Asmara's Colonial Heritage

Asmara’s Colonial Heritage: Preserving a problematic chapter in the history and the building of a nation

R6 Anne Marte Aure Brent Patterson 1 July 2020 Cover page Asmarinos back at the once forbidden Market Square. Courtesy Sami Sallinen.1 1 https://samisallinen.photodeck.com/-/galleries/asmara CONTENTS

Asmara under Italian occupation 4

Eritrea fghting for independence 16

Underlying values in heritage politics 19

Asmara’s heritage conservation facing UNESCO’s 21 European bias

Conclusion 25

Bibliography 27 Asmara under Italian occupation

The boundaries of Eritrea were, as was the case for other post-colonial countries, established during the “Scramble for Africa” in the late 19th century. Eritrea became an Italian colony in 1889 with the port of Massa- wa on the Red Sea as its frst capital. Six years later, Asmara became the new capital when the Italian government merged four existing villages into one. Located 2000 metres above sea level, the surrounding highlands offered milder climatic conditions and better water supply than the initial capital. With plenty of land and few people, Italy’s Eritrean colony was seen as “an absolutely new country” that was to be peacefully built by hard-working Italian families.2

At this time, Italy was struggling with poverty and the lack of land pri- marily in the southern parts of the country. As a direct consequence, a signifcant number of poor peasants began leaving for the Americas. The Italian Prime Minister, Francesco Crispi, was worried about the de- mographic development and the consequences this could have for the building of the Italian nation.3 In his speeches, he played upon nationalist and expansionist rhetoric where reproduction and expanding borders would be necessary to survive. Manual labour would provide the basis of national and political identity and cohesion. According to Crispi, by offering peasants land in Eritrea they thus became ‘true’ representatives of the razza italiana (Italian race), while building and expanding in this new territory.4

2 Rhiannon Noel Welch, Vital Subjects: Race and Biopolitics in Italy, Liverpool University Press, 2016, p. 57. 3 Ibid. p. 9. 4 Ibid. p. 12

4 The historiography of the Risorgimento, which is the term used to de- scribe the Italian nation building, is also depicted as an aesthetic activity. Monuments, poetry, opera, painting, and later on, cinema, all represented powerful tools in the formation of a national identity. Architecture and urban planning, are public art par excellence because they involve the body in public space and therefore played a particular role in developing this new national identity. The functional and practical aspects of city design supply to their aesthetic language and therefore affects the everyday life to all citizens. Unlike other North African colonial cities, Asmara of- fers an unique example since the Italian’s planned the whole modern set- tlement from the ground up. Considering the entire town was established upon this idea of a total project, it contains a signifcant concentration of modern buildings underlining the Italians’ totalitarian aspirations. There- fore, Asmara held an important role in creating a certain image of a new society that was forcefully connected with the image of the “new man”.

The grid system was employed in the urban planning to accommodate further expansion of the city, starting in the centre (the European zone). The Italian architect-engineer Odoardo Cavagnari’s plan of 1916 pro- moted racial segregation.5 It was a plan designed following functional principles that enabled the control of the native population using zoning to decrease encounters between Europeans and Eritreans.6

5 Laura Vaughan, Mapping Society: The Spatial Dimensions of Social Cartography. London: UCL Press, 2018. p. 155. 6 Ibid. p. 154.

5 Figure 2 Racial Zoning Map of the City of Asmara, 1916. Courtesy Edward Denison and the Asmara Heritage Project.7 In this plan, Asmara was divided into four distinct urban quarters (see fg. 2), one exclusively for Europeans, a second for Arabs, Jewish and Greek merchants, a third for Eritreans, and the last one designated for industry. The Eritrean vernacular buildings that were left from the four villages, prior to the European invasion of Asmara, were demolished because they prevented the expansion of the city. In the socio-political context of this time, the native vernacular architecture was seen as a symbol of poverty.8 Eritreans were forced out of the centre, being moved to the north, which was separated from the rest of the city by the industrial zone.9

Although Cavagnari’s urban plan made it harder for encounters between the different communities in Asmara, the Market Square quickly became an exception. As the hub of commercial activities, it became an important social gathering place. In the late 1930s the Market Square was

7 L. Vaughan, op. cit., p. 154. 8 Kabila Faris Hmood, Conservation - Rehabilitation of Architectural and Urban Heritage, Intech Open, 2019. p.8. 9 Ibid. p. 155.

6 transformed by demolishing the old market stalls, replacing them with a series of uniform buildings with arcades at street level.10 The buildings formed a large piazza between them. Quickly after the improvements of the square, Mussolini introduced his racial law, and the market area was considered socially unacceptable by the fascists.11

Due to the complicated geography and complex topography, most of As- mara was constructed using local labour. This was hard manual work that demanded a large number of men. Eritrean labour was considerably cheaper than Italian, besides, the Eritreans living in the city very much outnumbered the Italian population. (Between 1895 and 1934 there were only 4000 Italians living in Asmara, compared to 100 000 Eritreans.)12 During the frst years of colonisation, Eritrean workers dug trenches for water and sewage pipes; they installed power lines, quarried rocks for buildings and for the paving of streets.13 In fact, they were building them- selves out of the city. Cavagnari’s plan refected how the Italians adopted a European layout with squares, gardens and boulevards.14 The plan resulted in improved levels of hygiene, but only for the European population. Despite the large number of Eritreans living in Asmara, the Eritrean population was allocated very little land compared to the European one. The underdeveloped native quarter was extremely dense and created a variation in the standard of living within the city. In terms of morphology and architecture, it was closer to typical villages found in the Eritrean highlands. The native population lived more or less independently using their own building techniques with very little help from the Europeans.

10 Asmara Heritage Project, “Amara – Africa’s Modernist City” (the UNESCO World Heritage Nomination Dossier, UNESCO, Paris 2017). p 117. 11 Asmara Heritage Project, op cit., p 117. 12 Edward Denison, Guang Yu and Naigzy Gebremedhin, Asmara: Africa’s secret modern city. London, New York : Merrell, 2003. p 52. 13 Asmara Heritage Project, op cit., p 299. 14 E. Denison, G. Yu and N. Gebremedhin, op cit., p. 33.

7 The Eritrean vernacular architecture found in the highlands was largely constructed from wood, stone and soil and two or three different residen- tial typologies were to be found. The hidmo, generally rectangular in plan with a fat roof and the agdo based on a circular plan with a conical grass roof. The hidmo has a main entrance covered by an extended roof which provides shelter for livestock at night and several side entrances. The roof is constructed from layers of branches placed on top of stone walls that can be up to a metre thick. The agdo is often much smaller meas- uring approximately three metres in diameters. The walls are also made of stone and the roof is covered in grass. The dwelling has one entrance and the interior space is often divided into two separate rooms.15 The Eritreans continued to use these ancient vernacular styles and building techniques when they were sent up to the North, to the native quarter of Abashawl. In this dense quarter, an important social and cultural development took place. Most residents would agree that this quarter remains the heart of the capital.16

Another unique, older vernacular constructing technique used in the highlands is the monkey head technique. The name comes from the dow- els that were binding together horizontal layers of wood that looked like monkey heads. (see fg. 3) Unfortunately all the monkey head construc- tions were destroyed during the construction of modern Asmara and the sole evidence of its existence can be found in Cavagnari’s interpretation in his design for the Degghi Selam, at the entrance of the St Mary’s Or- thodox Cathedral built in 1917.

Asmara Theatre, located on the grand boulevard Viale Mussolini (today Harnet Avenue) was designed in 1919 and was the frst purpose-built

15 Asmara Heritage Project, op cit., p 260. 16 Ibid., p 296.

8 Figure 3 Cavagnari’s interpretation of the monkey head technique in the Degghi Selam,1917. Courtesy Sami Sallinen.17 venue for the performing arts in Asmara.18 It was one of the last works of Odoardo Cavagnari, and the program, in addition to the building’s style itself, indicated the importance of representing Italian nationalism. The most distinct feature of the facade is the portico including seven Roman arches supported by Ionic columns. (see fg. 4) The building has two entrances; the main entrance, marked by two arched doorways that lead up to two elegant sweeping staircases, reserved at the time for Europe- ans, and a back entry with tiny stairs leading up to the balcony for the Eritreans.19 Constructed in reinforced concrete, it experimented with this new material in Romanesque and Renaissance styles.

Experimentation with new architectural styles, became more widespread when Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922. Through the exploitation

17 https://samisallinen.photodeck.com/-/galleries/asmara 18 E. Denison, G. Yu and N. Gebremedhin, op. cit., p. 105. 19 Ibid., p. 107.

9 Figure 4 Asmara Theatre in typical Romanesque/Renaissance style,Odoardo Cavagnari 1919 Courtesy Edward Denison and the Asmara Heritage Project.20 of the local population, who provided cheap labour, Asmara offered a testing ground for new architectural styles. The call for an original Italian style grew after the First World War and the experimentation, moving away from the traditional, neoclassical, was part of the mandate to rein- vent the architecture of the New Italian Empire.21 By 1921, Novecento style had gained a strong foothold in Asmara. Novecento was a contemporary interpretation of Classical styles, with a strong geometric sim- plicity. The name which means the ‘19th century’ in Italian was a clear reference to quattrocento (The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 -Renaissance). Novecento was an artistic movement based on Mussolini’s fascist ideals and rhetoric. The war had left a mark on Mussolini, especially in terms of the notion of community he had witnessed between the Italian soldiers on the Western front. Accord- ing to Mussolini, the ideal image of such masculinity was captured by the Arditi, the Royal Italian Army elite special force of World War I.22

20 Asmara Heritage Project, op cit., p 70. 21 James Joll, “Mussolini’s Roman Empire” New York Times (1976), accessed April 1, 2020. 22 Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi, Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini’s Italy. University of California Press, 1997. p. 160. 10 Figure 5 Former colonial police headquarters in Novecento style, 1938. Courtesy Sami Sallinen.23 ‘The myth of the new man’ was a set of beliefs, ideas, ideals and values condensed in a symbolic image capable of mobilising the masses because it stirred up faith, enthusiasm and action.24At the opening of the frst ex- hibition of the “New Novecento Italiano group”25 in Milan in 1926 Mus- solini identifed some aesthetic features corresponding with his political project. The adjectives he used were ‘sharp’, ‘clear lines’, ‘rich’, ‘vivid’, ‘colourful’, and the ‘solid sculptural quality of things and fgures’.26 This new art should embody fascist values and marks a radical change in the architectural landscape in Asmara. (see fg. 5)

However, by the late 1920s, the Novecento faced competition from Rationalism, the Italian interpretation of the Modern Movement in Eu- rope. Rationalism claimed to be particularly attentive to functional re- quirements and constructed with modern materials made into forms that 23 https://samisallinen.photodeck.com/-/galleries/asmara 24 Donald Pickens, “Quarterly Journal of Ideology: A critique of Conventional Wisdom,” review of The Struggle For Modernity, Nationalism, Futurism and Fascism by Emilio Gentile, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, 2004. 25 Tate, “Art term: Il Novecento Italiano” Tate.org.uk, accessed June 9,2020. 26 Francesca Billiani, Laura Pennacchietti, Architecture and the Novel under the Italian Fascist Regime. Manchester: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. p 19. 11 evoked the spirit of a machine civilisation.27 The movement was pro- moted by a group of young Milanese architects called il Gruppo 7. The Italian rationalist group was inspired by the tension in the architectural landscape, which occurred in the wake of new technologies and building materials, such as reinforced concrete. This tension should be translated into a modern architecture and oriented towards the construction of an alternative society.28 Gruppo 7 and the rationalists believed in a perfect correspondence between the structure of the building itself and the purpose of the function that it would serve.29 One of the purest examples of rationalist style buildings in Asmara is the former Albergo CIAAO (Com- pagnia Immobiliare Alberghi Africa Orientale) designed in Rome for an Italian hotel chain in East Africa around 1937.30 The original proposition included the fasces, the fascist symbol of power and authority, on each side of the front entrance door. Today they are replaced by two smaller windows.31

The Italian Fascists were considered to be anti-modernist in their cultural policies, but this architectural response was still very much infuenced by the European modernism, most notably of Le Corbusier.32 In the highly politicised context of Fascist Italy, accusations of foreign infuence could be incriminating. For this reason, a number of architects argued that these new styles had truly Italian origins and inspirations. Italian architects in Asmara, were more unburdened in terms of following the strict principles of the Fascist ideology than their colleges in Italy. This is why the architectural history of Asmara is more layered and the stylistic attributes

27 Etlin, R, Modernism in Italian Architecture 1890-1940 , MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, Cam- bridge, 1991. p. 445. 28 Ibid. 29 F. Billiani, L. Pennacchietti, op. cit., p 71. 30 Asmara Heritage Project, op. cit., p 176. 31 Ibid. 32 Domus. “Italian rationalism”. Domusweb. Accessed May 15, 2020.

12 associated with the Italian fascism are less apparent. This can be seen where some of the modern architecture in Asmara doesn’t easily fall into a particular style. Several buildings in Asmara were even transformed many times during the colonial period. Like the former Casa del Fascio, designed in 1928. It was designed in the same Romanesque neoclassical style as Asmara Theatre but the building’s evolution from the 1920s to the early 1940s refects the growing ideological impact of the Fascist regime during these years.33 The portico in the original design acted as a symbolic link between the party and the people where speeches could be delivered.34 The monumental facade was designed in 1940 was attached to the older building. Its design included a balcony on the left side, where Mussolini, were he to have come to Asmara, would have presented his speeches. In the original drawings the fascist eagle was included and was supposed to be placed just underneath the balcony. (see fg. 6) The balcony and the street were linked together, to symbolise the unifcation of the party and the people.

Figure 6 Bruno Sclafani’s design for the new facade of the Casa del Fascio. Courtesy Edward Denison and the Asmara Heritage Project.35

33 E. Denison, G. Yu and N. Gebremedhin, op. cit., p. 105. 34 Asmara Heritage Project, op. cit., p 76. 35 Asmara Heritage Project, op cit., p 77.

13 Figure 7 Cinema Impero, designed by Mario Messina, 1937. Courtesy Guglielmo Mattioli.36 The Italian Invasion of Ethiopia (1935) resulted in a strong radicalisation of Mussolini’s policies and had thus an impact on the character of the architecture built in Asmara. Casa del Fascio’s transformation is a material evidence of Italy’s shift in propaganda. Four large cinemas were built in the city during Mussolini’s regime. The largest one, Cinema Impero, was designed in 1937: a two-storey cinema with bars and shops at ground level.37 Mussolini made the claim that “cinema is the [regime’s] strongest weapon.”38 The monumentality of the facade expresses the importance of Italian cinema in the 1930s. The cultural institutions of the city were meant as a diversion for the European population as well as a tool to spread the Italian nationalist propaganda though movies and operas. The red facade is contrasted with three white strip windows separated by rows of circular lights lit at night with the letters spelling out the name of the cinema vertically on each side. (see fg. 7) The eclecticism found in the previous building designs was now replaced by more expressive styles.

36 Mattioli, Guglielmo, “Photographs document the Italian Fascist architecture of Eritrea” The Architect’s Newspaper (2019), accessed March 15, 2020. 37 Ibid., p.163. 38 R. Welch, op. cit., p. 223.

14 For example, the Fiat Tagliero service station, designed by Giuseppe Pet- tazzi. Completed in 1938, it is a rare example of Futurist architecture in the world. (see fg. 8) It was completed almost 30 years after The Futurist Manifesto was published by the movement’s founder, poet and theorist, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944). The Futurists were also Italian nationalists, radicals that emphasised speed, new technology and violence depicting cars, airplanes and the industrial city. After the First World War, the Futurists formed the Futurist Political Party with a close alliance to Mussolini and his fascist movement. Marinetti wanted to make Futurism the offcial art form of the state, but it was in Asmara that this experimental architecture would be exhibited as in an open air gallery.39 The Fiat Tagliero was a monument to the aeroplane. With it’s 30-metres cantile- vered concrete wings and cockpit body it was a tribute to the Italian Air Force’s role in the invasion of Ethiopia, which included horrifc chemical attacks killing tens of thousand of Ethiopian civilians.40 In 1935 Marinetti himself, went to Ethiopia to fuel his artistic fascination for warfare.41 For the fascists, the building carried a strong symbolic power and bared witness to the ‘technical achievements’ of the Italian State.

Figure 8 The Fiat Tagliero service station, designed by Giuseppe Pettazzi, 1938. Courtesy Edward Denison.42

39 F. Billiani, L. Pennacchietti, op. cit., p 63. 40 E. Dension, op. cit. p. 57. 41 Edward Denison, “Asmara’s Fiat Tagliero service station: a history of cities in 50 buildings, day 18” The Guardian (2015), accessed March 19, 2020, 42 Ibid.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Eritrean history is what happened to Asmara when the Italian colonialists left. After Mussolini’s defeat in the Second World War, Eritrea was placed under British military admin- istration for several years until it became part of Ethiopia. When the Brit- ish repealed Mussolini’s racist laws in 1941, many Eritreans moved from the former native area, Abashawl to claim their rights in the formerly European part of the city.43

The vestiges from the colonial time have been a major factor in the Er- itrean government’s efforts in the creation of a national identity. This is connected with Eritrea’s struggle for independence from Ethiopia. The underground government known as the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPFL) pushed towards Eritrean independence during the second half of the 20th century and moved into the colonial buildings and employed them for government ministries. For example, the former Casa del Fasc- io, with its monumental facade, serves today as the regional offce of the Ministry of Education.44 The former Colonial Police Headquarters built in 1938 serves today as the Ministry of Health building45, while Ministry of Trade and Industry was once housing the AGIP Headquarters.46 The prospects of building an independent nation appears to have overshad- owed the cultural symbolism and violent legacy of the oppressive fascist regime. Even buildings with more diffcult pasts were later used as Gov- ernment buildings. The Casino, built in the late 1930s once served as the home of Asmara’s most exclusive brothel South-East of Harnet Avenue.47

43 Asmara Heritage Project, op. cit., p. 292. 44 Ibid., p 76. 45 Ibid., p 174. 46 Ibid., p 104. 47 Ibid., p 218.

16 This is where Italian offcers would come to encounter Eritrean women. Inside there was also a casino and bar. This building houses today the Department of Land.48 Certainly, preserving such heritage may appear problematic knowing that the initial layout of the building refected the oppressive methods of the fascist regime. It is therefore essential under- standing Asmara and recognising the fact that these methods contributed to defning the city. Determining the value of the colonial legacy, this full history must undoubtedly be brought into light.

The Eritreans’ process of adapting and transforming the physical legacy of fascism refects the parts of the history they valorise and the parts that are neglected. The colonial times are historically remote compared to the brutal Ethiopian occupation.49 The decline of the urban development and the decay and neglect of the buildings followed by political oppression by Haile Selassie’s military régime have led to a new interest in heritage preservation in Asmara.50 In fact, the imprint of Italian colonialism is often emphasised as a unique and legible cultural demarcation distinguish- ing Eritrea as a separate territory from Ethiopia.51

One example of this is when the former Bank of Eritrea was due for dem- olition in 1991. The bank is one of the frst Novecento designs in Asmara. Once the Agricultural Offce in Eritrea, the building has served many different functions including as a military prison during the Ethiopian regime. It was set to be replaced by a high-rise glass building that stirred up protest from Eritreans, especially former prison inmates, who felt that their story was being erased.52 Another example is the traditionally styled

48 Ibid., p 178. 49 Matthew Scarlett, The Routledge Companion to Italian Fascist Architecture: Reception and Legacy, Routledge, 2020. 50 Asmara Heritage Project, op. cit., p. 282. 51 M. Scarlett, op cit. 52 Asmara Heritage Project, op cit., p 80.

17 villa, known as “the castle”. It once served as one of the most feared prisons in Eritrea. The dunking well, torture chambers and whipping post still exists in the building that is today occupied by the Ministry of Water Resources.53

Figure 9 The bar in the foyer of ODEON cinema, 1937. Courtesy Edward Denison.54 The recent history of Eritrea has undeniably reconfgured the collective memory of the city and as Matthew Scarlett suggest, the act of dwelling often overwhelms the politics of origin.55 The added symbolic value to the buildings come from more recent associations that are not connected with the memory of colonial control. Scarlett adds that this is not to say that the Italian occupation is forgotten, but that Eritreans have managed to transform their capital city into what they can call their own. (see fg. 9)

53 Ibid., 178. 54 The Bartlett School of Architecture, “Asmara’s modernist architecture”” Bartlett 100, accessed March 2, 2020. 55 Ibid.

18 Underlying values in heritage politics

Since the 1972 establishment of the UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (UNESCO WHC), there has been an increasing interest in preservation of architectural heritage. Asmara’s colonial heritage, spanning from the frst urban layouts including the grid system in the early phase to the experimental architecture built during Mussolini’s regime, was approved as a World Heritage Site in July 2017.56 These buildings are threatened today due to a lack of maintenance in the absence of resources and conservation guidance. Some of them need full renovations before they fall apart. (see fg 10)

In 1999, the Eritrean government formed the Cultural Assets Rehabili- tation Project (CARP) with its core mission to preserve Asmaras unique heritage.57 This was done in an attempt to utterly secure Eritrea’s independence after several decades of armed confict with Ethiopia. To help fnance the project, CARP was setting guidelines to facilitate develop- mental loans. The following decade, the mandate to conserve Asmara was taken up by the Asmara Heritage Project (AHP), collecting documentation for each one of the around 400 listed buildings. This work has been funded by numerous organisations and European governments such as the World Bank, UNESCO, the Government of Norway, the Foreign Commonwealth Offce of the United Kingdom and the Embassy of Swit- zerland.58

56 UNESCO, “Asmara: A Modernist African City,” WHC UNESCO, Asmara, World Heritage List (2017)., accessed June 9,2020. 57 M. Scarlett, op cit. 58 Asmara Heritage Project, op. cit., p.3.

19 Figure 10 Colonial heritage suffering from the lack of maintenance. Courtesy Guglielmo Mattioli.59 However, there are many concerns associated with the interpretation of the documentation available. Important heritage institution such as UNE- SCO (WHC) portrays their methods as rigorous and scientifc, seeking to fnd the most objective basis for their criteria of evaluation. The problem with using this perceived universal value system, viewing the city through the prism of UNESCO’s guidelines, is that the defnition falls short in acknowledging any type of social and cultural context.60 The selection process operates in accordance with aesthetic and historical perspectives grounded in European culture and fails to identify different expressions of heritage and to represent the core of these historical events. Given the long history of fghting for independence, president Afwerki decided in 2008 to discontinue the collaboration with the World Bank and important members of CARP had to leave the country.61 59 M.Guglielmo, op cit. 60 M. Scarlett, op cit. 61 M. Scarlett, op cit.

20 Asmara’s heritage conservation facing UNESCO’s European bias

The issue of a Westernised notion of heritage is expressed through the Nomination Dossier of 2017. Exploring the nominated properties in detail, they all are within what was formerly the European zone of the city.62 The limits of this newly established historic centre bare striking resemblances to the one that Cavagnari drew in his racial zoning map in 1916. However, representing this as an “outstanding universal value” is problematic, as it reinforces a history of segregation and colonialism. Nearly 80 years after the Italian colonialist left, and years spent fghting for independence, Asmara’s city layout is baring witness of a more layered reality.

Another troubling aspect of this criterion, that seems ignored in the nomination dossier, is that the zoning actually produced a variation in architectural typologies in Asmara. The segregation created a strong distinction between the European part and the native quarter of Abashawl in terms of building techniques and lifestyle. The physical legacy of the Eritreans dexterity is still noticeable today and is, according to the Eritrean Min- istry of Information, what kept them in harmony for years.63 Abashawl represents the typological character of the Colonial Period as much as the European part of the city with its high concentration of vernacular architecture. Therefore, it is problematic how the heritage debate only focuses on the Italian Colonial Architecture solely, leaving the native quarter ignored. This act is sending an ambiguous message to Eritreans concerning the value of their own heritage.

62 Asmara Heritage Project, op cit., p.9. 63 H. Tesfamichael, “World Tourism Day Celebrated Nationally in Aba-Shawel” Eritrea Ministry of Infor- mation(2011), accessed June 30, 2020.

21 UNESCO’s core mission is promoting a “shared cultural appreciation” a “shared ownership of heritage” relying on tourism.64 A renovation and restoration of the modern heritage based on drawings and blueprints from the Colonial Era, could be interpreted as an attempt to erase the story of Eritrea’s fght for independence.

Also, the catalogue representation of the Nomination Dossier emphasises and prioritises the architectural façades. If the buildings are characterised solely by their facade and style, the value of the building is reduced to the limits of what is visible from the exterior. At present, most of the vernacular buildings are in a state of disrepair suffering from neglect.65 Since the nominated property only includes the Italian colonial architecture, it assigns it a priority compared to the Eritrean vernacular one, and in the most pessimistic scenario, this could lead to a Western museumifcation of Asmara.

Next page Children playing in front of agdos in the former native quarter Abashawl Courtesy Sami Sallinen.66 64 M. Scarlett, op. cit. 65 Zerai, Abraham “Vernacular Architecture and its Signifcance as Cultural Heritage” Eritrea Ministry of Information(2011), accessed June 12, 2020. 66 S. Sallinen, op cit.

22 23 Conclusion

The cultural identity and collective memory of Asmara are complex. However, the city has always remained an important place in the formation of a national identity. This is linked to the Eritreans’ long aspiration to take back the ownership of their capital. One might fnd it hard to comprehend why the Asmarinos that such great pride in their colonial heritage today. The physical legacy constructed under fascism have had an undeniable role in the nation building of Eritrea post 1941 up to the liberation some 30 years ago. There is an added symbolic value to some of the fascist-era buildings. Earlier oppressive programs were replaced by programs that in fact contributed in liberating the country. The buildings have been lived in and preserved by Asmarinos and this has created a new collective memory of the city.

The cultural richness developed in Abashawl during the colony and in the post-colonial times, is the base of the strong Eritrean culture today. This stable foundation also led up to the Eritrean liberation in 1991. It can therefore be problematic using UNESCO (WHC) criteria and generic value system to evaluate the city. The defnitions fall short when it comes to describing the actual situation and general feeling among the local population. This can in worse case open the way for the museumifcation of the historical centre to a city that deserves to be understood by the va- riety of political and social events that led up to today.

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