Dahab Faytinga (born 10 June 1964), known professionally as Faytinga, is an Eritrean singer and musician. She belongs to the

Nilotic The Nilotic peoples are people indigenous to the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages. They inhabit South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. Among these are the Burun-sp ...

Kunama and

Tigrinya (; also spelled Tigrigna) is an Ethio-Semitic language commonly spoken Eritrea and in northern Ethiopia's Tigray Region by the Tigrinya and Tigrayan peoples. It is also spoken by the global diaspora of these regions. History and literature ...

ethnic groups.

Early life

Faytinga was born on 10 June 1964 in Asmara,

Ethiopian Empire The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historical ...

, now called

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

from her

mother and Kunama father,who was a revered freedom fighter among the ethnic group. The state of anarchy that ensued in 1942 after the defeat of the Italian army, forced her father to form a military band to defend the Kunama people against the raids they suffered. He was given the nickname of 'Fighting gun' (taken from his name 'Faid Tinga') by the British administration in the early 1950s. Between 1952 and 1962, he was elected enthusiastically to represent the Kunama people. At the end of the Federal arrangement he was imprisoned several times by the Ethiopian Government for his pro-Eritrean work. He was a political prisoner when the Ethiopian military regime came to power and he was freed by the EPLF in 1974 when they stormed the prison in Asmara. Faid Tinga Longhi was a hero for the Kunama people. in 1977, at the age of fourteen, Faytinga joined the liberation struggle and she became a combatant during the

Eritrean War of Independence The Eritrean War of Independence was a war for independence which Eritrean independence fighters waged against successive Ethiopian governments from 1 September 1961 to 24 May 1991. Eritrea was an Italian colony from the 1880s until the d ...

until the liberation in 1991. After being given military and political training at Bilekat, she was assigned to the public administration department. In 1987 she started to work with the Department of National Guidance to set up the Kunama radio programme. She then joined the cultural troupe as a

Kunama language The Kunama language has been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family, though it is distantly related to the other languages, if at all. Kunama is spoken by the Kunama people of the Gash-Barka Region in western Eritrea and just acros ...

singer. In the late 1980s, Faytinga was reassigned to the public administration department in

Kassala Kassala ( ar, كسلا) is the capital of the state of Kassala in eastern Sudan. Its 2008 population was recorded to be 419,030. Built on the banks of the Gash River, it is a market town and is famous for its fruit gardens. Many of its inhabita ...

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

and later Tokombia, where she was elected as member of the assembly of the National Union of Eritrean Women’s of Tokombia district.

Career and musical style

In 1990, Faytinga toured the US and Europe as a member of The National Folkloric Troupe of Eritrea called the Sibrit Cultural Troupe. After releasing her first album “Sala Da Goda” on tape, she toured for the first time as a solo artist in 1995. Faytinga won the 2nd prize and 1st East African women singer at the 2000 Ma’ Africa in Benoni, South Africa. It took until 1999 and an appearance at the Africolor festival in France, before she could record her first album "Numey". Faytinga composes her own songs and also interprets work from well-known poets and composers from Eritrea. When singing, she plays the

krar Krar (Amharic: ክራር) is a five-or-six stringed bowl-shaped lyre from Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is tuned to a pentatonic scale. A modern ''Krar'' may be amplified, much in the same way as an electric guitar or violin. The ''Krar'', along wit ...

, a small lyre. The CD album "Numey" is Faytinga's first international release on the Paris-based Cobalt label. All of the songs on this album of hers are in her native

, which belongs to the

Nilo-Saharan The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. T ...

family. In 2003, Faytinga released her second album "Eritrea". Besides the

and wata, she also brought guitar,

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

, and percussion sounds. Faytinga has always been interested in music and developed her style ‘in the field’ that represents her own blend of several traditional music forms.

World stage

Faytinga has been performing around the world representing Eritrea as a 'cultural ambassador' for her country. As Marco Cavallarin wrote in the Italian journal Africa e Mediterraneo, 'Faytinga interprets the profound culture of her country and its most ancient and more recent history, from the origins of the Kunama people to the war of liberation from the invading Ethiopia'. She participated in particular to

Expo 2005 Expo 2005 was a World Expo held for 185 days between Friday, March 25 and Sunday, September 25, 2005, in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, east of the city of Nagoya. Japan has also hosted Expo '70 Osaka (World Expo), Expo '75 Okinawa (Specialised Expo), ...

Aichi is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefectu ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and to

Expo 2010 Expo 2010, officially the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, was held on both banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China, from 1 May to 31 October 2010. It was a major World Expo registered by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), in the t ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. She also attended the

Earth Summit 2002 The World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002, took place in South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002. It was convened to discuss ustainable developmentorganizations, 10 years after the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. (It was the ...

held in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. In addition, she has been collaborated with other artists such as the group Ouï-Dire in an attempt to mix her voice, her music and culture with that of other continents. Faytinga's music or photos are featured in various books, expositions, blogs, video documentaries, and other. On 30 August 2004, in an interview with Joel Savage for The Voice Magazine she said that ''“I sing about peace, love, and togetherness, since war, conflict and other disturbances did not bring any positive change to Africa, but it only creates refugee crisis, pains, agony, discomfort and economic hardship. I bring a music of hope to the people.”'' With this spirit Faytinga played at the FLOG International music Festival in Florence (2004).

Discography

Albums

* Numey - Cobalt Records, 2 January 2000. Songs from this album Numey; Milobe; Amajo; Lagàla Fàla Fesso; Kundura; Aleyda; Alemuye; Milomala; Asàmen Gàna; Salada Goda * Eritrea - Cobalt Records, 1 November 2003. Songs from this album: Goda Anna; Hakuma Tia; Degsi; Leledia; Eritrea; Amajo; Laganga; Alemuye; Taham Bele; Sema 'Ett; Buba

Singles

# Megesha - Music Video, YouTube Faytinga channel, published 15-Dec-2012 # Ciao, Ciao - Music Video, YouTube Faytinga channel, published 17-Dec-2012 # Sebaki fkri - Digital distribution, independent, June 2014 # Wedi Asmara (Son Of Asmara) - Digital distribution, independent, December 2014 # Ala Ska - Music Video, YouTube Faytinga channel, published 20-Dec-2015 # Besela - Digital distribution, independent, July 2016 and Music Video, YouTube Faytinga channel, published 30-Dec-2016 # Kebkeba Kone - Music Video, YouTube Faytinga and FaytingaVEVO channels, published 16-Aug-2017 # Deglele - Digital distribution, independent, January 2018, and Music Video, YouTube Faytinga and FaytingaVEVO channels, published 11-Jan-2018 # Lebam U Zdle - Digital distribution, independent, February 2019 and Music Video, YouTube Faytinga and FaytingaVEVO channels, published 23-Nov-2018 # Goda Anna (Remix) - Digital distribution, Independent, June 2019 # Tsela'ika - Digital distribution, independent, June 2021 and Music Video, YouTube and FaytingaVEVO channels, June 2021 # Faytinga & Temesghen Yared Resolution Song (Eritrea) - Resolution Song LP, April 2022 # Fishaley - Digital distribution, independent, June 2022 and Music Video, YouTube Faytinga channel, June 2022

Features

# World Divas (Wagram Records, 2006) - Song "Lagàla Fàla Fesso" # Africolor, Musiques du Monde (Believe, Cobalt, 2008) - Song "Hakuma Tia" # The Asmara All Stars : Eritrea's Got Soul (Out Here, 2010) - Songs "Amajo" and "Gwaila International" # Miombo by Laroz (Sol Selectas, April 2021) - Songs "Laganga feat. Faytinga (Original Mix)" and "Laganga feat. Faytinga (Rodrigo Gallardo Remix)" # Summer Sol VII by various artists (Sol Selectas, July 2022) - Song "Naomi" by Laroz featuring Song "Numey" by Faytinga # Asmara by Hermon Mehari (Komos Jazz, November 2022) - Songs "Tanafaqit" and "Milobe - Lawa Furda" by Faytinga and Hermon Mehari

Advocacy

Faytinga is one of the first artists from Eritrea engaged in support of people living with HIV and AIDS. She has participated in numerous

World AIDS Day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired immun ...

events including as guest-star singer on 1 December 2003 during the event held at the Hotel Intercontinental, and in June 2005, together with

Kenyan ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

singer

Achieng Abura Lydia Achieng Abura (died 20 October 2016) was a Kenyan singer who performed Afro-jazz, Afro-fusion, and gospel music. Life Achieng Abura was born in Eldoret and held an MSc. degree in Philosophy and Environmental studies. She had one child, a son ...

in an exceptional gala diner concert for the benefit of women and children affected by HIV and AIDS. She also performed on the occasion of the opening of the

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

gender-based violence Art Exhibition on 10 December 2013 at

UNAIDS The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) (, ONUSIDA) is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The mission of UNAIDS is to lead, strengthen and support an e ...

Headquarters in Geneva. In 2022, together with Eritrean musician and singer Temesghen Yared, she developed an Eritrean version of the “World on Our Shoulders” song, also called the “Resolution Song”. The Resolution Song brings together voices from all over the world in a demonstration of global unity and a call for action to protect the planet. The Eritrean version of this song is featured with 16 other versions in the "Resolution Song" album released on Earth Day, 22 April 2022.

References

External links

Official Faytinga Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faytinga 1964 births Living people 20th-century Eritrean women singers Ethiopian rebels Krar players 21st-century Eritrean women singers