Ethiopia and Eritrea: Rebirth at the border

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2020

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In September 2018, the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea was opened for the first time in 20 years. Physical travel between the two countries and even telephone communication had been next to impossible, separating families and devastating businesses in borderland towns such as Zalambessa in Ethiopia. The communities on either side have had the opportunity to reconnect, rebuild and move on with their lives. The town is undergoing a transformation. Now, family events and religious ceremonies are celebrated with renewed joy as relatives come together to mark life’s milestones. In this programme, we immerse ourselves in the baptism of a new baby boy, born to first-time parents, and find out if their Eritrean relatives are able to cross the border to join the celebrations as they hope. But there’s a twist. While informal cross border movement continues on foot, the official border checkpoint in the town is closed again for trade and vehicles due to political uncertainty. There’s a construction boom in the region because of the optimism that once prevailed, but for many, their hope has been replaced by despair as business is stagnating once again. This is a programme about how lives are changing in all kinds of ways, and about the hope people hold on to for a better future. We share in both joy and frustration; a conflicted situation that remains to be resolved.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In the ground floor flat of a half built block in Northern Ethiopia, a young woman, Zephyr siltan is sat on the floor of her living room having her hair made up.
0:16.4	Thin delicate braids line the sides of her head with a single thick one running down
0:20.9	the middle. In her arms a baby is sleeping.
0:25.0	I'm going to ask for the
0:27.0	the liena,
0:28.0	about the castle on land,
0:30.0	come back to the mountain.
0:31.0	Our son's baptism is on such a day and I'm getting my hair done before it.
0:36.0	This kind of small bread down the side is called Gameh and the stick hair on the top is called Al-Passo.
0:42.0	It is a traditional hairstyle that is good
0:45.3	for a baptism ceremony. While her hair is being braided they're watching her wedding video from a year ago on a TV in the corner of the room.
0:57.0	I'm in the room. We met three years ago. I was studying accounting and he was studying management.
1:07.0	We were very happy so we discussed with our parents and decided to get married.
1:12.0	Our wedding was really good because our brothers and sisters from both Eritrea and
1:17.8	Ethiopia attended the ceremony which made us very happy.
1:21.7	And I guess you're hoping that that can be repeated for the baptism of your first child as well.
1:27.0	Our wedding was very great and now I hope our son's baptism will be even better.
1:39.0	I hope lots of family from Eritrea and Ethiopia will come.
1:45.0	Just two years ago her relatives from Eritrea wouldn't have been able to come for
1:51.3	either a wedding or a baptism.
1:54.0	For almost 20 years following a brutal war between the two countries, the border between Ethiopia
1:59.2	and Eritrea was completely closed, with a heavy military presence and movement across it
	...

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