WELCOME TO ERITREAN PRINT AND ORAL CULTURE.

መርሓባ! Welcome to this new and growing archive of Eritrean print and oral culture in Edmonton. On this site, you'll find images and notes from a wide variety of texts and artifacts which form a part of Eritrean culture -- including traditional folktales, fiction, autobiography, historical writing, periodicals, and traditional ceremonies. All items which appear on this site have been generously lent to us from Eritrean-Canadians living in Edmonton. Feel free to leave comments or questions!

On a more technical note, some text on this site appears in the Geez script of the Tigrinya language. Mac users will need to use the Safari web browser in order to properly view this script. The Mac and PC operating systems require an Ethiopic typeface to view the script, and the following is a direct link to the free download: ftp://ftp.ethiopic.org/pub/fonts/TrueType/gfzemenu.ttf

Or, you can find that link on this page:
http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/email/UniGeez.html

If you are a Mac user and have any problems downloading the file, it could help to make the download using the Camino web browser, and then switch back to Safari to view this site.

LATEST NEWS

THE BEST OF THE ARCHIVE
by Lwam Ghebrehariat on 2006-08-17

To help you as you search through the archive, here is a list and description of some favourites. Just enter the title in the search bar to find the items:

1. "Ancestral Tales", by Teklay Zeweldy
This is a book of 10 folktales. You can click on the Full Text feature to read the English translation.

2. "Kibrom and Wachil"
This is a folktale about a young boy and his companion and sister, a talking dog. You can hear the tale in Tigrinya, or click on the Full Text feature to read the English translation. Other folktales include "Kulu Halif, the Laziest Man in the World", and "The Stonecutter and the Worm".

3. "An Exhibition of Artwork by Eritrean Fighters"
Some nice art to feast your eyes on.

4. "Documents Tigrinya", by Wolf Leslau
There are interesting translated tales and descriptions of rituals to read here.

5. "The Fire on the Mountain and Other Ethiopian Stories", by Harold Courlander
An elegant collection of translated tales from Ethiopia and Eritrea, with colourful illustrations.

6. "Traditional and Modern Tigrinya Proverbs", by Dr. Kebreab Weldeghiorghis and Dr. Ermias Kebreab
A Collection of 5000 proverbs and riddles. Click on the Full Text feature to read some translated pieces.

7. "Wedding"
This includes recordings of traditional wedding songs and insults.

8. "A History of Tigrinya Literature in Eritrea", by Ghirmai Negash

9. "Bibliotheca Abessinica"
Click on the Full Text feature to read "How King Solomon Begat King Menelik", a national legend of Ethiopia and Eritrea.

10. "Two Lives", by Tiberih Tesfahuney
Click on the Full Text feature to read a translation of this Eritrean singer's autobiography.

STATISTICS:

  • Total artifacts in database: 119
  • Total fulltexts in database: 38
  • Total images in database: 3054
  • Total media in database: 77