young singer, who performed at Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Nobel awarding ceremony in Oslo.
As expected, their hastily arranged appearance made their performance with a musical band that they met only few hours ago, was atrocious. To see professionally acclaimed singers singing off-key like that is very cringe-inducing.
The Cinema Roma show in Asmara had the most enthusiastic audience. Dawit Tsige and Hamelmal Abate seemed to have the highest number of fans, until Jano Band came out. The format of the show was a bit different from Keren and Massawa. There was a lot of speechifying of politicians, exchanging gifts and routine platitudes….
For almost the entire show, Gash Abera Mola was replaced by a new female MC. (I guess he run out of awkward jokes)
The show was condensed with many routines we saw in Keren and Massawa cut out. Yet, the audience seemed to enjoy it.
When it was time for Jano Band to arrive, Asmarinos, who did not get a chance to welcome their favorite band at the airport welcomed them with the loudest cheers and whistles.
There was something strange though. Jano, were not themselves. They were clad with black business suit and the most animated of the group, Hailu Amerga, had a necktie on. It’s mostly unheard of for a Rock Band lead singer to have a business suit on, as if he’s about to have his first interview for a position of a junior accountant.
At some point, he just couldn’t take it. He shouted, “..this necktie is making me so much uncomfortable..” and took it off and threw it away.
In their performances, unlike their old self, they just run through the songs. When they have one song left to play, they informed their audiences they have only one song left to play.
It seems they didn’t want the awkward encounter they had with authorities in Massawa to be repeated in Asmara.
Their last song was Darign. A song many enjoy its heavy dramatic sound from the singer and her bandmates synchronized body movements.
However, the band seemed they were not in the mood to do that.
When Hewan, (the female band member, who was singing the song and the only Tigrigna speaking singer in the band) finishing up and was giving her farewells, some young men approached her seemingly asking her a question.
She’s heard saying in Tigrigna “..What? Tell me, honey what would you like me to do?..” Then, she turned around asked the band to tone down the noise to have a clear understanding to what the young fellows want.
She conversed with them in inaudible Tigrigna and said “..Ok…we’ll do that..we’ll dance..one more time..”
By that time, her bandmates were walking towards backstage. She called each of her colleagues back, annunciate, each of their names (as in introducing them to the audience) and performed the synchronized dance, exactly as it appeared on their music video on youtube, to the delight of the crowd.
It was a treat for them.
That moment made the band leader, DibeKulu Tafesse, make an impromptu speech promising to come back to Asmara another time, with a heartfelt goodbye.
For me, to watch that was both heartwarming and heartbreaking. It made me think of Eritrean youth yearning for freedom.
Upon their return to Addis Ababa, Jano Band Manager explained to BBC Amharic and Tigrigna language services about what happened in Massawa. He admitted that they were told to stop, but disputed the reason.
He had these three explanations,
1) The performers who did their show ahead of them ate up their time.
2) They were told the noise was too loud: people who were sleeping could be disturbed.
3)The main source of electricity is generators in Eritrea, so it was going on and off.
I honestly found these explanations to be mighty strange.
1) I distinctly recall the MC Gash Abera Mola requesting the audiences to stay up all night, because Jano wants to play all night long. So, does that mean he didn’t know that much of the time that was allotted to them was ate up?
2) On a Friday night, with pleasant weather, folks who live on a harbor of one of the most pristine beaches on earth go to bed that early and demand noise ordinance? I doubt it.
3) The fact that it seems everything, even important events such as this run by electricity, sourced from generators seems to confirm what many say about the serious shortage of electricity in Eritrea.
However, I do understand their polite, non-confrontational explanation of the behavior of their hosts. They created a bond with the general public, they probably did not want to sever that by pushing back hard on the hostage takers that are the Eritrean government and lose access forever. At the same time, they told few bits of truths that helps to sneak a peak at a closed nation.
Unchain the Eritrean youth.
Naty Berhane Yifru
