Personal account of the Eritrean Festival 2011 London, UK

By Semhar Munir

Just woke up after a great two days of a blisteringly fantastic & vibrant Eritrean festival held in North London and I've never seen a crowd as many & as enthusiastic as this one. Seems like the more the challenge (Bidho), the more the Eritrean come out from their long hybernation & from far & beyond to show & prove their unity.

This festival is so special in that it's geared and organized in such a way that it puts children & their interest in the centre. The festival was buzzing with lots of children's activities which were so stimulating as much as they were so entertaining......not to mention the exhilarating exhibition of beautiful pictures & displays of some breath-taking art works presented by young Eritrean artists.  

Also on a mind-stimulating side, EriPN (Eritrean Professional Network) of Engineering & physics organized & demonstrated a range of eye-popping experiments that, surely, took the children by surprise & surely geared to inspired so many children to dream & aspire. ERiPN had also prepared a science quiz questionnaire for the kids where the kids complete to enter a competition to win a prize. Ibrahim, who himself presented a life-size poster of his research work in Fuel-cell technology  that he is being carrying out at the UCL, presented to the quiz winners with the prizes....... A young girl won an assorted gadgets of a science lab-in-a-box and another boy walked away with a re-usable water & air pumped rocket. Mussie & Samson are also the lads who played a great role in making sure that the kids get stimulated & inspired. The kids' activities coordinator, Lewam, made sure that the kids get occupied and busy with activities & entertainments. Not to mention the great contribution of all the army of YPFDJ lads & lasses who made all this possible.

On the main stage, another side of kids activities was on the roll. A puppetry show by the famous Tecle the "clown" (Hallo Qole'U) brought lots of smiles to the kids & the adults alike. I've to admit, I also got carried away that it certainly did make me smile too, as it, fleetingly, took me down the memory lane of my childhood. Tecle who also plays as a ventriloquist got the kids on the stage & get them involved. It was simply brilliant & the kids & parents had a great time.

Medals & Cups awarding ceremony was another programme that got the attention of the children & parents.  Children were awarded for their achievement in football, athletics including a certificate of excellence to a a young Eritrean Karatist who this month has, officially, became an U-18 European Champion. Also a certificate of excellence was awarded to the London select team, FC Bisha, who became champion in the summer at the Scandnavian sport festival held in Sweden. The children received their medals, cups & certificates from the guest of honour, Bitsay Zemehret Yohannes, and HE Ambassader Tesfamichael Gerahtu. But the highlight of the awarding ceremony was a young Eritrean, Semir Abdelwahab Johwar, who a couple of years ago featured on EriTV after he got a series of European championship medals (a silver medal in Polland & bronze in Czeck Republic. Semir has achieved so much at a very young age that this month alone, from 5-9 October, he competed in a strong challenging European championship held in Hungary and came out victorious, winning one Gold & a bronze. The victory has officially propelled Semir to be crowned as the U18 European CHAMPION. Shortly after receiving his championship medals again from Zemehret Yohannes & Amb Tesfamichael Gerahtu, the freshly crowned European champion, Semir A. Johwar graced the festival with a display of his mesmerizing karate skills for the wowing crowd.....

Following a light entertainment & refreshments, Zemehret Yohannes gave a very comprehensive & enlightening seminar that was followed by the usual questions & answers session.

Before the stage got buzzing with varieties of Eritrean rich cultural songs, a few children performed on stage with songs and poems that earned them a massive round of applause from the audience. That was another highlight of the night.

The children's activities hall was transformed into a DJ party room for the kids to let their hairs down while the adults to have the main stage for themselves for the last 4-5 hours. It was more surprising to see more children Joining their parents in the main hall than in their own DJ party. Solomon in Tigre & Blen, Selali'A with his patriotic songs, a the soul-soothing tunes by Uqbay Mesfin and also an unforgettable song by his 8 year old son(Wedi-Uqbay) wowing the crowd with the old Tekle Tesfazghi's Saba-Sabina song. Solomon's Blen song & his harmonica got the crowd absolutely buzzing on their toes. Others took their turn to entertain the crowd to an absolute climax.........

However, a few health and safety issue was one area that we need to work on as it's a universal truth that few chaffs (Kirdad) is prone to be found mingling amongst the wheat,...... so was our festival with a couple of these tefashat(corrupt) chaffs of desperate weyane recruits were identified and thrown out of the venue. No foubt about the balance of our security & safety personals, but, perhaps, a much stringest measure should have been taken from the start. These two imps who slipped into the festival hall helled from amongst those who were basking outside the hall making an incoherent & nonsensical noise. It was crystal clear that they were hell bent to see the family festival spoilt. However, they failed so miserably simply because of the air-tight unity and awareness of the general public, in particular, the personals at the security. In total, five chaffs were arrested with. One who slipped into the festival hall to cause harm, didn't take him long before getting caught with his hands in cookies jar after he set off the fire alarm that went off in the middle of the award ceremony in order to cause maximum mayhem. Him from the inside, charged for criminal offense & property damage & another four from outside for provocative violent behaviour, were handcuffed & thrown into a police van. Another one who was seen entering after paying £25 was thrown out by the securities only less than an hour after he entered. He was acting rough and abusive with children that when confronted he tried to apologize but was thrown to rejoin the bunch of his group of puppets that he came from but came out with £25 less. His purpose was, obviously cynical & that person should be banned for life. But, even some amongst them who is said to have been blackmailed for immigration cases, visibly showed disgust & revulsion at the hardcore proper Weyane-recruites who were clearly looking for a provocative troubles.

When they saw that nobody was falling for their tricks or rising up for their cheap baits that they were dangling before us, they totally started to lose their heads that a disagreement errupted amongst themselves. But after being chocked biting their own bait & losing five of their ring leaders for a lift on the back of police van, only 12 hardcore weyane recruits were left. Afterwards, it was like the old children rhyming song......

12 green bottles sitting on the wall.....

One got knocked down and.......

11 green bottles sitting on the wall.....

Another got knocked down and.....

10 green bottles sitting on the wall.....

All got knocked down &

No green bottles sitting on the wall.....

However things don't look good for the criminal weyane puppet who was caught red handed fiddling with the fire alarm. He might get more than he bargained for as the venue manager is understood to press-charge on this desperado. Now let's see the corrupt NGOs that sfponsors his criminal extracurricular activities scrambling for his rescue to meet the heavy fine & a possible jail term facing their pre-programmed client.

The thugs also broke around eight vehicles of participants of the festival, suerly thugs have never and will never have any place in the Eritrean society!