More gift of the Gabi
Two more uses for the multipurpose gabi ( you can read our first post on the gabi here): You can do Chinese theatre with it (they then call it Abyssinian shadows). This was a very estimated art form in 18th century Gondar. To quote a few of the classics: “Zara Yacob’s [...]
Read moreDispatches from Uthiopia
We have now been sending dispatches from Uthiopia for six months! Upon general demand from Gojjam (the official headquarters of Uthiopia) we are happily putting some links to our most read dispatches in Sekela, Gojjam: More Uthiopian pictures by Nicolas Henry Dreamlike pictures of the Uthiopian/Ethiopian landscape Fat tailed sheep and tall [...]
Read moreCan the leopard change its spots?
Bereket Girma from the Ensessakotteh Wildlife Rescue, Conservation and Education Centre of Menagesha took this picture. That’s it: this proud leopard was sitting next to the main road just 25 km from Addis Ababa, a five million person and ever expanding city. The Rescue Centre currently has six lions and six cheetahs, [...]
Read moreThe Gabi’s Blanket Definition
There is no one size fits all blanket definition for the gabi. One could say that it is a tightly woven cotton spread of a large size, and that when folded several times it still has a surface of at least 2 square meters. It is generally white in color – and the whiter [...]
Read more“Tinker, tailor… city builder”
Between the worn and lichen eaten gravestones of the Gullele Cemetery, some of which, in the older parts, no longer even bear names, lingers a faded remembrance of times past, of the cosmopolitan mix that brought forth the city of Addis Ababa. The cemetery, devoted to the foreign and catholic communities of Addis [...]
Read moreCommunity tourism in Lepis – it takes a village?
Equus Ethiopia has been providing training and on-going technical support to a new community based horse trekking endeavor in Arsi, on the lip of the Rift Valley looking down on Lake Langano. We just came back from our third – and last – training trip, during which Equus added croppers and breast plates [...]
Read moreEquus galloping ahead
Equus has had a very good week: Two treks went out to the forest of Menagesha Suba - one of them with two seven year olds! (miraculously both treks seemed to dodge the rain). The two kids came with their two mothers – both sisters themselves – and where inexplicably born on the same day. [...]
Read more3 DAY HIGHLAND TREK TO MENEGESHA FOREST
Equus Ethiopia has availability on two of its three day rides over the next two months, both to the unique Montane forest of Menegesha Suba, which is to be the second port of call for the Zara Yacob Trail, named after the 15th century Ethiopian emperor that protected the forest. The trek will comprise two [...]
Read moreTRAINS OF THOUGHT IN THE EMPEROR’S BED
At ‘Lagar,’ Addis Ababa, you can see the perfect copy of a provincial French train station –say Saint Rafael, or perhaps Rivesaltes. Above the building, the flags flap gaily in the wind, but the doors are boarded up and closed. On the deserted platform, the clock is stopped at 8.46. The signs ordering the [...]
Read moreDifficult Amharic?
Why is Amharic so difficult to learn? Everyone is in agreement when it comes to describing the language as extremely hard to crack. Amharic-is-an-extremely-difficult-language. Period. Foreigners certainly believe so – how many farenjis do you know who can say more than ሰላም ነው (selam no) and/or venture a carved up version of ጠና : [...]
Read moreThe Zara Yacob Trail – first steps
Two weeks ago, Equus – read Yves Stranger, the horse trekking outfit’s groom – in – chief - announced it was going to initiate The Zara Yacob Trail at the end of May, Ethiopia’s first highland horse trekking route. Zara Yacob, one of Ethiopia’s greatest kings, started Africa’s original protected area, issuing an edict [...]
Read moreGursha ጉርሻ
A ጉርሻ (gursha) is a noun – should I say a sound-bite? – which signifies, the Wolf Leslau Concise Amharic-English dictionary tells us, a ‘mouthful, morsel, bonus, gratuity, tip for services.’ But the ጉርሻ is much more than all this! It is a hand fed concentrated morsel of ethiopitude. The belief that eating together causes [...]
Read moreTHE ZARA YACOB TRAIL
Equus Ethiopia wishes to introduce the first edition of the 200 Km historic Zara Jacob Trail/የዘርአ:ያዕቆብ መንገድ which will run from the forest of Wof Washa to the forest of Menagesha Suba on the occasion of the World Environment Day on June the 5th (with the actual ride taking a week). As a kid, I [...]
Read moreCassiopeia Black
Ethiopia – or what came under that name in olden times, that is to say the whole of Subsaharian Africa – was long a terra incognita, a blank on the map for all to scribble on and fill, with myth, fantasy, appalling beauty and shocking strangeness. Ethiopia – burnt face in old Greek, that is [...]
Read moreThe Nutshell Rides Naked
Yesterday I was travelling my favourite minibus route again – Arat Kilo to Mexico Square. We’d hardly taken off from Arat Kilo when I registered something highly unusual: the 18 year old driver was driving slowly and extremely cautiously! Something must be wrong with his vehicle I thought, for him to be exercising such uncommon [...]
Read moreTintin in Ethiopia
I recently stumbled upon an article in the Daily Mail gleefully pointing out that a leaky roof in the Arc of Covenant’s chapel in Axum, north Ethiopia, would soon force the removal of the sacred artefact to an adjacent building, and thus reveal it to the world in all its glory. As most people know from [...]
Read moreKill Jill (but only with words)
‘Merde!’ is of course one of those words that everyone knows (please do pardon my French), together with that perennial favorite ‘Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?’ and ‘Je t’aime.’ It would seem that whenever we come across a foreign language, we concentrate on the essentials of human relationships first: likes and dislikes. Leaving amorous sentiments aside, [...]
Read moreHis Crown has been Laid to Rest
In Ancobar, where I was accompanying the photographer Nicolas Henry, I learned of the death of Zewde Nesibu, the last guard of Emperor Menelik II. A man of many years – 120? more? – Zewde was well known in the region, and, apparently, simply believed. As one person told me: “Well, my father tells me [...]
Read moreETHIOPIA IN A BLUE AND WHITE NUTSHELL
How is it that culture so often seems to sit firmly in the driving seat? How else to explain the vast disparity between the number of accidents in Great Britain and France for example? For France, with a lower park of vehicles and less congested roads has, the last time I checked, double the amount [...]
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