The Eritrean Revolution: Born of a Shifta father, produced a Shifta system
During the liberation struggle Eritrean people not only became the victims of the Ethiopian government but were also killed by the ELF and EPLF. The crimes against the Kunama people which is committed by the PFDJ is not new but has history go back before Idris Awate started the armed struggle. In the 1960s the Kunamas people became the first victim of the ELF leaders. According to Yosef 2009, many houses with their inhabitants inside; men, women and children indiscriminately killed; entire fertile areas abandoned (later to be settled mainly by the Tigrignas), their cattle plundered and sold in Kessela; etc. Here is how the VK/ KAM team of the baden-kunama.com website puts it “To a very considerable number of Kunama, who had not only known Hamid Idris Awate personally, but they had also had to abandon their land and villages set ablaze by him and their entire cattle raided and sold in the market places of Kassala (Sudan), the news of this same Hamid Idris Awate, been chosen as the leader of a national liberation movement was not only very surprising but profoundly shocking. As a continuation of this atrocity, in the early sixties (1960s) and late seventies (1970s), started to conduct retaliatory activities against the Kunama people, burning Kunama villages, even with their inhabitants inside their huts. VKP/KAM May 18, 2009) [About the background history of Hamid Idris Awate? October 30, 2012)
Was Awate a shifta? If yes, was Awate involved in criminal activities during his banditry life? Excrept from the Eritrean Revolution: Born of a Shifta father, produced a Shifta system – part 2 and final.
Merhawi Kunfu in his article the Eritrean Revolution: Born of a Shifta father, produced a Shifta system – part 2 and fina wrote
"As we can see from the public notice presented in part one, the answer is absolute yes that Awate was a shifta. Nobody can refute the fact that Awate was a shifta because the documents presented contain hard facts and evidence that prove so. I challenge anybody who denies this reality. It is well documented and well known that awate was a notorious shifta leader in the 1940s- 1950s. Even his family members and his is own community do not deny this. Among the Kunama, the whole kunama population know Awate as a shifta and criminal who killed and looted them. Anyone who wishes to know the truth about Awate can get the real information by interviewing the Kunama elders who witnessed Awate’s crimes with their own eyes. Awate was not only a shifta but he was a great a shifta leader. This means there were many armed men under his command who follow his commands and his instructions. Regarding the question of Awate’s involvement in crimes, the document provides us the answer in unequivocal manner that Awate had committed crimes - no doubt about that. The document I have presented in part one however, does not provide us details of the nature of crimes Awate had committed because according to the public notice, Awate’s crimes were ‘already notified’ in prior notices to this notice. The public notice states that the crimes had been committed against the Eritrean people emphasizing that ‘the normal life of the people of Eritrea is continually being disrupted and {???} by the activities of the shifta bands. Merhawi concluded his article..."Actually, we can conclude that the Eritrean revolution was launched or planted by a shifta criminal and produced a shifta criminal system. This means we are harvesting what we planted. Read More
Ghirmay Yeibi in his article " Half a century of misery and with no end in sight which was posted to asmariino.com on 31 May 2012 also wrote, in response to that half a century ago Eritrea started an armed struggle led by Hamid Idris Awate, who was a local outlaw “shifta”, engaged in cattle raiding and rustling. Awate was a criminal and is well remembered by his victims the Kunamas (indigenous people living in south Western Eritrea) for committing atrocious crimes against them and the indiscriminate killing of women and children including infants and burning and razing of Kunama villages. He was pardoned by the British Administration in Eritrea and given complete amnesty for his past crimes and allowed to return to his hometown, until upon request from the ELF (Eritrean Liberation Front) he turned his band of outlaws into the armed wing of the ELF. [Read more]
Furthermore Ghirmay Yeibio in his article Awate was a trigger happy ordinary outlaw (shifta): A hero of Fascist Benito Mussolini !!! Monday, 15 October 2012 wrote "Who was Hamid Idris Awate? What was his history? Hamid Idris Awate was a simple outlaw (shifta). An ordinary soldier entrusted with accomplishing a political goal charted out for him by ELF leadership in the Sudan. He never interfered nor tried to influence the political decision of the front, nor did he have the analyzing capacity of what he was doing. He was politically ignorant and was glad to do what he was trained to do his whole life and which he knew best how to do i.e. killing and causing mayhem.
He was a trigger happy fascist loyalist who worked against the interests of the Eritrean people in particular and colonized Africans in General, who continued to fight the British forces, alongside Amedeo Guillet, to bring back fascist Italian rule to Eritrea even after Mussolini’s army had surrendered in East Africa to the allied forces.
He was a fascist loyalist who conducted a guerrilla war for 5 whole years for “a king, country and a people whom he never saw or knew”. He was loyal Carabinieri who diligently worked to keep Eritreans under the yoke of Italian colonialism. As a right hand man of the Italian administration he approved and enforced the racist and oppressive policy of Italy which confiscated around half of the land of Eritrea under the principles of state land “Terreno Demaniale”, particularly around western lowlands of Eritrea during his tenure as administrator. He wanted to reinstate the Italian Fascist rule that dehumanized Eritreans using apartheid and segregation and continued to fight to bring back that system to East Africa for five whole years, until the end of the Second World War ....
http://www.ehrea.org/otherm.php
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Re: The Eritrean Revolution: Born of a Shifta father, produced a Shifta system
He was a trigger happy fascist loyalist who worked against the interests of the Eritrean people in particular and colonized Africans in General, who continued to fight the British forces, alongside Amedeo Guillet, to bring back fascist Italian rule to Eritrea even after Mussolini’s army had surrendered in East Africa to the allied forces.
He was a fascist loyalist who conducted a guerrilla war for 5 whole years for “a king, country and a people whom he never saw or knew”. He was loyal Carabinieri who diligently worked to keep Eritreans under the yoke of Italian colonialism. As a right hand man of the Italian administration he approved and enforced the racist and oppressive policy of Italy which confiscated around half of the land of Eritrea under the principles of state land “Terreno Demaniale”, particularly around western lowlands of Eritrea during his tenure as administrator. He wanted to reinstate the Italian Fascist rule that dehumanized Eritreans using apartheid and segregation and continued to fight to bring back that system to East Africa for five whole years, until the end of the Second World War ....