Looking for Eritrea's Past Property

What happens when a society's most important stories survive not in archives, but in memory?

In this episode of The Other Side of Eritrea, we explore the history of Eritrean theatre, performance, and cultural memory through the groundbreaking research of Christine Matzke. At the center of the discussion is Zehaleve (1947), one of the most important early Tigrinya plays, produced during a period of profound political change and growing national consciousness.

The episode examines how Eritrean playwrights, actors, and audiences used theatre to navigate colonial rule, foreign administration, and emerging anti-colonial sentiment. More importantly, it asks how these histories survived when manuscripts were lost, hidden, confiscated, buried, or destroyed.

Drawing on oral testimony, personal archives, interviews, and performance studies, we explore the concept of the "embodied archive", the idea that songs, gestures, performances, and living memory can preserve history when written records disappear. In a world where digital records seem permanent, this story reminds us that for much of Eritrea's past, a single notebook, a remembered line, or a re-enacted performance could be the only proof that a work of art ever existed.

This is a story about theatre, memory, survival, and the ongoing search for Eritrea's cultural past.

#Eritrea #EritreanHistory #EritreanTheatre #AfricanHistory #OralHistory #PerformanceStudies #TheOtherSideOfEritrea #Tigrinya #AfricanTheatre #CulturalMemory #HistoryPodcast #EritrawiPodcast