Equus had the pleasure of taking The Economist’s African correspondent for a ride. Read on for a summary of his experience: “THE word that first springs to mind when it comes to Africa in 2012 is acceleration. Almost everywhere on the continent is rushing forward which, regardless of whether it is careening off the rails, is [...]
• A horse market is first of all, to state the obvious, a market, a place for buyers and sellers to gather. In the highlands of Ethiopia, where tiny surpluses are generated, a market was primarily a place to sell livestock and small amounts of grain, oil, butter and the knick knacks of everyday [...]
Why is it that we so often associate ourselves intimately with the foods we eat – or don’t? Culture is often held deep to the heart, and even more so, to the stomach. Nevertheless, foreigners are often perplexed when an Ethiopian proudly exclaims over their injera ‘This is our culture!’ as if all of [...]
A Russian Antonov takes off every day from the runway of Dire Dawa, in eastern Ethiopia. The V.I.P carried on this specially chartered plane is eagerly expected in Djibouti, like some august personage, and tremors of suppressed pleasure flutter through the arteries of the town. A hush of expectation descends and the town awaits [...]
Yelunta (ይሉኝታ) is a central theme in Ethiopian culture. It can be roughly summed up by the feeling of restraint coming from the fear of asking oneself ‘what will the neighbors think?’ Proper behavior conducted in a manner that will not bring shame, or cause one of the interlocutors to lose face, is always [...]
There’s nothing left to explore, bemoan –Indiana- Johnny-come-latelies. We’d have to go to other planets, they continue, or inhabit a parallel Phil K. Dick world to find unexplored realms today. The age of explorations is dead… That these people have never set foot in Ethiopia is quite obvious. A couple of years ago, [...]
The language of the birds, የወፍ ቋንቋ (yewof kwankwa), is a codified version of Amharic which makes words, sentences and conversations unintelligible to untrained listeners – even more unintelligible some might say. How does it work? Let’s pick a simple example. ‘thank you,’ in Amharic, is አመሰግናለሁ (amasegenalehu). You take the word, sound by [...]
On the campus of the University of Addis Ababa, lies in the old palace the excellent and informative Ethnographical Museum with its well thought out displays, and the Library of Ethiopian Studies, a place where, if it talks of Ethiopia, you should find it. From A for Alvarez’ tales of Prester John, to Z [...]
David Kirba, a friend of mine and webmaster extraordinaire (David is the brains behind the Equus Ethiopia site) finally came to ride at the Equus Stables a couple of weeks ago. He came with his wife and child and had, it seems from his post, a really good time: “Horse riding in Ethiopia has existed for hundreds of [...]
I just read a very interesting article in The Economist, about the problems of finding maids in Brazil and another one about the psychology of service (links to both articles at bottom of the post). The first article contrasts contemporary Brazil with the United Kingdom at the beginning of the twentieth century. The difficulty of [...]
