Changing Tastes on the Linguistic Landscape of Asmara, Eritrea
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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] SOLS VOL 13.1 2019 107–126 https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.37044 © 2019, EQUINOX PUBLISHING 108 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES 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 develop- ment 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,