ABSTRACT This paper discusses how the capital town of Eritrea, Asmara, is depicted alternately as Italian, Eritrean and Ethiopian thus showing the competing claims of ‘ownership’ that traverses its colonial and postcolonial histories and a multifaceted identity. It focuses specifically on how the Italian architecture of Asmara is depicted both as a sign of modernization and oppression. Literary and oral- sources are analysed to illustrate Asmara as a site of cultural encounter and a historical palimpsest such as the poems Asmara (1958, included in the collection Esat Wey Abeba) by Tsegaye Gebremedihin, and And Nebis (1992, included in the collection Efta 60 Tirekawoch) by Haile Melekot Mewael. The novels Oromay (1984) by Bealu Girma, Ye Burqa Zimita (1992) by Tesfaye Gebreab. These contemporary literary and oral reminiscences of Asmara show how Asmara’s architectural legacies are remembered to express memories of ambivalence between beauty and inhibition; being modern and segregated. Whereby, Asmara gets represented as a model town for other African cities, and a city of colonial decay and segregation, in these contradictory accounts of memories of Asmara, a de-colonial method of engagement seems to emerge.

中文翻译：

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帝国遗产的矛盾记忆：阿斯马拉是埃塞俄比亚的“美丽”和“隔离主义者”

摘要本文讨论了首府城市厄立特里亚阿斯马拉如何被交替地描述为意大利人，厄立特里亚人和埃塞俄比亚人，从而显示了遍及其殖民和后殖民历史以及多面性身份的“所有权”的相互竞争的主张。它特别关注如何将阿斯马拉的意大利建筑描绘为现代化和压迫的标志。对文学和口头资料进行了分析，以说明阿斯马拉是文化相遇和历史上最平静的地方，例如Tsegaye Gebremedihin的诗歌《阿斯马拉》（1958，包括在Esat Wey Abeba藏书中）和《安德比斯》（1992，包括在藏书中） Efta 60 Tirekawoch），作者：海尔·梅利科特·梅瓦（Haile Melekot Mewael）。Bealu Girma的小说Oromay（1984），Tesfaye Gebreab的Ye Burqa Zimita（1992）。这些对阿斯马拉的当代文学和口头回忆表明，如何记住阿斯马拉的建筑遗产来表达美与禁忌之间矛盾的记忆。现代化且隔离。因此，在这些矛盾的对阿斯马拉的记忆的叙述中，阿斯马拉成为其他非洲城市以及殖民地衰败和隔离的城市的典范城镇，似乎出现了一种非殖民主义的订婚方法。