Christof: Ethiopia Trip incl Lalibela
Nov 2012
It was already
in July that I (Christof) received an invite from CTA in Belgium to this
conference in Addis “Value Chains for transforming smallholder agriculture”.
Apart from the organisers having a solid reputation in quality (as opposed to
standing in a circle slapping each others’ backs in a self-congratulatory and
uncritical way – as is unfortunately often the case with many conferences ) and
the interesting topic, esp for Namibia, I was immediately attracted to this
event. Just weeks before this invite, Cathy had again mentioned how much she
would like us to travel to Ethiopia at some stage, even if only to visit
Lalibela (some 600km north from Addis Ababa) where there are these unique
monolithic rock-hewn 800 years old Ethiopian Christian Orthodox churches. I
felt very happy for myself, but very sorry for Cathy, when I received this
invite not long afterwards. What coincidence!
So, while I
could have been flying there on a Sunday and returning the following Saturday,
I managed to arrange that I could be flying out on Friday and returning on a
Monday one and a half weeks later, having 2 full weekends (self-funded,
obviously) in Ethiopia at my disposal for sightseeing. Because I was warned of
the intermittent unreliability of the domestic flights of Ethiopian Airlines, I
had opted to fly to Lalibela on the first weekend where a delay on Monday would
cut into the conference’s registration time and, in the worst case, the often
tedious official opening – and not into my return to Namibia flight.
Friday
2nd November 2012
After working in
the office until almost midnight the night before (problem with travelling when
certain things cannot wait for a week and a half to be dealt with) we had to
get up at 04:50 a.m. for Cathy to take me to the airport and be back by 06:30,
in time to take the kids to school, where they have to be at 06:50 for 07:00.
So I was at the
WHK Int Airport nice and early to get my favourite seat with lots of leg room
at the emergency exit. In Joburg I had to wait, in transit, for a long time for
the non-stop flight to Addis leaving after 14:00 (5 hrs 30 mins flight time).
That allowed me again to get my favourite seat. By chance I met my Namibian
colleagues from the ATF, whose workshop in Joburg had finished earlier than
expected that day, allowing us a leisurely chat over a drink.
Left a moderate
20 mins late and consequently arrived 20 mins late at 21:10 in Addis. But just
before us about 3 big jets had arrived and we were now at the back of the queue.
It took me 2 hrs to finally be on the street where Phillip Conze had been
waiting for me (but I had sent him regular sms’es to keep him informed of the
(lack of) progress. Back at his house we still had a swift drink and discussed
logistics for the next few days.
Saturday
3rd November 2012
Up at 04:50 yet
again to catch the flight to Lalibela (1 hr by turbo-prop). Took a ubiquitous
shared Toyota Hi-Ace (affordable to
tourists only!) for the 40 min ride into town. These are the highlands at an
average 2,700m elevation, densely populated – intensely farmed sorghum, millet
and teff (a very small/fine form of millet) even on painstakingly terraced hill
slopes. A virtual total absence of private cars or pick-ups was the first thing
that hit me. It is Saturday, which is the once a week huge market day in
Lalibela. From as far as 15 km there were farmers walking to town in incessant
rows, sometimes on the very narrow tar road sometimes on footpaths for
short-cuts – the ‘wealthier’ carrying their wares on donkeys, the poorer ones
doubling up as donkeys themselves. And nobody takes a ride on the back of a
(non-existent) pick-up! Unthinkable in Namibia! Lots of herding
goats, sheep and hardy miniature long-horned cattle to the market too.
The whole physical
and social atmosphere reminds me of the highlands of western Cameroon, where I
spent some weeks almost 30 years ago in 1984.
In town I’m dropped
at my moderate hotel “Alef Paradise” with an excellent view. The same problems
as moderate hotels in Namibia have: No bedside light and the shower has a
hand-held shower head only. The one energy saving light bulb on the ceiling is
so energy saving that it casts a pale light over the room that I, with my artificial
lenses, find it impossible to read by. Fortunately I have my well-proven Petzl
head lamp with me or I read Kindle on my laptop with sufficient back-lighting.
Soon my guide is
around and we start walking. While guides are relatively expensive, they are
indispensible: 1. for the historical churches (UNESCO World-Heritage sites!)
you are forced to take an official guide (like at Twyfelfontein), even if your
down-loaded guide book knows far more than the guide; and 2. to ward of all the
other unregistered guides and other street urchins, which would otherwise make
your life an absolute misery (as I found out in Morocco already in 1974!)
As
planned, the visit to the massive Saturday market comes first. I have a good
view over it from my hotel balcony, but there is a deep and steep ravine in
between. While the early morning had a Windhoek-like winter crispness about it,
as soon as the sun gets up it gets quite warm and climbing up steep ravines on
footpaths and even, later, the steep cobble-stoned streets in town, gets quite
hot.
The Saturday
market is absolutely enormous, but with no infrastructure. People selling (or
hoping to sell) their wares just squat/sit on the ground with no shelter, with
the exception of the textile section. Everything takes place in sections: the
cattle sales are apart from the donkey sales, while goats and sheep are mixed.
I find the fact that next to the sorghum section (like in Namibia sorghum is
used almost exclusively for traditional beer brewing) there is a vibrant hops section.
Unlike in Namibia, where hops does not economically grow, I am told, that
people in Ethiopia use hops for traditional beer making – and certainly, like
most of the rest of the world now, for modern clear beer manufacture.
The textile
section draws my special attention too: rows upon rows of stalls displaying
traditionally woven textiles, mainly white ‘cheese cloth style’ with ornamental
colourful woven patterns on the edges. I specially feel for Cathy, who cannot
be with me, and take ample photos. I also buy some of such cloth.
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A
note on Ethiopian history:
Whether
true/proven or not, Ethiopians believe that their early history goes back to
Noah (of the ark fame) whose great grandson, Ethiopic, first settled in
Ethiopia. In the 11th century BC (!) Queen Makeda, a monarch of
Ethiopia, apparently owned a fleet of 73 ships and a caravan of 520 camels
which traded with places as far afield as Palestine and India. Also, later, the
Ethiopian Queen of Sheba travelled to Jerusalem to visit King Solomon, where
she not only got herself converted to Judaism, but also got herself pregnant by
King Solomon. The son, Menelik, was born in Ethiopia and at the age of 22
returned to Jerusalem to visit his dad there for 3 years studying the Law of
Moses, before returning home with representatives of all 12 tribes of Israel.
They also took with them the holiest of all Judaic artefacts: the Ark of the
Covenant. This Ark is apparently still in Ethiopia. Menelik’s mother abdicated
in his favour . The Solomonic Dynasty ruled Ethiopia almost unbroken until 1974, when the 237th (!)
Solomonic monarch, Haile Selassie, was overthrown.
Apparently
around 50 AD an Ethiopian emissary first brought news of the (new) Christian
faith to Ethiopia, but it was not until about 320 AD that King Ezana of
Ethiopia made Christianity the official religion of his empire.
The above merely
serves to illustrate that Ethiopia, like Egypt, was part of the wider
Mediterranean civilization, long before sub-Saharan Africa entered modern
history. As racist historians used to pronounce that Great Zimbabwe must have
been built by foreign invaders (of whatever ilk) so early racist explorers
insisted that the old rock-hewn churches (mainly in Lalibela) must have been
the work of the Knights Templar.
It is also
important to note that Ethiopia is the only African country that was not
colonised, except for a short military occupation by the Italians during WW2,
which apparently does not constitute colonisation.
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In the afternoon
I visit the first of the 13 rock-hewn churches in Lalibela, divided into 2
clusters and a single thirteenth church. My first visit is to Bet Medhane Alem
of the nothwestern cluster. Fascinating! Awe inspiring! (the word ‘awesome’ has
degenerated and I will therefore not use it in this context).
The 12th
century Ethiopian King Lalibela, before he was made king, had spent some time
in Jerusalem, and was therefore familiar with the then modern architecture
there. As soon as he was crowned, he set about to get these churches carved
into the solid sand-stone, to create a ‘new’ Jerusalem. The river separating
the two clusters of churches is even today called the Jordan river (!). It is
estimated that it would have taken 40,000 people to carve them.
The various
churches of Lalibela were constructed using one of two different methods. Bet
Giyorgis (House of St. George - the single one) and the churches in the northwest cluster are
mostly excavated from below the ground, and are surrounded by courtyards and
trenches, so that they mimic normal free-standing buildings. Several of these
churches are monoliths or three-quarter monoliths – free from surrounding rock on
three or four sides – a style of excavation that is unique to Ethiopia. The
churches of the southeast cluster are similar to many churches in Tigrai, in
that most of them were excavated from a vertical rock face by exploiting
existing caves in the rock.
Because
many of these churches were crumbling and eroding, when they were declared a
UNESCO world heritage site, they were covered with two sophisticated white
translucent shelters, which cover each of the main clusters. They make
photography a bit awkward, to say the least. But it should preserve them for
future generations. In any case, photography is very difficult here, you are
too close to get an overview. Inside it is too dark to photograph without
high-tech lighting, and in many of the churches flash photography is prohibited
anyway, especially where there are 400 years old paintings. But all these
churches (except a few that are structurally too dangerous) are actually used
as real churches, each with their own priests. They are, of course, compared to
the Cologne Cathedral, for example, miniscule, but still have an internal
height of some 12 meters. and a length of only up to 20 meters. They are
carved, complete with columns to support the structure, as an exact replica of
the inside of modern arched churches, as if they had been ‘built’. Wow!
Later
in the afternoon, I return to my hotel, to write and rest. The past 2 days have
been quite hectic!
Sunday
4th November 2012
Got up at
sevenish, feels like a lie-in. After breakfast I walk up the half hour back to
the church complex to meet my guide. Today I visit all the other churches – all
fascinating, but I’ll not bore myself nor you with all the detail. In the
second cluster there was one place where you have to walk through a 40m long
dark narrow low tunnel from one church to the other: as they say “through hell
to paradise”. I’m cheating with my head lamp … but then I won’t end up in
paradise anyway.
The
last church is the one outside a cluster: the St Georges Church. I find it the
best of all. It is literally hewn out of a solid level sandstone area. The roof
is as high as the surrounding rock surface and the church is down there in the
hewn hole, free standing. But it has a gradually lowering narrow footpath to
enter and a drainage channel.
By
lunchtime I’ve completed my viewing list and I can now relax. I’m walking a
little bit further out of town where a mature Scots woman, who, as they say has
gone native, has built a most amazing utopian restaurant on a hilltop: a
mixture in style of Gaudi and Maurice Esher (see photos once attached). And
with a most brilliant 360◦ view down on the towel-sized fields, often
painstakingly terraced. High population density here is tangible (Ethiopia has
80 million people and is only 50% bigger than Namibia). The high western
escarpment towering in the background. I spend most of the afternoon here,
eating, drinking, writing and reading.
Much
later I proceed back to town to see the sunset over the last church, which was
recommended, but the sunset is a bit cloudy and I a due not benefit from this
special effect. Slowly I’m moving back to the hotel. I find a moderate
restaurant around the corner from my hotel that has wifi for free for its
dining guests. And it works today!! And a power plug just next to the dining
table! I spend the evening sending e-mails and reading Namibian newspapers and
BBC news. I really feel connected! And that in a remote town the size of the
Namibian Keetmanshoop! Later, in bed, I read further in JK Rowling’s “The Casual
Visitor” on my laptop. A fascinating description of life in a smaller town in
England – she’s got a gift of writing many, many pages of almost no action and
still you don’t want to put the book down.
Monday
5th November
Off to the airport after breakfast and in the
UN Conference Centre in Addis by lunchtime to register and to attend the
additional sessions in the afternoon. But that is not part of this report. I’ll
report again on the happenings of next Saturday and Sunday.
Friday
9th November
Today is field
trip day. I’ve chosen “Green Beans” from the many options. By medium-sized bus
we travel some 120km due SE to the town of Adama, previously called Nazret (see
how biblical the place is!).This road is the main artery to the foreign harbour
town of Djibouti (since Eritrea is independent, Ethiopia is landlocked). The
old railway link, long neglected, should be rehabilitated by 2015, or so they
say. The result is that currently there is a bumper to bumper convoy, in both
directions, on that road. Death defying driving/overtaking, including the
pothole slalom! The 120 km take about two and a half hours. In reality we never
really leave town – it is a continuum of urban/industrial sprawl all the way.
At the same time we are descending into the Great Rift Valley (from the Red Sea
to Lake Malawi). It is much warmer and drier down here, with a lot of thorn
shrubs.
Unfortunately
the ‘green beans’ turn out to be dried beans bought from the Ethiopian Stock
Exchange (therefore not directly from the farmers), cleaned and professionally
packaged for the export market. It is a joint venture with an Italian company
(the Italian influence and connections are still quite present). Nothing
dramatically new.
Back in
Addis by 15:30 I’m walking due West for a few km to the landmark Churchill
Street, from there to a side street Nigerian Street, where a lot of traditional
textiles and other tourist ‘goodies’ are for sale (a Nigerian man, who had a
nice local shirt on told me about it on the bus). I manage to take a lot of photos
here for Cathy, but I do not dare buy any garments for her or the kids for fear
of buying something they don’t really like. But I buy a shirt for myself (must
lose a few more k’s before it will have a nice loose fit), a traditional
fighting shield made of hippo hide and ornamented with brass, as well as a
framed photo of an Ethiopian coffee ceremony (hope the glass won’t break on the
way back!).
A note on the construction industry in Addis: While the German Co-operation House (very close to the UN Conference
Centre) was built 4-storey in 2006 (sic) – the maximum that was allowed at the
time – it is now utterly dwarfed by huge skyscrapers, well, at least 15
storeys, all around it. The whole town is one huge construction site: all high
rise built by concrete structure first – one floor at the time – mainly with
very ‘simple’ blue-gum (eucalyptus) scaffolding and bracing between floors.
Looks truly scary! Women do the work of cranes and wheelbarrows. Once the
concrete structure is complete, and depending on cash flow, the simple
brickwork is filled in, but it is not structural. As inflation is around 40%
p.a., the best people (with spare cash) can do is to spend it immediately on
bags of cement, etc.
Later I wander
down to the National Theatre which has a outdoor café cum beer garden,
all local office workers socialising Friday after work – very good value for
money: half a litre of lager draft beer = 10 Bir = N$5. While I’m sitting there,
I get the wonderful news by sms that Alex has been selected to represent
Namibia in Doha (Qatar) for a ‘Youthinkgreen’ get- together for a week at the
end of the month (November) (fully sponsored!!).
As arranged by
sms Claudia picks me up later on her way home from work in the dark there. I’m
taking the whole family out for dinner at an Italian restaurant they have
chosen.
Saturday
10th November
Today Philipp
has some time to show me around Addis. Getting up after a nice lie-in we are
first going to a “Kaldis Coffee” (local unfranchised copy cat of “Star Bucks”
world-wide, but not in Namibia) place for breakfast.
Then we’re going
to one of the many small fresh produce stalls along a road (Philipp’s regular).
Citrus fruit and pineapples are green, but apparently ripe, as is normal in the
tropics (someone once explained the reason to me, but I forgot the details).
Good selection at moderate prices, but South African apples at understandably
very high prices. Philipp is doing his weekly Saturday morning shopping here.
Then off to the Mercato (Italian for market) which is said to be the biggest
open air market in Africa. We take no valuables, but in spite of its
reputation, we do not once feel uncomfortable or in danger of being
pick-pocketed.
Later we are
going to the ‘expatriate’ supermarket, run by an Ethiopian Greek family.
Normally so called ‘supermarkets’ are at best the size of ‘corner shops’, but
this one is a bit more sizeable (but a quarter of a good Namibian supermarket).
Philipp tells me that foreign supermarket chains are prohibited in Ethiopia,
but that that is likely to change in future … I can already see the shadow of
Shoprite on the wall … But a good
quarter of the goods in this supermarket are South African made, esp wines,
fruit juices, canned veg, corn flakes, etc, etc, An incongruous discovery: frozen Boerewors,
clearly labelled as such, but on closer inspection it becomes clear that it is
from Kenya! Obviously nobody bothered to register a trade mark for boerewors.
Later we are
going to the mausoleum of Emperor Menelik II, which is below the church Kiddist
Miriam (1911 – nothing is old in Addis, in contrast to Lalibela) down an eerie
low staircase. The air is thick with incense down here, so unfortunately, the
photo of me sitting on the throne of the Emperor comes out totally misty. This
visit is also a first for Philipp, who, although he has now lived in Addis for
5 years said it has always been barred to the public before.
Then we drive up
the Entoto Hills, which are dominating the northern horizon of Addis – it’s
another 500m altitude gain to almost 3000m. Unfortunately the air is a bit hazy
so the panoramic view of the city at our feet cannot be photographed. On our
way back we stop at the University of Addis, which used to be the palace of
Haile Selassie, where we have a good look at the Ethnographic Museum.
In the evening
we are doing a musical double-whammy: first to an upmarket indjera house
(traditional Ethiopian staple ‘tef’ pancakes, which unfortunately look like
boiled tripe) where there is upmarket traditional music accompanied by traditional
dancing. Much later we go to the Taitu Hotel, originally built and managed by
the Empress Taitu (wife of Menelik II) in 1907 (colonialism definitely did not
take place here in the southern African sense!), where there is always music
being played on weekend nights. A nice modern Ethiopian jazz group, playing a
good mix of styles, including reggae.
Sunday
11th November
Today is a
relaxed domestic day. Late leisurely breakfast on the verandah – ‘another f…ing
perfect day!’ - at least in the current dry season. Reading, writing, packing.
This afternoon we still want to go to the opening of an art exhibition in town.
Tonight Philipp intends to cook French onion soup … now he’s scared, because I
mentioned that this is one of my fortes. He also intends to invite Claudia and
Adjele.
Tomorrow morning
I should be at the airport at 06:50 and my flight in Whk should arrive at
20:20, after a long break at OR Tambo airport near Johburg.
End of this diary!
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