Meadna - Haile please tell us about your childhood and educational background?

Haile - First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Meadna team for inviting me to share my experience, hope, dream and vision as a writer, and a book lover as well. I realize it is taboo to talk about ones ego in a very society such as ours in which humility, courtesy and a low profile are highly valued. But at times, circumstance beyond our control may force us to cross the forbidden line. For example the need for identity preservation as opposed to identity investment demanding counseling and guidance in host countries.

I was born at Gomero, a little village located about few miles away from Mendefera, the provincial capital of southern zone. But I grew up at historic Geza Kenisha, the birth place of many revolutionary leaders of Eritrea.

In 1958 I entered a parish school known as Inda-Bizen where I learned only how to recite prayers in Geez including Amharic songs which I did not understand at all. The school fee at that time was a dime per year. There were about one hundred students in a big room packed like a swarm of bees. We used to sit on the floor all day with no break in between. For this, it sounds like saying back then:

Thank you God it is Friday
On the floor no straw or hay
No space or toys to play
Go away, go away Monday.

Meadna - What was it that got / influenced you into writing?

Haile - My late father who learned how to read and write on his own was shocked to see me lagging behind at school. He started to teach me the Tigrinya Alphabet, and soon after I was able to read and write. After two years, he sent me to St. Mary School (Inda Mariam), one of the best private institutions in Asmara. With courtesy, I was among the top students in the class. During my early teen years, our language arts teacher read for us a Tigrinya translation of "Beyond Pardon," by Bertha M. Clay, the famous English novelist of the second half of the nineteenth century. It was very popular book among the young Asmarini of the late fifties and sixties. It is this book that influenced me most, and even so it was published for adult reading pleasure. My martyred young brother including my three sisters used to recite some of the beautiful poems by heart. Few years ago, interested Dehayers asked me to reprint the book, and I did so to honor their noble wish.

Meadna - We know that you are linguist, how did you learn to speak several languages? And please also tell us about your schooling in Eritrea and any literature work you did during that time?

Haile - In 1963 I continued my schooling at Old Agazian School adjacent to YMCA of Asmara. Also, I was selling slingshot to American, Italian, Arab and Indian kids in order to support my self. That is why I speak and understand different languages including sign language at all levels. In November 1964 I lost my normal hearing due to deadly typhus fever that claimed the lives of many Eritreans. As there were no specialized schools, some American families who were stationed at Kangew in Asmara sent me to a residential institution for the orphans located at Dekemare. It was running by Sudan Interior Mission based in the States. A year later, I was transferred to Bet Ghiorgis School on Massawa road, and thus was able to complete eighth grade before joining Haileselassie High in Asmara. In 1968 I promised to translate Tales From Shakespeare, by Charles and Mary Lamb in case the Apollo 11 landed safely on the moon. It did, and so did I, oh my!!! Sounding poetic? My nick name at that time was "Kennedy" which means to look or find something in Tigrinya, but now "Archives or Bookish." Have a break and smile!!! To my surprise, the drama club that I established during my senior year at Haileselassie high performed successfully some of the plays such as "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark." Luckily, these plays and stories will be published soon after forty years. The manuscript had been safely recovered after the Derg Army raided our house located on Asmara-Keren road.

After passing the college entrance examination, I moved to Addis Ababa to continue my education. But I decided to work at the United Abilities Company that provides employment opportunity to the disabled people. My experience in that company was unique, and I could not explain in detail. Also, during the course of my stay in Addis, I worked voluntarily as Secretary of the Ethiopian National Association of the Deaf, and Chairman of the Deaf Cooperative Society.

Thereafter, I applied to Gallaudet University, the only higher educational institution for the deaf in the world. The University finally accepted me after ten years upon receiving a Fulbright Scholarship available for foreign scholars. It is part of the US Agency for International Development administered by Institute of International Education based in New York. Also, the Swedish National Association of the Deaf, The Rotary Club, and Gallaudet University contributed partially toward this effort.

Meadna - What subject did you study at the university?

Haile - In 1983 I married, and fraternal twin baby girls were on the way. They were graduated from college last year. Also, in 1984 I graduated from Gallaudet with a double major in Sociology and Social Work. In 1986 I earned my Masters degree in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling for the Deaf. A year later, I joined the American University in Washington, D.C. where I was a third year doctoral student before moving to Marietta, Georgia about thirty minutes drive from metropolitan area of Greater Atlanta. I did not continue my education due to family obligation, and even so, my house was and still is like my private university. I continue to read as a book drunkard.

Meadna - How many books have you written and what subjects do you write about?

Haile - I have authored over twenty four short-run books dealing mainly with Eritrean culture, folklore, history, politics, education, language, deafness, animals etc. All of the books had been published by Yohanna Mahtem, a desk top publishing house that I established about thirteen years ago. There are also other eight books waiting for the print. Yohanna publishes a limited quantity of books available for select few. Its mission is to preserve and reprint highly valued published and unpublished written materials.

I have composed countless poems some of which published in three separate books. A few award-winning poems had been published by the International poetry Society of America, Swedish National Association of the Deaf, and by various newsletter publishers. Some had been translated into Swedish and Italian languages. Moreover, selected poems had been broadcasted via the Voice America, Radio KNON, and Radio of the Eritrean Community in Atlanta. The birth place of all these poems is of course the Dehai forum for Eritreans and friends of Eritrea as well. I am very grateful to supportive Dehayers including Dr. Araia Tseggai of RICE who helped me to publish the first computerized books in Eritrean history. That was in August 1987. We will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Geez Word. This is in recognition of Ato Yemane Russom who devoted half of his life time in refining and upgrading the function of Geez program that revolutionized the book publishing world in Eritrea libre`.

Meadna - What do you work as in addition of writing and you have contributed a lot in the field of Eritrean literature, do you have any plan to go to Eritrea to transfer your knowledge?

Haile - After moving to Georgia, I worked with Tyco Corporation for over thirteen years as a translator, quality controller and trainer for immigrant workers. Finally, the Georgia Department of Education hired me to serve as a deaf teacher at Atlanta Area School for the Deaf, and at Georgia School for the Deaf. My engagement in these state schools has to do with my future plan in Eritrea where a trained man power in the field of deaf education is highly needed.

Meadna - Poetry is very much appreciated in our society and it has also played a great role in the struggle for independence and at this very important moment of Eritrean history, how far does the art of poetry goes in the Eritrean culture?

Haile - We are orally oriented society not because of our culture, but because of our languages. Particularly Tigrinya, Tigre and Arabic as any Semitic tongues are the languages of emotion. What is more, they are highly inflective, and as such, it easy to write poems with relative ease. During the struggle years, our gifted poets and poetesses were expressing their pent up feelings in creative and uplifting manner. Thus gave way to the rise of literary renaissance than any time in our history. This is highly facilitated by the computer technology as seen in the development of Geez program and the internet. However, it is not reciprocated by increasing the number of readers in our society due to the growth of visual and acoustic culture such as performing arts and video music.

Meadna - where do you get the ideas or the inspiration for the poems you regularly write on dehai and other mediums?

Haile - Please read my poem " A Poet Like Me" at the end of the interview session.

Meadna - first of all we want congratulate your daughters on the their successful graduation from college, have they taken interest in your foot steps (writing)?

Haile - Raising twins is very challenging indeed. They are not identical, but fraternal twins. One is very sociable, and the other is so brainy and of course, a poetess and linguist like me. She earned her BA degress in Sociology and French from the Ivy League institution last year. Is this because like father like daughter? Thanks for your sensitive and insightful queries. The other sister is still thinking to become a nurse.

Meadna - what sorts of books do you read? Currently there has been a strong campaign taking place to promote reading in Eritrea how can Eritrean writers like you support?

Haile - I love to read books indiscriminately. Some canonized writers such as Chekhov, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, our man, Alexander Pushkin, De Maupassant, Washington Irving, Thoreau, Emily Dickenson, Achebe, Steinbeck, Defoe, Pirandello, Hemingway, Tagore, Danielle Steel, Isaac Bashevi Singer including scholars such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Kahlil Gibran, Vance Packard, C Wright Mills, Donald Levine, Carlo Conti Rossini, Alberto Pollera, Christopher Clapham, Henry Courlander, Wolf Leslau, and Augstus Dillmann have had a big impact in my life. Some of the indigenous writers who influenced me during my tender years are Ato Mussa Aron, Ato Berhe Araia, Ato Kahsai Zewedli, Abo Weldeab Woldemariam, Memhr Asres Tesema, Ato Uqbai Woldegebriel, Liqe Mezmran Moges Uqbaghiorgis and many others. I am also grateful to contemporary creative writers or poets such as Ato Solomon Drar, our comedian Girmay Sandiago, Ato Alemseged Tesfay, Doctor Bereketab Habteselassie and Aba Yishahq Ghebreyesus who have a deep impact on my mental sky.

For me the craft of writing is unfinished business due to systematic deprivation, scrutiny and censorship that I went through during my high school years in Asmara. That was from 1968-1972, the period of literary awaking in Eritrea. With this in mind, I cannot take for granted our hard won freedom. It is time to write, it is time to instill a reading culture in our society by exposing our younger generation to the great books of the world such as Antigone by Sophocles, and Tales from Shakespeare which had been translated into Tigrinya by this author. All in all, our expectation is high indeed in an effort to make for the lost years of war and oppression in this hostile world.

Finally, the torch of freedom and responsibility is passed to you, our youths, our future, raise it higher, and keep it brighter in enlightening our beloved people with pen which is sharper than sword indeed. Thank you. Eternal glory to our martyrs!!!

Meadna - Thank you very much Haile.

" Poet Like me"

As a poet
I am on the other side
Of the road.
I did not know
To whom I belong.
I read, listen and feel
Becoming very reflective.
Ideas pop up
Like popcorn
From some hidden sources
That I cannot tell
Where from
Unless I speak out
Jot down my feelings
Act out in ideographic signs
With flying and moving fingers
In the sea of invisible air
That I desperately crave to touch
In my visual world
Where everything I see
Touch and hold
Is highly valued
Like a glittering gold
In this nosy
And humdrum world
Full of moving lips
And delicate tongues
In frozen bodies
Like the Egyptian mummies
Unequaled to dancing trees
Attuning to a gentle breeze
In evergreen sea
Of beautiful Spring
Glorified by singing birds
Of far off lands
The seasonal migrants.
Lovers of sunshine
Roses and beauty
Beneath celestial bodies.
Ah, that is nature
Oh, mine…
That a poet like me admires
With dreamy eyes
Of an innocent child
Devoid of prejudice
And utter excuse
That blocks
Ones imaginative power
In mystical cosmos
Of wonder.

"No More War Planes"

In the stillness of the night
As I lay terrorized
By piercing sirens
Of fighter planes
While flying high and low
After mortal souls
Whose very existence
Is too short
In this temporal world.
Sorry……..
Is that what life
Is meant to be
As long as I am free
After Independence Day
Falling in the…
Beautiful month of May.

Haile Bokure