What is art and what’s its role? For the government of Eritrea, art is a means of propagating is message: obedience to whatever happens to be its policy. This is so central to the ruling party (when we had one), “culture and art” was on equal footing with politics, organization and finance. As a matter of fact, the role of the rulers “cultural and art department” is help organize people, to politicize them and fund-raising.
For precisely this reason, the messengers–the musicians–are picked for specific missions. Have you asked yourself why, for example, two of Eritrea’s more popular musicians, Helen Melles and Dawit Shilan are not touring Ethiopia now? Because they dared to go to Tigray after the peace agreement.
In short, the Eritrean musicians are, like their fellow citizens in the armed forces, conscripted. They cannot say no when the order comes: they pack and go. With that in mind, the criticism that follows is not about them, but the work they are forced to produce. What kind of an “ambassadorship” does a person who doesn’t have the freedom to not want to be an ambassador produce? This kind:
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