Agape Harmani: Rizes/Roots/Hundee

Photo: Family of Gorbe and Alexandros Harmanis

In the early 20th century, British and Italian forces occupied Ethiopia, assisting the Empire in suppressing tribal uprisings. During this time, two men from Istanbul and Cyprus migrated to the Oromo territory of Dembidolo, where they married women from the region. Their families lived there for decades, in a community of English, Italian, Greek, and indigenous cultures. Eventually, they were forced to leave, scattering across different countries, including Greece. This project aims to document their stories of home, displacement, and migration, exploring the circumstances that led them to migrate, settle, root, and start anew.

Creator's Note

“Rizes/Roots/Hundee” is part of a life-long research on my family’s migration histories. Starting with two men leaving the Greek region and moving to Ethiopia at the beginning of the 20th century, the research project focuses on the socioeconomic reasons behind their move, their marriages to indigenous women, and their families—two generations of Ethio-Greek offspring who lived in Dembidollo, Ethiopia. The story divides in more parts, when the change of regime in the country forced many of the family members to migrate to Greece and beyond.

I started the residency with a clear schedule in mind. I visited various family members, made them a series of questions, and filmed and/or recorded their statements. I also took a look into their photo and video archives and asked permission to use the material that accompanied the stories they shared with me or that I was just attracted to and curious about. I presented some of the information and material I gathered to the people I interviewed next, to further my research.

Towards the end of the residency, I looked into the material I had collected; videos, voice recordings, photographs, and separated the content into folders, each dedicated to a family member. I created multiple scripts, each based on a category or a group of people; family of Alekos Charmanis, sociopolitical reasons of migration, life of an Ethiopian-Greek family in Ethiopia, and more. In this first part of my research, I ended up focusing on Irene and Elpida, my father’s sisters, who in their 80s reminisce of the life they left behind. Their recollections tell a coming-of-age journey under difficult circumstances, in a politically tense Ethiopia. Their own experience of identity and migration resonated with mine, as a migrant in the UK.

During the residency, I made connections with my fellow residents as well as other people I met through Onassis AiR. We came together to create our works and exchange ideas on the daily, building professional and personal relationships that we still maintain.