 |
Matthew Patay's
Note of the Month
October 2006
|
|
Map and flag images provided by Graphic Maps
This month's featured note
is from Eritrea.
The denomination is 50 Nakfa and the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money
(SCWPM) Number is P-New.
The note is dated 2004. This note has not yet received a published SCWMP numerical designation.
(front)
The banknote is red on multicolored underprint. Three young people are at center,
representing the ethnic and cultural diversity of Eritrea.
----------
The following information
was obtained from:
Wikipedia
the online Encyclopedia
Eritrea
(For the full article, please refer to
the link above.)
Eritrea is a country in northern East Africa. The name is derived from the Latin word for Red Sea, Mare Erythraeum, itself derived from a similar Greek word meaning "red" (erythros). The country is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The east and northeast of the country have an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands are part of Eritrea.
Eritrea was consolidated into a colony by the Italian government on January 1, 1890. The modern nation-state of Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia following a thirty year war which lasted from 1961 to 1991. Eritrea is officially a parliamentary democracy consisting of six regions, but it functions as a single-party state. Eritrea is a multilingual and multicultural country with two dominant religions and nine nationalities, each speaking a different language. The country has no official language, but it has three working languages: Tigrinya, Arabic, and English. A fourth language, Italian, is sometimes used commercially.
People
Eritrean society is ethnically heterogeneous. The largest ethnic group are the Tigrinya who compose up to 50% of the population, while the Tigre people make up another 31.4%. The rest of the population is comprised of the smaller populations of the Saho, Nara, Hedareb, Beja, Afar, Bilen, Kunama, and the Rashaida. Each nationality speaks a different native tongue, but typically, many of the minorities speak more than one language. The Jebertis are Muslim Tigrinyas who consider themselves as a separate ethnicity, but are not recognized by other sources.
There exist minorities of Italians and Ethiopian Tigrayans. Neither is generally given citizenship unless through marriage or having it conferred upon them by the State.
The most recent addition to the nationalities of Eritrea is the Rashaida. The Rashaida came to Eritrea in the 19th century from the Arabian Coast. The Rashaida do not typically intermarry, are typically nomadic, and number approximately 61,000, less than 1% of the population.
The Kunama are one of the earliest settled peoples in Eritrea. They adopted rain-fed agriculture and settled into communal villages in the 'lowlands' of Eritrea.
Between 900 and 500 BC Eritrea experienced massive migrations and cultural contacts from Saba in Southern Arabia. The Sabean area in Eritrea is mainly to be found in the Kebessa highlands surrounding the capital Asmara and extending southwards. There the Sabeans found the same geographical conditions as in their native Saba, suitable to terracing and their pre-existing agricultural modes of production.
----------
(back)
Ships at port are at right center.
The following information
was obtained from:
Wikipedia the online
Encyclopedia
Eritrea -
Economy
(For the full article, please refer to
the link above.)
Since independence from Ethiopia, Eritrea has faced economic problems characteristic of a small, poor country. Like the economies of many other African nations, the economy is largely based on subsistence agriculture, with 80% of the population involved in farming and herding.
The Eritrean-Ethiopian War severely hurt Eritrea's economy. GDP growth in 1999 fell to less than 1%, and GDP decreased by 8.2% in 2000. The May 2000 Ethiopian offensive into southern Eritrea caused some $600 million in property damage and loss, including losses of $225 million in livestock and 55,000 homes. The attack prevented planting of crops in Eritrea's most productive region, causing food production to drop by over 60%.
Even during the war, Eritrea developed its transportation infrastructure, asphalting new roads, improving its ports, and repairing war-damaged roads and bridges as a part of the Warsay Yika'alo Program. The most remarkable of these projects has been the building of a coastal highway of more than 500 Kms connecting Massawa with Assab as well as the rehabilitation of the Eritrean Railway. The rail line now runs between the Port of Massawa and the capital Asmara. This feat of re-engineering was accomplished by local labor and ingenuity.
Eritrea's economic future remains mixed. The cessation of Ethiopian trade, which mainly used Eritrean ports before the war, leaves Eritrea with a large economic hole to fill. Eritrea's economic future depends upon its ability to master fundamental social problems like illiteracy, unemployment, and low skills, as well as the willingness to open its economy further to private enterprise so that the Diaspora's money and expertise can foster economic growth.
----------
For more information about Eritrea visit:
----------
----------
Previous Note of the Month Pages: