Liberation Theology- The Black Round Table

The Tawahedo Church stands as one of Africa's most profound yet overlooked spiritual treasures—a living connection to ancient wisdom that has survived millennia of external pressure. In this deeply moving conversation with Mehret, an Eritrean educator and cultural preservationist, we journey through the rich history of East African spirituality and its connection to Black identity worldwide.Mehret shares her remarkable personal story of growing up during Eritrea's liberation struggle, walking for two months to escape war, and eventually bringing her cultural knowledge to diaspora communities. Her mastery of five languages—Tigrinya, Amharic, Arabic, English, and Spanish—reflects the complex cultural tapestry of the Horn of Africa region.We explore the Ge'ez language, at least 6,000 years old and still functional today, with characters directly connected to Kemetic hieroglyphs. This isn't just academic knowledge—it's living evidence of African cultural continuity that challenges colonial narratives. As Mehret powerfully states, "I didn't know white people had anything to do with Christianity until I came here."The conversation takes us through pivotal historical moments, from Queen Amanirenas who successfully fought against Roman invasion to the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD that attempted to Europeanize African spiritual traditions. We examine how the Tawahedo principle of divine oneness transcends religious boundaries, having been instrumental in unifying Christian and Muslim communities during Eritrea's struggle for independence.Perhaps most moving is Mehret's description of cultural practices like the coffee ceremony—a ritual that transforms a simple beverage into profound spiritual communion through three symbolic servings. These everyday practices represent how ancient wisdom continues to nurture community healing.Whether you're interested

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• 15:25 (Cont.) Liberation Theology- The Black Round Table

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:39

Thanks for watching.

Speaker 2: 0:40

I come here tonight to leave you with me, to leave in yourself and believe that you're somebody. I said to the group last night nobody else can do this for us, no document can do this for us, no Lincolnian Emancipation Proclamation can do this for us, no Kennesonian or Johnsonian Civil Rights Bill can do this for us. If a Negro is to be free, he must move down into the inner resources of his own soul and sign, with a pen and ink of self-assertive manhood, his own emancipation covenant. Let anybody take your manhood. Don't let anybody take your man. Be proud of our heritage.

Speaker 2: 1:50

Somebody said earlier tonight we don't have anything to be ashamed of. Somebody told a lie. They couched it in language. They made everything black, ugly and evil. Look in your dictionary and see the synonyms of the word black. There's always something degrading and low and sinister. Look at the word white there's always something pure. I'm a man, but I want to get the language right. I want to get the language so right that everybody here will cry out yes, I'm black, I'm proud of it, I'm black and beautiful.

Speaker 3: 3:19

All right, man, that was deep right there. I felt that one that was a good idea. That was a good idea. Thank you, sir. Thank you, man. That was deep right there. I felt that one that was a good idea.

Speaker 4: 3:29

That was a good idea. Thank you, sir.

Speaker 3: 3:30

Thank you, sir. That's the black pism. All right, so thank you for coming out, Brother Mag, and you know I have some questions for you and we're going to bring the sister on right now. How are you doing?

Speaker 5: 3:43

I'm doing well, thank you.

Speaker 3: 3:47

You're welcome. I don't want to mispronounce you. What's how you say your name again, even though Mag told me that a thousand times just now?

Speaker 5: 3:53

It's Mehret and it's a Tigrinya name. Tigrinya is one of the many East African languages which is my first language of five Mehret, and it means either blessing or mercy, based on how you use it. And then it goes back to Kemetic as well, and it means she who brings blessings from the gods to the people.

Speaker 3: 4:17

Okay, so you said you speak five languages. Okay, so English is one, and what are the other four?

Speaker 5: 4:23

So Tigrinya is my first, and then Amharic, which is spoken official language in Ethiopia, and then Arabic, because I lived in Sudan for four years. It's also spoken in Eritrea, and then English, and then in college I did study abroad and studied Spanish.

Speaker 3: 4:41

Nice, all right, all right, hold on, all right. All right, hold on, all right. So now let's, I want to go right into it. I mean, before we go into it, I like for people to introduce themselves, and you already told us that you have. You speak five languages, and can you give it a little bit of your background?

Speaker 5: 5:04

And can you give a little bit of your background? Sure, yeah. So just to give you a context, I was born and raised in East Africa, starting with Eritrea, where my family is from. We are from a highland farming family that goes back for generations farming family that goes back for generations. Both sides of my family were in community leadership. My grandparents were chiefs and leaders, and then my dad inherited that and my mom was a herbalist and a natural healer and a midwife, so very involved in community life.

Speaker 5: 5:40

And then when the liberation movement well, when I was born, the liberation armed struggle for liberation in Eritrea was already 15 years into it. It started in 61. So when I was born it was like our house was, like you know, organizing headquarters, so that's where my foundation is. And then because the war kept escalating and it was really, really bad, and because of my dad's involvement in the liberation movement, my family was targeted. So we had to flee, and then so my mom, myself and three younger siblings.

Speaker 5: 6:19

It took us two months to walk from Eritrea to northern Ethiopia, the Tigray region, and then to Sudan. And we had to walk at night because there were bombings, bombing jets made in the US during the day. So I got to Sudan. So I learned Tigray and Amharic in Eritrea, because once the Eritrean liberation movement was pushed and things escalated, we were forbidden to speak our native language, which is Tigrinya, and so the language of instruction became Amharic. So I learned Amharic from the age of six to 12.

Speaker 5: 6:59

Then at 12, we went to Sudan. So I picked up Arabic because we lived there for four years, and at 16, I came here. So I picked up Arabic because we lived there for four years, and at 16, I came here so I picked up English. And then I got curious about Spanish, not only the Spanish language, but I was interested in what role does culture play in education? Because I saw that the public school system here is very negating of cultural heritage and I just didn't believe that it was like that in the rest of the world. So I traveled to Ecuador and I studied there for a quarter. And then I went to Kenya and studied with the Maasai people. And then I also went to New Zealand and was very lucky and privileged to study with the Maori people, the indigenous people of New Zealand.

Speaker 3: 7:56

So my BA is in education and cultural understanding and a master's in social work. Nice, nice, that's peace, that's peace. So now that's your education, I mean. I mean, we have some questions here.

Speaker 5: 8:15

However, I would like to ask more about your background, but let's go into the questions.

Speaker 3: 8:21

So how old is the? How old is?

Speaker 5: 8:23

the church of Tawahedo, tawahado, tawahado, which a lot of people in the US or in the Western world also refer to it as Coptic. I didn't know it was called.

Speaker 3: 8:34

Coptic Right? Yeah, I know it now.

Speaker 5: 8:36

Yeah, tawahado first of all is practiced in Ethiopia, eritrea, sudan and Egypt, although in Egypt and Sudan they refer to it as coptic. We call it uh just means the oneness of god, um and uh. You know, if you google it it will say you know, it goes back to 330 um. But the like, the principles and the the that is Tawahedo, I think, is as ancient as our people in East Africa. Because what I'm realizing as I study more, you know, the Tawahedo principles and even the colors and the symbols and even the language, is that, like, there's so much comedic culture within Tawahedo. Indeed, yeah, so much comedic culture within.

Speaker 5: 9:25

Tawahedo Indeed.

Speaker 4: 9:27

And like when we have discussions, she'll say a word, right, and I'll be like, wait a minute, that's like in the Metu Neta. And she'll be like, oh yeah, that is in the Metu Neta and there's a lot of stuff like that in the East African culture and the Tawahedo religion.

Speaker 3: 9:43

Okay, all right, man Mag, man, I'm impressed, I'm impressed man. I'm impressed by this man, wow. Okay, all right, a little. A bit more about that church, because I know about the Coptic church and, you know, over my study I learned about the Coptic church and, um, you know, over my study, I learned about the Coptic church through, uh, watching Asherah Kwesi and um, and and that's what I learned about it you know um that church through through, through him. So is it close to Christianity or?

Speaker 5: 10:23

it is Christianity. I mean, you know the um. So in Tawahado, um, they, you know, they believe in the birth of the Christ, they believe in, you know, the uh. So when we say well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, it basically means in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, amen, right, so, and then Tawaharo just means the.

Speaker 5: 10:48

So, you know, and I have been so privileged to have traveled and also just been in the US and being, like, you know, such a like a lifelong learner and having such appreciation for learning. I have studied, you know, buddhism. I have looked at Hinduism. I have studied, you know, buddhism. I have looked at Hinduism. And one of my favorite, you know, saints she's considered the Haging Saint is from South India. You know Amma.

Speaker 5: 11:11

So, like, when I look at these different things, the idea of oneness of God is, in all, different, you know. And then I'm a yoga practitioner, I'm a certified yoga teacher. So the unity, yoga just means the unity of mind, soul and body, right? So for me, tawani is just, you know, an ancient concept and this concept that our people have lived in so many different cultures have, you know many different languages to say it. But just to give you an idea, during the liberation movement there was no conflict of like religion and political resistance and armed struggle for our people.

Speaker 5: 11:52

Right, and my dad being like a chief, he was also very immersed in the Tohono, you know culture and then he became like one of the main organizers. In fact he was at some point he was the organizer for a whole province, our province, and you know there were times where he would like squash conflicts between Muslims and Christians and, you know, just using the idea of oneness. So Wahado Integri Nyata Hid in Islam right, and Eritrea has such a like, you know unique history in that right and Eritrea has such a like, you know unique history in that right, because our founding fathers in the liberation movement were both Muslim, christian as well as traditional African practitioners. Does that make sense?

Speaker 3: 12:38

Yes, yes, there's so much with just this one question Now. So, eritrea, eritrea, I'm thinking Nipsey Hussle. I'm also thinking I know Selassie. I'm thinking about Selassie, you know, as far as the Tawahadu church so, and there was another one I had, but let's just go with those two. Well, we don't have to ask about Nipsey, because we already know who that is Now.

Speaker 5: 13:14

So my dad and his dad were in the same movement, just to.

Speaker 3: 13:18

What, oh man, hold on, that's a All right. Wow, that is deep. Oh man, we, we okay, we gotta have her on more often. Man, this is not enough for for uh, uh, you know this, we only got an hour, man. Um, all right, so Okay now. Selassie the Tawahedo did he have anything to do with?

Speaker 5: 13:46

that I mean he benefited from it and he used the Tawahedo church to, you know, to gain power and to like Haile Selassie. The word means Haile, right. In Amharic, haile means strength, right, and Selassie is the Trinity. Selassie means three, selassie means Trinity. So he, like you know, he basically had the Tawaharo Church crown him and name him Haile Selassie. So he used, you know, he used the Tohono O'odham Church in that way.

Speaker 3: 14:30

Okay, now would Christianity come from this, or what came first, this or Christianity?

Speaker 5: 15:31

I mean because Tohono is such, you know, culturally, so immersed in, you know, in Black culture, in African culture, in ancient you know spirituality of our people. I would say you know that was already and that's why, like it was very and still is hard, for you know, saboteurs to come and like dismantle it because it's immersed in the culture. So I would say that was you know, that was already in our culture.

Speaker 4: 15:50

And that's actually what Akhenaten taught anyway. Oneness, you know, and Aten represents the oneness as well, the one God or the oneness of God. So, you know, I would definitely say Tawahedo as well.

Speaker 6: 16:03

I have a question. He said, tawahedo, how you doing peace, sister? How you doing peace? My brother Bron, when she was speaking about that, it sounds like some Kibra Nagas stuff. Kibra Nagas.

Speaker 4: 16:16

Okay, my brother, my brother, you know some stuff I see, so that term itself, kibrit.

Speaker 5: 16:23

Kibrit in Ge'ez means honor, right, kibrit, honor or reverence, and the Negus is the word Nugusat kings, nugus king, so actually Eritrea. Before its current name, if you go back, it was known as Bahri Nagasi, meaning the kings of the sea right. Yes.

Speaker 4: 16:49

Now think about that y'all real quick. The kings of the sea. What does that say? And you know, I told you she has the picture of her grandfathers with the phazon, with the tassel, with the moon and the star. Okay, you see what I'm saying.

Speaker 6: 17:06

You're from Ethiopia. Eritrea, oh, next door to Ethiopia. I was going to say they have a good name, they have Besh and all that, yeah.

Speaker 5: 17:16

I also claim Sudan as my home because when we were fleeing the war in Eritrea, you know, my family was sheltered in Sudan and you know, so Sudan is also my home. Like I mean, I'm a Pan-Africanist, so you know. I think the whole continent and then all of humanity.

Speaker 6: 17:39

Beautiful, beautiful sister. That's an honor man. This is beautiful man we're so connected, we get so lost man and it's like um, it's similar. When you study, like religion, you go even to the bible itself. When you go to acts one, um, was it, was it. Acts one acts three acts 13, verse 1, they say they called them Niger or Niger the black in the Antioch church.

Speaker 4: 18:09

Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up, because we're definitely going to talk about some of Christianity's black roots, you know, within this discussion.

Speaker 3: 18:19

So yeah, alright, so let's go to the next question. Mike, you got the next question.

Speaker 6: 18:24

Nah, I don't have it on me God.

Speaker 3: 18:27

You do, you do. But anyway, how old is the language of G-G's?

Speaker 5: 18:37

G-I's is at least 6,000 years old, I'm from America. I'm thinking jeez. That's what it means, jeez you guys yeah At least 6,000 years old.

Speaker 5: 18:56

And then I don't know if you're familiar with the characters or the written form of it. I don't know if you're familiar with the characters or the written form of it, but it is like a lot of the letters have. You know their foundation in comedic characters, right? So, and that's why, like I keep, I keep bringing that up that you know we talk about, you know I've been to conferences with ASCAC, right and different.

Speaker 5: 19:32

You know scholarly settings where we talk about ancient African civilization and how great our people were, and then we talk about, you know, the transatlantic, you know slave trade and and our people here and then, um, I don't think we really talk about the fact that you know a lot of our greatness survived and still is surviving like goodness, is 6 000 years old, but it's a language that's functional, that's in the church, that's in the schools, that's in the government, that's like you know, it's thriving and that is like our like, you know, like ancient and great, but also functioning and now and thriving, right. So I think when we can claim that and when we can really embrace that, then we we're putting Osiris back together Like all I feel like every time I learn something about you know, like learning Capoeira and the culture in Brazil.

Speaker 5: 20:26

It's like I'm finding things of myself, right. Um, yeah, so um beautiful.

Speaker 4: 20:34

Yeah, y'all like most of the stuff when you look at arabic, a lot of the words from arabic um, come from gaz and all of the afro-asiatic languages originate with gaz. Hebrew, you know aramaic. All of these, what they call um swahili yep. All of them come out of Gez, but Gez have better definition for the words.

Speaker 6: 21:02

It's very true, because there was an Ethiopian church I have visited and you know this was back in the days like 98 or something with my father and it was so deep, Like when they go deep into, like you know, studying with the, with the Kibber and the Gask, and the real understanding, the real Falashin Judaic religion, the portion of it. It's so real, Like the words are powerful, even down to what you said with the Giz language, how it was written, the characters, like there was like some kind of how, there was like some kind of um, how should?

Speaker 6: 21:39

we put the speculative like language of flames, like how it was written, language of light. So it's pretty, that's dope yeah all right, all right, uh.

Speaker 3: 21:49

who was queen amarinas?

Speaker 5: 21:53

Amarinas.

Speaker 3: 21:54

Amarinas.

Speaker 5: 21:58

Queen Amarinas is one of the greatest revolutionaries, to use a current word ancient you know leaders. Amazing you know defenders.

Speaker 3: 22:11

I don't mean to cut you off. What would you? You said in current language what would be the old language.

Speaker 5: 22:19

What would she would be considered, uh, she would just be a great queen. I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't foreign or it wasn't like you know um, unheard of for our great you know black women all over the the world to to to be as great as she was, you know um, but she stands out because of how she, you know she stood for her people. She was the queen of Moreau, and Moreau is a place that I have been to. You know it's a ruin. It's, you know, something that has been dismantled by Rome and by you know so many other invaders from across the sea. But I have been there and you can feel the spirit.

Speaker 5: 23:01

This is in Sudan. You know there's a city called Kassela, where we first arrived. Well, we settled, and then, because I was part of a cultural performing arts group of, you know, irish refugees, we would go to the rural areas and mobilize our people and kind of like we were generators of joy, right, because we had to process all that trauma, but at the same time it just made us feel significant to be in service to our people. And I think that you know part of the resilience of black spirit globally is that we just generate joy and we know how to like really take something so devastating, you know, and make the best out of it, and not only for ourselves but to the rest of the world. Um, so I've been to those ruins and you can feel the spirit, you can feel the energy in those. You know like a lot of the greatness is covered in sand and it's, you know, in pieces. You can still feel that. So she was the queen of Nero.

Speaker 6: 24:06

That's so dope Ron. It's so crazy because I'm surprised when she told my reach in the Ethiopian culture. Because it's funny because I got this picture right here of John the Baptistist but it's the ethiopian drawing how they look like those characters I like that yeah, so it's just the universe.

Speaker 5: 24:24

I mean liking that always be always responding I didn't know why people had anything to do with christianity until I came here. Because all the like you know, because I learned how to read by reading the bible into grinya to my mom Right, so I didn't, I didn't have any concept of like white people. And then now, when I see white, images of Jesus, mary and Moses and all you know. I'm like, yeah, that's not it.

Speaker 6: 24:54

I catch a lot of flack for that, because I have a lot of those pictures in my home of the Ethiopian depiction. I'm like I keep it like that because that's the original. There it is.

Speaker 3: 25:12

Beautiful history of our people, man Is she celebrated by the Tawahedo church.

Speaker 5: 25:22

Not from my experience. And so here's the thing With Tawahedo. Remember what I was saying A lot of our ancient wisdom and spirituality has survived in Tawahedo, but because of a lot of the bombardment that Tawahedo, but because of a lot of the bombardment that Tawahedo was getting and continued to get for centuries. There was an inward. They had to protect certain things. There are monasteries where ancient books exist, where they're guarded by certain monks and only certain people can access them. It might be celebrated within the circles, but not publicly, which is sad because honestly and I'm sad to admit this, but I didn't learn about her until I learned from Professor Amen.

Speaker 3: 26:18

Nice. What do you know, Professor Amen? Nice, nice. So what do you know about her?

Speaker 5: 26:22

What I know is that, sorry, I'm mad.

Speaker 4: 26:28

She stood out to me finally because there's the religion of Christianity. But then there's the region where Christianity happened and the history that really happened. You know the religion. Much of it is myth.

Speaker 4: 26:42

So when I studied the time period first century, the first person you really kind of run into when you start looking at this area was the queen of Meroe, amon Arenas, and she was the one Rome fought with her over the trade routes, right? So these were the first people that had the trade routes, the people from Rome. So in order for Rome to gain access and dominate the trade routes, they had to fight with her. But honestly, she might have won more wars against Rome than anybody. Just saying that's what I learned.

Speaker 4: 27:16

Yeah, I'm an Arenas, and it wasn't until Oxum. You know the people that were kind of, I guess you would say, garrisoned by the Rome. You know the Council of Nicaea that they were able to actually dismantle Mero. You feel me, but it was a long, hard fight because she was getting at him. You know, if any of y'all get a chance, read up on Queen. I'm an arena's first century, you know. But I see that when I see a lot of the fighting feminine fighting forces of the East Africa. I see her spirit, so you know that's still alive. And what is it like? 30 percent of the fighting forces in Eritrea are women.

Speaker 5: 28:00

Yes, so the 30 year long armed struggle for liberation, which was between 1961 and 1991, 30 percent of our fighting forces were women.

Speaker 3: 28:17

I want to ask this question before we go into the next one. Mike, you got the. You got the next question, right my brother, I don't have it. I told you I text you okay, all right, all right, all right, um no, I okay. Now I want to ask this question. So, uh, yemenis, eritrean and and ethiopians, kind of sort of, have, like this, a similar look that's what I'll be saying too.

Speaker 4: 28:46

Yeah, that's exactly what I'll be saying too family right.

Speaker 3: 28:51

So like what's the history in in those areas, did they all come together at some point?

Speaker 5: 28:59

Yeah, there's a lot of history and there are actually some families in Eritrea that identify as descendants of you know people that came from Yemen. And then, to just give you a context, so my name, if you look at it, it says Kunama Nagari. Kunama is one of the nine ethnic groups in Eritrea and Kunama is the most indigenous, and so, and then there's Tigrinya, which I'm from, there's Tigre, bilan, sajo, hadarib, afarnara, and then so those are mixtures of you know, different groups, but Kunama was the original black people in that area.

Speaker 3: 29:43

Wait a minute. So you said in this area has nine ethnic groups. Yes, can you run down those nine ethnic groups?

Speaker 5: 29:54

Oh boy, you're going to get me in trouble. I'm going to forget, I'm not going to forget. Okay, so there's Kunama Tigrinya, tigre Bilen, hedarib Rashida. Afar. Saho. Did. I say Tigre.

Speaker 6: 30:14

Yeah.

Speaker 5: 30:16

What am I forgetting? I said Rashida Bilan. My baby's name. My firstborn is named Bilan.

Speaker 3: 30:25

Okay, now, what's the significant? What is it? I asked because that region, the people there, they don't look anything like the people from the Congo and West.

Speaker 6: 30:39

Africa.

Speaker 5: 30:40

The Kunamadu and the Nara do. So Eritrea, compared to Ethiopia, is tiny, right. So in Ethiopia there are actually over 80 different ethnic groups. But when you look at Ethiopian images that are popularized, you see, you know mostly Amhara and Tigrinya, right, and Oromo Now we have a lot of Oromos here, right. So you know it's like if you go to like South Rand Ethiopia and you see the Omo people, like you know that's like dark and they still have the, you know the indigenous African spiritual practice there. You know they're, you know they're not like in the cities and they're not, I would say, culturally colonized, right. So it's important to keep in mind, like we have certain tribes or ethnic groups that have gone global and that are more visible, but that doesn't represent the whole country or even the whole.

Speaker 5: 31:48

You know are probably like light-skinned and have you know certain, you know features that are like common with somalis but, there's a bantu somali community in seattle and the bantu somali are very dark and have a lot of the non okay, so let me just be careful, because that's okay, say it because you know the history of Somalia and the civil war and after that fell like it's not I don't feel like, from my experience it's not common knowledge but the Arab world, especially Saudi jihadi Muslim, went after the young people and completely like there was a a cultural uh imperialism that took place in somalia and because there was a void right. But somali culture, if you like, connect, was like you know, I call it the classical somali culture. It's so poetic, it's so african, it's so you know, it's beautiful you, that's put.

Speaker 5: 32:58

You know land, ancient land, right. So it's important to keep in mind that you know our communities and our nations, you know, have been so brutalized, culturally Right In so many ways that, like what, what might be popularized does not represent the wholeness of you know of that area or that nation or that community.

Speaker 6: 33:22

From my experience, that is so deep because Eritrea and you know Eritrea and Ethiopia have been under constant attack from different groups. Like you had the British, you had a British invasion, you had some part of the Persians and you had the Italian, at the time.

Speaker 4: 33:43

What's it called? Ottoman Empire as well. They don't get talked about too much. I'm so glad you brought up the Bantu.

Speaker 6: 33:55

A lot of people don't speak about the banter when people talk about rules and stuff like that. That's why I love this show so much, because this show we don't only do it for education and purposes, also we learn as well. I'm learning about the banter because I did the DNA and I've seen some of that in my DNA.

Speaker 3: 34:20

It's funny that you said that, Mike, because today's show, this one right here, when you came on, it just reminded me why we started this show. Exactly. It reminded me why we started this show. Let's go to the next one. How did the Tawaido Church contribute to the people's liberation struggle of Eritrea?

Speaker 5: 34:54

Oh, that's a good question. So I mentioned earlier that there was no conflict. You know, for us, as you know revolutionaries or people that wanted to liberate themselves, you know to be so immersed in the, in the Tuaharo church, or you know the, also Islam, right, because Eritrea is officially, they say, 50% Muslim, 50% Christian, and you know 10% African traditional practice which is mainly like the Kunama people and the more indigenous. You know tribes, right, so the we had, you know, tauono priests, that that picked up guns and went to the field and you know there were also times where the monasteries had to shelter our freedom fighters. You know our president. You know he's still, you know communes with, with the, with the, with the Tohono priests, but he also sits and communes with the imams. You know he's Tojado, he still, you know, communes with the Tojado priest, but he also sits and communes with the imams.

Speaker 5: 36:00

You know, and actually two of our founding fathers, aboy Woldeab Woldemariam, right, aboy Woldeab Woldemariam. So, aboy, when you put Aboy in front of an elder's name, you're saying father, like our communal father right, our collective father, abu Wadab Wadumariam and Abu Ibrahim's son. So Wadab Wadumariam was Christian, um and and Ibrahim Sultan was Muslim. You know, and to give you a little bit of a context, after the Italians were defeated in the late 40s and the British, you know, took their territories that they won from the Italians, the British and the US, and the US agreed that it was in their best benefit to annex Eritrea with Ethiopia. So they put Haile Selassie, who was the ruler of Ethiopia at that time, over Eritrea and it was supposed to be a 10 year transitional time, which ended up being, you know, honest Wait, wait, wait.

Speaker 3: 37:07

Hold on hold on, rewind that okay. So America in, hold on hold on hold on Rewind that. Okay, so America, and I think you said Britain, yes, the British, the British, they basically annexed Eritrea and Ethiopia and they made Haile Selassie pretty much run, that King of Kings.

Speaker 5: 37:37

So what that did to Eritreans, is that it basically so. Then, you know, we went to the UN. We are very diplomatic, we're well studied, we're ancient people, so we did everything by the book and our case was not even heard Right. So it was after all that effort that in 1960, in 1961, you know, we decided we had to bear arms in order to liberate ourselves. And it was. It was not an easy decision. It was not, you know, it was very costly. You know there's no Iritian family who has not lost a child, or there are families that have lost all seven children or nine children.

Speaker 5: 38:24

You know so it wasn't something that, you know, easily decided and you know, throughout my, my upbringing, um, because I was part of a movement like the youth movement called the red flowers, we were called the, which translates to the red flowers, and that was we were. We were like, born and cultivated in the blood of our, of our heroes, our parents. You know, my dad went from being a farmer and a chief to being a freedom fighter. His whole world just turned upside down.

Speaker 6: 38:59

That's deep it comes to show. They basically propped up Haile Selassie. They backed him. That's why some people would say that he left his people behind when the Italians came he left them behind.

Speaker 5: 39:17

He literally did. He went to London.

Speaker 3: 39:20

Yeah, he went to London Because the Europeans turned their back on him. That's from what I know. The Europeans turned their back on him. Mussolini took over, he went to London and then he came back and, I guess you know, took over again.

Speaker 4: 39:40

If you think about London, you think about the lion, right yeah, and then they call him the Lion of Judah right he was really the Lion of London. Yeah, because all the work london wanted to do he did for them in africa.

Speaker 6: 39:58

Yeah, so it kind of makes you question that speech he gave at the un, though now like, was it really sincere?

Speaker 4: 40:04

I think somebody wrote that for him, bro. I mean because when the more you learn about tawa hetedo and you study the stuff he did, you'll see the contradictions, I promise you you'll see.

Speaker 6: 40:15

The philosophy was bring one race to the nation, superior to another inferior, and all that by the colors of a man. Damn that's crazy.

Speaker 5: 40:23

You have to look at that story within the context of the global Black struggle, right? He's not unique to you know being manipulated and and uh, propped up or bought off. You know, like we we could name a whole bunch of names of our, of our ancestors that have been compromised. There were compromises within the, you know, liberation movement in eritrea. There are compromises right now in many of our movements, right.

Speaker 5: 40:53

So just keep that in mind. He is just an archetype, right. There are archetypes in our communities and amongst us that play different roles, right Wow?

Speaker 6: 41:08

So, Catherine, what were some of their accomplishments?

Speaker 5: 41:19

OK. So he was OK. How do I describe him? He was this is the Christian one. He was this is the Christian one.

Speaker 5: 41:30

And then, even though he was Kenesha which I guess the equivalent in the US or in the Western world would be Lutheran, but within the East African context they would always say Tawaharo, kenesha right. So the culture is still Tawaharo right, you know. And so he was a journalist, so he advocated for his people. He wrote about what Haile Selassie was doing. He was exposing what the English were doing, because part of what the English did after they put Haile Selassie in power was that they wanted to put all the Muslims with Sudan and all the Christians with Ethiopia.

Speaker 5: 42:10

And Abu Dhamariam and Abu Ibrahim Sultan were like hell, no, we're one people, we are Eritreans, before we're Muslim or Christian. So they kind of mobilized and unified and, like I mentioned earlier, we have nine ethnic groups and some of them are Muslim, some of them are Christian, some of them are indigenous, some of them are Christian, some of our, you know, indigenous practitioners. And these two men galvanized and mobilized the people to say like one, eritrea Right. And then our movement, even to this day, like because the struggle is not over, there's so many sabotage I can't even tell you how many attempts of assassination there have been and continue to be on. You know, president Issa Zaforpi, because the history, the story of Eritrea is so powerful, they don't want that to be common. You know practice in Africa or anywhere where people are.

Speaker 5: 43:07

Let me calm myself down. So those two men literally unified the people and to this day, one of our mottos is One heart, one people. Right, and we say so, we put the fist on and we say Victory to the masses. Right, so that oneness, the fist united, all these fingers united, are like powerful right. So you know that oneness like the fist united, all these fingers united, are like powerful right.

Speaker 6: 43:36

So that's what they do. Wow, it's an assault on our people.

Speaker 5: 43:40

man, no matter where, catching hell from all corners and yet so resilient and so joyful and so powerful and so spiritual and so humane. Yeah, that's the part that I love and want to celebrate and uplift and just galvanize our people around.

Speaker 3: 44:03

Can you talk to us about the principles of Tawahedo?

Speaker 5: 44:09

Oh boy, I'm like an infant in this practice, okay, so I don't want to like. I want you to keep in mind that I'm sharing what I know, not I don't know everything. Principles of like, I mean, like I said, I'm like like the, you know, the father, the son, the Holy Spirit, one amen. And it's like you know, there's this reverence for life, first of all, right, and this commitment to the collective good, to the collective well-being, right, it's? It's, it's a culture, it's a way of life, it's an everyday practice.

Speaker 5: 44:56

Like you know, one of my favorite tigrinya words is temesgan, and temesgan means, you know, to be in gratitude, to say thank, I'm thankful, right. So you know, as I reflect on, you know, the tohono culture, and like my, just, my family and my community, and like the language, how immersed the language is in the spirituality, right, they say Temescan when they get up. They say Temescan when they, you know, after they eat, they say Temescan for the food that's provided. They say, like, if someone asks me, which means how, how are you doing, how's your day, I say I'm lucky, meskin, thanks be to god, right?

Speaker 5: 45:35

so there's this reference this like oneness, like it's not. Like you know, god is out there and like you know, for me it's it. It's about unifying and activating the Christ within me. Right, mm-hmm. That's what God is for me.

Speaker 6: 45:54

That's beautiful Reverence, the universe being thankful, forever grateful. That's true. You know what I'm saying. Living Christ, talk about it every day.

Speaker 3: 46:03

People got to be grateful. My next question is my favorite question.

Speaker 6: 46:08

I was going to hit that one yeah. Go ahead this one right here. How did the Council of Nicaea, 325 AD, change and alter the course of the Tawito Church? Tawaito, sir, tawaito. Yeah, we're all learning, we're practicing.

Speaker 4: 46:33

Professor, amen, can you take this one? Sure, I will take a nice shot at it. In 325 AD, a guy by the name of Frumentius who had been shipwrecked in Ethiopia and was taken into the royal court of King Izana, he was sent to that council. Now, he was from Tyree and he was like a pirate, but for some reason they took him into the court of King Izana, who was the king or the Negus at that time. But he was sent to the council of Nisia. Okay, so when he came back from the council of Nisia, a lot of weird things happened. Okay, so, when he came back from the Council of Nicaea, a lot of weird things happened.

Speaker 4: 47:14

Ok, the way in which they practiced the religion in Aksum was changed and it was altered to the Roman version. You know meaning that. You know it's not so much God is within, it's more like you're worshiping this trinity. Number one, and then, of course, the color of who they was talking about changed. One, and then, of course, the color of who they was talking about changed, and then, number three they became a garrison for the uh, for rome, and then they attacked the civilization of merrow because, remember, we remember we was talking about merrow and rome was at war, right, so they was fighting. So this was the way they inducted Aksum into their Christian political court, you know what I mean. And then sick Aksum on Mero, and we kind of still see a lot of that from a lot of the leaders in that area. You know where they're being garrisons for the West. But this was the beginning of it.

Speaker 6: 48:05

So yeah, so you're saying he crossed paths with Constantine and all that. Yeah, so you're saying he crossed paths with um constantine and all that. They all sat down and said we're gonna just completely european, europeanize the images. Brainwash. It make the people of arkahew look inferior. We're the superior, we're gonna well, it was, it was they took religion.

Speaker 4: 48:24

This is one of the good examples of taking religion and using it as a political tool of conquering conquest. You know yeah, you know, they've done the same with islam as well. The thing I really taking religion and using it as a political tool of conquer and conquest yeah, you know, they've done the same with Islam as well. The thing I really like about Tawahedo is that it crosses into Islam and it crosses into Christianity and it talks about the oneness of God and it brings people even out of these political silos and out of these religious silos into a oneness and knowing that god is in all living things and all people. You know, but at the same time let's keep it a buck the devil is too, and then you know. So nothing is all good or all bad, you know it's a balance.

Speaker 6: 49:04

It's a balance. There you go very very young degrees and so 325 was a very pivotal year. Yes, sir. Attack on the masses, basically on the religious, spiritual aspect and political.

Speaker 4: 49:18

Yes sir, and that's right before the coming of Islam that this happened, you know. So you know, it's really a treasure and a pleasure man to go back to the Tawahedo, really a treasure and a pleasure man to go back to the Tawahedo, because that the Tauhid, specifically Tauhid and Tawahedo are specifically things that Africa contributed to Christianity, the world of Christianity and to the world of Islam. Those are specifically African contributions, you know, and I've heard some interpretations where when they spoke of Heru, they put Tawahedo on his name as well. So you know, and Ge'ez is absolutely one of the Kemetic languages and we get a lot of what was lost in hieroglyphic through the Ge'ez you know what I mean and through the culture of Tawahedo. Go ahead, babe.

Speaker 5: 50:08

Is everyone familiar with the Ge'ez alphabets? I have a poster that I could show you guys.

Speaker 4: 50:13

Just yeah, sure, sure okay and it's, it's, it's their own characters. That's what's so beautiful about it. You know, it's not the english characters, you know, and honestly, there's a whole lot of words and the characters in there that we don't really have in the English language. So you have to reorientate your speech, yeah.

Speaker 5: 50:35

Up here it says Fidala Tigrinya, meaning letters of Tigrinya, basically one of the children of Giz, right? So Tigrinya, tigre and Amharic are the three languages and Tigre is older than Tigrinya and Amharic and you can see the G is a lot more closer to Tigre than the other two, but the same alphabet, the same letters used to make the words in those languages.

Speaker 4: 51:11

And it's 36 letters right Kunama.

Speaker 5: 51:16

Yeah, and then there are a few like these letters. So if you see, each letter has seven sounds be bu bi ba, be bi bo, and it goes down all the way. But these over here have exceptional they don't have seven, they only have one, two, three, four, and they're more common in than they are in the other languages. That's why they're down here that's dope, man, that's dope before we close, I want to do the last question.

Speaker 3: 51:52

How can we learn the true Revolutionary principles of Tawaido and use them To unify our people and clarify the true legacy of Christianity?

Speaker 5: 52:04

By doing more of this. You know, a few years ago I was part of a Collective that was called Black Star Line African Centered Family Educational Collective. It was started by six families. I was the only continentally born black woman in that collective. The other five, you know, were sisters from here and we had to go through a transition where it wasn't supported. You know, we live in Seattle. I don't know how well you are familiar with Seattle, but Blackness is not celebrated, you know, uplifted and supported.

Speaker 5: 52:45

Anyways, in that transition I had to go back to working for mainstream agency that still focused on education and early learning and cultural enhancement, but it wasn't Black Star Line. And I was heartbroken because I felt like I was letting our children down. I felt like my vision was being sabotaged and our collective vision was being sabotaged. But in that process, you know, I was told by three different African spiritual, you know, people guides that said your purpose is to go back and bring the East African spirituality to the people. Go back and bring the East African spirituality to the people.

Speaker 5: 53:35

And I felt at that time, I literally thought that meant I have to relocate to East Africa and study there and then come back, you know, and but I, I prayed about it, I meditated about it and I was like you know, we have some powerful Tohono, you know church and Tawahedo priests and Tawahedo scholars here and you know my thoughts started to shift and I was like I need to intentionally learn and continue to build and continue to create. You know these circles of learning and healing and transformation for me, and you know we are communal beings, so we thrive and we heal and we transform collectively, because the trauma is collective, right, um and um, professor, I mean it reminded me of that. When we got together I was like I need to heal and I have had a lot of. You know, I went through da da da. He was like well, how are you supposed to heal if not together, you know?

Speaker 5: 54:33

and I was like he stopped me, you know, on my tracks, and so I started really thinking about OK, how much do I know and how can I share that? Right? So I started creating certain events and programs. So I founded something called Afro Moves Learning Institute, you know, and that was something like a placeholder for me because I didn't want that vision to die and I didn't want to abandon my purpose.

Speaker 5: 55:01

So through Afro Moves Learning Institute, I started doing, you know, cultural enrichment, educational programming with children of African descent, where I teach the language and the history of it and how you know, and then you know, talk about the alphabet and how it's a functioning like thriving language and I can teach it because I'm immersed in it. You know, which I had taken for granted. I also do what is called Boon and Books and you know I'm so grateful to share that. I just finished, you know, confirming that I've been approved and supported to actually do the first Friday and the last Friday. Well, starting in June, the last Friday, but starting in July, it will be the first Friday and the last Friday where I actually do. In july, it'll be the first friday and the last friday where I I actually do the coffee ceremony and I call it boone and books, because I'm using the concept of the coffee ceremony but I'm creating it the concept of like also book club, you know, because you gotta tell them what boone means.

Speaker 5: 56:04

Uh sorry boone is the word for coffee. So in East Africa, coffee ceremony is a simple daily event, but it's a very powerful spiritual ceremony and throughout the war and the destruction and the trauma, we always had coffee ceremony. Right, that's Jebena, that's where we boil the coffee. So you roast these green coffee beans that come from back home. You know, coffee was, you know, born in in Ethiopia, right? So I get the coffee from back home, I wrote.

Speaker 5: 56:39

And then when you roast it, it becomes dark. And then you grind it and then you boil it in the pot that, um, we just saw was just some water. And then, but it's not about just the consumption of coffee, it's about the circle that's created. And then we have three servings of it. The first one is awal. When we boil it first, awal just means the beginning, you know, and you'll hear that a lot more in Arabic awal. And then kala'i. Kala'i means second serving. And then barakah. Barakah is the third serving and the final serving, and Barakah means the blessing. So when we finish we say Beth Barakah, beth Shishai, which means may this be a house of blessing, a house of abundance, right.

Speaker 4: 57:27

To me the first time when I had, when I experienced that that was like the African last supper, Because most of the time they serve it with bread, hambasha and I was like I see where the real last supper started.

Speaker 3: 57:41

Let me I don't mean to cut you, cut you brother and sister off. We got a podcast in three minutes coming up. We would love to have you back, sister.

Speaker 4: 57:52

Yes.

Speaker 3: 57:52

Love to have you back On that note. Peace to everybody out there. Peace, we'll see you in three minutes. Thank you, man it was a pleasure, Mag.

Speaker 6: 58:01

It was a pleasure, sister.

Speaker 3: 58:02

It was a pleasure, always a pleasure y'all, Peace.

Speaker 4: 58:06

We're going to revisit this subject. Yes, we're going to come back, indeed Peace. We're going to revisit this subject. We're going to come back, indeed peace.