Hello, I think you've misunderstood the OP.Id say its going to be difficult to seperate yourself from thr Habesha identity if youre a Tigrinya which constitute the majority of Eritreas population as even tho you guys had your own region for a long time, youre still culturally connected to the Tigryans and Amharas of Ethiopia even if you believe they arent linked to the Axumite empire (which they are if you consider than most still have partial Yemeni ancestry altho Eritrean Tigrenyas are a bit more mixed). Habesha is essentially a subethnicity which traces most Northrrn Highlander groups to the Dmt and Axum empire which precedes Abyssinia and Behr Negash. For much of your history, the Habeshas were one. Geez is the parent langauge of the habesha, not Tigrinya. Most of you practice Tawahedo Christianity before you converted to Islam, you all use the same script and, you all have similar cultural practices and clothings. Politics is the reason why semitic Eritreans dont like to be associated with Habesha. And if you say your people have different identity, thats fine, but from what Ive observed, theres not much cultural difference between Tigrayans and Tigrinyas. Its the reason your people started claiming them as Agame or fakes. Northern Amharas are genetically similar to Tigrayans who are similar to Tigrinyas. And Id say Gondar or Gojjam is the homeland of the Amhara, Wollo is too far south for it to be Amharas homeland, even the Oromos claim Wollo as Oromo territory. Amharas or the protoAmharas migrated southward because the once fertile Tigray region started becoming drier and it couldnt support a larger population. Climate change was actually a major reason why Axum collapsed.
I support Eritrea, but I dont support widespreak Tigrinya cognitive dissonce caused by decades of anti habesha propaganda promoted by regimes backed by italians colonialists who were intent on maintaining a divide between Eritrean and Ethiopian highlanders.
The Tigrinya people is not the majority in Eritrea as I have mentioned in the OP, they're minority but the current regime will hide it for an obvious reason. The term is used during the post-Italian era and the TPLF-EPLF era when they wanted to avoid confusions between Tigray and Tigrinya.
Today, it is not easy to explain as nowadays people rely source from them which is all fabrication whereas the other tribes will give you different answers. However, if you understand history of Ethiopia from the Muslims perspective then you are more likely to understand Eritrea.
I don't want to write another 5,000 words but if you read the The Saho of Eritrea: Ethnic Identity and National Consciousness which is available to read online on Google ebook and well worth a read. The Tigrinya people are famous for distorting the Eritrean history after influx of them came to the Eritrean highland during the latter emperors especially those of Tewodros, Yohannes and Ras Alula from Tigray province as an aim to grab power and of course, the coastal access which they succeeded in 1991 through the support of M.Zenawi. This strategic of affecting the demographics and affecting other cultural and social barriers was adopted during the days of Menelik II in Ethiopia which can be called Amharization of the 20th century causing the problems with identities.
The book cleared up the confusion, explained these clearly from history, ethnic, clans to clans and the sectarian motives that the Tigray people have committed during the 18-20th century and today. For instance, in your country, Ethiopia, who have more publicity portrayal today? The Amhara people despite being below the much larger Oromo population and their success of Amharization during the 20th century. Till this day, the TPLF are unable to de-Amharize the society in Ethiopia.
This is why we are unable to fix everything up as long they are in power and it will take time to de-Tigrinized Eritrea to clear everything up because they were not one of our mainstream tribe and were considered as people of Tigray from the Tigray province until the 19th century.
"Lowland and Highland" narrative is a propaganda used by the British military administration and the current regime.Im not very optimistic when it comes to Eritrea. Issias should have been assasinatwd by now and replaced by a unity government. And also im also very worried about this potential muslim lowlander vs predominatly christian highlander conflict once isias dies. As much as Eritreans in the diapsora want to paint a unified front, theres still a large cultural gap between lowlanders and highlanders and Eritrea has only been held together by a universal hatred of Ethiopia and Afewerkis i iron fist. Eritrea is too young for a national indentity to exist, not to mention most Eritrean ethnic groups besides Tigre/Tigrenya dont even interact with other ethnic groups. Its a bit like Ethiopia in that respects. Once Isias dies, Im expecting a civil war to ensue as The eritrean regime was always dependant on Afewerkis personality to maintain control and I dont think a puppet leader will ever replace Afewerki. I dont know how Ethiopia didnt go through a violent phase when meles died, he must of had some arrangements. Meles, as much as I hate him, is a very smart man in that respect
There is no such thing called "predominately" Christian highland in Eritrea. It's all fabrication.Most of the Tigrinya scholars follow the footsteps of the colonial writers and administrators when they describe the social and cultural fabric of Eritrean society as being divided between the 'kebessa Christian highland' and the 'Muslim lowlands', thereby inappropriately simplifying the geographical location of the religious division. They ignore the fact that the highland is also populated by Muslims, namely the Saho, the Jabarti, and some Tigre groups living in Kebessa.
