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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies

11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands


Remembering the Perfect World

Panel 13. Memory and Heritage in Post-conflict Societies
Paper ID94
Author(s) Hamde, Kiflemariam
Paper No paper submitted
AbstractIn this paper, the author examines and exposes how speakers of Blin language (one of Eritrea’s nine languages) in Sweden make sense of their current lives by narrating events, and performing ritual practices, reminiscent of the ‘perfect world’ in which they hold characterized social and cultural lives before they immigrated into their new cultural milieu. Some of these practices are connected with the wedding ceremony, such as the opening ceremony called smdo, and gowra, the (wedding) blessing-rite in Blin. Through such rituals, the Blin speakers believe they can maintain their cultural practices in the Diaspora. Both rituals also serve the community to link the past and the future - through nostalgia. The paper argues that these rites partly constitute split between what people do today and what they used to do before in different contexts such that one reality existing in their mind as a perfect one, and the other in their mind and body, here and now, are linked. As such nostalgia is conceptualized to serve a dear purpose not less or more than the lived life of now and here. Nostalgia may also serve Blin immigrants to be a basis for communication and exchange of views, or sharing of experiences that require adequate attention in their everyday lives. Key terms: Blessing rite, Blin speakers, Nostalgia, Sweden, Wedding opening rite,