Although it would be easy to think of Asmara, the Eritrean capital, solely
as an Italian built colonial city, its origins actually reach back to between
800 BC and 400 BC. The Tigrinya and Tigre people live around there. Originally,
it is said, there were four clans living in the Asmara area on the Kebessa
Plateau: the Gheza Gurtom, the Gheza Shelele, the Gheza Serenser and Gheza
Asmae. These towns fought each other until the women of each clan decided that
to preserve peace the four clans must unite. The men accepted, hence the name
Arbate Asmera. Arbaete Asmara literally means, in the Tigrinya language,
"the four
