Sit for any time in the foyer of the Hilton Hotel in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, and you'll see a procession of Americans and Europeans wandering from their rooms across the marble floor to the restaurant or swimming pool with their precious new possessions - babies or infants they've just adopted.
I'd never really thought a great deal about international adoption until I was confronted with the scene as I checked into the hotel in September last year.
I'd arrived to film a story for ABC TV's Foreign Correspondent program about the drought-induced famine.
The longer I stayed, the more I started to think about the adopted children - where they were from and how they must feel to suddenly find themselves alone with someone whose skin colour doesn't match theirs and whose language they don't speak.
They're dressed in alien attire - a brand new Red Sox baseball cap and T-shirt with some cute and cheery foreign slogan plastered across the front - and in an environment like none they've ever seen, when just out on the street is the one they know so well, where their extended family and fellow countrymen reside.
There was something incredibly disturbing about seeing international adoption en masse. All these children about to leave their country to begin a new life in a faraway place, disconnected from their heritage and culture.
Out on the street where poverty and hardship prevail, my attitude softened. While I was filming at the produce market in Addis Ababa a little urchin appeared beside me.
She had short hair and was wearing a torn, faded dress with sash tails hanging loosely from the waist at both sides, and shoes with no laces.
Her toes exposed where the leather had worn through. She would have been about nine or 10, but she was already working; her job was to sweep up the rubbish in the markets.
"Miss," she said, "Americana?"
"No." I nodded with a smile as I rushed off to catch up with the crew.
"Where are you from?" She was at my side again.
"Australia," I replied, thinking in my ignorance that her next question would be, "Where's Australia?" But, no, she knew it was the land of the kangaroos and wanted to know if I could take her back so she could go to school.
"I would love to," I said, impressed by her request. "But unfortunately I can't." I was hoping, I must admit, that would be enough to send her and her friends back to work, but she persisted.
"Do you have any pens for me?"
"Sorry, I don't," I replied, quite surprised she was asking for pens and not, as is usually the case, money.
"What about paper? Do you have any paper for me for school?"
I didn't have anything on me because I'd been told to leave my bag in the car to avoid pickpockets. I felt terrible that I couldn't help her.
Here was this child desperate to write and learn, but instead of being at school she was dragging rotten fruit and vegetables from the mud and slush between the stalls.
What obvious potential she had. Imagine what she could achieve if I could take her back to school in Australia. Perhaps adoption is the answer, I thought to myself.
But that was an emotional reaction. It would be almost a year before I would have the chance to dwell seriously on the subject. In July I was on a plane heading back.
Seedy underbelly
Ethiopia is not a signatory to the Hague Convention, which requires international adoptions be used only as a last resort after all domestic adoption options have been exhausted.
There is overwhelming evidence to prove it is far better for a child to remain with its family or, if that's not possible, with another family in his or her own country than to be shipped off overseas. But in Ethiopia today it seems it's not about what's best for the child, but rather meeting the demand of foreigners wanting a child.
There are more than 70 private international adoption agencies operating in Ethiopia. None of them are Australian. In Australia, international adoptions are a Government affair and strict regulations help to keep the process transparent. Almost half the agencies in Ethiopia are unregistered, some doing whatever they can to find children to satisfy the foreign market.
While there are more than 5 million legitimate orphans in Ethiopia, a large proportion of these will never be considered for international adoptions.
Foreigners prefer younger children - babies to five-year-olds. Older children or those with health problems are more difficult to pitch. So while many children languish in underfunded and overcrowded orphanages, some international adoption agencies are out spruiking in villages asking families to relinquish their children for adoption.
It's a phenomenon known as "harvesting" and it's shocking to see.
A DVD sent to families wanting to adopt by an American adoption agency, Christian World Adoption, shows one of the agency's workers in full flight surrounded by families and children in a remote community in the south of the country, where the vast majority are evangelical Christians.
"If you want your child to go to a Christian American family, you may stay. If you don't want your child to go to America, you should take your child away," she says.
The DVD goes on for some hours with the woman introducing each child offered for adoption one at a time. They sit on a bench in between her and their parents or guardians.
"Here are two brothers, but only one is available at the moment," she says for one family. For the next she tells how "it's very hard for a widow to care for her children in this culture".
"Oh no, you mustn't pick your nose," she says to a child. She then points out a rash on another's face and reassures the viewer it isn't permanent and that it can be healed with treatment. All children are asked to sing the alphabet song made famous on Sesame Street. It reeks of a new colonialism. It's hard to believe it's happening in the 21st century.
Parents are often unaware of what they're doing when they offer their children for adoption. They're led to believe they'll hear from their children regularly and their children will be well educated and eventually bring the family wealth.
But in reality, the parents and families never hear from their children and receive little information about where their children have gone. We filmed a room full of grieving mothers who gave their children for adoption after agencies promised they'd be given regular updates.
Some were even told the agency would help support their remaining children. Their stories are gut-wrenching.
No one disputes there is a real need for international adoptions, but for the sake of the children and adoptive parents there needs to be some protection from unscrupulous agencies who purport to be driven by humanitarian interests, but in reality are stuffing their pockets with dirty cash.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
48 hours in Addis Ababa
ADDIS ABABA - Got 48 hours to spare in Addis Ababa -- Africa's diplomatic hub and one of the highest capital cities in the world? Reuters correspondents with local knowledge give tips on how to make the most of a short stay.
FRIDAY
5 p.m. Have a couple of cold beers by the pool during happy hour at the Hilton Hotel. You'll rub shoulders with African Union diplomats, United Nation's workers and government ministers so the conversation is always controversial and interesting.
8 p.m. Ethiopians serve their food on a spongy pancake called injera. Well-cooked pieces of lamb called tibs are particularly good as are the array of vegetables eaten during fasting times. Hop in a taxi (the blue ones are cheapest and perfectly safe) to Fasika. It's one of the swankiest restaurants in town but a great place to try the local cuisine for the first time. A lively dance show takes you on a whistle-stop tour of Ethiopian culture.
10 p.m. With a belly full of Ethiopian food, now's a good time to head to a traditional bar known as an Azmari bet. Try the Kazanchis area and ask your taxi driver for recommendations. Fendika is a good one. Azmaris are the performers who sing songs often made up on the spot. If you're lucky they might even sing one about you.
SATURDAY
9 a.m. Many visitors to Addis are overwhelmed by the scale of visible poverty and the street children they see on almost every corner. Instead of doling out change randomly, pay a quick visit to Hope Enterprises on Churchill Road and buy some meal tickets. Every day almost 700 children redeem the tickets for a healthy dinner at the center.
9:15 a.m. Now you're in the right spot to indulge in some souvenir shopping. Shops carrying everything from Ethiopian silver to memorabilia from Ethiopia's brief Italian occupation line Churchill Road. Take your time to compare prices across a few stores.
11:00 a.m. If the shopping bug has bitten, why not hop in a taxi to the Mercato? Some say it's Africa's biggest open-air market but nobody really knows. Just watch your pockets. But don't worry too much. Addis is one of Africa's safest capitals and crime is rare.
1 p.m. After a trip to London at the turn of the 20th century, Princess Taitu asked her husband Emperor Menelik II to build a hotel like the ones she had seen there. The Itegue Taitu Hotel was the result and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Addis. Go for a bite and ask to be served outside the upstairs bedrooms in the main building.
3 p.m. Time for coffee. And you're in the best place in the world for that. Legend has it the coffee bean was discovered centuries ago by a shepherd in northern Ethiopia and Ethiopians take their coffee very seriously indeed. Tamoca on Algeria Street is the oldest coffee shop in town and serves a great macchiato (espresso with milk). Coffee beans roast in front of your eyes in stylish Italian art-deco surroundings. They're for sale too.
5 p.m. English Premier League football obsesses Africans.
FRIDAY
5 p.m. Have a couple of cold beers by the pool during happy hour at the Hilton Hotel. You'll rub shoulders with African Union diplomats, United Nation's workers and government ministers so the conversation is always controversial and interesting.
8 p.m. Ethiopians serve their food on a spongy pancake called injera. Well-cooked pieces of lamb called tibs are particularly good as are the array of vegetables eaten during fasting times. Hop in a taxi (the blue ones are cheapest and perfectly safe) to Fasika. It's one of the swankiest restaurants in town but a great place to try the local cuisine for the first time. A lively dance show takes you on a whistle-stop tour of Ethiopian culture.
10 p.m. With a belly full of Ethiopian food, now's a good time to head to a traditional bar known as an Azmari bet. Try the Kazanchis area and ask your taxi driver for recommendations. Fendika is a good one. Azmaris are the performers who sing songs often made up on the spot. If you're lucky they might even sing one about you.
SATURDAY
9 a.m. Many visitors to Addis are overwhelmed by the scale of visible poverty and the street children they see on almost every corner. Instead of doling out change randomly, pay a quick visit to Hope Enterprises on Churchill Road and buy some meal tickets. Every day almost 700 children redeem the tickets for a healthy dinner at the center.
9:15 a.m. Now you're in the right spot to indulge in some souvenir shopping. Shops carrying everything from Ethiopian silver to memorabilia from Ethiopia's brief Italian occupation line Churchill Road. Take your time to compare prices across a few stores.
11:00 a.m. If the shopping bug has bitten, why not hop in a taxi to the Mercato? Some say it's Africa's biggest open-air market but nobody really knows. Just watch your pockets. But don't worry too much. Addis is one of Africa's safest capitals and crime is rare.
1 p.m. After a trip to London at the turn of the 20th century, Princess Taitu asked her husband Emperor Menelik II to build a hotel like the ones she had seen there. The Itegue Taitu Hotel was the result and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Addis. Go for a bite and ask to be served outside the upstairs bedrooms in the main building.
3 p.m. Time for coffee. And you're in the best place in the world for that. Legend has it the coffee bean was discovered centuries ago by a shepherd in northern Ethiopia and Ethiopians take their coffee very seriously indeed. Tamoca on Algeria Street is the oldest coffee shop in town and serves a great macchiato (espresso with milk). Coffee beans roast in front of your eyes in stylish Italian art-deco surroundings. They're for sale too.
5 p.m. English Premier League football obsesses Africans.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Travelling back in time to ancient Ethiopia
MEQUAT MARIAM, Ethiopia - A giant eagle glides gracefully over a remote mountaintop in northern Ethiopia as a barefoot man draped in goatskin watches.
"It’s a big bird that makes a peaceful sound," he says in the local Amharic language to two foreigners who have approached the cliff edge. "Where is your country?"
Until a few years ago, most people who live in these small villages surrounded by dramatic scenery and rock-hewn churches had never even seen anyone from outside Ethiopia.
But now tourists are beginning to come and communities are changing.
"We’ve helped the people set up hosting facilities -- a place where tourists can sleep and stay," says Mark Chapman of Tesfa, a charity that brings tourists to these areas but encourages locals to manage the business and earn money from the visitors.
"They look after the tourists, then the tourists trek from one place to another, each village providing a service, with a donkey to carry luggage and a guide to come along."
Ethiopia boasts eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites but decades of hunger, conflict and political instability have kept its palaces, obelisks and castles off the beaten track for even the most intrepid visitors to Africa.
Tourism represents just 2.5 percent of the Horn of Africa nation’s gross national product -- something the government of this desperately poor country is trying to change.
"There is a very important community tourism experience in Ethiopia under Tesfa," Tourism Minister Mohamoud Dirir told Reuters. "That experience would bring income to marginalised communities, where an appreciative, responsible tourist could live with the communities. It is an open-ended opportunity."
A straw-and-mud hut stands at the edge of a vast meadow where cattle graze and farmers thresh grain much as they have for thousands of years. But learning to grind grain -- while a horse and a cow watch from the corner of the room -- is German tourist Susanne Wolfgarten.
"The special thing is you really meet the people in a natural setting," said Susanne.
"We had lots of interesting and funny meetings along the way. People were coming from church, farmers were working, women were outside washing clothes."
Susanne and her guide leave the house and walk through a field of corn by a cliff edge as boy shepherds stop shouting at each other across the valleys to greet her in English.
"To some extent it’s a throwback to our own history in Europe in the middle ages with fields of wheat and barley growing," said Chapman. "So I think one thing that fascinates people is this throwback to historical -- even biblical -- images."
The guides who walk with the visitors introduce them to communities, explain the way of life and help to search out wildlife such as baboons and the rare Ethiopian wolf.
"The work makes me healthy and I meet different people from different countries," said Addisu Abebaw, a former soldier now working as one of the guides. "I get different knowledge from different countries. I can’t describe how much I love it."
Chapman says part of the reason Tesfa was set up was to ensure that local communities were not exploited by the arrival of the tourists -- something that worries some charities.
"There is a need for alternative incomes here," he said. "Farm sizes are getting smaller, farmers are ploughing less and they can’t get enough food to feed their families for a year. Tourism is an obvious idea when you’re in a very beautiful area."
Yeshiye Getu, who cooks for Tesfa, says that since the tourists started to come she has been able to pay for the education of her two daughters and buy them shoes.
"I can say that life has changed," she said. "It is good now."
Her daughters approach two Irish doctors and begin to laugh.
"There’s no TV out here," says Chapman, smiling as the children practice their few English words. "So I think to some extent the tourists have become the entertainment."
"It’s a big bird that makes a peaceful sound," he says in the local Amharic language to two foreigners who have approached the cliff edge. "Where is your country?"
Until a few years ago, most people who live in these small villages surrounded by dramatic scenery and rock-hewn churches had never even seen anyone from outside Ethiopia.
But now tourists are beginning to come and communities are changing.
"We’ve helped the people set up hosting facilities -- a place where tourists can sleep and stay," says Mark Chapman of Tesfa, a charity that brings tourists to these areas but encourages locals to manage the business and earn money from the visitors.
"They look after the tourists, then the tourists trek from one place to another, each village providing a service, with a donkey to carry luggage and a guide to come along."
Ethiopia boasts eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites but decades of hunger, conflict and political instability have kept its palaces, obelisks and castles off the beaten track for even the most intrepid visitors to Africa.
Tourism represents just 2.5 percent of the Horn of Africa nation’s gross national product -- something the government of this desperately poor country is trying to change.
"There is a very important community tourism experience in Ethiopia under Tesfa," Tourism Minister Mohamoud Dirir told Reuters. "That experience would bring income to marginalised communities, where an appreciative, responsible tourist could live with the communities. It is an open-ended opportunity."
A straw-and-mud hut stands at the edge of a vast meadow where cattle graze and farmers thresh grain much as they have for thousands of years. But learning to grind grain -- while a horse and a cow watch from the corner of the room -- is German tourist Susanne Wolfgarten.
"The special thing is you really meet the people in a natural setting," said Susanne.
"We had lots of interesting and funny meetings along the way. People were coming from church, farmers were working, women were outside washing clothes."
Susanne and her guide leave the house and walk through a field of corn by a cliff edge as boy shepherds stop shouting at each other across the valleys to greet her in English.
"To some extent it’s a throwback to our own history in Europe in the middle ages with fields of wheat and barley growing," said Chapman. "So I think one thing that fascinates people is this throwback to historical -- even biblical -- images."
The guides who walk with the visitors introduce them to communities, explain the way of life and help to search out wildlife such as baboons and the rare Ethiopian wolf.
"The work makes me healthy and I meet different people from different countries," said Addisu Abebaw, a former soldier now working as one of the guides. "I get different knowledge from different countries. I can’t describe how much I love it."
Chapman says part of the reason Tesfa was set up was to ensure that local communities were not exploited by the arrival of the tourists -- something that worries some charities.
"There is a need for alternative incomes here," he said. "Farm sizes are getting smaller, farmers are ploughing less and they can’t get enough food to feed their families for a year. Tourism is an obvious idea when you’re in a very beautiful area."
Yeshiye Getu, who cooks for Tesfa, says that since the tourists started to come she has been able to pay for the education of her two daughters and buy them shoes.
"I can say that life has changed," she said. "It is good now."
Her daughters approach two Irish doctors and begin to laugh.
"There’s no TV out here," says Chapman, smiling as the children practice their few English words. "So I think to some extent the tourists have become the entertainment."
Friday, June 12, 2009
Living history in Ethiopia
Ties to ancient Israel run deep in the home of the Queen of Sheba, where Christianity came early and the churches are ancient and unique
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - The Queen of Sheba's palace isn't what it used to be. Its roof is long gone. Its grand entrance is but a memory. Yet the 3,000-year-old ruins remain, sprawling over thin-grassed farm fields in Axum -- once the capital of a great world power and today a dusty Ethiopian town where cows and children, goats and donkeys roam free.
The Queen lived well. It is still possible to stride across her vast flagstone-floored throne room, just one of 50 excavated chambers. The sophisticated drainage system features fish-shaped granite gargoyles. Several brick ovens line the large kitchen, and multiple stairwells indicate that there were many more rooms above.
Here, according to Ethiopians, a great dynasty was born. And, as all great dynasties should, this one begins with a love story. As they tell it, the Queen of Sheba left Ethiopia only once, to visit King Solomon in Jerusalem. Solomon, despite being married, became smitten with the beautiful Queen. She reciprocated his desire and upon her return to Axum she gave birth to his son, Menelik.
Menelik I took the throne when his mother died, roughly a thousand years before the birth of Christ, and began a line of Solomonic rulers that endured with only a brief interruption until Emperor Haile Selassie, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, was deposed 31 years ago.
Menelik I is also, according to the Ethiopian Orthodox church, responsible for that country's possessing the greatest relic of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It seems that the king went to visit his father, and somehow brought back the original Ark of the Covenant, previously kept in the great temple in Jerusalem.
The Ark is believed to hold the original tablets containing the Ten Commandments that God handed to Moses on Mount Sinai, and it is now said to be kept in Axum's Church of St. Mary of Zion. Only one elderly monk guards this treasure, which no one else may see.
St. Mary of Zion is one of thousands of Christian churches that dot the Ethiopian landscape. Christianity came early to Axum, and soon after A.D. 300 this new faith became the country's official religion. It has evolved little over the years, and its vivid churches are unlike any found elsewhere in the world.
This town's greatest attractions, however, are not its churches, but its stelae -- towering obelisks piercing the bright blue sky, the largest nine stories tall and cut from a single piece of granite. An even taller one, the height of a 13-storey building and weighing some 500 tonnes, lies on its side, broken. It fell, according to a written account, in about 850 AD.
Each stele has an altar for sacrificial offerings and a false door. No one knows exactly when or why they were built. Some say they were meant to house spirits.
Axum today shows much and hides much. Only about three per cent of this once vast city has been excavated. Kids routinely pull ancient coins from farm fields. It is a place rich with the feeling of unsolved mysteries.
In fact, mysteries and miracles abound all along Ethiopia's Historic Route, with each of the three remaining stops reflecting a different era in the county's rich life.
The 11 rock-hewn churches in the town of Lalibela have often been called the "Eighth Wonder of the World." Like the monoliths at Axum, they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And, according to legend, they were each carved out of a single piece of rock at record speed, "as angels worked on them during the night."
The churches, many carved in deep trenches with only their roofs exposed, others cut directly into the rocks of caves, are all connected by a labyrinthine series of tunnels, paths and steep steps. Each has been used continuously since the beginning of the 13th century. Most are decorated with a Star of David, underscoring the church's close kinship with King Solomon. One displays a very old painting of a black Jesus.
It is a remarkable place, as priests and monks in brilliant brocade vestments carry on a religious life that has gone on here, hidden among the hills and caves, for nearly a thousand years.
If the rock churches of Lalibela impress with their stark simplicity, the 29 churches and monasteries scattered over the islands of Lake Tana, headwaters of the Blue Nile River, delight with their vivid paintings in primary colours.
Abba Hailemariam Genetu, Head Priest at Azwah Maryam -- a circular church with a grass roof, located on an isolated peninsula -- greets visitors.
"This church," he says, "dates back to the 14th century. It is younger than most."
The handsome Abba, or Father, Genetu, speaks a Semitic language related to Hebrew, doesn't eat pork and performs ritual circumcision. He, like all Ethiopian Orthodox, practices a Christianity that is older, closer to Judaism, and far more exotic -- complete with ritual dancing and drumming -- than you'll find anywhere in North America.
His remote church was constructed to protect the faith, but also to reserve Ethiopia's ancient religious treasures -- ornate silver and bronze crosses, prayer sticks that recall Moses' staff and centuries-old illuminated manuscripts.
The church walls are covered with paintings which, over time, have also become treasures. One shows the child Jesus zooming down a board from a second story window, while less sacred children, who have tried and failed, lie scattered around the ground. Others illustrate the Holy Trinity: three identical dark-skinned, white-haired, white-bearded men.
If the rock churches are marvels of construction, and the churches of Lake Tana delight with their vivid paintings, the castles of Gondar simply astonish. Getchu Eshetu, my guide throughout Ethiopia, calls this site "Africa's Camelot," and he does not overstate the case. This palace complex looks as though it has been airlifted from medieval Europe.
In fact, the castle construction was begun by Emperor Fasiladas in 1632, when he declared the town of Gondar to be Ethiopia's first official capital.
His brown basalt palace was assembled using mortar and boasts four domed towers and battlements.
A Yemeni merchant who visited in 1648 wrote that it was "one of the most marvelous of buildings" he had ever seen, mentioning rooms trimmed in ivory and jewels, courtiers in fine brocade and thrones embroidered in gold.
Succeeding rulers constructed their own palaces. The 18th-century Empress Mentewab built a lovely one, where it is said she hosted Scotsman James Bruce (for five years!) when he came through searching for the headwaters of the Nile.
Other Europeans were less kind to the castles. Mussolini's Italians, who occupied Ethiopia from 1935 to 1941, used them as barracks. The British found out and bombed the buildings. Restoration is a slow process in a poor country, yet much of the complex remains, a reminder of the days when Gondar ruled a great empire.
As travellers complete the historic circle, it becomes abundantly clear that this mountainous country in the Horn of Africa contains treasures that should be on every history buff's wish list. Someday they will be, but for now it's still possible -- and lovely -- to experience Ethiopia's great sites without being jostled by hoards of tourists.
- - -
ACCOMMODATIONS IN ETHIOPIA
Addis Ababa, the capital city and jumpin off point for tours, offers several luxury hotels:
Sheraton Addis, a member of the chain's luxury collection, is one of the finest hotels in Africa. Its vast pool and gardens, excellent shops and Italian, Indian and fine dining restaurants make it a lovely oasis in a sometimes chaotic city. Doubles from $181 US a night. 888-625-4988 or 011-251-1-171717; www.starwoodhotels.com; Taitu Street, Box 6002, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Hilton Addis Ababa, on six hectares in the heart of the city, features a heated pool, four tennis courts and a spa (where a one-hour massage costs roughly $8.50). The hotel has a vast array of shops and restaurants, and rooms complete with balconies. Doubles from $151 a night. 800-HILTONS or 011-251-1-518400; www.hilton.com; corner of Menelik II Avenue, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Ghion Hotels, a chain run by the Ethiopian government, are the best available on the Historic Route. They are well located (on the shore of Lake Tana, on a hill overlooking Axum, for example), but the accommodations tend to be rather simple. Prices vary, and will be included in tour packages. Phone: 011-251-1-1513-222; Ghion Hotels Enterprise, Res Desta Damteu Ave., Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Be sure to sample Ethiopian cuisine, typically a fermented, sponge-like pancake called injera, topped by a spicy stew called wat. The hotels on the Historic Route, however, are accustomed to catering to western tastes, serving up fresh fish, chicken and spaghetti. Save your fine-dining appetite for meals at the Hilton or the Sheraton, at journey's end.
Melissa Burdick Harmon served as travel editor of Biography Magazine and its predecessor, A&E Monthly, for 12 years.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - The Queen of Sheba's palace isn't what it used to be. Its roof is long gone. Its grand entrance is but a memory. Yet the 3,000-year-old ruins remain, sprawling over thin-grassed farm fields in Axum -- once the capital of a great world power and today a dusty Ethiopian town where cows and children, goats and donkeys roam free.
The Queen lived well. It is still possible to stride across her vast flagstone-floored throne room, just one of 50 excavated chambers. The sophisticated drainage system features fish-shaped granite gargoyles. Several brick ovens line the large kitchen, and multiple stairwells indicate that there were many more rooms above.
Here, according to Ethiopians, a great dynasty was born. And, as all great dynasties should, this one begins with a love story. As they tell it, the Queen of Sheba left Ethiopia only once, to visit King Solomon in Jerusalem. Solomon, despite being married, became smitten with the beautiful Queen. She reciprocated his desire and upon her return to Axum she gave birth to his son, Menelik.
Menelik I took the throne when his mother died, roughly a thousand years before the birth of Christ, and began a line of Solomonic rulers that endured with only a brief interruption until Emperor Haile Selassie, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, was deposed 31 years ago.
Menelik I is also, according to the Ethiopian Orthodox church, responsible for that country's possessing the greatest relic of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It seems that the king went to visit his father, and somehow brought back the original Ark of the Covenant, previously kept in the great temple in Jerusalem.
The Ark is believed to hold the original tablets containing the Ten Commandments that God handed to Moses on Mount Sinai, and it is now said to be kept in Axum's Church of St. Mary of Zion. Only one elderly monk guards this treasure, which no one else may see.
St. Mary of Zion is one of thousands of Christian churches that dot the Ethiopian landscape. Christianity came early to Axum, and soon after A.D. 300 this new faith became the country's official religion. It has evolved little over the years, and its vivid churches are unlike any found elsewhere in the world.
This town's greatest attractions, however, are not its churches, but its stelae -- towering obelisks piercing the bright blue sky, the largest nine stories tall and cut from a single piece of granite. An even taller one, the height of a 13-storey building and weighing some 500 tonnes, lies on its side, broken. It fell, according to a written account, in about 850 AD.
Each stele has an altar for sacrificial offerings and a false door. No one knows exactly when or why they were built. Some say they were meant to house spirits.
Axum today shows much and hides much. Only about three per cent of this once vast city has been excavated. Kids routinely pull ancient coins from farm fields. It is a place rich with the feeling of unsolved mysteries.
In fact, mysteries and miracles abound all along Ethiopia's Historic Route, with each of the three remaining stops reflecting a different era in the county's rich life.
The 11 rock-hewn churches in the town of Lalibela have often been called the "Eighth Wonder of the World." Like the monoliths at Axum, they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And, according to legend, they were each carved out of a single piece of rock at record speed, "as angels worked on them during the night."
The churches, many carved in deep trenches with only their roofs exposed, others cut directly into the rocks of caves, are all connected by a labyrinthine series of tunnels, paths and steep steps. Each has been used continuously since the beginning of the 13th century. Most are decorated with a Star of David, underscoring the church's close kinship with King Solomon. One displays a very old painting of a black Jesus.
It is a remarkable place, as priests and monks in brilliant brocade vestments carry on a religious life that has gone on here, hidden among the hills and caves, for nearly a thousand years.
If the rock churches of Lalibela impress with their stark simplicity, the 29 churches and monasteries scattered over the islands of Lake Tana, headwaters of the Blue Nile River, delight with their vivid paintings in primary colours.
Abba Hailemariam Genetu, Head Priest at Azwah Maryam -- a circular church with a grass roof, located on an isolated peninsula -- greets visitors.
"This church," he says, "dates back to the 14th century. It is younger than most."
The handsome Abba, or Father, Genetu, speaks a Semitic language related to Hebrew, doesn't eat pork and performs ritual circumcision. He, like all Ethiopian Orthodox, practices a Christianity that is older, closer to Judaism, and far more exotic -- complete with ritual dancing and drumming -- than you'll find anywhere in North America.
His remote church was constructed to protect the faith, but also to reserve Ethiopia's ancient religious treasures -- ornate silver and bronze crosses, prayer sticks that recall Moses' staff and centuries-old illuminated manuscripts.
The church walls are covered with paintings which, over time, have also become treasures. One shows the child Jesus zooming down a board from a second story window, while less sacred children, who have tried and failed, lie scattered around the ground. Others illustrate the Holy Trinity: three identical dark-skinned, white-haired, white-bearded men.
If the rock churches are marvels of construction, and the churches of Lake Tana delight with their vivid paintings, the castles of Gondar simply astonish. Getchu Eshetu, my guide throughout Ethiopia, calls this site "Africa's Camelot," and he does not overstate the case. This palace complex looks as though it has been airlifted from medieval Europe.
In fact, the castle construction was begun by Emperor Fasiladas in 1632, when he declared the town of Gondar to be Ethiopia's first official capital.
His brown basalt palace was assembled using mortar and boasts four domed towers and battlements.
A Yemeni merchant who visited in 1648 wrote that it was "one of the most marvelous of buildings" he had ever seen, mentioning rooms trimmed in ivory and jewels, courtiers in fine brocade and thrones embroidered in gold.
Succeeding rulers constructed their own palaces. The 18th-century Empress Mentewab built a lovely one, where it is said she hosted Scotsman James Bruce (for five years!) when he came through searching for the headwaters of the Nile.
Other Europeans were less kind to the castles. Mussolini's Italians, who occupied Ethiopia from 1935 to 1941, used them as barracks. The British found out and bombed the buildings. Restoration is a slow process in a poor country, yet much of the complex remains, a reminder of the days when Gondar ruled a great empire.
As travellers complete the historic circle, it becomes abundantly clear that this mountainous country in the Horn of Africa contains treasures that should be on every history buff's wish list. Someday they will be, but for now it's still possible -- and lovely -- to experience Ethiopia's great sites without being jostled by hoards of tourists.
- - -
ACCOMMODATIONS IN ETHIOPIA
Addis Ababa, the capital city and jumpin off point for tours, offers several luxury hotels:
Sheraton Addis, a member of the chain's luxury collection, is one of the finest hotels in Africa. Its vast pool and gardens, excellent shops and Italian, Indian and fine dining restaurants make it a lovely oasis in a sometimes chaotic city. Doubles from $181 US a night. 888-625-4988 or 011-251-1-171717; www.starwoodhotels.com; Taitu Street, Box 6002, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Hilton Addis Ababa, on six hectares in the heart of the city, features a heated pool, four tennis courts and a spa (where a one-hour massage costs roughly $8.50). The hotel has a vast array of shops and restaurants, and rooms complete with balconies. Doubles from $151 a night. 800-HILTONS or 011-251-1-518400; www.hilton.com; corner of Menelik II Avenue, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Ghion Hotels, a chain run by the Ethiopian government, are the best available on the Historic Route. They are well located (on the shore of Lake Tana, on a hill overlooking Axum, for example), but the accommodations tend to be rather simple. Prices vary, and will be included in tour packages. Phone: 011-251-1-1513-222; Ghion Hotels Enterprise, Res Desta Damteu Ave., Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Be sure to sample Ethiopian cuisine, typically a fermented, sponge-like pancake called injera, topped by a spicy stew called wat. The hotels on the Historic Route, however, are accustomed to catering to western tastes, serving up fresh fish, chicken and spaghetti. Save your fine-dining appetite for meals at the Hilton or the Sheraton, at journey's end.
Melissa Burdick Harmon served as travel editor of Biography Magazine and its predecessor, A&E Monthly, for 12 years.
Love Ethiopia
Ethiopia is one of the most interesting, memorable, and difficult countries in Africa, and I’m happy to say I was in love with it at first sight.
The countryside is lovely. I never knew if the subject of my next spontaneous rural shot will give me a big smile and then come see what’s on the screen, or will bend down for a rock. On that note - tired looking women with enormous heaps of straw, grass, and wood strapped to their backs, are surprisingly agile and have excellent aim!
My camera here caused the usual fuss – whole villages, ages three to one hundred and three, would gather to see what did the faranga (foreigner) find up in that tree? There is nothing there but some of the usual marabu storks with some chicks!
And the food! Ah, the food is the greatest I’ve tasted in traditional Africa so far. A huge flat spongy slightly sour pancake called
injera>/i> is toped with meats and vegetable in spicy sauces to be eaten with your hands. Yum!
The countryside is lovely. I never knew if the subject of my next spontaneous rural shot will give me a big smile and then come see what’s on the screen, or will bend down for a rock. On that note - tired looking women with enormous heaps of straw, grass, and wood strapped to their backs, are surprisingly agile and have excellent aim!
My camera here caused the usual fuss – whole villages, ages three to one hundred and three, would gather to see what did the faranga (foreigner) find up in that tree? There is nothing there but some of the usual marabu storks with some chicks!
And the food! Ah, the food is the greatest I’ve tasted in traditional Africa so far. A huge flat spongy slightly sour pancake called
injera>/i> is toped with meats and vegetable in spicy sauces to be eaten with your hands. Yum!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Ethiopia Football suspension ended
FIFA announced the lifting of the suspension by the FIFA Executive Committee on the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) on the condition that the electoral committee which has been installed would “organise and chair an elective general assembly by the end of July 2009.”
FIFA suspended the EFF in July after it failed to comply with the roadmap agreed in February 2008 aimed at normalising the situation of the federation. The problems at the EFF began in January 2008, when its general assembly fired Dr Ashebir. The assembly wanted to remove the president for what they said was the "dismal" record of Ethiopian football, and elected Ahmed Yasin to replace him. However, the January meeting was not recognised by Fifa, according to BBC, who have been trying to find a solution ever since.
In another development, FIFA gave Nigeria a deadline of 11 June to commit to hosting the under-17 World Cup or face forfeiting the tournament. Nigeria is due to host the 24-team event from 24 October to 15 November. But FIFA is unhappy that several cities have yet to prove their suitability to stage matches.
Wollega Stadium
Wollega Stadium Complex is a major ongoing project in Nekemte by Oromos and other Ethiopians from the Diaspora as well as in Oromia, Ethiopia. The construction is expected to last 4 years from 2008-2011.
The total project cost which is estimated at Birr 190 million is expected from community, public and donors. According to its website, to this date, Birr 33,200,000 is collected. According to JT sources, the youth, students, the local government and members of Jimma University have also organized fundraising activities to help the stadium. Among its various facilities are expected to be an Olympic standard running track & field as well as a FIFA standard football field. Click Here to Visit Wollega Stadium website
To find scores of Football matches in the Ethiopian Premier League use the JT SCOREBOARD sub-section at the "SPORTS" section of Jimma Times website.
FIFA suspended the EFF in July after it failed to comply with the roadmap agreed in February 2008 aimed at normalising the situation of the federation. The problems at the EFF began in January 2008, when its general assembly fired Dr Ashebir. The assembly wanted to remove the president for what they said was the "dismal" record of Ethiopian football, and elected Ahmed Yasin to replace him. However, the January meeting was not recognised by Fifa, according to BBC, who have been trying to find a solution ever since.
In another development, FIFA gave Nigeria a deadline of 11 June to commit to hosting the under-17 World Cup or face forfeiting the tournament. Nigeria is due to host the 24-team event from 24 October to 15 November. But FIFA is unhappy that several cities have yet to prove their suitability to stage matches.
Wollega Stadium
Wollega Stadium Complex is a major ongoing project in Nekemte by Oromos and other Ethiopians from the Diaspora as well as in Oromia, Ethiopia. The construction is expected to last 4 years from 2008-2011.
The total project cost which is estimated at Birr 190 million is expected from community, public and donors. According to its website, to this date, Birr 33,200,000 is collected. According to JT sources, the youth, students, the local government and members of Jimma University have also organized fundraising activities to help the stadium. Among its various facilities are expected to be an Olympic standard running track & field as well as a FIFA standard football field. Click Here to Visit Wollega Stadium website
To find scores of Football matches in the Ethiopian Premier League use the JT SCOREBOARD sub-section at the "SPORTS" section of Jimma Times website.
Masai upsets Ethiopia’s Dibaba in New York race
By Mutwiri Mutuota and IAAF
World Cross silver medallist and prodigious talent, Linet Masai, served notice she could be a serious contender at multiple distances after upsetting world record holder, Tirunesh Dibaba, at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York.
Masai, the world junior record holder over 10,000m breezed 14:35.39 to scorch the Ethiopian double Olympics champion in the women’s 5,000m race.
Dibaba clocked 14:40.93 with both women fighting swirling winds at the same track where another Ethiopian, Meseret Defar set a then world record of 14:24.3 three years ago. At the Beijing Olympics, Masai finished fourth in the 10,000m race won by Dibaba who later added the 5,000m title. The Ethiopian clearly intended to chase a fast early-season mark, demanding a pace the designated pacemaker could only maintain for about 1,800m.
After that it was Dibaba, Masai, Dibaba’s younger sister Gezenbe, and Kim Smith of New Zealand. Smith was the first off the back, beginning to fall back after 2,000m, and with six laps remaining Dibaba waved Masai to the front to share the pacesetting labour.
Masai delivered more than was expected of her, not only maintaining the pressure, but after three laps building a small gap on Dibaba. With two laps remaining it was clear that Masai was going to be hard even for Dibaba to catch, and indeed her lead continued to grow until the finish line.
"I’m so excited," Masai told IAAF afterward. "I was not expecting that fast a time, 14:45 maybe. I was expecting (Dibaba) to pass me in the last lap, even when I saw the lead I had. I was surprised when she never showed up."
Another victory for Kenya at the same meeting was delivered by world 10k record holder Micah Kogo, who humbled double world champion, Bernard Lagat, in the men’s 5,000m race.
Lagat, whose hopes of a sub-13:00 race were undermined by the gusty conditions, found himself kicking with Kogo in the final lap and the world record holder got the nod, winning in 13:02.90 to Lagat’s 13:03.06.
"I thought I would get beaten out in the sprint," Kogo told IAAF adding. "I know he’s a 1,500m man and he can run faster than me. But I saw in the last 200m that he could not go.
"It was difficult because of the wind on the back side. I was hoping to tuck in, but I wasn’t able to."
In the men’s 800m, Olympic semi-finalist and US-based student, Boaz Lalang, ran 1:46.48 for third where American Khadevis Robinson clocked 1:46.00 for victory.
In the women’s 1,500m event, world championships silver medallist, Vivian Cheruiyot, was relegated to fifth (4:08.54) a place behind compatriot Sally Kipyego who breasted the tape in 4:07.92.
World Cross silver medallist and prodigious talent, Linet Masai, served notice she could be a serious contender at multiple distances after upsetting world record holder, Tirunesh Dibaba, at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York.
Masai, the world junior record holder over 10,000m breezed 14:35.39 to scorch the Ethiopian double Olympics champion in the women’s 5,000m race.
Dibaba clocked 14:40.93 with both women fighting swirling winds at the same track where another Ethiopian, Meseret Defar set a then world record of 14:24.3 three years ago. At the Beijing Olympics, Masai finished fourth in the 10,000m race won by Dibaba who later added the 5,000m title. The Ethiopian clearly intended to chase a fast early-season mark, demanding a pace the designated pacemaker could only maintain for about 1,800m.
After that it was Dibaba, Masai, Dibaba’s younger sister Gezenbe, and Kim Smith of New Zealand. Smith was the first off the back, beginning to fall back after 2,000m, and with six laps remaining Dibaba waved Masai to the front to share the pacesetting labour.
Masai delivered more than was expected of her, not only maintaining the pressure, but after three laps building a small gap on Dibaba. With two laps remaining it was clear that Masai was going to be hard even for Dibaba to catch, and indeed her lead continued to grow until the finish line.
"I’m so excited," Masai told IAAF afterward. "I was not expecting that fast a time, 14:45 maybe. I was expecting (Dibaba) to pass me in the last lap, even when I saw the lead I had. I was surprised when she never showed up."
Another victory for Kenya at the same meeting was delivered by world 10k record holder Micah Kogo, who humbled double world champion, Bernard Lagat, in the men’s 5,000m race.
Lagat, whose hopes of a sub-13:00 race were undermined by the gusty conditions, found himself kicking with Kogo in the final lap and the world record holder got the nod, winning in 13:02.90 to Lagat’s 13:03.06.
"I thought I would get beaten out in the sprint," Kogo told IAAF adding. "I know he’s a 1,500m man and he can run faster than me. But I saw in the last 200m that he could not go.
"It was difficult because of the wind on the back side. I was hoping to tuck in, but I wasn’t able to."
In the men’s 800m, Olympic semi-finalist and US-based student, Boaz Lalang, ran 1:46.48 for third where American Khadevis Robinson clocked 1:46.00 for victory.
In the women’s 1,500m event, world championships silver medallist, Vivian Cheruiyot, was relegated to fifth (4:08.54) a place behind compatriot Sally Kipyego who breasted the tape in 4:07.92.
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