Dr. Viazolo and Dr. Abiy

Dr. Viazolo lived in Asmara before 1976. I saw him leaving through Ad Hannes and Meqerka, west of Asmara, on foot, escaping to Sudan with a small group of refugees. That is the last time I saw him.

He was a famous businessman who provided logistical support for Italian cinema crews shooting in Eritrea. In short, Dr. Viazolo’s name is tied to the cinema of the sixties and seventies. And he was a famous businessman. I will tell you about my first experience with a movie being shot in Eritrea. That was when I heard the name Viazolo, whom I considered a producer, a director, and the boss of all the activities.

I was young when many cars loaded with cameras, crews, and actors arrived in Keren, my hometown. They shot scenes in Keren and Engerne, a village on the way to Agordat in the west, after they spent several days filming in Keren. That’s how I came to know Dr. Viazolo.

The main scenes shot in Keren centered on the market, particularly at Baadri’s Teashop, located across from what later became the vegetable stalls. That place used to be the grain market pits, then they demolished that and the Ethiopian army used to hang those fighters killed in battles to intimidate the people .

To me, the main actor was Am Yassin Johar, my great-uncle, and my friend Saleh Younis’ grandfather. He was hired to act as the teashop owner. For hours, Dr. Viazolo and a helper briefed him and the other extras on basic acting.Finally, the director ruled that they were ready.

I didn’t think the art of acting was difficult to learn; isn’t it just doing what you do all day! There was only one thing that confused me: everyone who stood before a camera knew how to look straight into it with a serious pose, wide-open eyes, and a penetrating look, without blinking. The cinema crew wanted them to forget all that—never look at the cameras, act casual, don’t be stiff, and relax. And never talk to anyone you weren’t supposed to look at or talk to unless you were specifically told to do so. Then you became a qualified actor who had graduated from the acting academy!

But how can there be a camera and you don’t look at it? That was the major question that annoyed the cameramen and confused the new actors. A town joker in the crowd of extras offered a warning: “If you look at the camera, you will go to hell after you die” There! Movie makers should call that Lesson One, and the rest will come naturally.

I once met a man at a friend’s house in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. I introduced myself and asked him his name. He hesitated and looked surprised.

“You mean you don’t know me?”

Should I?

“I was famous back in the day in Asmara. I acted in movies by Dr. Viazolo,” he said, and mentioned the name of a movie.

I had no clue about the movies. We had watched them being shot, but they never showed up in our local cinema Impero, a bit cuter that Asmara’s Impero.

Our actor doubled down, with an attitude I couldn’t stand. “Everyone in Asmara knows me.”

But I had seen Dr. Viazolo when I was young, and I am from Keren, not Asmara!

And why did this man think he was a famous actor? He must have been an extra. Even my great-uncle starred in one of Viazolo’s movies. He was proud of the experience, but not pompous about it.

Mythologies, Legends, and Simple Stories

The world needs to revise its religious history, with a particular focus on the story of Adam and Eve and the prophets who followed them. A seemingly knowledgeable Ethiopian layman historian says, “Forget Nazareth—Jesus was born in ATaye, and Adam and Eve were both born there.”

No religious book had narrated this “authentic” story before this man came along. He even knows the details of Adam’s marriage and the dowry he paid in gold nuggets—bracelets and rings were not yet invented!

Populist YouTubers have found a treasure trove in the Abyssinian religious history. My problem is when such serious stories are narrated by pseudo-historians who sniff out populist topics which they treat as bedtime stories as if they were singing lullabies.

I haven’t seen any serious challenge to the many who awoke to discover that the Tewahedo Church bible had 88 books, many of which were not accepted into other Christian biblical canons. The history of canon formation, including the role of emperors, councils, and church authorities, is a matter for serious scholarship. But when a prime minister of a country as big as Ethiopia rediscovers the Eritrean town of Barentu’s Oromo Zefetret (Genesis), everything goes!

However, on second thought, they cannot be blamed when Eritreans are considering lodging a case in a certain court claiming that Finfinnee—a city founded by my greet, great, great grandfather and soldiers who settled there, Eritreans. Addis Ababa or Finfinnee, we hereby rename it as Hadush Embaba.

The Village of Bashasha

Legends have it that a group of Eritreans from Keren loaded their camels and travelled to Oromo land to trade Indian spices. In the domain of King Jimma Aba Jiffar, they arrived at a place where a weekly barter market was held.

My great-great-great-great-grandfather was unloading his camel when the sacks burst open and all the spices scattered on the muddy ground. They were unrecoverable, and they lost their modest wealth. That incident became a story passed down over generations. I heard it a million times, as if it were an epic feat, an odyssey. Poor Grandpas!

But that was not in vain. It is said that whenever people asked what had happened to their spices, my ancestor would say, “Bosheshesh eelu!” It means they it was scattered all over.

That old marketplace is said to have survived in the village of Beshasha in Kaffa, in the old domain of Jimma Aba Jiffar. Its most famous son is Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister of modern Abyssinia.

In the 1990s, I had a neighbor from that region. He was infatuated with a man named Abubeya, or Ababiya; he said he was the grandson of the great King Jimma Aba Jiffar.

When I heard that the prime minister had become The Prime Minister of Abyssinia, I wondered whatever had happened to Abubiya!

Now I am expecting the PFDJ to elect Isaias to the position of Isaias Afwerki to replace Isaias Afwerki, just like Abiy Ahmed did.

Long live the spirit of 2018! But this time, no one gets the Nobel Prize. I believe Norway doesn’t need another embarrassment.