TO: AVIE: Audio Visual Institute of Eritrea ; SBRIT Cultural Dance Group

FROM: The Representatives of the Kunama people abroad. Pageantry, as we know and understand it, is "a rich and splendid display in which historical events are acted out in the costume of and by a particular society" (Oxford Advanced Learnīs Dictionary of Current English).

Very recently, an Eritrean cultural dance group, called "SBRIT", engaged itself in collecting and performing the various Eritrean cultural songs and dances.

The group released a video-cassette (VC) of these cultural dances and marketed it round the world.

The so-defined and presented "Kunama cultural dances" in that video-cassette, have been distorted and vulgarized to such an extent that, every Kunama who had watched them was terribly horrified and angered.

Kunama folklore, compared with the dances and the dancing arts of the other Eritrean ethnic groups, is, perhaps, the most varied and the most complicated in its performance.

If one accepts, therefore, the definition that "oneīs pageantry and folklore" is competently acted out only by its people and in the context of oneīs own cultural and traditional choreography, then one has to state that, that paricular pageantry or folklore is usurped and desecrated if a stranger or a group of strangers dare to perform it in their own ways without any regard to the seriousness of that pageantry.

This is exactly how, we Kunama abroad (those at home can have the chance to raise only their eyebrows not their voice) see and interpret those "fake Kunama" cultural dances in that SBRITīs video-cassette.

A piece of information for the SBRITīs dance group, every Kunama event has its own paricular dance.

Each Kunama dance has its own particular rhythm and carefully coordinated stepping variations. This means that, let alone a stranger, not even every Kunama person would dare take part in or try to perform a particular dance unless he or she possesses the required rhythm for that particular dance.

Mind you, not every person who happens to have particular facial features is a Kunama and, not every Kunama who claims to be a dancer, is likely to have the ability to understand, interpret the Kunama pageantry and perform the Kunama folklore in its originality.

No stranger, no matter how well-trained, would ever be able to dance "Uleda", as well as the competent Kunama "Uleda" dancers do.

This is the reason why those two "presumed" Kunama male anf female dancers in SBRITīs group, have totally gone out of the Kunama ways in trying to dance "Uleda" consequently leading the rest of the group into a disoriented and pathetic performance.

The announcer, in that VC, has competently described when and why "Uleda" is danced by the Kunama but he, being of the Tigrigna cultural back-ground, could not go on to explain how the real "Uleda" should be performed. This was left to the whims of each individaul "stranger" and, above all, to the clear inability of those two (debatable) Kunama dancers.

The male dancer has totally forgotten or, perhaps, does not even know that, in "Uleda", only a female Kunama is a leading singer whereas the men repeat the refrain of the song and concentrate themselves in keeping the rhythm of "Uleda", but, in that VC, Mr. Adiengo Kini, got mixed up and undertook the role of a "male" leading singer. This is an unforgivable insult to the Kunama culture considering the seriousness of "Uleda", which is solely performed in the event of the death, burial and memorial of an elderly Kunama person.

A Kunama "Uleda" dancer must have an absolutely inherent rhythm for it. The drums, in "Uleda", as well as in all Kunama dances, are beaten only by a group of Kunama women who can master the complicated rhythm of "Uleda" which requires, at least, two drums beaten in such a way that their rhythm has to match up with the rhythmical feet beating of the male dancers. Any Kunama would frown upon should a little discord take a place in "Uleda" performance.

"Uleda" is danced only by men whereas the women, apart from beating drums, clap their hands, cheer and respond to the leading singer.

How come then that, the SBRIT female dancers, at a certain point during the "Uleda" performance, decided to join their male partners and exibit some awkward movements that have nothing to do with the rhythm of "Uleda"?

From Kunama perspective, this is an obvious desecration of our traditional, cultural and original "Uleda" dance.

Another dance the announcer introduces as being called "Iosa" (there exists no such word in Kunama language) and originating from Sudanese Takurur folk, is said to be a part of the Kunama folklore.

What a blind contradiction! It is either a Kunama nor a Takurur dance, it cannot be described as belonging to both cultures.

This "Iosa" is simply a new, poor and cheap dance art that has nothing to do with the Kunama folklore. It is performed in such a vulgar, shameful and scandalous way that, we Kunama, had to play the cassette forward in order to cool down our disgust and anger.

For one thing, the Kunama have more than enough serious and wonderful dances and do not absolutely need such kind of trash.

We think here are both, AVIE and responsibles of SBRIT to blame for allowing such dirty and obscene dances to be performed in the name of an entire ethnic group thus ridiculing its decent folklore and pageantry.

In the Kunama dances, open obscenity and luridness are never exposed to the extent the SBRIT dance group has gone.

Was this SBRITīs video-cassette intended to contain the cultural and traditional dances of "the different Eritrean ethnic group" (as it is proudly defined by the announcer in his introductory (statements) or was that an attempt, by this dance group, to modernise (distort), revolutionize (undermine) and adapt (de-culturize) the Kunama traditional dances?

We have infact, noticed that, in the whole of that viede-cassette, the dances of the other Eritrean ethnic groups, such as of Tigrigna, Tigre, Bilen, Hadareb and so on, were performed, by a very carefully selected and competent dancers, in their traditional manner.

All those traditional dances were accompanied with their traditional music instruments, like drums, krar, himbilta and so on (an admirable performance):

Why is it then that, when it came to performing the Kunama traditional dances, none of this kind of care was given?

Why the key-boards, electric drums, synthesizers and other sophisticated sounds were used to accompany the Kunama dances?

Why do Kunama dances need foreign audial aids whereas the others do not?

We could detect only two or three (likely to be) male and female Kunama dancers in that group.

Any Kunama would agree that, those two or three dancers lack of the fundamental elements and essence of the Kunama rhythm. Their own names (Adiengo and Ashie) suggest other than their claimed Kunama ethnicity.

How on earth, then could such people represent us Kunama?

Are there no competent Kunama male and female traditional dancers to be found in the whole of Eritrea (Gash-Setit)?

Why have, the responsibles of this cultural dance group, thought and decided that their "well-trained" dancers would perform the Kunama traditional and cultural dances much better than the Kunama themselves?

Has this dance group ever been exposed to any of those Kunama traditional dances when these were performed by the Kunama themselves in given events?

We Kunama consider these obvious short-comings, on the part of SBRIT, to be, not only very discriminatory, but cunningly intended to look down on, belittle and make fun of the whole of the Kunama folklore. A very deplorable undertaking.

If the SBRIT dance group had really appreciated the Kunama pageantry and the way the Kunama perform their traditional dances, they would have tried to imitate only the sounds of the drums beaten by the Kunama women and the stepping art that is to be heard at the beginning and at the end of that same video-cassette where the Kunama perform a kind of dance called "Anna or Ukunda".

What for had that piece of "true Kunama dance" been taped by and included in that SBRITīs video-cassette?

If SBRIT is not prepared to "humble" itself down as to making a trip to the Kunama land in order to get the Kunama traditional dance lessons from the Kunama themselves or if SBRIT is in short of video and audio-cassettes, should know that there are to be found in great number both at home and abroad.

In that VC, the announcer, introducing a little play called "abina furda", states that, a Kunama mother had summoned and advised her pregnant daughter should go into hiding before her uncles came to know that she got "unlawfully" pregnant. She is reported to tell her daughter that her uncles would surely kill her if they had heard the news and found her.

In a back-gruond scene, the "presumed" uncle of the girl supports that idea while conferring with his friends.

That "Kunama mother", by the name of "Ashie Mentai", and her male partner tried to act that play out, by believing that, in the Kunama society, for a young, unmarried girl to get pregnant were a shameful incident.

We, as Kunama, have never heard that Kunama uncles killed or even attempt to kill their nieces because these got pregnant and bore children outside of the wedlock. This is a total distortion of the Kunama custom and tradition. An idea foreign to and, absolutely, not part of our cultural heritage.

If SBRIT intends to teach us, Kunama, a new morality and impose it on us, then it should clearly state so.

In our matriarchal society, infact, a Kunama uncle would be very proud if his niece and nieces bore as many children, no matter how and when, because this is seen, by him, as an enrichment of his own kinship as well as adding heirs to his personal fortune.

The two "presumed" Kunama male and female actors, in that VC, appear to not have any knowledge of their own culture and, we believe that, the AVIE leaders are co-responsible for these "cultural blunders" being used solely for their commercial purposes.

You cannot and should not desecrate oneīs culture in order to achieve your own various aims.

Remember too, that, up to now, no foreign ruler, starting from the Turks, Egyptians, Italians and Ethiopians has ever tried to change an iota of our Kunama cultural heritage.

WHY SHOULD YOU BE THE FIRST ONE TO DO SO?!.