Hedareb people

Hedareb
Total population
(>100,000)
Regions with significant populations

Sudan:
2,099,000
Eritrea:
202,000 (2009 Eritrean embassy estimate);[1] 100,000 (2009 ILO estimate)[2]

Egypt:
81,000
Languages
Bedawi
Religion
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
other Beja people

The Hedareb or T'bdawe[note 1] are a Beni-Amer division, a subgroup of the Beja. They speak the Beja language, which belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. They are one of the nine ethnolinguistic groups in Eritrea.[3]

Overview

The Hedareb people live in northwestern Barka in Eritrea, and in Sudan.[4] Skilled nomadic pastoralists, they typically migrate seasonally with their herds of camels, goats and sheep.[3]

Language

The Hedareb speak the Beja language as a mother tongue. It belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. Besides their variety of Beja known as Hedareb (T’badwe), most Hedareb speakers also speak at least one other language; typically either Arabic or Tigre, which are both also Afro-Asiatic languages.[5]

Society

Hedareb society is hierarchical, and is traditionally organized into clans and subclans.[4] Most Hedarebs are Sunni Muslims.[3] Marriages are typically arranged to maximize alliances between extended families. It is customary for the groom's family to pay a bride price of five to twelve goats, and a varying amount of money.[6]

Sociologist Abdulkader Saleh Mohammad writes that the Hedareb have been excluded from state conceptions of Eritrean nationhood, and have become a marginalized group with many members who do not feel connected to the Eritrean nation-state.[7]

See also

Notes

  1. Hedareb, t'badwe, to-bedawye and bedawi may refer to the people or their language. Beja is an Arabic name for the language; Hedareb may be a corruption of Hadarma, "people of the Hadhramaut". See Tesfagiorgis G., Mussie. Eritrea. p. 178 and 216. and Paul, A. (1959). "THE HADĀREB: A Study in Arab—Beja Relationships". Sudan Notes and Records. University of Khartoum. 40: 75–78. JSTOR 41719580.

References

  1. "About Eritrea: People". eritreanconsulate-lb.com. Honorary Consulate of The State of Eritrea in Lebanon. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  2. Mehbratu, S; Habtezion, Zerisenay (2009). Eritrea: Constitutional, Legislative and Administrative Provisions Concerning Indigenous Peoples. International Labour Organization; African Commission’s Working Group on Indigenous Communities/Populations in Africa; Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria; with support from the European Commission. Retrieved 27 February 2015. Asserts Hedareb population is 2% of the total population of 4.8 million.
  3. 1 2 3 "The People of Eritrea". www.eritrean-embassy.se. Eritrean Embassy in Sweden. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  4. 1 2 Tesfagiorgis G., Mussie (2010). Eritrea. ABC-CLIO. p. 178. ISBN 1598842315.
  5. Killion, Tom (1998). Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-3437-5.
  6. Tesfagiorgis G., Mussie. Eritrea. pp. 194–195.
  7. Mohammad, Abdulkader Saleh (2013). "Competing identities and the emergence of Eritrean Nationalism between 1941 and 1952" (PDF). “African Dynamics in Multipolar World”. 5th European Conference on African Studies. Lisbon: Centro de Estudos Internacionais do Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL). pp. 1376–1408. 978-989-732-364-5. Retrieved 18 February 2016.

External links

Further reading

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