Biography

Do you know, why not have a bit of history, until we elect our own Speaker? The first Speaker of the Eritrean Assembly in 1952 was Sheikh Ali Radaai, also written Ali Radai or Ali Rad’ai.

Born in the Keren area in 1913, Sheikh Ali Radaai emerged from Eritrea’s commercial and civic life rather than from a professional political class. He received a Qur’anic education and trained as a carpenter at Keren’s Salvago Raggi School of Arts and Crafts. He reportedly worked as a carpenter and goldsmith before establishing himself as a successful merchant. His business, founded during the 1930s, grew into an important supplier of hardware and textiles. His commercial standing and relationships among Keren’s merchants, Muslim leaders, and western Eritrean communities helped give him considerable political influence.

Radaai became active in the Muslim League of Eritrea, one of the most important political organizations during the British administration. He served as secretary of the League’s Keren branch. When disagreements divided the Muslim League in 1949, he became a leading figure in the breakaway Muslim League of the Western Province. The split reflected genuine disputes about independence, partition, traditional authority, regional interests, and the leadership of Ibrahim Sultan. British officials also encouraged the division as part of their efforts to weaken the united independence movement and promote the possible separation of western Eritrea.

This part of Radaai’s career remains controversial. British records show that officials regarded him as a useful counterweight to Ibrahim Sultan and actively encouraged his political organization. Nevertheless, Radaai possessed his own following and represented concerns that already existed among some western Eritrean chiefs, merchants, and communities. He should therefore be understood neither simply as a British creation nor as an undisputed national leader. He was an influential Eritrean politician operating within an exceptionally complicated period of foreign intervention, regional rivalry, and uncertainty about the country’s future.

In the March 1952 election, the Muslim League of the Western Province won approximately fifteen of the Assembly’s 68 seats. This placed Radaai’s party in a powerful position between Tedla Bairu’s Unionist Party and the parties supporting independence or a stronger form of Eritrean autonomy. The ML-WP subsequently cooperated with the Unionist Party in organizing the Assembly.

When the Representative Assembly elected its first officers on 29 April 1952, Tedla Bairu became chairman and Ali Radaai became vice-chairman. Radaai then chaired the ten-member Executive Committee responsible for assisting with the difficult transition from British administration to the new Eritrean government. On 28 August, the Assembly elected Tedla Bairu as Eritrea’s first Chief Executive. Because Tedla had moved from the legislature to the executive government, the Assembly elected Radaai as its chairman, with Demsas Weldemikael as vice-chairman.

Sheikh Ali Radaai thus became the first President—or Speaker—of the fully constituted Eritrean Assembly under the 1952 Ethiopian–Eritrean Federation. His position was distinct from that of Tedla Bairu. Tedla headed the executive government, while Radaai presided over the legislature. As Speaker, Radaai was responsible for conducting Assembly sessions, recognizing members, maintaining parliamentary procedure, managing the legislative agenda, and representing the Assembly in its relations with the Chief Executive and the federal authorities.

Radaai also participated directly in the constitutional establishment of Eritrea’s autonomous government. In August 1952, he accompanied Tedla Bairu, British Chief Administrator Duncan Cumming, and UN Commissioner Eduardo Anze Matienzo to Addis Ababa for the ratification of the Eritrean Constitution. He later accompanied Tedla to the formal inauguration of the Federation in September. At that time, Emperor Haile Selassie publicly referred to Radaai as Tedla’s successor in the Assembly chair and expressed the expectation that he would conduct its affairs impartially.

His speakership was important but increasingly contentious. Radaai’s alliance with Tedla provided a measure of cooperation between Muslim and Christian political leaders during a fragile constitutional transition. Tedla later defended him as essential to maintaining religious harmony. Critics, however, accused Radaai of protecting the Chief Executive and restricting the Assembly’s ability to examine Ethiopian violations of Eritrean autonomy.

One notable controversy arose when Assembly member Omer Qadi sought a debate on the establishment of Ethiopian federal courts in Eritrea. The courts were widely regarded as an encroachment upon Eritrea’s internal constitutional authority. Radaai met with Tedla Bairu and the Emperor’s representative, Andargatchew Mesai, and the issue was prevented from receiving the open Assembly debate that Omer Qadi had requested. For Radaai’s opponents, this demonstrated that the Speaker was becoming too closely aligned with the executive and federal authorities.

Radaai was not, however, consistently indifferent to the loss of Eritrean autonomy. After one particularly forceful intervention by Andargatchew, he reportedly told Tedla that if Ethiopia refused to respect Eritrea’s rights under the Federal Act, he saw little purpose in continuing as Speaker. He considered resigning but was persuaded by Tedla to remain. His conduct therefore reflected the contradictions of the period: he helped establish Eritrea’s constitutional institutions, sometimes objected to their erosion, but also participated in decisions that weakened the Assembly’s independence.

The conflict reached its climax in July 1955. A large majority of Assembly members accused Radaai of subordinating the legislature to Tedla’s personal and political interests. On 6 July, 44 of the 46 members present voted to remove him from the presidency. Tedla rejected the vote and attempted to suspend the Assembly, producing a serious constitutional confrontation. Police surrounded the Assembly building, and members publicly accused the executive of interfering in the legislature’s internal affairs.

Following discussions in Addis Ababa involving the Emperor and a delegation of Assembly members, Radaai returned to Asmara and resigned on 24 July 1955. Four days later, the Assembly elected Idris Mohammed Adem as its new president. Tedla Bairu’s departure from the position of Chief Executive occurred at approximately the same time.

Radaai subsequently returned to government. Following the 1956 election, Chief Executive Asfaha Weldemikael appointed him Secretary of Social Affairs, a cabinet-level position. In that capacity he dealt with labor and social questions during a period of growing political repression. In 1957, he headed a government committee assigned to negotiate with the Eritrean labor movement over the implementation of labor legislation. The negotiations proved unsuccessful and were followed by intensified confrontation between workers and the government.

After Eritrea’s federal autonomy was abolished in 1962, Radaai and several other former Eritrean officials were transferred into advisory or largely ceremonial positions with little real authority. Reliable publicly available sources do not clearly establish the date or circumstances of his death.

Sheikh Ali Radaai remains a significant and complicated figure in Eritrea’s constitutional history. He was a businessman from Keren, an organizer within the Muslim League, a leader of the Muslim League of the Western Province, a participant in the constitutional transition, and the first Speaker of the Eritrean Assembly. His political choices remain open to criticism, particularly his cooperation with British officials, the Unionist Party, and the executive government. Yet his life also reveals how difficult Eritrea’s first parliamentary experiment was: political leaders had to navigate foreign intervention, religious and regional divisions, personal rivalries, fragile institutions, and escalating Ethiopian pressure.

Until Eritrea freely elects a new national legislature and its own Speaker, remembering Sheikh Ali Radaai gives us an opportunity to recover an important chapter of parliamentary history. His career reminds us that Eritrea once possessed an Assembly with debates, coalitions, contested leadership, votes of no confidence, constitutional disputes, and representatives who challenged executive power. That experience was imperfect and ultimately destroyed, but it remains part of the historical foundation upon which a future representative institution could be built.