Changing Tastes on the Linguistic Landscape of Asmara, Eritrea

Sociolinguistic ISSN: 1750-8649 (print) Studies ISSN: 1750-8657 (online)

Article

Changing tastes on the linguistic landscape of Asmara, Eritrea

Tedros H. Weldemichael, Amiena Peck and Quentin Williams

Abstract Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea, has for the longest time had a clear demarcation between Christian and Muslim eateries, with Arabic as the differentiating marker between the two. With the inﬂux of Sudanese Muslim tourists, however, a number of Christian eateries in downtown Asmara have begun including Arabic on their signage. We approach the changes to the LL in two ways: (i) through a geosemiotic analysis of selected mixed signs on and around Asmara’s busy downtown Harnet Avenue, and (ii) through a discourse analysis of interviews with Christian establishment owners/managers. We contend that by viewing the versatility of Arabic as an ‘adaptable artefact’ (cf. Pennycook, 2017) in Asmara, we can moreover discuss the LL as semiotic assemblages of ‘halaalness’ which caters to the visceral needs for comfort at the eateries under study. Here we follow Pennycook (2017) and Bennet (2010) who contend that language and, similarly, linguistic repertoires should not be conﬁned to individuals per se as space and practices can also be said to express themselves multilingually through artifact, bodies and semiotics.

KEYWORDS: ASMARA (ERITREA), ARABIC, FOODSCAPE, LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE, TASTE, HALAAL

Afﬁliation

University of the Western Cape, South Africa email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

1 Introduction

Asmara, the capital of Eritrea (a country in the horn of Africa), presents an interesting foodscape that showcases the unexpected display (Pennycook, 2012) of Arabic language and script adorning Christian restaurants and fast food shops in its busy downtown spot on Harnet Avenue and its adjoining roads. Previously in Asmara, there has been a clear demarcation between Christian and Muslim eateries, with Arabic as the differentiating linguistic marker between the two. In recent years, however, a number of Christian eateries have incorporated Arabic on their signage either on its own or alongside the local language of Tigrinya and in some cases in combination with English. Saliently, Arabic signage at these establishments does not index that ‘halaal’ foods are on offer. Nevertheless, these businesses are flourishing and it is therefore the seemingly changing indexicality of Arabic on the LL that we study. To this end we turn our attention to the role of tourism in Asmara. Historically, Eritrea’s tourism industry suffered greatly as a result of the 1998– 2000 Ethio-Eritrean conflict and subsequent political instability. In recent years, however, an encouraging number of tourists have been observed in Asmara (Euromonitor International, 2012). In particular, there has been a consistent growth in the number of Arabic-speaking Sudanese tourists between 2005 and 2012. In fact, Sudanese nationals have been the most conspicuous group of tourists in the city. Most of them are newly married couples who have opted to honeymoon in Asmara. They are observed walking hand-in-hand usually in pairs (bride and bridegroom) or in groups (of newlyweds). Harnet Avenue, which constitutes the heart of the city, is where their presence is most strongly felt. As noted by Sinclair (1998:2), tourism can contribute to economic development through provision of hard currency, the generation of new jobs, increases in personal income and GDP (gross domestic product) and provision of tax revenue for the government. Given this fact, there is no doubt that Asmara is enjoying at least some of these benefits from its Arabic-speaking tourists and locals alike.

1.1 Setting the scene: Asmara’s foodscape of contradictions Asmara is a city with 596,893 inhabitants (Administration of Maekel Region, 2012). Its population belongs to two major religions, namely Christianity and Islam. Although Eritrea as a whole is believed to be composed of Christians and Muslims of nearly equal proportion (around 50% each), the research site of Asmara in particular is inhabited mostly by Orthodox Christians. Linguistically, most Christians and a majority of the Muslims in Asmara are speakers of Tigrinya as a mother tongue. This language is also widely spoken as a second language

CHANGING TASTES ON THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF ASMARA 109 among the rest of the residents whose mother tongue is any one of eight other Eritrean languages. On the other hand, Arabic does not have a signiﬁcant number of mother-tongue speakers in Asmara. For local Muslims in Asmara, Arabic is mainly used for religious purposes (for reading the Qur’an and praying).1 Among Christians in Asmara, however, knowledge of Arabic (whether spoken or written) is far less common. Perhaps unsurprisingly, direct associations between the visibility of Arabic and halaal eateries have long been commonplace in Asmara.2 Although restaurants in Asmara have been clearly differentiated, fast foods shops are more ‘neutral’ as they tend to serve beverages which are typically consumed by patrons of both religious groups. However, we argue that this ‘neutral ground’ has expanded to include Christian-owned restaurants. It is therefore the conspicuous appearance of Arabic in Christian-owned eateries (which do not serve halaal food, but thrive nonetheless) that we investigate here. By and large through the assemblages of unexpected signs of consumption i.e. languages, food, ephemeral social actors and convivial practices of hospitality, we approach the LL as an important indicator of social change. Questions of taste revolve less around the gustatory perception of halaal food (or not), and more on the discerning of aesthetic qualities within a place of consumption. We analyze signs in the LL with translanguaging metadata of consumptive experiences observed by restaurateurs in Asmara. Framing the paper within Appadurai’s notion of ‘scapes’, we see the landscape of eateries within a designated area as a ‘foodscape’, and it is the changing taste both as a sensory achievement as well as social preference in the LL which we investigate. We interweave these seemingly hybrid cross-religious spaces and signage with desires from a particularly convivial tourist niche that indexes the importance of a visceral sense of comfort and acceptance (plausibly marked by Arabic signage) over the sensory orthodoxy of food on the LL of Asmara. We ask: what does the inclusion of Arabic at Christian eateries do to the reading of the LL? What can we say about different social actors and nuances of convivial spaces and places of belonging in Asmara? In what way is the Arabic script both produced by Christian business owners and viscerally consumed by the Muslim patrons?

2 Linguistic landscapes, foodscapes and taste

Across contexts and spaces, the food we eat reveals the reach of transnational discourses of consumption, with restaurant windows, menus and food together often reﬂective of the local multilingual context (Duchene and Heller, 2012; Heller, 2011; Pennycook and Otsuji, 2014). Linguistic Landscapes that capture

110 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES the ambience and distribution of changing tastes and gastronomical culture, from a global and transnational view, are able to vary both in their linguistic and semiotic form. Current research on the gentrification of neighborhoods in towns and cities demonstrates the important role food plays – particularly in ethnic and religious places – in the vitality and transformation of a linguistic and semiotic landscape (see Leeman and Modan, 2009; Blommaert, 2013; also Goncalves, 2012). Peck and Banda’s (2014) linguistic landscape study of Observatory, a diverse neighbourhood in Cape Town, reveals the transformational potential of the community’s business district brought about by the migration of African immigrants to the area. In their study, the immigrants bring with them artefact and languages and as a result develop a niche market, the ‘African corner’, to signify not only how they appropriate space but also what types of meaning-making objects are inserted in the landscape more generally. In particular we are interested in how eateries in the foodscape are socially constructed in ways which index a fluidity and flexibility of Arabic language not seen prior in Asmara. For this reason, the places where one consumes halaal food, effectively marked by Arabic signage in Asmara, is important and makes the inclusion of the script at Christian restaurants even more intriguing. A study of foodscapes opens up the complex relations among trading practices where vendors exchange products in an economy and in networks of exchange that have deep historical roots that can be traced back to their original point of production. A trading nexus reveals the places where scripts of service encounters are performed through more than one language (Cook, 2010) and where identities and loyalties around eating preferences are established. Foodscapes, once thought to be largely stable, can now be seen to be very dynamic, with potential for transformation seen in research on the material and semiotic landscapes (see Papen, 2012; Peck and Banda, 2014; Pennycook and Otsuji, 2015; Stroud and Jegels, 2014) where a premium is placed on signs of consumption for luxury and necessity (Stroud and Mpendukana, 2009). In one instance, Pennycook and Otsuji (2015) have advanced the research into linguascapes and smellscapes, particularly by centering on the sense of smell and how it is indexed through cultural objects. They argue that if we consider the meaning-making potential of objects in markets, ‘(…) we need to know how spaces are sensorily organized in relation to broader social, linguistic and cultural practices’ (Pennycook and Otsuji, 2015:209). In this paper, our focus is on how the taste (as social preference) of a particularly convivial ‘honeymooner’ group influences and interacts with the foodscape and ultimately provides a more nuanced view of a semiotics of sensory taste, specifically the interplay between religion and food.

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Halaal is an Arabic term for anything that is permissible by Islamic law and, therefore, halaal food refers to that which has been prepared according to Islamic guidelines of cleanliness and the humane handling of animals. Wilson and Liu point out that consuming halaal food is more than just a practice, it is ‘(…) part of a belief system and moral code of conduct, integral in daily living’ (2010:108). However, Muslims are not a monolithic group and nuances of making and consuming of halaal foods varies worldwide (cf. Ahmed, 2008). We therefore focus speciﬁcally on the role of Arabic in the foodscape of Asmara to uncover the indexical value(s) it may have at Christian-owned eateries.

3 The geosemiotics of signs in the foodscape of Asmara

Geosemiotics is deﬁned by Scollon and Scollon as ‘the study of the social meaning of the material placement of signs and discourses and of our actions in the material world’ (2003:1). Put another way, apart from an analysis of the sign itself, researchers can gain further insight concerning its meaning when analyzing the sign based on its emplacement. As used by Scollon and Scollon (2003), emplacement here refers to the physical world where a sign is located. In the case of our study, this includes, among others, consideration of which part of Asmara a given sign is displayed (e.g. downtown vs. elsewhere) and the location of the target restaurant/fast food shop in relation to other establishments (e.g. hotels, pensions, etc.). By analyzing our signs in relation to such aspects of geosemiotics, we hope to get some insight into, among others, who their intended readership is (e.g. locals or tourists, or both).

3.1 Methodology and data collection process To analyze changes on the LL, we approach it in two ways: (i) through a geosemiotic analysis of selected signs on and around Asmara’s busy downtown Harnet Avenue, and (ii) through a discourse analysis of interviews with Christian establishment owners/managers. A sample of ten different signs was gathered in the LL of Asmara using a digital camera in January–June 2013. Six of these were restaurant name signs, one a fast-food shop name sign, and three food/drink advertisement posters. All six of the restaurant name signs were trilingual in Tigrinya, Arabic and English, whereas the fast food shop name sign contained only Arabic and English. Of the three advertisement signs on paper, one was written bilingually in Tigrinya and Arabic but the other two just in Arabic. To complement the analysis, interviews were conducted with owners/managers of ﬁve of the respective restaurants. Interviews were conducted in Tigrinya3 at each of the establishments under study. Interview questions were formulated to

112 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES elicit reasons for the inclusion of Arabic on their signage and moreover evoke their impressions as to how Muslim patrons respond to their food (and other patrons) when inside their establishment. What follows is an analysis of the signs, focusing on their information content and their emplacement in the physical world. Thereafter, responses from business owners are analyzed as translanguaging metadata (cf. Li, 2011) regarding the consumptive and interactional practices of Muslim and non-Muslim patrons at their establishments.

4 Analysis

The juxtaposition of the butchers’ signs below reveals the clear division between Muslim and Christian handling and selling of meat. This is consistent with many places around the world where the handling of foods is clearly marked by authorized persons, especially stringent in the case of Muslims (cf. Ahmed, 2008). Figure 1 (below) is a typical sign found outside a Christian butcher shop. It displays a red-colored cross on its signboard, clearly indexing the global sign of Christianity – the cross. Figure 2 (below) is a Muslim butchers’ sign which clearly displays the crescent moon-and-star halaal symbol ﬂanking the word ‘Muslim’, which is written in Arabic. The crescent moon-and-star symbol is widely recognized as a sign of food that is permissible to eat. Interestingly, restaurants in Asmara rarely display any of these religious symbols, with neither a cross nor a crescent moon-and-star observed during ﬁeldwork. Instead, until roughly a decade ago, the main distinguishing feature between Christian and Muslim restaurants has been the presence or absence of Arabic on their signs. Thus, a restaurant displaying Arabic on its sign (alone or along with Tigrinya and/or English) would be read as a Muslim restaurant in terms of its potential customers and/or ownership. Nowadays, however, the function of Arabic is in question, with more and more Christian-owned restaurants beginning to include Arabic on their signs along with Tigrinya and English.

Figure 1. Christian butcher’s shop sign (Tigrinya-English).

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Figure 2. Muslim butcher’s shop sign (Arabic-Tigrinya).

Two of the three advertisement signs below explicitly mention ‘Sudanese’ tourists/foods/hospitality. The below sign was found outside Daniel Fast Food and we see the sign is written solely in Arabic (see Fig. 3).

Figure 3. Daniel Fast Food sign: translated as ‘The meeting place of Sudanese: Daniel Fast Food offers you delicious Sudanese foods’.

By claiming to be the rendez-vous for Sudanese tourists, this fast food shop is attempting to attract potential customers belonging to this particular group. That Sudanese tourists are the primary focus of this particular sign is further conﬁrmed by the product being advertised, speciﬁcally ‘Sudanese foods’. It is possible that these same foods might also be marketed to locals; however, in that case, one would expect the sign to include not just Arabic but also the lingua franca, Tigrinya. Similarly, the absence of English (or any other foreign language) on the sign suggests that the advertisement is geared at Arabic-speaking foreign tourists. The sign in Figure 4, found outside the Dankur Fast Food outlet, is also written in Arabic and includes reference to ‘Sudanese’.

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Figure 4. Dankur Fast Food sign: translated as ‘Sudanese-hospitality [-style]fuul shop’.

Fuul is a type of dish which is prepared with cooked fava beans and various other ingredients. It is a staple food in Egypt and Sudan and also a popular dish in Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and a number of countries in the Middle East. Arguably, the foodscape constructed by the sign in Figure 4 above indexes a diverse clientele who could be from any of these countries and who may be the targets of the dish on offer. However, the presence of the word ‘Sudanese’ on the sign clearly demarcates Sudanese tourists as being the sole or, at least, the principal target group. This argument is supported by the fact that, so far, the most visible Arabic-speaking foreigners in Asmara are Sudanese tourists, and we argue that it is the subtle differences in degrees of observing religious consumptive rules which make them an important contributor to changes in the foodscape of Asmara. Compounding this point, the monolingual-Arabic nature of the sign, like that of Daniel Fast Food, may imply that non-Arabic-speaking foreign tourists as well as the majority of Tingriya-speaking locals are not the targeted clientele.

Figure 5. ‘We have Jebena coffee’ ad sign (Tigrinya-Arabic), Massawa Fast Food.

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In comparison to the above two examples, the coffee advertisement sign by Massawa Fast Food (see Fig. 5) is relatively less speciﬁc with regard to its addressees. It simply says, ‘We have Jebena4 coffee’, and includes no explicit mention of any particular group of potential customers. Judging by its linguistic content, this coffee advertisement sign appears to be targeted at customers who can read Tigrinya and/or Arabic. While the presumed Tigrinya consumer can be said to comprise mainly local people, the Arabic consumer may potentially include foreigners and, to some extent, locals. The importance of the Sudanese Muslim tourists to the LL in Asmara cannot be underestimated. Firstly, they are the only group of Arabic-speaking foreign tourists who have since the last few years been markedly visible in Asmara. Secondly, the geosemiotic location of the ‘new’ Arabic signage is found in close proximity to Sudanese tourist spaces; for example, Massawa Fast Food (where the sign was displayed) is in close proximity to one of the hotels most frequented by Sudanese visitors. Added to this, not only do many members of this group visit Massawa Fast Food for breakfast and snacks, but they can also be seen enjoying Jebena coffee (usually in groups) in the outdoor area of this shop, in a corner specially designated for the serving of Jebena coffee. Like the coffee advertisement sign, none of the six restaurant name signs or that of the fast food shop name sign overtly speciﬁes who the potential customers are. Their lexical content hardly goes beyond providing information about the respective establishment’s name and what type of establishment it is (with some of them including a contact address as well). An example of one such restaurant sign is presented in Figure 6 below.

Figure 6. Asmara restaurant written in Tigrinya, Arabic and English.

The English version of the remaining six sample establishment name signs is as follows: Dehab Bar & Restaurant, Hamasien Restaurant, Teseney Restaurant, Dangish Restaurant, M.T. Restaurant, Dankur Fast Food. As for the signiﬁcance of the names themselves, four of them are linked to local places (Asmara, Dankur,

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Hamasien, Teseney) while the remaining three (Dangish, Dehab, M.T.) are personal names, presumably those of the respective owners or one of their family members, since it is a very common practice in Asmara (and Eritrea at large) to name one’s business after oneself or after a family member (such as a spouse or a child). So, how do we know who the presumed readers of the Arabic texts on the name signs of these establishments might be? An examination of the signs from the perspective of their emplacement may perhaps provide part of the answer. As noted by Scollon and Scollon (2003), taking the emplacement of a sign into account is important for an understanding of its meaning. In our case, this includes, among others, consideration of which part of Asmara a given sign is displayed (e.g. downtown where there are an abundance of tourist vs. other parts of the city where tourists are sparsely found) and proximity of the respective restaurant/fast food shop in relation to other relevant establishments such as hotels and pensions (lodgings). The next section will look at the signs from this vantage point.

4.1 Emplacement of the signs Dankur Fast Food is situated at the very heart of downtown Asmara, speciﬁcally Harnet Avenue. Therefore, there is a high likelihood that the Arabic version on its name sign has tourists as one of its major targets. Moreover, it is located on the same block as one of the biggest hotels in the city, the Ambassador Hotel, which is regularly frequented by Sudanese tourists. In fact, it is at this very hotel that the Sudanese visitors make their presence in the city most strongly felt. Thus, one could assume that they constitute the primary tourists target group. Credence to this assumption is established through the strategic emplacement of many of the Arabic signs discussed above and speciﬁcally the monolingual-Arabic food advertisement sign in Figure 4 which makes explicit reference to ‘Sudanese’. Four of the six restaurants under study are also located in close proximity to Harnet Avenue. Hamasien Restaurant is about 25 metres from one intersection of this avenue; Dangish Restaurant is about 100 metres from the same intersection; and both the Asmara Restaurant and the M.T. Restaurant are about 150 metres from another intersection. This proximity to the main street of the city points to the possibility that the inclusion of Arabic on restaurant signage may have been motivated largely by the arrival of Sudanese tourists. Dehab Bar & Restaurant is located slightly further from the main street at a distance of some 250m, and although a bit more secluded than the other restaurants, the Arabic text on its sign could plausibly also be aimed at Sudanese or other Arabic-speaking tourists.

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4.2 Interviews with business owners As mentioned earlier, either owners or managers of five out of the six restaurants were interviewed to obtain information relating to the inclusion of Arabic (along with Tigrinya and English) on their respective sign and to procure their percep- tions of patrons once inside their establishments. The manner in which patrons behaved inside the restaurants, particularly their interoceptive reaction to the food, was of interest for this study as most, if not all, Christian restaurants do not adhere to strict halaal food preparation guidelines. To begin, we see the reason(s) given by each of the five business owners (BO 1–5) as to why Arabic was included on the signboard of their restaurant (note: emphasis is added in bold for analytical purposes). For the first restaurateur (BO-1), his reason for the use of Arabic is purely based on the linguistic value of Arabic for potential patrons navigating the foodscape. For him, Tigrinya and English are insufficient for attracting more clientele, specifically Sudanese tourists and local Muslim Eritreans:

[Arabic is included] so that anyone with no knowledge of Tigrinya or English may be able to know what type of establishment this is. Besides, these days, Eritrea is beneﬁting a lot from Sudanese tourists (...) Eritrean Muslims as well do visit us. Intriguingly, when BO-1 talks about Arabic-speaking clients now being able to know what ‘type of establishment’ they are entering, he is not talking about the serving of halaal food, which has been the dominant use-value of Arabic in the foodscape. This gives us our ﬁrst indication that Arabic may have additional indexical values, at least for the restaurateur. In the case of BO-2, we see that the restaurateur relates Arabic signage with appealing to a broad spectrum of Muslims, including locals Eritreans:

In order not to exclude our Muslim clientele; (...) We have many of them; you even have the ones over there as evidence [pointing to a group of three men in traditional attire typical of Muslims in the lowlands of Eritrea]. We see now that Arabic signage attracts local Arabic-speaking patrons from outside of Asmara. We argue that, as they are seated and eating at the table, they become part of a particularly ‘halaal-friendly’ and convivial foodscape. We make this point later on when discussing the landscape as an assemblage of semiotics, including that of Muslim bodies. For BO-3 and BO-4, the most immediate reason given with regard to the inclusion of Arabic on their signs was related to the need on the part of the establishments to accommodate potential Muslim patrons who might have no access to Tigrinya and English:

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BO-3 The best way those Eritreans from the lowlands who may not have reading ability in Tigrinya or English will know what type of establishment this is would be if you write for them in Arabic;(...) also for Sudanese, Arabs. BO-4 So that those who cannot read Tigrinya or English may be able to know that this is a restaurant; Arabic was added with the coming of Sudanese tourists. (...) We are also visited by Egyptians, Eritreans. About 50% of our customers are Muslims. In this case, therefore, the display of Arabic constitutes part of an attempt to reach a broader clientele than would be possible through just Tigrinya and English. As such, Arabic is assumed to bridge a sociolinguistic gap not possible through either of these two languages. But who are these presumed Arabic readers? The business owners speak of the need to attract local Arabic-speaking Muslims from the lowlands and particularly Sudanese tourists. The latter group were mentioned explicitly by the respondents, while ‘(other) Arabs’ were mentioned twice and ‘Egyptians’ only once. The general response as to why Arabic was added on its signboard was linked to a desire to attract ‘Muslim clientele’. The restaurateurs clearly value Arabic as a language that can cross the Christian–Muslim dichotomy while still allowing them to operate without making changes to the way they prepare and serve food. At this stage it becomes clear that the type of Muslim (whether Sudanese or local Eritrean) is not an issue here. Similarly, the last statement in the following quote from BO-4 makes it clear that the Sudanese, Egyptians and Eritreans to whom the Arabic component of the restaurant’s sign is targeted are Muslims: ‘Arabic was added with the coming of Sudanese tourists. (…) We are also visited by Egyptians, Eritreans. About 50% of our customers are Muslims’. The mention of the ‘coming of Sudanese tourists’ marks the transformation of the LL in relation to its social actors. Perhaps even more telling of the ﬂexibility of Arabic at these Christian-owned restaurants is a reponse made by BO-5, who speaks about the inclusion of Arabic menus to cater for Muslim tourists:

BO-5: Taking into account nationals who can’t [speak] Tigrinya or English, Sudanese, and other Arabs. If you check, our menu also includes Arabic. Indeed, we do get many Sudanese visitors. There are some as well who enter here taking it for a Muslim restaurant. Again, we see Arabic used effectively in a way that it had not been used previously in Asmara. Speciﬁcally, Arabic was only present at establishments that were halaal; yet BO-5 has gone beyond displaying Arabic on his signboard to

CHANGING TASTES ON THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF ASMARA 119 including it on menus inside his establishment. Arabic is therefore not only used to bring in those who can’t access Tigrinya and English as stated earlier; instead it is used to potentially bring in customers seeking halaal food. The statement ‘There are some as well who enter here taking it for a Muslim restaurant’ is ambiguous, as ‘some’ could refer broadly to ‘Muslims’, or specifically to ‘Sudanese Muslim tourists’ or it may even refer to ‘Christian patrons’ who enter the restaurant thinking it’s a Muslim establishment. While we cannot irrefutably state who BO-5 is referring to, it is clear that he is aware that Arabic is associated with Muslim- run establishments, and consequently this would mean that halaal food would then be served. On this premise, by using Arabic script on menus he is cleverly overriding the need for the halaal sign at all (also see Li, Juffermans, Kroon and Blommaert, 2012 for a similar study on Asian-stylized menus), and instead is allowing the patrons to read the landscape using their own resources. BO-5 benefits from the static association that Arabic has with halaal food – even going so far as to use it on his menus – while not having to actually serve halaal food. Returning to the notion of taste, both as a sensory achievement and a personal preference, we see that this restaurateur is aware that Arabic is needed to win over the moral compass of the Muslim belly. The combination of Arabic menus with Arabic signage would together appear to make for an ostensibly halaal-looking eating place. Also, once inside, Sudanese patrons similarly misled by the Arabic signage may catch sight of local Muslim Eritreans and therein confirm that this is indeed a halaal place because of the very presence of other Muslims. It is therefore very likely that patrons draw on the broad repertoire of semiotic resources within the foodscape to make sense of where they are and whether they can eat there. Moreover, they may well experience a sense of comfort by the assemblage of Arabic signage, menus and other Arabic-speaking patrons, which together create a particularly comforting ambience of convivial halaalness so to speak. This means that in the absence of the well-known crescent moon and star symbol, patrons arguably construct their own sense of correctness based upon more nuanced, mobile and even corporeal signs on the foodscape. And while there may well be Muslims (Sudanese or Eritreans alike) who are not overly concerned with adherence to strict halaal guidelines, it is nevertheless salient to note how the strategic inclusion of Arabic on the foodscape allows Christian business owners to profit from Muslim patrons, without conforming to Islamic religious food preparation standards. To this end we argue that there is a second order indexical meaning of Arabic on foodscape signs, one which may very well have not been the intention of the restaurateur altogether. The use of Arabic signage coupled with Arabic menus and clusters of happy like-minded Arabic-speaking patrons (honeymooners in most cases), may have brought about

120 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES a ‘safe space’ borne out of these very semiotic assemblages. This convivial collective from a particular ephemeral tourism niche may have been brought in by the Arabic signage, but upon entering may have stayed because the people, smells and sounds produced a visceral sense of belonging and comfort. When restaurateurs are asked to comment on their observations of Muslim patrons consuming food at their Christian restaurants, their responses allude to cross-religious food consumption practices:

BO-2: this period is such that a sort of (...) a Christian goes and eats at a Muslim restaurant and Muslims come and eat at a Christian restaurant – [people] have become intermixed. We see that BO-2 claims to have observed Muslim and Christian patrons frequenting each other’s establishments with plausibly no concern for religious dichotomy. This point is discussed in greater detail below. Restaurateur BO-3 describes how Tigrinya-speaking Christians and Arabic-speaking Muslims can abide by their religious differences while still eating from the same proverbial table. His response also points to a more ﬂuid use of Arabic coupled with a relaxed attitude towards food:

BO-3: These days, the [Eritrean] population has become [so] harmonized [that] there is almost no such thing as Christian or Muslim’s [food], in my view. We may have religious differences, but this is food; one can eat by simply saying ‘Bessime-Ab’ (...) (In the name of the Father ...) or ‘Bismillah’ (In the name of Allah). And that is how it ought to be. For instance, there are some [Muslims] who eat by just saying ‘Bismillah’. Especially the Sudanese do not make such [Christian–Muslim food] distinctions. Also, the depiction of two people eating side by side is visually constructed in the sentence ‘one can eat by simply saying ‘Bessime-Ab’ (In the name of the Father in Tigrinya) or ‘Bismillah’ (In the name of Allah in Arabic). Perhaps even unbeknown to the BO-5 himself, we can move this discussion past food to discuss feelings of equality, compromise and an atmosphere of relaxed acceptance and mutual respect. And for all four business owners, the perception they espouse is one of decreased dogmatic adherence to religious prescriptions on matters of food consumption in Asmara. However, it is the moment when BO-3 says ‘Especially the Sudanese do not make such [Christian–Muslim food] distinctions’ that we see why the semantic quality of Arabic may have changed so drastically. The adverb ‘especially’ signals Sudanese Muslim tourists (who we know are largely honeymooners) as those who show the least concern for the sanctitude of their food. While Muslims in the

CHANGING TASTES ON THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF ASMARA 121 lowlands may have lived a long time with the status quo of division by food, Sudanese honeymooners, with their relaxed attitude towards halaal and non-halaal foods, have arguably ushered in the new fluidity of the landscape. Honeymooners (Muslim or not), by the very nature of short-lived vacationing, are often willing to spend a little more to get their ‘dream vacation’ and tend to have a ‘devil-may- care’ attitude. Translating this attitude to food could mean that these pleasure- seeking Sudanese Muslims may have a more cavalier attitude towards food, thereby catalyzing changes on the foodscape, especially the fluidity of Arabic. With reference to the mutual food-sharing culture between Eritrean Muslims and Christians during each other’s social and religious festivities, Tesfagiorgis (2010:163) states: ‘[T]hey share whatever food is presented on together unless dishes of meat are served. For Muslims, meat must be halaal – meat of an animal that is slaughtered by a Muslim – while for Christians it is also a sort of taboo to consume meat of an animal slaughtered by a Muslim.’ Nevertheless, he notes that the ‘new generations who are exposed to much more secular experiences – during national service and other organized work campaigns – are routinely ignoring’ these religious-based food taboos (p. 163). These changing times are exemplified here by temporal adverbs that contrast with the past, namely: ‘this period’ (BO-2) and ‘[t]hese days’ (BO-3), which indexes the conscious realization that there has been a change in the status quo in Asmara. We will argue that the change has to do with differences in: (1) the indexical values of Arabic, and (2) the way the foodscape is read as a landscape of assemblages.

5 Discussion

We position this work within a growing field looking at semiotic assemblages (Pennycook, 2017; Bennet, 2010) in the foodscape. Specifically, this paper brings into focus a theorization of Arabic as part of a wider multilingual repertoire in space, catering to the desires of Sudanese tourists. Arabic on the LL is comparable to ‘boundary objects’ (cf. Sen, 2016) as ‘(…) things that traverse rather than create boundaries. They are mobile ideas, things or practices that are shared across different social, cultural, linguistic or geographical domains’ (Pennycook, 2017:274). For us, Arabic takes on this fluid form and, following Pennycook (2017), we see it as an ‘adaptable artefact’, as it may be taken up in a variety of ways, while still also carrying with it a familiarity which makes its useful within and across contexts. To this end, we contend that by viewing the versatility of Arabic as an ‘adaptable artefact’ (cf. Pennycook, 2017) we can best discuss the LL as semiotic assemblages of ‘halaalness’ which assuages the visceral needs for comfort and ease at the eateries under study.

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From this study it is clear that Muslims are not a monolithic group. In fact, we note that it is not uncommon to espy Muslims comfortably eating at halaal- friendly eateries where alcohol is served, and other varying degrees of observance of halaal consumption practices (e.g. saying a small prayer and eating in ‘good faith’; cf. Wilson and Liu, 2010). Intriguingly, while the appearance of Arabic in Christian restaurants and fast food shops in Asmara may have to do with the presence of Muslims generally, perhaps more interesting is the fact that the Sudanese tourists, as honeymooners, bring along with them a type of convivial, ephemeral and relaxed attitude towards consumption practices. We see Asmara’s LL as socially co-constructed and, in a very tangible sense, there appears to be a disinhibiting effect by these tourists which is taken up quickly by eager Christian- owned restaurateurs. In this regard, we see a move away from strict orthodox Islamic observances of eating which is for all intents and purposes usually regulated by the halaal sign of a crescent moon and star. What this means in broader terms is that Arabic appears to have a double indexical order meaning, in that on the one hand, the recent display of Arabic by the establishments in question is linked to tourism; but moreover the phenomenon has to do with a growing trend towards a progressive convivial ‘safe space’ for consumption of Christian/non-halaal food. Additionally, by combining the analysis of the foodscape signs with observations and interpretations by the restaurateurs, we see that ‘participants are trying to make sense of their world; [and] the researcher is trying to make sense of the participants trying to make sense of their world’ (Smith and Osborn, 2008:53). When considering the metalanguaging responses by the restaurateurs, we can ascertain reasons why the Christian-owned (and non-halaal) restaurants are ﬂourishing. Firstly, Arabic is used as an identiﬁable linguistic marker for non- Tigrinya and non-English speakers. Secondly, patrons read Arabic signage on the foodscape to mean that halaal food is served, so the number of patrons increases. Thirdly, the spaces allow for cross-religious food consumption, which restaurateurs’ link to harmonious intergroup relations between Christians and Muslims in Eritrea; that is, a relationship in which the two communities appear ‘intermixed’ and ‘harmonized’, resulting in a feeling of general conviviality and acceptance. Emblematic of the triple hermeneutic of Arabic as an adaptable object is a new hotel which has opened in Asmara, cleverly named ‘halaal’. It is located close to an area where some of Asmara’s most popular nightclubs are found, namely Expo Ground. While this hotel is not unlike the majority of those in Asmara with regard to the inclusion of Arabic on its sign, the very name halaal – a word which is central to Islamic faith and culture – makes its commitment to potential Muslim/ Arabic-speaking customers (such as Sudanese) more apparent. Interestingly, the

CHANGING TASTES ON THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF ASMARA 123 word ‘halaal’ is also part of the Tigrinya lexicon albeit having different denotational meaning i.e. ‘kind’, ‘benign’, ‘nice’, ‘generous’, as opposed to the Arabic meaning of ‘permissible according to Islamic law’. So, in a sense, the choice of this word appeals to both Arabic and Tigrinya-speakers at the same time. In this way the word halaal has taken on a less orthodox Arabic meaning on the LL, and that it has adopted a broader, more nuanced and convivial repertoire of meaning. Taste here therefore extends further than the narrow conﬁnes of food, to a broader palate of music, company and general conviviality.

6 Conclusion

Blommaert and Huang have ﬁttingly stated that ‘[E]very sign tells a story about who produced it, and about who is selected to consume it’ (2010:9). This statement rings true with regard to the dynamic foodscape of Asmara, which we contend cannot solely be navigated through static LL items alone; rather, a visceral navigation of the landscape is achieved through the sense of taste. We see the long-held static function of Arabic as a visual index of Muslim friendly or halaal food losing its meaning in the Asmara context. While Arabic is a marker of the Islamic religion, its combination with Muslim bodies and other artefacts (Arabic menus) creates an assemblage of semiotics which produces a convivial space of acceptance and harmony. We therefore posit that the inclusion of Arabic at the Christian-owned restaurants is clearly doing something to the foodscape which has an effect on who and how the landscape is read. Exploring Arabic as an adaptable artefact (Pennycook, 2017) expands our idea of what Arabic is or does. Furthermore, the convivial foodscape within which Arabic operates may well favour a deeper engagement with translanguaging than has been apprehended by LL studies thus far. Ultimately, we contend that unexpected consumptive practices further the semiotics of taste from that of a sensory accomplishment to one of belonging.

Notes

1. Contrastingly, Arabic enjoys much more diffused use in the lowland regions of Eritrea where it is a lingua franca. 2. These observations have been noted extensively by the first author both during fieldwork in Asmara and due to his standing as an Eritrean himself. 3. By the first author. 4. Jebena is a traditional coffee pot (usually earthenware) commonly used in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan and other Arab countries for brewing coffee by placing it on charcoal brazier.

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About the authors

Tedros H. Weldemichael is a lecturer in the Linguistics Department at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. He has previously worked as a lecturer in the Department of Eritrean Languages and Literature, College of Arts and Social Sciences. He is interested in looking into the linguistic landscape from the perspective of social (in)justice. Amiena Peck is a Lecturer in the Linguistics Department at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Her research interests include transnational cultural ﬂows, space and culture and gender and identity. She is interested in extending the linguistic landscape through engagement with the body, senses and virtual space. Quentin Williams is a senior lecturer in the Linguistics Department at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. His research interests include Hip Hop marginality and multilingual citizenship and performance. He is interested in extending linguistic landscape studies to include raciolinguistic landscapes.

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(Received January 2017; accepted July 2017; revision received 31st March 2018; ﬁnal revision received and accepted 3rd August 2018)