Meet the BILEN people of Eritrea.

1. The Bilen people are Cushitic group who moved up North from Ethiopia in 16th c.

2. They currently live in Karen area in Eritrea. They are about 2.1% of the Eritrean population

3. They kept their distinct language of Bilen until today.
Meet the BILEN people of Eritrea. 1. The Bilen people are Cushitic group who moved up North from Ethiopia in 16th c. 2. They currently live in Karen area in Eritrea. They are about 2.1% of the Eritrean population 3. They kept their distinct language of Bilen until today.
Meet the BILEN people of Eritrea. 1. The Bilen people are Cushitic group who moved up North from Ethiopia in 16th c. 2. They currently live in Karen area in Eritrea. They are about 2.1% of the Eritrean population 3. They kept their distinct language of Bilen until today.
4.65% of Bilen people are Muslim and the rest are Christin and indigenous believer.

5. Their music, complexion and heritage is unique in many ways -I’ll leave this for anthropologists

6. You can enjoy the melodious music of Bilen people here.
There is little or no literature on the historiography of # #BilenPeople that has been written.

Can our Eritrean friends kind enough to share with us anything about # #BilenPeople that exists within the oral domain?
Apparently, a quick social media scan indicates that there is strong community of #BilenPeople in Sweden.

This picture 👇🏿 is from SM; and presumably taken many years ago in Keren - the current home of Bilen people.

Keren is 791 mile from Finfinne; & 235 mile from Mekelle.
Another spectacular cultural dance by the risings generation of #BilenPeople. Maybe in the diaspora!?

Interestingly, they kept their language and culture ever since they moved to Eritrea.

# #BilenPeople were formerly called #Bogo up until 1800s
While the #BilenPeople were referred to by others as the “Bogo” (meaning Conquerors), they insisted calling themselves the “Bilen”

#BilenPeople successfully resisted cultural hegemony of other ethnic group.

400 yes ago, they had a constitutional form of republic-aristocracy.
While there is no highly sophisticated legal anthropology uniquely attributed to the #BilenPeople, but one can understand a heavy influence of three major political powers on Bilen & surrounding areas in the last century: Egyptians (pre-1880s), Ras Alula; and Italians
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