Breaking away from the routine, a group of young ‘thinking-out-of-the-box’ Arab migrants has launched an online program that encourages revisiting values, and its adherence, with the hope that it would have a positive impact on society.
The year-old cyberspace initiative, aptly named “Mafaheem,” literally meaning “Concept,” is the brainchild of a bunch of Eritrean youths’ baby-steps toward building a new Arabic-speaking media which rejects “societal diseases” like discrimination, racism and injustice to women. And they seek to spread the message through attention-captive five to 10 minute visual and audio episodes!
Says program founder Sulaiman Ahmad Mousa: “The videos and audios are made by men and women who participate voluntarily. Their attempts to speak to society are loud and clear so that issues come out in the open and are discussed freely to find a solution.”
“Another goal of the program is to expose the potential capabilities of Eritrean society, which people are not aware of,” Sulaiman, who is also a professor in Al-Shatbi Institute, said.
“The program promotes the need to deal positively with conditions resulting from wars and other factors in Eretria and focus on making oneself capable and effective whatever the conditions,” he said, adding that those involved in the program faced difficulties initially since they did not have anybody to look up to for guidance.
“Since it was a first of its kind attempt, there were problems. Selecting issues to be discussed was done after brainstorming sessions and workshops that have been held for a year,” he said.
The programs discuss patriotism, tribes, family, education, marriage, divorce and morals imposed by society. It also discusses racism and its dangerous effects, the effects of being expatriates (like many Eritreans) and the importance of supporting the culture of voluntary work.
He said the initiative was falsely categorized by critics in the beginning, which was expected and not worrying as most of the criticism was based on apprehensions that it would deviate from its intended motive. “The criticism was normal and expected because the Eritrean society has been in the midst of political conflicts for decades,” he said, adding that many of those who criticized the program initially are now believers. “And some of them are even taking part,” he says proudly.
Mafaheem has also been publishing recordings of Eritrean Arabic poets. “We wanted to deliver the message that this language is so deeply rooted in society that there are great poets who wrote about revolution, art and human beauty and issues like the situation prevailing in Palestine. It is also aimed at encouraging talent that enrich Eritrean art and writing,” he said.
Mafaheem discusses Eritrean issues in Arabic on social media
