Generative Justice is Abundance

There has been a gentle way to express and protect the value and rights of all living and nonliving beings since creation. 

[soracities]

“hibiscus flower ghost memories of desire […]”

— Grace Nichols, from ‘Two Old Black Men on a Leicester Square Park Bench’, Hinterland: Caribbean Poetry from the West Indies and Britain (ed. E.A. Markham)

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A female fighter from the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front photographed on June 20th, 1978. She holds a Russian-made Kalashnikov AK-47. (Photo by Alex Bowie/Getty Images)

[eastafriqueen]

Eritrea Fact #2:

In November of 1997 Eritrea launched its own currency, dropping the Ethiopian Birr for the Eritrean Nakfa. The Nakfa is named after the city of Nacfa (Nakfa) which was liberated by Eritrean forces in 1977 and was the first of a string of important and morale boosting victories by the Eritrean forces. Nacfa was also the headquarters of the EPLF, the 2nd of 2 Eritrean Liberation Fronts during the war for Independence (the other being the ELF).

Different values of Nakfa have the faces of people from each of Eritrea’s 9 Ethnic Groups, and on the back, images of various eritrean places. The coins have pictures of animals native to Eritrea.

The Nakfa was designed by an African-American man by the name of Clarence Holbert.

[africanartagenda]

Ermias Ekube

Country: Eritrea

Style: portraiture/Realism

Medium: Acrylics on Canvas

Fun Fact:Ermias Ekube: painter, engraver, sculptor and poet. He was a founding member of the Asmara School of Fine Arts in 1994, the first of its kind following Eritrea’s independence where he taught painting for one year.

Quote: My works are reflections of my relationship with my immediate surroundings and my immediate understanding of life. I don’t have an intellectual perception of African or East African art. However, though globalization has mixed up all cultures and forms of art, I am still fascinated by the unique and myriad cultures and lifestyles of African people. Usually the people around me are my subjects. Basically existence and ‘identity’ is my content.

Paintings

1. Untitled

2.Untitled

3.Listening the Silence

4.Boy in Blue Hood

5.Three Women

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Arghhh these photos are pretty much the coolest things EVER.

Getachew Mekurya

The Police Band

Soul Eksos

Soul Eksos

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Legendary Eritrean singer Tsehaytu Beraki.

Here is a bit about her and her work.

[eastafriqueen]

Vintage Pictures from Eritrea: People and Places.

Photos from: HAREP site.

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Eritrean warrior with a young male lion near Barentu,1935.

[howiviewafrica]

Asmara, Eritrea. (The Africa we don’t see on TV)

[maarnayeri-blog]

Eritrean Visual/Coptic Realism artist Michael Adonai

Adonai was born in 1962, in Asmara, Eritrea. He joined the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) in 1977, and began studying fine art at the EPFL Cultural Establishment in 1978. Upon the completion of his three-year training, he participated in a number of international art shows. His work has been shown in Eritrea, Europe, East and South Africa, USA, Middle East, Singapore, and Japan; his solo exhibitions include the 1993 exhibit at the National Museum of Ethiopia, the 2002 Earth Summit exhibition in Johannesburg, and Nature’s Wisdom exhibition in Japan in 2005. He is a five-time winner of Eritrea’s national painting competitions, including the prestigious Raimok prize in 2002. In addition to his visual art, he has authored five books and co-authored two.

Here’s his Facebook page which features more of his captivating pieces.

[soracities]

“When I love I become liquid light”

— Nizar Qabbani, from “When I Love” (via oiseauperdu)

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“You are a poem, though your poem’s not.”

— Ezra Pound from a letter to H. D. featured in The Collected Letters of E. P.

[violentwavesofemotion-deactivat]

“There was an inner reality, a logic of the soul, which connected her with him.”

— D. H. Lawrence, from The Complete Works; “The Rainbow,” wr. c. 1919

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“Feeling is never in excess. It has its measure in itself and proportion in its own nature. Feeling is always the right size. It’s never deficient or excessive. It needs neither a bridle nor spurs.”

— César Vallejo, tr. by Clayton Eshleman, from “Negations of Negations,”

[setthechildrenfree]

Traditional Ethiopian Orthodox Cross

[violentwavesofemotion-deactivat]

“…the poetry of reflection and darkness.”

— Zbigniew Herbert, from “The King of the Ants: Mythological Essays,” c. 1999

[ancientcoins]

KINGS of AXUM. Ezanas. Circa 300-350 AD. AE15mm. Struck after his conversion to Christianity in 330 AD. BACI LEYC, draped bust right in headcloth / +TOV TO APECH TH XWPA (May This [the cross] Please the Country), small cross in circle. Munro-Hay 52; BMC Aksum 90.

This week, another coin from the fascinating kingdom of Axum (Aksum). This time a small bronze from late in the history of the kingdom, just after the the king Ezana (Ezanas) converted to Christianity. Axum was among the first kingdoms to covert to Christianity and to publicly display its allegiance to the faith on coinage. Ezana is among the best-attested kings of Axum, largely due to his religious conversion, which was the result of the teachings of his Syrian tutor, Frumentius. Ezana was also in contact with the Roman Emperor Constantius II, who requested that Ezana prove that this Christianity was Orthodox by Roman standards. Ezana ignored these requests and established his own, independent church, the origin of the modern Ethiopian Orthodox Church (now in communion with the Coptic Orthodox Church). Today Ezana is a Saint in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Ezana was a powerful and influential king. His coins have been found as far away as India, proving that Axum in this period continued to be a powerful trading kingdom. Ezana was also a military commander who led campaigns into Meroe. Ezana’s coins have an interesting, unique feature, in that some, like this one, bear a legend on the reverse: “May this please the country.” While this cataloguer believes this legend refers to the cross, and, by implication, Christianity, scholars believe that Ezana hoped that the coinage would be met with approval, possible following upon economic difficulties. Whatever it refers to Ezana seems to have been concerned for the approval of his people.