ETHIOPIA – THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

Normally my narratives are written in at least rough chronological order.  What has changed this approach for Ethiopia was an emotional apogee reached on my second day in the country, far up in the north country in Gondar after a relatively brief detour flight (to avoid bad Kenyan roads and armed Somali intruders) from Nairobi to the capitol city of Addis Ababa.

I was and remain greatly disgusted.  And disdainful.  And feeling revulsion in the extremis.  Three months ago, before leaving for Africa, I bought some clothes and food for a blind girl named Debre’ and her three children living in a smoky and fly-infested hovel in a garbage dump adjacent to the central market in Gondar.

Her roof was a tattered and leaky plastic tarp.  A door was non-existent.  The floor was sloping dirt.  Smoke filled the interior from a constant stick fire.  Flies rampaged around old pieces of decayed food.  A chute delivered wastewater residue streams through the middle of the hut during rainstorms.  The place had no security. Everything had to be within easy reach of the single spot Debre’ occupied near the door and next to the fire.

Debre’ had no shoes.  She had one set of clothes.  Her children were similarly clad.  She had nothing to deal with extremes of heat or cold.  And up until that time, she had slept on a crude straw-covered chaise lounge.  To get to this … uh … home … she had to sightlessly negotiate rocky ground worse than the Khumbu Icefall on Mt. Everest … barefooted.

When I arrived in Gondar finally to meet her in person, I found out ALL her new items had been stolen by fellow slum dwellers.  They took advantage of her blindness and picked her hovel clean.  The balance of my first day in Gondar was therefore spent buying her new things, and seeking a way to move her out of that hellhole and into a one- room place near the university with running water, a shower, a lockable door, no flies, no smoke, and an actual electric light.

This process took the better part of two days.  I was primarily moved by knowing that anything done for this 23 year-old (blind since age three) would go to waste without a severe change in circumstances.  This was primarily related to security.  And there was none in the garbage dump.  It is a free for all.

As a blind person, she was helpless to control who went where and whether or not she would be taken advantage of.  This had already happened with the birth of her three sons.  Debre’ knew nothing of intercourse or intimacy.  She had simply been sexually used on multiple occasions.  There was nobody standing by to help her or protect her.  The government did not show up to help in any manner at any time.

I was initially catalyzed through a visit three years ago to the Garbage Dump by Linda Wolf, a very talented photographer from Bainbridge Island, Washington State.  Linda was on a photo shoot in Gondar.  At the time, she met a selfless young man named John Yohannis, just beginning his engineering studies at Gondar University.  John makes it his work to give himself away, and has helped Debre’ and many others despite his own tender years and lack of resources.

The two kept in contact, and eventually Linda – the guiding light in this whole development -- led me to John.  The two of us met (of sorts) on Facebook a year ago.  When he learned of my around the world sojourn, he invited me to visit in Ethiopia.  I knew of Debre’ at the start of this journey.  My initial plan was I’d stop by and pay a courtesy visit and see how my modest contributions from earlier were panning out.  I hardly suspected she would become a major part of the trip.

John and I spent the better part of two days, searching for an affordable rental room (to be paid initially at least by me).  Then we sought out a new mattress, new blankets, and new sheets.  Clothes for Debre’ and her sons (plus shoes for all of them) followed.  We found allies to move her things.  Then a mini-van to transport new acquisitions and what little remained in the hovel over to a new place.

Lights, water, electricity, security, no smoke, no flies, new bedding, a compound to share chores with others who would not steal from her, plus a shower and toilet outside … what a change from just a few hours previous!

She seemed stunned at first at the new surroundings.  John was happy as a primary caretaker, to have her nearer his room at the university.  We were all happy to have her out of the elements, and in a secure compound with people who would assist her and not steal from her.  We can not see the “light in her eyes.”  But I was astonished to see the reaction on Debre’s face when she first ran her hands over the water faucet in her new place.  That made all the scouting and expenditures of the two previous days worthwhile.

 

The night ended by learning that this girl’s mother and one of her sons were being held hostage back at the garbage dump cave/hovel by police and would not be released until a fine was paid for security services allegedly provided to her!  I was shocked to learn of the actual conditions under which Debre’ lived, but the real anger emanated from the police demanding money for so-called protection before her mother and son could be released.  Where was this protection when it was so desperately needed?

Sadly, I was on a flight out of town toward Lalibela before the reunion of all four who would occupy the room could take place.  Debre’s sons had never owned shoes before, just as an example, so it was a complete thrill for me to be involved in this transition begun by John Yohannis – this selfless young man with an absolute heart of gold and a shining example to us all.

[ Note: there has been a long delay in posting this narrative.  The reason is that I did not hear from John Yohannis for ten+ days after moving Debre and buying bedding, shoes and clothes for her, her sons, and John.  I was fearful the police had interfered with his ability to bring Debre, her mother and two surviving sons together finally in a safe place after demanding a fee for “protection” while she was in the garbage dump ].

I learned finally that John had been studying for his finals at the end of his junior year in Engineering at Gondar University, and was studiously avoiding the police.  Like myself, for a time he had been unable to access the internet.  Yet, in Shakespearian terms: “All’s Well That Ends Well.”  For now at least.

Which brings us to the other, most famous part of Gondar.  Castles.  Norman style, far removed from northern Europe, built 400 years after the zenith of fortress construction had already waned there, and yet just as impressive as some of the finest strongholds and manor houses found in the upper latitudes.

As Islam spread and the Ethiopian Empire (which once spread as far east as Arabia and as far north as Egypt) constricted, new capitols were established out of necessity.  King Fasildes 1^st established this third center of power at Gondar in 1632 largely because it was astride existing trade routes and at 2300 meters in altitude was well above the mosquito and malaria zone (The first two capitols were far to the north, at Aksum, and well to the east, at Lalibela).

In time, the complex started by Fasildes saw five more castles added by his ancestors, such that the site became known as the “African Camelot.   This included “St. John’s Place” built by Fasildes’ son  in 1667, the “Grandson Palace” or Adam Seghediyasu Castle (the last powerful Gondar King, having dominion over the entire Horn of Africa) in 1682, the “King David Castle” of 7^th King Seghid Dawli in 1716, the Messih-Seghid Bedafa Palace of 1721, and the Queen’s Palace of Anditegie Mintiwab’i from 1730.

The seven hectare construct encompassing all six castles and assorted outbuildings, temples and dining halls was selected in 1979 by Unesco as a World Heritage Site.

All royalty participating in this construction chain claimed to be descended from King Soloman of Israel.  This Royal Line began with the purported liaison of Soloman and the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba, resulting in an Ethiopian born son, Menelek 1^st.  According to legend, he traveled to his Father’s homeland at the age of 25, and brought back with him upon his return to Ethiopia the fabled Old Testament Arc of The Covenant – the Holy Vessel in which were stored the 10 Commandments as delivered to Moses by God on Mt. Sinai.

All six of the castles were built of limestone.  Eggs and wheat were said to be added to the mortar, to make is stronger and weather resistant.  Much of the interior architectural influence derived from India.  Most were three plus sized stories or more, and had subterranean chambers as well.  On three occasions one or all of the castles were at least partially destroyed and had to be rebuilt.

The first resulted from an earthquake in 1764.  The second was part of an Islamic wave and Sudanese Dervish attack in the 1880s.  The third was in 1941, when the British Air Force successfully attempted to oust their Italian Axis enemies from Ethiopia by bombing the castles into capitulation.

The Italians had come to Ethiopia in 1896, hoping to add to the parade of colonial occupiers carving up Africa.  They were repulsed by Menelek II at the famous Battle of Adwa (“The Spears vs. Guns Victory”), which brought great shame to the Italians.  They returned in 1937, that time using tear gas, mustard gas, and aerial bombing.  Still, they could not occupy the whole country until ousted by the British four years later.  The Ethiopians thus take great pride in claiming they are the only African nation to never be colonized.

Some notable features of the Gondar castle complex (though not necessarily common to all six monuments) included those definitely not found in their European predecessors.  These included libraries, a sauna, lion cages, and stucco exterior coatings added to the King John Palace by the Italians in 1978.  Other highlights included gold and ivory barrel ceilings, an art gallery, fish farm, rainwater cistern, winery, dance hall, theatre, cold showers, and primitive Jacuzzi.

King Fasildes also constructed an Olympic Plus sized pool and public bath about two kilometers from the hilltop castle complex in the 1630s.  A yearly celebration called “Timket” (meaning epiphany) is held there by devotees of this heavily Christian nation in January.  This occasion commemorates Jesus of Nazareth’s baptism and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to Gondar.  A replica of the Arc of The Covenant (the Ethiopians claim the original is kept under tight security at St. Mary of Zion Church in Aksum) always precedes the public parade, and mass bathing/baptism spectacle which is the focal point of the event.

Timket culminates at the nearby Selasie Church of Debribbrhan, shaped in the form of Noah’s Ark.  It is a walled complex built in 1674 by Fasildes’ grandson Adam Seghediyasu , and the only Christian church among 44 in Gondar to survive Muslim  Mujahadeen and Sufi attacks in the 1880s.  Most impressive beyond that fact are the  fresco wall paintings which remain intact 340 years later, some appearing as if they were freshly layered just yesterday.