The
Bilen,
Blin or
Bilin are an
ethnic groupAn ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.Ethnic identity is further marked by the researcher Seng Yang in the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common cultural,...
of south-central
EritreaEritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The east and northeast of the country have an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen...
, in and around the city of
KerenKeren is the second largest city in Eritrea, lying north west of Asmara. It is the capital of the Anseba province and home of the Bilen tribe. As of 2005, the population of this city has been estimated to be 86,483.The city is integrated with different types of tribes, Bilen and Tigre are the...
, and south toward
AsmaraAsmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people. At an elevation of 2,400 meters , Asmara is on the edge of an escarpment that is both the northwestern edge of the Great Rift Valley and of the Eritrean highlands...
, the nation's capital.
The Bilen first entered Eritrea from Ethiopia during the sixteenth century. Primarily agriculturalists, they number about 96,000 and represent around 2.1% of Eritrea's population. About seventy percent of their population are
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
, primarily Catholic, while the other twenty percent are 20th century converts to
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
.
BlinThe Blin language , Bilin or Bilen has approximately 70,000 speakers in and around the city of Keren in Eritrea...
is also the name of their language, an
Agaw languageThe Central Cushitic, or Agaw, languages are spoken by small groups in Ethiopia and, in one case, Eritrea. They form the main substratum influence on Amharic and other Ethiopian Semitic languages.-Classification:...
.
The
Bilen,
Blin or
Bilin are an
ethnic groupAn ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.Ethnic identity is further marked by the researcher Seng Yang in the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common cultural,...
of south-central
EritreaEritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The east and northeast of the country have an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen...
, in and around the city of
KerenKeren is the second largest city in Eritrea, lying north west of Asmara. It is the capital of the Anseba province and home of the Bilen tribe. As of 2005, the population of this city has been estimated to be 86,483.The city is integrated with different types of tribes, Bilen and Tigre are the...
, and south toward
AsmaraAsmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people. At an elevation of 2,400 meters , Asmara is on the edge of an escarpment that is both the northwestern edge of the Great Rift Valley and of the Eritrean highlands...
, the nation's capital.
The Bilen first entered Eritrea from Ethiopia during the sixteenth century. Primarily agriculturalists, they number about 96,000 and represent around 2.1% of Eritrea's population. About seventy percent of their population are
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
, primarily Catholic, while the other twenty percent are 20th century converts to
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
.
BlinThe Blin language , Bilin or Bilen has approximately 70,000 speakers in and around the city of Keren in Eritrea...
is also the name of their language, an
Agaw languageThe Central Cushitic, or Agaw, languages are spoken by small groups in Ethiopia and, in one case, Eritrea. They form the main substratum influence on Amharic and other Ethiopian Semitic languages.-Classification:...
. Sixty percent of the Christians have some understanding of
TigrinyaTigrinya , also spelled Tigrigna, Tigrina, Tigriña, less commonly Tigrinian, Tigrinyan, is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigray-Tigrinya people in central Eritrea , where it is one of the two dominant languages of Eritrea, and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia Tigrinya ( ትግርኛ, tigriññā), also...
. Seventy percent of the Muslims also use
TigreFor other uses please see Tigre Tigre is a Semitic language which along with Tigrinya is a direct descendant of the extinct Ge'ez language...
. Among the youth, Arabic is also spoken. Some also use
NaraThe Nara or Barea language is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken chiefly in western Eritrea. The language is often confused with Kunama. According to Tsige Hailemichael, the "...Nara language is in danger of quickly disappearing." The name Barea is considered derogatory....
or
KunamaThe Kunama language is a language isolate which has been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family. Kunama spoken by the Kunama people who straddle the western Eritrean-Ethiopian border. The language has several dialects including: Barka. Marda, Aimara, Odasa, Tika, Lakatakura, Ilit,...
.