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12/22/1956 - A Day in Asmara by Smith Hempstone Jr.

NOT IOR PUBUCATION INSTITUTI Ol CUKKENT WOKLD AIAlliS SH December Day Asmara U S Consulate Asmara Erit Nr Walter S Rogers Instmtute Current World Affairs Fifth Avenue lewYork Yew York Dear ogers Long before themorning burned which drifts Asmara every Nassawa Red Sea Italian keepers Corso rolling metal shields front their windows sweeDing sidewalks around fully planted palms By eight clock eggars crept crawled according deformit which houses native ulation their acustomed posts steps Catholic Cathedral front mosque court before Coptic Cathedral along street The shine Shoeless themselves dressed tattered western clothes arrive moments later The sweet smell roasting coffee expresso shops announces start By clock somebody ASNARA S AVENUE HAILE SELASSIE turned victrola which booms throuAh loudspeakers principal Little changing tersections filling streets music Gharis pulled fully uncurried horses driven Eritreans their pilaces behind venerable black taxicabs piloted Italians An American truck headed nearby Kagnew station voices throated turns street accelerates Familiar faces begin appear Sam A Egrptian refugee economist headed Ethiopi Air Lines office Fergus NcCleary clerk Eritrean Legislative iSsembly faced rotund picking airmail London Times bookstore polio wracked beggar sottle shoes hands Rasputin eleche Selam black bearded Coptic priest president Legis lative Assembly reputedly Assembl Lebanese woman tight dress permit using chars American civilian supervising construction radio station cherr cheeked waiter Capriccio picking across street bearing Turkish coffee glass water balanced expertlF SH I Corso rtalia recently renamed Avenue Haile Selassie remembering Viale ussolini costs little change street Avenue Eduardo Anze Mateinzo single storied office through square which houses Banco Roma shoddy Albergo Italia reads inscription front florid script proud future several goods stores moments walking mosque great marketplace opens before First comes snall European arket Red Sea pasta forms towering pyramids green gallon olive bright tomatoes sickly celery I twisting native market In horror section flies happily about slowl revolving carcasses sheep large They black clouds unrecognizable sweetbreads stomach flips uneasily I light unwanted cigarette control smell A steps domain smiths The thatched booths share conmon almost above pathwa V create illusion inside building Ladles knives forks dishes pounded gasoline tinnedfood strung across Th spice merchhnts piles vividly pepper frank cense myrrh British Somaliland It clock murky darkness market I twist through grain merchants prison clear market place standing street bicycle repairmen inutes brisk brings Corso minutes frica Europe Sam A passing waves coffee He behind hisdesk pudgy swarthy mustach checking through morning while cofiee I think moment about years Christian Egyptian passport revoked refused manager State Bank Ethiopia political purposes under urging Egyptian ernment forced political pressure manager Ethiopian irlines You Sam enormously You surprised offers American cigarette English As finishing coffee comes Dr Juiio Biasolo sliht young dainty delicatelg featured almost effem inate Julio walking United Nations g_andparents resectively Yugoslav Italian Armenian Eritrean father Italian mother Eritrean He Carries Ethiopian passport speaks excellent Italian French tolerable English _haric He Emperor representative commerce industr Eritrea issaid Emperor SH He invites match factory Legislative Assembly adjourns I accept hurrying across street wonder I attend session Assem I trust I Sam I Climb stairs until lungs remind titude I throuh clutter hangers which surrottnds every Asmara government office Fergus cleary Hi silently tries Ital paper He looks throws paper aside startling cocker Spaniel which sleeps corner She growls looks reproachfully Will today He raises eyebrows Akhito Nohammed Omar Akhito young Muslim assemblyman Assab outspoken opposition withering SH4 Eritrean autonomy Three months after election government moving election inval idated Ah Akhito Yes I expect morning If uorum coffee shops laugh What happen I Why declare fraudulent nswers I ielache Selam Akhito appear before committee confront nesses thing So Oit better apoeals Su0reme Court Sut bloody W concludes About member assem split evenly between Uslims Copts their places A quorum The Clerk En Lish govern reference Cigarettes problem JULIO Tout corn_fort girls ATO YOHANNES Seldom SH election District Officer admitted thathe trary governmentregulations write candidates ballot boxes And their pictures plaed boxes firmly aixed The goverent feels should TWO Sub clerks charges Tiinya Arabi ACopi member wearing bsiness Zee makes speech repeating goveren charges prais She District Officer admission Zault election The speech repeaed Another Semb Vluslim saysalmost Ching 0thers paraphrase first speaker words Several Of assemblymen reading newspapers Those cabot stare window Fessala Uoldermariam Coptic assemblymn Hamasien acquainted politicalfacts Eritrea stands He jailed without harge annouoed candidacy released habeas corpus proceedings instituted Chief Justice Supreme Court Scot 2ghours before election still hands Ethiopianbacked candidates He enquires irrelarity Assab election discovered three months Akhito political points other faulty elections reported prompt He District Commissioner called witness He points atelem c0mplainng about election electoral college since enrepudiated C011ege forgery Th The first soeaker address rePea semblymen asSmb votes invalidate Assab election ImakeamentalnotetoaskFers cCleary better arranged extra votes Akhito favor benefit Julio waiting Sam S carillon Ca bholic cathedral tolling treads little along Corso beautiful hospital empty because euipment radio station poplar lined toward factory The towers Kaew Station linking Hiede Nanila Dhahran width Tokyo point accusing fidgets liantly ancient monoliths We about burros laden Wi crates clopDing Their boydriverhUrls stones frantically their drive The venerable white bearded Uncle Eem cladin tattered overcoat stained fedora match factory Julio iores The factory There machines One shreds sheets actually typeof cactus sections creased match boxes The other cutting cruder sections makes matches thsmselves Almest employees women girls The Beer COUNTRY BOYS Nistrust pride curiosity ASNARA S ARKET PLACE Nyrrh frankincense horror silently incredibly swift fingers creasing sheets Wood boxes pasting paper around boxes pasting Eritrean_Tobaceonouol_labels Onto boxes dippingthematches Ne wooden frames paraffin compound filling The women piece basis Some Julio eXplains touchas Ethiopian U And comfort Tout comfort being middleof I pictures The women uninterestedin They rhythm fingers Julio drops front Eritrean Government Library The library donated U S Government books EngliSh There encken F asters Koestler Benet Schlsinger Norrison Crs single volume Ethiopia Eritrea Steffins Steinbeck Dos Passos Here outside however librar subscribes Paris edition New York Herald Tribune anchester Guardian Four granted I finish papers Corso Palace Arc Yohannes federal Ethiopian press The closest common tongue French which means talking I saying question nouns reinforced gestures facial pressions He professes ignorance facts surrounding Akhito nothing about Over inevitable sized photographs Haile Selassie Empress He seems preoccupied I request appointment following leave One discovers better interview othiopian Unfortunately seldom It takes Asm finger problem facing there place where Eritreans Ethiopians socially Sudan Cultural Center Khar Information gathered unfriendly expanse office rather convivial highball What social Sam Julio t___o_be carefully cultivated contacts where Sudan Cultural Center threw contact dozen ministers under secretaries businessmen edUCators Part difficulty there Eritrean intelligentsia The British foundo handful Eritrean School graduates occupied country Even years later there secondary schools colleges universities Nost Eritreans today consider their education completed finished sevenZh One thrown Ethiopians Italians Tonight perhaos better We attend party American consulate promisedthat there Eritrean guests As I throujh twisting lleys SH Gior French consulate hotel honed knife wisps scudding height through poplars We arrive party after Via Padre Reginaldo Giuliano looks A0out twenty ficers Ethiopian Eritrean police force siting facing other along walls narrow In addition police there three pe0ple American consulate American Negro teaches local secondary school American track coach Asmara state Department mission guest honer Indian It turns Indian headmaster school The native Erirean present Colonel Tadlu Dbit mandant police prisons I alread fruitless attempt through necessary clear Customs still airport after Eritrea Everyone seated difficult carry conversatien anyone except person either The Army captain attached rigade Asmara He leoking forward Garands replace their Enfield rifles No there longer problem brigandange thecountryside That during British becaus theEritreans wanted leave The captain stateent established himself either I interest As I opening conversation officer senior oficer present Every officer follews celenel Sentences phrases anging unfinished There embarrassed silence Someone makes everybody laughs those three consulate track coach Negro teacher Indian headmaster Ourselves chairs together begin afresh The Indian intelligent gentle He talks knowingly feeli tremendous ducational problem country He devoted Emperor doesn think entourage He interested local pelitical situation He vites visit school I accept We change cards writes introduction Indian ambassador Addis Ababa The party breaks together toward center At least little accomplished today One learns grateful little Eritrea Sincerely Nerry Ghristmas Happy New Year Received New York I