Anthony DAvray Livres

Anyone interested in the history of Eritrea, Ethiopia, or Italian and British Imperialism will learn much from this book. It gives the full texts of the treasure-house of unpublished documents on which the same author’s Lords of the Red Sea was based. These documents were produced at the end of the 19th century by the Italian administrators in Eritrea who dealt with the local nomads. These young officers became intrigued by the society and history of the highly developed Habab tribe, even as they became part of that history, replacing loose hegemony with direct sovereignty. Their records document not only their own important role in the “Scramble for Africa” but also the whole culture and historical memory of a fascinating society.

Habab polity was, within living memory, one of a lord (Shumagalle) and serf (Tigre) relationship. In the 1870s/1880s, the Habab were subjected to pressures from the strong characters ruling in the surrounding lands: Ras Alula in the Hamasien, the Mahdist Emir Osman Digna, Colonel Kitchener, Governor of the Anglo-Egyptian enclave of Suakin, and in Massaua the Egyptians and later the Italians. In 1887, the Kantibai of the Habab signed a treaty of Protection with the Italians. In the period from 1887 to 1895, the Habab, in a fraught process, had to come to terms with the European concept of sovereignty. Anthony D’Avray’s work is primarily based on documents left by Italian administrators based at Nakfa in Eritrea in the late 19th century. They reported matters of current importance, and also the extensive oral traditions of the Habab and other peoples of the Red Sea coasts. Other primary sources, notably from the Public Record Office in London supplement the Nakfa documents.