Asmara:
famous buildings of the Italian colonialism and
underground secret prisons
A
wide audience, made up of German cultural representatives,
famous architects and journalists, students, representatives
and responsibles of many associations concerned with
the social struggle and civic society, together with
Asper met in Frankfurt on February 8th 2007, for
the ceremony of the opening exhibition entitled:
"Africa
secret modernist city"
The exhibition, organised by the Architecture Museum of Frankfurt, takes
its name from Mr Naizghi
Grebremedhin,
an Eritrean architect and scholar that thanks to his interesting exhibition,
gave a big contribution in the acknowledgement of architectural and
town history of Asmara.
During the reception following the slides projection, all the participants
could say something about the exhibition, as well as express their appreciation
for the technical value of the exhibition and they could thank all the
organising staff for giving such a cultural occasion.
Everybody whishes Asmara to be able to keep sustainable development policy,
preserving at the same time all its architecural jewels and to be the example
of a city on a human scale.
A common sense of worry came out from the fact that on the basis of Eritrea
social and political situation, there is a bitter awareness that
in a state which is not subject to the rule of law, the defense of culture
and arts is dangerously
difficult or even impossible.
We think about the recent demolitions that took place in Massawa, where
the Turkish buildings, destroyed represented a part of its history and
the wonderful villa Cyprea, even if it was built following the Italian
Colonial period, was considered a small architectural masterpiece.
Some representatives of the Eritrean Embassy in Germany took part at the
exhibition; they were coming from Berlin, and some other from Frankfurt.
They were not open to an exchange of opinions about this delicate subject,
and they did not answer the questions asked by some representatives of
the Eritrean diaspora.
The Italian responsible of ASPER,
Mrs M. Daniela Avallone had an interesting discussion with the Italian
consul spokesman, Mrs Rosamaria Chicco Ferraro. She could express the worries
of the associations concerned in the defense of human rights for the supposed
existence of underground secret prisons denounced by Amnesty International
that
are supposed to be the cellars of some of the most famous Italian
buildings of the colonial period.
Frankfurt, 9th February 2007
Coordinamento Italiano per la Pace, la Democrazia e i Diritti Umani in
Eritrea
