‘I lived with my parents and my brothers and sisters in Asmara until I was about six or seven years old. I am the eighth of ten children – four boys and six girls. My oldest sister Tsehaitu Neamin became paralyzed in her legs. My parents wanted her to get a good education, but still be able to take care of herself – the chances of her getting married were slim because of her disability. My father asked a Swedish missionary if he could take her in and train her. My oldest sister agreed, but wanted to take one of her sisters and raise them as her own. She chose me.
“I grew up with my sister as a kind of mother in the Protestant Swedish missionary village, even though we were Coptic Orthodox from home. My sister became a teacher. I learned and learned. Special because Eritreans were only allowed to go to school until class four of the Italian colonizer. The Swedes were not a colonial power like the Italians. They tried to elevate and emancipate.
“Education has been of great importance to me all my life. It is good to help people who live in poverty or who are vulnerable. But as people develop, they can see through their own situation and that of the country in which they live and do something about it themselves. That’s even better.
“When I was six or seventeen, in the late 1930s, I left for Asmara, along with my older sister. Eritrea was then still in Italian hands. The Italians were looking for well-educated women. I learned the language and was trained as a midwife. After about five years, the Italians were expelled and Eritrea became a British protectorate. Then the hospital where I worked became British.
“My life changed when I got married. I was 27 or 28. My husband was setting up a modern education system for the Eritrean children. Later he became a sort of Minister of Education in Eritrea. The Isahac Teweldemedhin Secondary School in Asmara is named after him.
“We were thirty years apart. His wife had died, he already had ten children. He was a man of prestige. But the relationship was equal. I had space to do the things I wanted – albeit in the background. I helped poor, homeless and vulnerable people in urban and rural areas with food, clothing and shelter. I traveled with girlfriends. I had always developed myself, I could not have tolerated it if I had suddenly become a housewife. We had a girl together.
I miss Eritrea, but especially the Eritrea of the past. The beautiful country where I grew up
“The federation with Ethiopia, dating from 1952, was dissolved ten years later and Eritrea became a kind of province of Ethiopia. Many Eritreans revolted and my daughter grew up with that Eritrean war of independence. I only found out later. She married, her husband was director of Philips in Eritrea. They had three wonderful children and were well off: nice big house, cars. We didn’t know that the parents were in the resistance. Until they were betrayed in May 1979 and had to flee headlong into the mountains. My husband had passed away a year earlier, he didn’t have to go through that again.
“The grandchildren, three, five and seven, were with me. I sent for peasant children’s clothes, their beautiful, luxurious clothes would betray them. They were smuggled out of town on a donkey through an uncle and taken to my daughter and son-in-law. The resistance had built an entire village, partly underground. There they stayed.
“My daughter wanted to leave. She thought it was too dangerous for the children. My son-in-law would rather have stayed to fight. But I didn’t hear about all that until later. They fled to Sudan and from there to Europe, to the Netherlands.
‘In 1984 I visited Capelle aan den IJssel for the first time. When I came back two years later, I got pneumonia. I stayed longer and finally final. That was also quite handy because my daughter and son-in-law were working. I was there when the grandchildren came home from school. I have also always tried to tell them that learning is important.
“I find the Netherlands pleasant and hospitable. But so different from Eritrea. I traveled back and forth regularly. Then I always organized a family gathering. I am the only one of my generation still alive. My youngest brother passed away six years ago. I feel mater familias.
“I last traveled to Eritrea just before the corona pandemic. I miss Eritrea, but especially the Eritrea of the past. The beautiful country where I grew up. I have asked if my many nephews, nieces, grandnephews and grandnieces would like to continue the meetings without me. The family members abroad also try to do this. I think it is important that they keep in touch with each other and never forget where they come from.”
Haregu Neamin’s life story was translated by her daughter along with her granddaughter and grandson. Registrations: [email protected]
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