Teseney
Teseney
تسني ተሰነይ | |
---|---|
City | |
Teseney | |
Elevation | 919 m (3,015 ft) |
Population (2012) | |
• City | 4,815 |
• Metro | 65,000 |
Climate | BWh |
Teseney (
Overview
Teseney is located 45 kilometers from the Sudanese border and approximately 115 kilometers beyond Barentu administrative or central administration of Gash Barka region. It is considered a frontier town on western Eritrea and many calls a land port because of its location and movements of people and goods from Sudan to Eritrea and vice versa.[2] The town is made up of people of various ethnic backgrounds and most used language is the Arabic language because of the border and most of the people get back home from Sudan (people who left Eritrea due to the War with Ethiopia for Independence).[3] On the outskirts of Teseney to the north are a couple of hills from which there are exceptional views of the lowlands and mountains in Sudan. Also, farmers have been reporting of lions roaring in south of Teseney. In summer 2006, a young male lion was sighted and photographed, but since then, there has been no sighting and farmers do still report lions roars being echoed in the night.[citation needed] Monkeys and spotted hyenas form also part of Tessenei fauna, while acacia and Hyphaene thebaica palm locally known as Dom trees dominate its flora.[citation needed]
The name Tessenei with the diminutive of Seney (seni means nice/good in Tigre Eritrean language) or Teseney, which means “let it be nice to dwell”.[citation needed] It is also called Sabbot by its native local inhabitants. In 1929, it was called by the Italian colonizers the Village of Gasperini (named after the former colonial governor of Eritrea, a native of Treviso in Italy).
Tessenei, is divided into several "Hillas" or districts / quarters, inhabited by different ethnic groups. There is in fact the Hillat Takarin which accommodates the ethnic group
History
During the colonial period both Tessenei and the neighbouring village of
The Village of Ali Ghider was chosen as a field camp for the project. A big workshop and store for agricultural machinery and farm equipment was built, with four leading Italian directors in charge of its administration and field engineering; all living there. A very strange system for using the land and supervising the plantation was running, by the so-called blatas (a blata is Eritrean/Ethiopian aristocratic title equivalent to counselor). These blatas were brought to the area with their family ties and kin from places as far as Keren in central Eritrea. Blata Yassin, Blata Geme Almaday, Blata Jabir, Blata Melakin and Haj Gladios were the prominent blatas. Hedareb (mainly Bet-Juk, Beni Amr, Maria and Sebdarat) tribes and 1500 ex-fighters and their families farm cotton, sesame and sorghum in Ali Ghider.
American Peace Corps in the 1960s had contributed to the education field in Tessenei by sending volunteer teachers. There was also an American evangelical medical clinic in the Centre of the city.
The events of the war that led to the independence of Eritrea caused the destruction of these colonial developmental works. Tessenei still contains few Italian relics.
During the Eritrean War of Independence (1961–1991), Tessenei was repeatedly bombed, and was subject to severe fighting because of its proximity to the borders of Sudan, from which the Eritrean insurgents receive weapons and supplies, but it was also the first to be liberated in 1988, having suffered extensive damage. Outside Teseney, just beyond Haykota, is a monument to Hamid Idris Awate, who fired the first shots in the Eritrean liberation struggle in September 1961.
Economy
The town is a busy
During the rainy season (July to September) most areas around Teseney are impassable, but the recently constructed asphalt road from Barentu to Tesenei guarantees a comfortable trip by road to this border village. Daily buses leave to Kassala in Sudan, Barentu and Asmara, the Eritrean capital.
See also
- Railway stations in Eritrea
References
- ^ ISBN 9780810875050.
- ISBN 9781741048148.
- ^ "Tessenei Eritrea". Eritrea. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
- ^ "Roberto Barattolo and the Eritrean Textile Industry". Dolce Vita: The Italian Lifestyle. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
http://www.eritrea.be/old/eritrea-tesseney.htm 15°06′36″N 36°39′27″E / 15.11000°N 36.65750°E