"We are not saying that we don't want to integrate, but to completely
assimilate is to lose your soul and spirit.
"We are proud New Zealanders but protecting and maintaining our culture is
very important to us."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11317955
Peter Calder: Proud Kiwis from a land far away
5:51 PM Tuesday Sep 2, 2014Add a comment
Peter Calder
Eritreans are among the smaller groups in our Census, but they bring rich
traditions and customs to our shores
Ceremonial coffee and a family occasion for Tsehainesh Hibtit (left), her
brother Aklilu Hibtit, holding daughter Hermella, and his wife Tsega Beyene
with 3-month-old daughter Hosanna. Picture / Janna Dixon
The number caught my eye: 243 people who identify as Eritrean live in New
Zealand.
Their origins are in the small country on the Red Sea coast of the Horn of
Africa, but they are not our smallest ethnic group. In last year's Census,
fewer than 200 people identified as Kenyans or Ghanaians or Moroccans.
Likewise Syrians, Uruguayans, Jordanians and Palestinians. There were six
Nicaraguans.
But 243 is a small community. It's a safe bet that Aklilu Hibtit knows them
all. Lean, soft-spoken and quick to smile, the 39-year-old is
vice-president of the Eritrean Community of New Zealand Inc. And he was as
welcoming as could be imagined when I suggested we meet.
My idea was that we might eat together there is no better way to get to
know a culture and he readily agreed. But he rejected the idea that I would
bring a dish to share.
"No, don't take food," another Eritrean I contacted for advice told me. The
implication was that it would suggest the host could not adequately cater
for me.
"Coffee?" I suggested, knowing that Eritreans are big coffee drinkers. But
she counselled against that, too, and when I arrived at the Glen Eden home,
I found out why.
In a corner near the dining table, Aklilu's sister, Tsehainesh, 42, sat
beside a small ceramic charcoal burner, agitating coffee beans in a
saucepan. Her hairstyle, traditional and magnificent, had taken three
hours, she told me, adding with a smile that she did it only for special
occasions. The delicious smell of roasting coffee filled the air.
Coffee-making is a ceremony, among Eritreans, it turns out, with its own
formal rules.
The coffee is brewed in a long-necked clay jug, into which a wad of straw
is wedged to catch the grounds when it is poured. It is served in tiny
porcelain cups of which the guest must drink three, praising the quality
each time.
The process takes an hour or more and in the pace resides much of the
meaning. As we nibbled on popcorn and chatted, Tsehainesh explained that
making coffee which is always the woman's task because "men don't know how
to do it" was only for visitors who were not in a hurry.
"If someone is in a hurry," she said, "I make tea."
"We miss our family and our country," Aklilu added, "but when we do this,
it reminds us of home."
Later, we feasted on a chicken stew the local name is a wat which sang with
a chilli spice called berbere. We tore off chunks of the slightly spongy
sourdough yeasted flatbread called injera, and used them in lieu of
utensils to pick up mouthfuls of the delicious food, including a dish of
braised green beans.
The sister and brother, who arrived in 1995 and 1998 respectively, speak
excellent English. They speak Arabic, too, a legacy of time spent in Sudan
as refugees from the wars with Ethiopia that consumed 30 of the 39 years
between 1961 and 2000 and killed 300,000 on both sides.
Out of respect for their guest, they rarely lapsed into their native
language, Tigrinya, though Aklilu's button-cute, pigtailed daughter
Hermella used it to summon her father urgently to the bedroom, to see the
tiny baby, Hosanna, who had just woken.
In the corner of the lounge, a big-screen television was playing a
programme direct from Eritrea, pulled in by a satellite decoder: school
children took part in a quiz and later came a cultural event, with dancing
and singing and stringed instruments like lyres.
Aklilu explained that it was important to him that his children and his
three nieces Yohanna, Samrawit and Million kept in contact with their
culture.
"It's very easy to lose your culture and identity in a new country," he
said, "and losing your identity is losing yourself.
"We are not saying that we don't want to integrate, but to completely
assimilate is to lose your soul and spirit.
"We are proud New Zealanders but protecting and maintaining our culture is
very important to us."
For that reason, community cohesion is important to expatriate Eritreans,
Aklilu explained. They throw everything at independence day celebrations in
May, and other multicultural events, and they are quick to offer support at
celebrations by expatriate Ethiopians.
War may have been a way of life once, but national boundaries vanish in
this distant land.
"We get on well together," Aklilu said. "We know there is no use fighting
about something you cannot change."
- NZ Herald
Received on Tue Sep 02 2014 - 22:19:22 EDT