REMEMBERING THE LEGENDARY PAPA GEDIL
(YEMANE MHTSUN)

To some, Gedil was and still is the father of football, the most popular 
game in Eritrean society. Like those famous singers of the Harlem 
Renaissance, he was a born sportsman who dedicated his entire life as a referee and an organizer of teams as well based on age grades. Most of the time, he volunteered to serve the youths as sports coordinator at a time when the schools were closed for the Winter break. It is the severest season, and it is unthinkable to arrange games amid erratic weather of the fifties and sixties characterized by violent rains, and not to mention the piercing light shattering the quiet Eritrean skies. 
  
Gedil was childless, but he was the lover of children. The prominent soccer 
players in Eritrea's sports world were trained by him. Ones he acted as a 
coach of Eritrea's national team. He was a simple man who was fond of wearing sports clothes at all times. During the hay day of football in Eritrea, one could see him heading hurriedly to Ferovia. Thus jogging was his favorite pastime game besides football. No wonder, like a toddler, he was also in the habit of putting his whistle between his mouth. What is more… Gedil was not only a sports hero, but also a political figure whose contribution poses an in depth analysis in terms of youth guidance, national awareness, and silent uprising ended in armed struggle as the following poem denotes:-
ገዲል ዝዓለሞም ኩዑሶ ዞዝሩ
ሎሚስ እነውለ ቡምባ ይውርዉሩ፡
Gedil was a mentor of these soccer players
But today they throw hand grenades.

Gedil is a corruption of the word "tegadlo" coined  during the student uprising of the late fifties. In reality, sport was inseparable from the 
politics of the day. Most of the major teams were named after the historical land marks such Adulis, Zula, Isola Verde, Dahlak, Red Sea, Setit, Mereb, and not to mention Rosso Blue (Hamasien the later Asmara). According to the combined Italan-English word,  Rosso means red and Blue  means azzurro signifying the love  of our country and our rightful ownership of the Red Sea respectively. 
  
 In this connection, I would like to tell you an anecdote of the late 
sixties as told by great comedian, Ato Alemayahu Kahsay affectionately called  wetru Hgus. One day the police arrested the entire cast of the Asmara Theatre Company for using a blue curtain on the stage. When they arrived in the prison, the police officer interrogated them subtly. Finally, he asked them to sign their names for hanging the blue curtain which had a symbolic implication, of course, the forbidden Eritrean flag. In this response, Ato Alemayhu  said, " You threw us to jail for spreading the blue curtain on the stage, but at the same time, you are asking us now to sign our name with BLUE pen. It sounds strange?" Thus such color has been always associated with  the national emblem of Eritrea
  
Gedil was a jobless like Yemane Ghebremichael, our late revolutionary 
singer. He dedicated his entire life to sportsmanship whose players were among the best of the best in Africa in the early sixties. For this, the Eritrean 
Government awarded him state medal in recognition of his life time achievement. He deserved it as the following  couplet goes:-
ይዝከረኒ ፎርቪያ ገዲል ገዲም
መዋዕል ህይወቱ ዘሕለፊ ክዕልም።
I remember Ferovia then
Where Gedil used to train
The Eritrean children.

Gedil as an architect of sports youth, will be remembered forever in the 
annals of Eritrean history. 
  
Haile Bokure