Language, Education, and Public Policy in Eritrea

African Studies Review, Apr 2003 by Woldemikael, Tekle M

The Afro-Semitic languages in Eritrea are Tigre, Tigrinya (or Tigrigna), and Rashaida. The Rashaidas are the smallest ethnic group in Eritrea. They immigrated to Eritrea from Saudi Arabia within the last two hundred years. They live in northeastern Eritrea, straddling the Eritrean-Sudanese border along the Red Sea. They are mostly nomadic pastoralists and are exclusively Muslim. They are the least integrated group, living in near isolation from the rest of Eritrean society.

The Tigre and Tigrinya are the two largest ethnic groups in Eritrea.2 Together they constitute 80 percent of the Eritrean population. The Tigre occupy the northern and western part of Eritrea, the lowlands and northern highlands. They generally live in scattered hamlets, although the Tigre dominate some of the major towns in western and northern Eritrea, including Keren, Akordat, Tessenai, and Barentu in the west, and Afabet, Karora, Ghinda, and the port of Massawa in the central and northeastern parts of Eritrea. (While dominated by the Tigre, these towns, like all towns, are heterogeneous and contain people from other parts of Eritrea, northern Ethiopia, and eastern Sudan.) The Tigre practice a seminomadic way of life, migrating to grazing lands with their animals during the dry season and cultivating with hoes and digging sticks during the rainy season. They are mostly Muslims, although they include a significant number of Christians, converted by Catholic and Protestant missionaries during the last hundred years.

The Tigrinya speakers reside in the central and southern highland regions of Eritrea, an area that includes Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea, and other major Eritrean towns such as Dekemahere, Adi Keyh, Mendefera, Adi Quala, and Sanefa. The Tigrinya speakers tend to live in relatively densely populated and closely built villages; they are mostly mixed farmers, sedentary agriculturists who use oxen-drawn ploughs during the rainy season. They move with their animals to pastures in areas inhabited by Tigre-speakers during the dry season. The Tigrinya-speakers are mostly Orthodox Christians, although there is a large minority known as Jiberti who are Muslims. The Tigrinya have spread into all parts of Eritrea in the last thirty years and have become the dominant ethnic group in Eritrea.

The table below shows the rough distribution of the speakers of these languages.

The Eritrean government has attempted to modify "traditional" society through centrally planned social change. The government has pursued its plans through many institutions, including its new educational system. Mother-language instruction in elementary schools is one of the vehicles of social change in Eritrean society. In the words of the head of the Language Panels at the Ministry of Education, "Due to so many years under colonial depression [sic], the first target of cultural struggle is to establish a new and progressive culture by organizing a new educational system in a progressive manner" (Ghebru 1996: n.p.). Cultural change was put into practice through a new educational policy centered on the use of mother languages in primary schools. By "mother language" the Ministry of Education meant "the language which one first learned to speak (from home and environment)-and which one mainly speaks" (Dictionary of Contemporary English, quoted in Ghebru 1996: n.p.). These cultural changes are expected to instill pride in national and language-based ethnic (local) identity in the younger generation of Eritreans. As stated by N. W. Ghebru, "The social aims of education in Eritrea are: The consolidation of national unity and identity; the reconstruction of a nation; and the development of a citizen with progressive morality. In order to achieve the social aims of education, teaching in mother tongue is of great importance. That's why the use of mother tongue in education has been one of the cornerstones of language policy in Eritrea" (1996: n.p.).