History indicates, the port of Massawa had a caste system based on slavery or slave mode of economy, similar to the Arab Muslims on the other side of the Red Sea coast. Note: The center of everything Islam and custodian of Mecca and Medina, that is, Saudi Arabia abolished slavery, legally in the early 1960s.
In the port, there were different sectors or levels of social strata. These were the upper rich slave owning class, the non permanent or transient traders and the slaves.
The upper slave owning class includes such family, the Kekia, the Hasebela, the Hindi, the Baduri, the Turkey and many others of Sunni muslim Ullamas from Jizaan and Hadramot ... who referred themselves as Qabila Massawin.
The slave class were not considered as Qabila Massawin until recently.
In short, documents indicate 85% of the population belonged to the slave and transient class.
While working in Massawa, I had a friend from the Hasebela family who knew, each person or family who was part of the household slave property until the British left Eritrea in the 1950s. Many of those descendants of the former household slave properties later became "leaders" in Issaias Afeworki's EPLF, because the upper-caste Ben Amir dominated ELF Jebha rejected them as "untouchable class".
This is the reason the lower caste, former slave class Massawians, love Issaias Afeworki and the EPLF.
Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa (review)
September 2011, African Studies Review
In 1993, when the government of newly independent Eritrea asked citizens to complete applications for national identity cards, people in Massawa listed their qabila ("tribe") as Masawwi'ī ("Massaawn"). The sense of a common identity shared by residents of this Red Sea town is a legacy of its commerce-oriented, urban disposition as well as their self-conception as inhabitants of a distinctly Muslim space. Red Sea Citizens is an excellent, detailed study of this port town at the historical meeting point of the Red Sea, Arabia, the Nile Valley, and the Ethiopian plateau. Massawa was occupied by Ottomans, Egyptians, Italians, British, and Ethiopians before Eritrea gained its independence in 1993, but the author deftly avoids locating the city within any imperial or nationalist narrative. He seeks, in Prasenjit Duara's words, to "rescue history from the nation" (Chicago, 1997) and also, he adds, to rescue history "from empire" (16). Red Sea Citizens joins a growing revisionist historiography of the Horn of Africa that aims to relocate regions and societies previously perceived as marginal in a literature that has remained, until recently, statecentric. The book makes extraordinary use of archival sources in Tigre, Arabic, Italian, French, and English, ranging from registers of real estate transactions and charitable religious endowments to colonial documents, and to marriage, divorce, child-custody, manumission, and death records. The author also incorporates oral histories from more than fifty informants whom he interviewed in Eritrea in 2000 and 2001. With the perspective of time, it appears that his oral research seized on a limited window of opportunity. When Miran returned to Massawa eight years later, the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea had diminished much of the life and population of the city, with many of its residents leaving to seek a better life abroad. One member of a prominent family with well-known and established origins in Arabia asked Miran if his research had uncovered any documents "confirming" the family's Arabian heritage in order to support an application for citizenship to Saudi Arabia. Red Sea Citizens is divided into five chapters with an introduction, several maps, more than thirty illustrations, and a helpful glossary. In early chapters, Miran examines the relative autonomy of Massawa and its surrounding region before the 1850s. Ottoman forces conquered Massawa in 1557 and subsequently appointed representatives of a local family of Balaws as nā'ibs (deputies) in a form of indirect rule; this lasted until the early 1850s, when Massawa was gradually brought under direct Ottoman and Egyptian rule, followed by Italian colonialism. The nā'ibs used marriage alliances with local chiefs and wealthy merchants to establish their ascendency, and they used their authority to spread Islam and control trade routes. Subsequent chapters examine Massawa's cosmopolitan, polyglot, and also distinctly Islamic identity, with its strong Sufi brotherhoods. Miran also examines the 'Ad Shaykh holy family (a perceived Mahdist threat to Italian colonialism in the 1880s) as well as the expression of Islam in Massawa's sacred spaces. Among the most important contributions of this book is its discussion of Massawa's role in the global and regional economy. The author argues convincingly that, with respect to trade, the growing penetration of Europe in the Indian Ocean was not disruptive. Instead, the transformation of indigenous trade networks was characterized by "continuity, adaptation, and adjustment," as demonstrated by the success of merchant-entrepreneurs. Massawa's residents became connected to the hinterland through caravan routes and the wider world economy through its port. Local merchants and pearl fishers engaged global markets while resisting colonial meddling. (Chapter 2 includes a fascinating and original discussion of pearling in the Dahlak archipelago.) Miran also demonstrates how the commodification of the regional economy transformed social relations among Massawa's inhabitants. Red Sea Citizens would be a welcome addition to advanced courses in urban, African, Indian Ocean, Red Sea, or world history. Miran is careful to explain that his sources do not permit him to expand on Massawa's significant role in the slave trade, which is not a focus of this study. This original and thoroughly researched book breaks new ground and makes valuable contributions to a growing field.
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... awa_review
Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa
Last edited by Mesob on 04 Feb 2024, 02:06, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa
Miran is careful to explain that his sources do not permit him to expand on Massawa's significant role in the slave trade, which is not a focus of this study. This original and thoroughly researched book breaks new ground and makes valuable contributions to a growing field.
The author of the article writes:
Ottoman forces conquered Massawa in 1557 and subsequently appointed representatives of a local family of Balaws as nā'ibs (deputies) in a form of indirect rule; this lasted until the early 1850s, when Massawa was gradually brought under direct Ottoman and Egyptian rule, followed by Italian colonialism.
The nā'ibs used marriage alliances with local chiefs and wealthy merchants to establish their ascendency, and they used their authority to spread Islam and control trade routes. Subsequent chapters examine Massawa's cosmopolitan, polyglot, and also distinctly Islamic identity, with its strong Sufi brotherhoods.
Miran also examines the 'Ad Shaykh holy family (a perceived Mahdist threat to Italian colonialism in the 1880s) as well as the expression of Islam in Massawa's sacred spaces. Among the most important contributions of this book is its discussion of Massawa's role in the global and regional economy. The author argues convincingly that, with respect to trade, the growing penetration of Europe in the Indian Ocean was not disruptive. Instead, the transformation of indigenous trade networks was characterized by "continuity, adaptation, and adjustment," as demonstrated by the success of merchant-entrepreneurs. Massawa's residents became connected to the hinterland through caravan routes and the wider world economy through its port.
Local merchants and pearl fishers engaged global markets while resisting colonial meddling. (Chapter 2 includes a fascinating and original discussion of pearling in the Dahlak archipelago.) Miran also demonstrates how the commodification of the regional economy transformed social relations among Massawa's inhabitants. Red Sea Citizens would be a welcome addition to advanced courses in urban, African, Indian Ocean, Red Sea, or world history. Miran is careful to explain that his sources do not permit him to expand on Massawa's significant role in the slave trade, which is not a focus of this study. This original and thoroughly researched book breaks new ground and makes valuable contributions to a growing field.
Re: Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa
Currently, there are many former descendants of the former slaves in the Red Sea region who want to be more Eritrean than the Eritreans in the gallant EPLF or the brave Abyssinians who fought against the invading Arab Muslim invaders.
The upper class Massawians are noble and gentle in their manners who understand the truth and the history of the region, but the slaves of Massawa pretend to be more Arab than the Arab, more Eritrean than the EPLF fighter who freed the Red Sea coast, and even more Qabila Massawian than the real Tigrayt speaking Massawians.
The former slaves who were nobodies until the 1950s tell the real Deqebat Bahre Negasians: Massawa and the Red Sea is a Muslim property.
The former slave and lower cast with no roots in Eritrea always hides in Islam because he does not have his own ethnic or linguistic identity. These are the opportunists who say: Eritrea is 50 - 50. As if Eritrea is like their little grocery store.
Thanks to the EPLF fighters and Haileselassie to some extent, these days any person can claim, my ancestors are Qabila Massawian or from the tribe of Massawa, but until the 1950s, most of these people were a walking-household item of the upper class Massawians that can be sold at any time, carried as gift in weddings, exchanged as money to a traveling Arab and as a monetized item taken to Hijja in Mecca and Medina to be sold.
Until the British and later Haileselassie arrived in Massawa, the port reflected many of the worst aspects and traditions practiced on the other side of the Red Sea coast in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Some of you demanded more evidence about Slavery and the slave mode of economy in Massawa. Here are some translated from Arabic manuscripts.
From Bondage to Freedom on the Red Sea Coast: Manumitted Slaves in Egyptian Massawa, 1873–1885
Jonathan Miran
Pages 135-157 | Published online: 24 Aug 2012
Abstract
The study of 239 manumission acts registered in the court records of the Red Sea port of Massawa, now in the modern state of Eritrea, allows us glimpses into the practice of slavery and emancipation in that town in the 1870s and 1880s. The evidence sheds light both on urban slaves owned by local Massawans, commercial entrepreneur-sojourners, Egyptian officers and the Egyptian government, as well as on those slaves who might have been captured en route before their shipment across the Red Sea to the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. In the context of the scanty historiography of slavery in the Ethio-Eritrean area, the data provides unique information about gender, age, names, origins, geographic provenance and the circumstances of manumission of 276 slaves, many of whom originated in what are today areas of south-western and western Ethiopia, but also from the Eritrean borderlands and the Sudan. The evidence also provides insights into ethnic and racial distinctions and categorisations, as well as the experience of slaves before and after manumission, including concubinage, marriage and, perhaps, employment with the Egyptian government which ruled Massawa between 1865 and 1885.
From the Journal Slavery and Abolition
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10. ... 012.693302
The upper class Massawians are noble and gentle in their manners who understand the truth and the history of the region, but the slaves of Massawa pretend to be more Arab than the Arab, more Eritrean than the EPLF fighter who freed the Red Sea coast, and even more Qabila Massawian than the real Tigrayt speaking Massawians.
The former slaves who were nobodies until the 1950s tell the real Deqebat Bahre Negasians: Massawa and the Red Sea is a Muslim property.
The former slave and lower cast with no roots in Eritrea always hides in Islam because he does not have his own ethnic or linguistic identity. These are the opportunists who say: Eritrea is 50 - 50. As if Eritrea is like their little grocery store.
Thanks to the EPLF fighters and Haileselassie to some extent, these days any person can claim, my ancestors are Qabila Massawian or from the tribe of Massawa, but until the 1950s, most of these people were a walking-household item of the upper class Massawians that can be sold at any time, carried as gift in weddings, exchanged as money to a traveling Arab and as a monetized item taken to Hijja in Mecca and Medina to be sold.
Until the British and later Haileselassie arrived in Massawa, the port reflected many of the worst aspects and traditions practiced on the other side of the Red Sea coast in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Some of you demanded more evidence about Slavery and the slave mode of economy in Massawa. Here are some translated from Arabic manuscripts.
From Bondage to Freedom on the Red Sea Coast: Manumitted Slaves in Egyptian Massawa, 1873–1885
Jonathan Miran
Pages 135-157 | Published online: 24 Aug 2012
Abstract
The study of 239 manumission acts registered in the court records of the Red Sea port of Massawa, now in the modern state of Eritrea, allows us glimpses into the practice of slavery and emancipation in that town in the 1870s and 1880s. The evidence sheds light both on urban slaves owned by local Massawans, commercial entrepreneur-sojourners, Egyptian officers and the Egyptian government, as well as on those slaves who might have been captured en route before their shipment across the Red Sea to the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. In the context of the scanty historiography of slavery in the Ethio-Eritrean area, the data provides unique information about gender, age, names, origins, geographic provenance and the circumstances of manumission of 276 slaves, many of whom originated in what are today areas of south-western and western Ethiopia, but also from the Eritrean borderlands and the Sudan. The evidence also provides insights into ethnic and racial distinctions and categorisations, as well as the experience of slaves before and after manumission, including concubinage, marriage and, perhaps, employment with the Egyptian government which ruled Massawa between 1865 and 1885.
From the Journal Slavery and Abolition
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10. ... 012.693302
Last edited by Mesob on 04 Feb 2024, 15:54, edited 2 times in total.
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Tog Wajale E.R.
- Senior Member
- Posts: 14788
- Joined: 31 Oct 2019, 15:07
Re: Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa
Currently, there are many former descendants of the former slaves in the Red Sea region who want to be more Eritrean than the Eritreans in the gallant EPLF or the brave Abyssinians who fought against the invading Arab Muslim invaders.
The upper class Massawians are noble and gentle in their manners who understand the truth and the history of the region, but the slaves of Massawa pretend to be more Arab than the Arab, more Eritrean than the EPLF fighter who freed the Red Sea coast, and even more Qabila Massawian than the real Tigrayt speaking Massawians.
The former slaves who were nobodies until the 1950s tell the real Deqebat Bahre Negasians: Massawa and the Red Sea is a Muslim property.
The former slave and lower cast with no roots in Eritrea always hides in Islam because he does not have his own ethnic or linguistic identity. These are the opportunists who say: Eritrea is 50 - 50. As if Eritrea is like their little grocery store.
Thanks to the EPLF fighters and Haileselassie to some extent, these days any person can claim, my ancestors are Qabila Massawian or from the tribe of Massawa, but until the 1950s, most of these people were a walking-household item of the upper class Massawians that can be sold at any time, carried as gift in weddings, exchanged as money to a traveling Arab and as a monetized item taken to Hijja in Mecca and Medina to be sold.
Until the British and later Haileselassie arrived in Massawa, the port reflected many of the worst aspects and traditions practiced on the other side of the Red Sea coast in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Some of you demanded more evidence about Slavery and the slave mode of economy in Massawa. Here are some translated from Arabic manuscripts.
From Bondage to Freedom on the Red Sea Coast: Manumitted Slaves in Egyptian Massawa, 1873–1885
Jonathan Miran
Pages 135-157 | Published online: 24 Aug 2012
Abstract
The study of 239 manumission acts registered in the court records of the Red Sea port of Massawa, now in the modern state of Eritrea, allows us glimpses into the practice of slavery and emancipation in that town in the 1870s and 1880s. The evidence sheds light both on urban slaves owned by local Massawans, commercial entrepreneur-sojourners, Egyptian officers and the Egyptian government, as well as on those slaves who might have been captured en route before their shipment across the Red Sea to the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. In the context of the scanty historiography of slavery in the Ethio-Eritrean area, the data provides unique information about gender, age, names, origins, geographic provenance and the circumstances of manumission of 276 slaves, many of whom originated in what are today areas of south-western and western Ethiopia, but also from the Eritrean borderlands and the Sudan. The evidence also provides insights into ethnic and racial distinctions and categorisations, as well as the experience of slaves before and after manumission, including concubinage, marriage and, perhaps, employment with the Egyptian government which ruled Massawa between 1865 and 1885.
From the Journal Slavery and Abolition
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10. ... 012.693302
The upper class Massawians are noble and gentle in their manners who understand the truth and the history of the region, but the slaves of Massawa pretend to be more Arab than the Arab, more Eritrean than the EPLF fighter who freed the Red Sea coast, and even more Qabila Massawian than the real Tigrayt speaking Massawians.
The former slaves who were nobodies until the 1950s tell the real Deqebat Bahre Negasians: Massawa and the Red Sea is a Muslim property.
The former slave and lower cast with no roots in Eritrea always hides in Islam because he does not have his own ethnic or linguistic identity. These are the opportunists who say: Eritrea is 50 - 50. As if Eritrea is like their little grocery store.
Thanks to the EPLF fighters and Haileselassie to some extent, these days any person can claim, my ancestors are Qabila Massawian or from the tribe of Massawa, but until the 1950s, most of these people were a walking-household item of the upper class Massawians that can be sold at any time, carried as gift in weddings, exchanged as money to a traveling Arab and as a monetized item taken to Hijja in Mecca and Medina to be sold.
Until the British and later Haileselassie arrived in Massawa, the port reflected many of the worst aspects and traditions practiced on the other side of the Red Sea coast in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Some of you demanded more evidence about Slavery and the slave mode of economy in Massawa. Here are some translated from Arabic manuscripts.
From Bondage to Freedom on the Red Sea Coast: Manumitted Slaves in Egyptian Massawa, 1873–1885
Jonathan Miran
Pages 135-157 | Published online: 24 Aug 2012
Abstract
The study of 239 manumission acts registered in the court records of the Red Sea port of Massawa, now in the modern state of Eritrea, allows us glimpses into the practice of slavery and emancipation in that town in the 1870s and 1880s. The evidence sheds light both on urban slaves owned by local Massawans, commercial entrepreneur-sojourners, Egyptian officers and the Egyptian government, as well as on those slaves who might have been captured en route before their shipment across the Red Sea to the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. In the context of the scanty historiography of slavery in the Ethio-Eritrean area, the data provides unique information about gender, age, names, origins, geographic provenance and the circumstances of manumission of 276 slaves, many of whom originated in what are today areas of south-western and western Ethiopia, but also from the Eritrean borderlands and the Sudan. The evidence also provides insights into ethnic and racial distinctions and categorisations, as well as the experience of slaves before and after manumission, including concubinage, marriage and, perhaps, employment with the Egyptian government which ruled Massawa between 1865 and 1885.
From the Journal Slavery and Abolition
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10. ... 012.693302
Re: Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa
ka ka ka ... Former slaves in Massawa and the Red Sea region such as the Abeed Saeed Tewekel of Shankila origin told Hamasienaits like you recently: Massawa and the Red Sea belongs only to Muslims. The children of the slaves who were hiding in Saudi Arabia and Sudan for the last 40 years while you were contributing money and giving your life are telling you `to get out of Massawa`. Would that make your an S.O.B of Saeed Tewekel, the shankila property of the Hasebelas and the Ba Duri faimily ...
Re: Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa
me sob,
እንታያ ትበልዓካ ዘላ። What is deranging you?
እንታያ ትበልዓካ ዘላ። What is deranging you?
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Deqi-Arawit
- Senior Member
- Posts: 16029
- Joined: 29 Mar 2009, 11:10
- Location: Bujumbura Brundi
Re: Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa
Arab concubine. Do you really the nobility will care to what rascal agame or Saeed tewlekele or say or do?Mesob wrote: ↑04 Feb 2024, 16:23
ka ka ka ... Former slaves in Massawa and the Red Sea region such as the Abeed Saeed Tewekel of Shankila origin told Hamasienaits like you recently: Massawa and the Red Sea belongs only to Muslims. The children of the slaves who were hiding in Saudi Arabia and Sudan for the last 40 years while you were contributing money and giving your life are telling you `to get out of Massawa`. Would that make your an S.O.B of Saeed Tewekel, the shankila property of the Hasebelas and the Ba Duri faimily ...
Re: Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa
In Eritrea in 2024, looks like 1900