As we go through life, we take many of our friends with us. Those good old days when we were young and life was fresh and all things seemed so simple.
The African country that borders Sudan, Somalia, Kenya and Eritrea is not on every traveler’s must-see list. Landlocked in the Horn of Africa, this is not a travel agent’s dream vacation. Politically and geologically rocky and diverse, Ethiopia can sometimes be dangerous to your health. But if you want an unconventional experience in a 3 million year old civilization, old Abyssinia may look a lot like your Yirgacheffe spicy coffee, risky, romantic and daring.
Today there is a flourishing art scene in the capital Addis Ababa, with the Zoma Center for Contemporary Art (ZCAC), the NETSA Art Village, and the Makush Art Gallery, to name a few. Renowned in the 1960s for his murals, mosaics, and stained glass, Afewerk Tekle (1932-2012) remains one of the country’s most celebrated artists and one that I remember especially when I remember Ethiopia.
A story older than history
Ethiopians are a beautiful creative people with an ancient history that is unlike any other African nation. Except for the brief Italian invasion by Benito Mussolini’s forces at the beginning of World War II, when the British drove them out, Ethiopia is the only African country that never colonized.
An ancient Abyssinian culture originating in present-day Yemen, recent reconstruction of human prehistory from DNA studies traces the beginnings of Ethiopia to 1000 BC. Composed of many ethnic tribes, the Oromo and Amhara are the most populous and the official language is Amharic. From the cold-blooded assassination in 1975 of former Emperor Haile Selassi, strangled in the basement of his palace, Ethiopia has oscillated between the absolute rule of the god-king Selassi – to the totalitarian Marxist militia that brutally executed him – to the current Revolutionary of the Ethiopian people. Democratic Front (EPRDF) with prime minister and constitution.
The last Emperor
When I was assigned to our embassy in Addis Ababa in the mid-1960s, the country was relatively peaceful, the city very dark, and Emperor Haile Selassi was my next door neighbor. I had a front row seat for the 1965 royal visit of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip as they marched through the crowd at the palace gates. Since my apartment building was directly behind the royal palace, sleeping was a challenge. At night, the emperor’s pet lions roamed freely in the palace grounds, chasing off would-be marauders and waving the peacocks. So I went to bed every night to the “high C” squeal of nervous peacocks and the growls and roars of those noisy cats.
Small in stature with an epithet ten times his size, “Emperor Haile Selassi I, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Elect of God, King of Kings of Ethiopia” he proclaimed himself a direct descendant of Menilek I, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. As absolute ruler, he reigned for 45 years and helped lead his country into the 20th century. And here is the story of the little king.
The short story according to the Ethiopian / Arabic biblical tradition
Once upon a time in the mists of time, the beautiful, rich and educated Queen of Sheba lived in southern Arabia. When she heard about the wise and rich King Solomon of the Hebrews in Jerusalem, she decided to go on a pilgrimage to meet him. With her caravan lavishly laden with spices, gold and precious stones for the king, Sheba made the 1,400-mile journey to Jerusalem and stayed longer than she had planned. Solomon fell in love with the exotic queen, but made her promise that he would not take anything from her palace without permission or impose a penalty on her. One night, after a deliberately excessive spicy feast, the queen developed a terrible thirst and went to get a drink of water. When a servant observed her drinking the water without permission, Solomon was informed that the punishment was a night of lovemaking on the royal bed. From this union, Menelik I was born, and Haile Selassie claimed that he was his direct descendant.
Before coffee – Injera and Wat
You experience the geological diversity of this country when you fly over the Entoto Mountains towards the 8,000-foot-high capital of Addis Ababa, where the earth seems to rise to meet you. Outside the city, eucalyptus forests, tall canyons, rugged gorges, scrubby desert, and frozen lakes are idyllic places for hikers and campers. Traditional food is spicy Injera and Wat, which is eaten with the fingers. Injera It is baked with a sourdough and placed on your table or brass tray like a giant pancake. Wat It is the stew of fire that is served in the center of the Injera. You tear off a piece of Injera and use it to collect the stew (chicken, beef or vegetables). Cold beer helps.
The legendary hyena man
In the 1960s, television had not yet reached this part of the world and the tennis courts in our embassy were not illuminated at night. With the exception of a crowded nightclub and a second-rate hotel, there wasn’t much to do in the evenings. Moving involved driving carefully and walking cautiously. With few streetlights, the city at night was a dark, deserted place where wild hyenas brazenly entered the city to prowl for anything they could get with their noxious jaws, dead or alive. Hyenas don’t care about what they eat, including humans, when the victim is sleeping on the street. But do not fear. A mysterious entity lived in our city, a scruffy recluse who had a strange alliance with nasty predators. Lonely and harmless, the man roamed the dark alleys hissing, humming, virtually luring the animals out of town with chunks of meat. They followed him like the piper. We called him “the hyena man,” and that’s all we knew about him. Today’s local “entrepreneurs” have made this strange experience a prosperous act for tourists.
The Blue Nile Falls, a bridge to the sun
Walter, a former US Air Force pilot, was among our small group of expats hanging out together. At the request of the Ethiopian government, USAID had contracted Walt to spray malaria-infected areas. Returning to Addis from a trip to the ancient capital of Gondar, I traveled with Walt to photograph the Blue Nile Falls. We take off in his single-engine Cessna T-210, heading to Bahir Dar and Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia and source of the Blue Nile. The river gets its name from the waters of Lake Tana, bluish-black in color with the flood tide. From there it flows to Khartoum and then to Egypt and the White Nile, the sediment of which gives it a light gray hue.
When we got to the falls, Walt didn’t fly over them, he flew over them. A stunning rainbow-colored bridge to the sun filtered through the mist. I opened my window, took some photos and got water on my face. With wet hair, I wanted more photos, so I asked Walt to do another pass. Staring at me through dense foliage, the white fringed face of a silky long-tailed black and white jumpsuit. The graceful colobus monkey is the only type of its kind without a thumb and a wonder of the natural world of East Africa.
As we drove home, a burst of bullets went through the fuselage and hit Walt in the rear. We couldn’t see the gunmen, but I knew they wanted the Cessna. Despite the pain, Walt wasn’t going to let anyone take his plane or us hostage. With Walt shouting obscenities and me praying, he managed to hold the plane steady as his blood seeped onto the floorboards. We returned to Bahir Dar with Walt’s pride as wounded as his anatomy. After receiving medical attention and a few belts from his private whiskey, the Bush pilot was back on cloud nine.