Hamid Idris Awate

Hamid Idris Awate (10 April 1910 – 28 May 1962) was an Eritrean independence leader. He was the founder of the Eritrean Liberation Army (the armed wing of the Eritrean Liberation Front), and is considered by most as the 'father' of the Eritrean Struggle for Independence.

Awate was born in 1910 in Gerset, located between Tessenei and Omhajer in southwestern Italian Eritrea. His father, a peasant, trained him as early as childhood in the use of guns. Hamid belonged to the Tigre ethnic group, but he reputedly also had some Nara ancestry.

In 1935, Awate was conscripted by the Italians to serve in the colonial army of the Eritrean Ascari. Beside his fluency in Arabic, Tigre, Tigrinya, Nara, Hedareb, and Kunama, Awate learned the Italian language very well within a short period of time and was sent to Rome for a course in military intelligence.

After returning from Italy, he was appointed as a security officer in western Eritrea. Shortly after, he served as deputy chief (Mayor) of the city of Kassala (Sudan) and its surroundings during the brief Italian occupation of that city in 1940/1941 at the beginning of World War II. As Mayor of Kassala he promoted the political union of that city to his country, Eritrea, but the English attack at the end of January 1941 forced him to renounce to it.

He fought as an Eritrean ascari in the Battle of Keren and participated in the Italian guerrilla war in Eritrea against the British and Ethiopians in World War II with the cavalrymen of Ali Gabre.

After the victory of Great Britain against Italy in World War II in Eritrea, Awate settled in western Eritrea but eventually went into a dispute against the British authorities and began an armed campaign against the British presence in Eritrea from 1942 to 1949. Afterwards, Awate and his armed faction came to a truce agreement with the British authorities.

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