The Eloquent Suri of Ethiopia: People, Art, Culture, Language…the 2nd Generation
This page introduces the 2nd generation of this project, based on the results of my recent visits in October, 2021 and 2023. First below is a pair of short films based on those two visits, in which I teamed with Shem Compion, Henok Tsegaye (lead Ethiopian guide from my 2019 visit, as well), and Suri translator/guides. Both films are about 9 minutes long and feature film photography by Shem Compion and narration by me.
After the films is additional information on the current project, including the recently launched Light of the Suri mother tongue education initiative and my 2nd generation exhibit. We are actively seeking donations for the 2nd year of Light of the Suri.
2022 Short Film: The Eloquent Suri of Ethiopia: People, Art, Culture, Language
Prior to the 2021 visit, I had created a small book about the 1st generation project (8”x8”, 62 pages), including all the portraits from the 1st generation exhibit and much of the project background. I left a copy of that book with each of my portrait collaborators during that visit.
2024 Short Film: Light of the Suri: Reviving Mother Tongue Education
Just before my 2021 visit, I learned that the Suri Literacy Project had run out of donor funds and shut down. This film is primarily the story of the first steps to revive education in the Suri mother tongue after that shut down. It is largely based on my 3rd visit to the Suri in the Fall of 2023.
Early Suri Mother Tongue Education (MTE): the Suri Literacy Project
Prior to the late 1990s, there was no written version of the Suri language. The Suri Literacy Project (SLP), over its 20-year run, helped to change that by creating teaching materials, training Suri teachers and nurturing the mother tongue literacy of Suri children and adults through informal classes. A 2013 SLP video featured several of the senior SLP teachers, including Gergere Siralugu. He had learned written Suri in the project and spoke passionately in the video of the importance of MTE:
“It is important to educate our people in Suri so our language and identity will not be lost. All people in Ethiopia have a right to learn in their own language. We want to hold onto our language too, so that we will speak it forever. We will continue to teach Suri to our children so they will know it.”
Unfortunately, the SLP had to shut down in mid-2021, when donations ran out. I learned about the shutdown just before my return visit to the Suri in 2021. Suri community members, including both the SLP teachers and their students, were very disappointed with that shutdown. One of the disappointed students was Ngaguyɔ, who told us she was a direct beneficiary of the SLP classes. Ngaguyɔ was among the many reasons for my push to revive Suri MTE began immediately at the end of that 2021 visit.
Ngaguyɔ, in the foreground, is eager to answer a question as part of an informal Suri classroom session during our 2021 visit. She is an example of the benefits of Suri mother tongue education: she participated in the nonformal SLP classes and reports that they helped her because they were taught in her mother tongue. When I talked with her in 2021, her ambitious career goal was to become a doctor. We need to help Ngaguyɔ and others like her achieve their educational and career goals.
Next Step for MTE: Suri as a Subject
The Ethiopian constitution and polices call for minority language students to be able learn in their mother tongue as the main instructional language through sixth grade. But so far in the Suri community, that goal is nowhere near being met.
As a recent and very important step in the right direction, students in some Suri schools learn with written Suri for one period per day. This is a far cry from the government’s goal that essentially all primary school classes to be taught in Suri, but certainly better than no teaching in Suri at all!
One big plus: the teachers for those Suri classes, like Bargu below, are fully funded by the government. The new arrangement is much more sustainable for the long term compared to the 50%-donor-funded SLP teachers.
Except for these recent Suri-as-a-subject classes in some schools, primary grade Suri students learn in Amharic, a widely used language in Ethiopia, but essentially a foreign tongue for most Suri students. How would you have done in your primary grades, learning in your own language at most one period a day, with the rest of the school day in some foreign language?
Suri teacher Bargu leads his second graders in a Suri-focused class at the Anjo primary school near Kibish, Ethiopia.
During our late 2023 visit to the Suri, we talked with the principal of the Anjo primary school. Even though she doesn’t know the Suri language, it has been obvious to her that when her students are taught in Suri, they are much more engaged and enthusiastic about learning. We saw dramatic differences ourselves when we visited classes taught in Suri versus Amharic.
Light of the Suri: a New Suri MTE Initiative
Given the termination of the SLP in mid-2021, it was crucial to find a way to revive MTE among the Suri. With the help of generous donors, SIL Ethiopia (silethiopia.org), a language development NGO, launched a Suri MTE initiative, with a primary emphasis on seeking effective ways to help the government deliver on its long-postponed goals for Suri MTE. SIL is celebrating its 50th year of supporting minority language communities in Ethiopia and was a long-time collaborator with the SLP, as well.
The initial several months of the project focused on working with the Suri district education and finance offices on a range of preparatory steps. Thereafter, teacher training began in earnest. Because donations had fallen short of the original goal for the first project school year, several originally planned project elements beyond teacher training are not being addressed in this academic year.
Gergere Siralugu agreed to lead the training. He’s the veteran SLP teacher quoted above (from ten years earlier!), who is also pictured below leading a training session. The sessions happened while we were in Kibish in late 2023. Nine teachers of Suri-as-a-subject classes from three nearby schools were brought together for the training, which aimed to enable and encourage the effective teaching of Suri as a subject. Several of the group were veterans of the SLP.
Gergere leads the first teacher training session in the new Suri MTE initiative. All nine teachers in the training, even the veterans of the SLP, needed and benefited from Gergere’s refresher on best practices for Suri MTE.
This training marked a critical step in the revival of MTE among the Suri and was a momentous occasion, especially for Gergere and the veterans of the SLP among the trainees. They chose a celebratory new name for the project: Hɔldina Suri (Light of the Suri in English). This name emphasizes the liberating and enlightening benefits of Suri MTE, not only for students, but for the entire community. Over 500 Suri students in those three Suri schools are already benefiting from this training!
The Light of the Suri project is budgeted at about $7,500 for the 2023-24 academic year. Our goal now is to raise at least $10,000 more for the 2024-25 academic year, which will ensure that the revival of Suri MTE continues. That goal also anticipates a modest expansion in the program, potentially including additional teachers and schools. As of January, 2024, about $2,000 of that followup goal is in hand, thanks to recent generous donations.
Here again is Gergere Siralugu, still stressing the importance of the Suri MTE initiative, ten years after his 2013 quote above:
“A few years back, we had a Suri Literacy Project in this community, but it stopped. We want it back! May God bless the people who are helping us to bring the written form of our language back into the community. We want to tell them that we are so happy and so excited. We want the next generation to be able to read, write and most importantly, learn in their own mother tongue. We know that Suri can serve as a base language for other languages as well.”
2nd Generation Eloquent Suri of Ethiopia Exhibit — Now on View in Monterey, California through June 1, 2024!
My 2nd generation exhibit was on view in July and August, 2023 at the Pacific Grove Art Center, the same venue that hosted my 1st generation exhibit in 2021. The exhibit then moved to the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) at Monterey, also on California’s Monterey Peninsula. The MIIS venue is the Atrium Gallery in the McCone building at 499 Pierce Street. The Atrium is accessible on weekdays from 7am to 7pm. Thanks to Eduardo Fujii of MIIS for taking the lead on arranging the exhibit at this venue and for creating the announcement graphic below.
More than four years after my first contact with the Suri in late 2019 and after further visits in 2021 and 2023, I remain captivated by this strong and beautiful people, eager to share them with you. In the 2nd generation exhibit, l introduce you to new portrait collaborators and fascinating new scenes of Suri culture, re-introduce you (now in striking color!) to some of my 1st generation collaborators, including personal details from the dozens of interviews we recorded during the return visits.
If you are interested in the Suri and haven’t already watched both of the short films above, I recommend doing so. They provide engaging background that will enrich your understanding of the Suri and this project, especially its 2nd generation.
And, if you’re within range of Monterey, CA, a visit to the exhibit will further deepen your engagement with this fascinating and inspiring people.
A compact version of this exhibit was on view in Kibish, Ethiopia (where most of the exhibit images were created!) during my third visit to the Suri in late 2023. Suri visitors to the exhibit were often delighted to find pictures of themselves, their friends or family. You can see glimpses of that Kibish exhibit in the Light of the Suri short film above on this page.