Eritrean Heritage Celebration

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:02]Good afternoon everyone. Mayor Danny Alluri, commissioners, supervisors, friends, and supporters. My name is Lydia Hille.

[00:00:13]Ina we say which means grateful you arrived in good health and then the response is which means grateful to find you in good health. So let's do this together.

[00:00:35]All right. Thank you. Um, as the producers of today's event and the founder of Kibri, an arts organization here in San Francisco dedicated to uplifting arts and culture, I'm pleased to welcome you all um, as we celebrate our third year honoring Aritan American heritage and culture. I want to thank Mayor Daniel Liri and his amazing staff, Maron Moes, and the rest of the team for giving us this platform.

[00:01:04]Recently someone asked me why do you continue organizing these events every year and the answer is simple because identity matters representation matters belonging matters purpose matters. I want to thank our host committee Kan Almaz Abis Salam Dawi Donv. I also would like to thank today's sponsor strategic financial service CPA as well as uh Azar Kitchen. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. And the next I would like to introduce I would like to welcome our wonderful mayor Daniel Larry to the podium. Thank you so much.

[00:01:48]Good afternoon everyone. It is an honor to be here today. We gather to celebrate Eratrian Independence Day, a moment of immense pride observed every year on May 24th.

[00:02:01]This gathering here at city hall honors the families and the traditions that the Eratrian community brings to San Francisco and to the Bay Area.

[00:02:12]This Independence Day stands as a testament to the resilient spirit of the Aratrian people who have fiercely preserved their language and heritage across generations.

[00:02:24]We are incredibly fortunate that the Bay Area is home to one of the largest and earliest Aatrian communities in the United States.

[00:02:34]For decades, your families, faith communities, and local leaders have built a strong network centered on looking out for one another and lifting up the next generation.

[00:02:46]And what a culture it is. At its heart, it is a deep commitment to community and to unity. You see it in the joyful music and dance where everyone moves together in a circle symbolizing strength. You experience it around the table where eating inura together from a single shared central plate is a reminder that we are all connected and equal.

[00:03:11]And I've been warned and tell me if this is correct that stepping into an Eatrian home there's a beautiful kind of danger. You think you're stopping by for a quick 5-minute greeting, but 3 hours later, you've been fed twice. You've had three cups of coffee. That sounds really good to me. You've met five cousins, and you've officially been adopted by the family. Is that true? Is that what happens? Okay, sounds good to me. That spirit of open doors and open hearts is something that defines San Francisco, too.

[00:03:50]San Francisco will always be a place where you are welcome. No matter your background, ethnicity, or culture, the people who call San Francisco home make our city stronger, and that includes you all here today. So, thank you. Before I close, I want to say thank you, Lydia, for your commitment bringing this celebration together for number of years now and for being a dedicated champion of your community. Your leadership means the world to our city. So on behalf of the city and county of San Francisco, thank you all for sharing your history, your beautiful traditions, and your hearts with us. Happy Eratrian Independence Day. Thank you.

[00:04:38]Chuck's up.

[00:04:42]>> Well, certainly thank you, Mayor Luri, and thank you, Lydia, for bringing us together and seeing so many faces that understand how important the Eratrian community is.

[00:04:55]I also want to acknowledge Eratrian Independence Day here in San Francisco.

[00:05:00]Mayor Lori, you know, your notion of community, of independence, of agency is seeing the world in really incredible terms. The world sees us because you are making our voice clearer. This is a very special day of celebration, but I want to honor the life of a person who we lost, Gabbrain.

[00:05:24]I met SAS a couple of years ago when we were in dialogue about Eratria, its history, its geographical context, its art, and its culture. And I want to thank you again, Lydia, for curating today's event and bringing SAS to San Francisco. About a month ago, SAS died unexpectedly in his early 40s. And while many people have yet to understand the significance of his work, those who encountered his research immediately understood that he was tempting to do the extraordinary.

[00:06:00]Over 15 years of time, SAS dedicated his life and his own money, his own instit without any institutional funding without any sponsorship to studying ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and their possible connection to Eratrian language and particular to to to Gina Tina and to the broader East African culture, spirituality and history. This began with a simple observation.

[00:06:33]A ceremonial stick still carried by Itatrian men at weddings appeared carved on the walls of ancient Egyptian temples.

[00:06:42]And how could a cultural object used today also appear in the imagery that is thousands of years old? That question led him to a 15-year journey. He studied with the great Egyptologist and he believed that they decoded the phonetics correctly but he argued that there was a deeper interpretation and it was misunderstood.

[00:07:07]The translation was right but the interpretation was wrong.

[00:07:12]There are many ways that I could tell this story and I hope that it's a provocation that we look deeper into what SAS was trying to do so that we can find more unity also in all of East Africa.

[00:07:27]In San Francisco, you know, we're endowed with new technologies. We have artificial intelligence that can help us to pierce layers of misunderstanding and find new paths to you know a a unity of this information that is quite complex but actually decipherable. And I want to provoke us here. I want to provoke the Iratrian community, our academic community, our funders and our scholars to use the power of San Francisco in this incredible moment of artificial intelligence to solve mysteries that are yet to be even claimed in terms of what they can do to bring unity to this world, to bring understanding, to displace misunderstanding, and to replace it with a clear path towards the future. So, we're honoring his courage.

[00:08:16]We're honoring the questions that he dared to ask and the conviction that what he was looking for can illuminate a path into the future. Thank you very much.

[00:08:34]>> Good afternoon. Uh thank you Mayor Lori and thank you Lydia for organizing this and for producing this event and thanks uh welcome the guests as well. Uh my name is Dawit Gle just like everybody else here. I'm also the beneficiary of San Francisco and its spirit of freedom and dignity. Uh thank you for having me and um I will uh directly go to uh I was thinking of talking about Ingera and stuff but you touched it so I'm going to skip it.

[00:09:10]Yeah. So I will go straight to the history of Eritria. A lot of people think Eritria is just a new nation that's only 40 50 years old. But that's not true. Itria is an old nation. uh its history is deeply rooted in ancient civilization. The name itself came from a Greek word red. It means uh itria red in Greek is itria and the red sea.

[00:09:41]Centuries ago it used to be called itrian sea. So itria has been there for a long time. Uh or in addition, Eritria has the highest volume of ancient archaeological discoveries after Egypt.

[00:09:56]Recently, archaeological events uncovered the world's oldest oyster oyster bar and it dates back 10,000 years. And Eritria is also home for some of the oldest human remains ever found.

[00:10:15]And these were 1 million years old.

[00:10:19]And throughout centuries, Eritraia was also uh uh there and it was invaded by different invaders like the Ottoman Empire, the uh the Egyptians, the Italians and many. So it was there for a long time and um this day the May 24 is our independence day and then we paid a lot of price for that. And I want to say a few words about that. We paid about over 170,000 lives to restore Eritrea and um for instance I lost two brothers in the past to independence and to show the uh the the extent of the impact uh I can ask the Arthrian audience here to show me to raise their hands if they lost anyone in the uh path for independence.

[00:11:19]Yeah.

[00:11:22]Yeah. Yeah. Almost everybody is affected by that. And but the despite this people are thriving. Eritrians are thriving in the US as well as in in in in um uh in other parts of the world. Uh for itans the most important value is perseverance.

[00:11:45]That's the power to overcome challenge and never give up. That's our main uh behavior or two. Uh when barriers are removed uh the sky is the limit. Uh for example um uh recently there for 100 years for 100 years no black African was allow was able to participate. not only part participate in the tour def France but a few years back our own Binam Gmai not only participate in the tour difference France but he won many stages and then he won the green jersey and he is the first time winner and the only black African I hope he's opening door for the others similarly we have a Swedish Iritrian soccer player Alexander Isach who was sold for 170 million ion dollar last year and he was the highest sold uh uh uh soccer player of the year and the fourth ever highest uh for the for for for the soccer team. Um and uh this proves that when grant the opportunity our community doesn't just participate, it leads in fact even here locally uh Kubri Kubri u has served as a sole representative of the African diaspora of San Francisco International Art Fair last year and the there is immense potential here to explore and uh uh dear Mel luri please make sure this kind of events uh and this communication and cooperation continues and with your support we look forward to continue and strive try. All right. Thank you.

[00:13:46]>> And next quickly we have a little poem for you.

[00:14:16]Good afternoon everyone. Um, it's an honor to be here today. My name is Aram Waldaraya. I'm an artist, a writer, a poet, and filmmaker.

[00:14:27]Um, and mental health advocate.

[00:14:32]I'm going to read a poem. Um, it's called I am an Iritrian American.

[00:14:38]I am an Iritrian American from a lineage of patriot people who violently fought and won the battle of armory struggle against colonizers.

[00:14:49]I am an Iritrian American from a land of ancient history where untold stories live beyond the page of books. source of resilience, source of courage, source of faith and values that shape generations.

[00:15:07]I am an Iritrian American from the Red Sea beach, from the pure water and air breeze freshness, from the sky full of stars.

[00:15:18]I am an Iritrian American from the city known as African Rome. The spotless weather, the coffee smell, and the friendly vibe make everyone feel at home. I am an Iritrian American. From the people who have nine rhythm test their souls and create peace and harmony.

[00:15:42]The people who found the victory in their unity who died to protect their dignity and very proud of their identity. I am an Iritrian American from people who love socializing, who find healing in gathering, who feel their joy in sharing. I am an Iritrian American.

[00:16:06]I stand here sharing my uniqueness, my history, adding to the table a spirit of unity, a heart of resilience and a dream of harmony. I am an Iritrian American.

[00:16:22]Thank you.

[00:16:30]And now, let's get something to drink.

[00:16:33]Thank you so much all for coming. It's been wonderful to have you here at the city hall. Thank you.