Chapter 25 - Ethiopia - Living Among the Amazing Historical Sites

Ethiopia was unique among the African countries I visited, as it has its own alphabet and language, its own religion, its own style of cooking (you eat with your hands, which is always fun), and their own kind of toothbrush.

 

Ethiopians in general are a very religious people, mostly Christian and Muslim. Ethiopia was one of the first African regions to convert to Christianity. Before they did, the kings used to erect giant "stelae" in the town of Axum. A "stela" is a tall, thin rock pillar with carvings on it, and the plural of "stela" is "stelae" (ask an adult who knows Latin why this is so). In Axum, each stela was a kind of giant tombstone for the king who raised it. Each king felt he had to outdo the previous king by making his stela even taller. They got taller and taller until the workers for the very last king carved and hauled the largest single piece of granite ever quarried. ("Quarried" means to cut out and remove a piece of rock from a "quarry," which is what you call a rock mine.)

I found it amazing that they cut this huge piece of very hard stone by hand, then moved it all the way to the cemetery without any construction vehicles. When the workers tried to raise this, the biggest stela ever--or shortly after they got it standing (no one knows for sure)--the stela fell over and cracked into several large pieces. It still lies there today, since nobody wants to try and move such a big rock, even in pieces.

The people at the time felt this must have been a message from the gods and overthrew the king. The next king decided he'd had enough of the stelae. He also converted officially to Christianity, and ever since, the Ethiopians have been very strong in their faith.

 

One way they practice their Ethiopian Orthodox Christian religion is to build monasteries at the top of mountains. I visited one monastery where they only allow males on the mountaintop--this includes not only people, but also cows, sheep and goats. It's challenging even for males to get to the monastery, since you have to climb up a vertical cliff of twenty meters (about sixty-six feet). Even the bulls and rams have to be hauled up the cliff by monks using ropes made from rawhide leather (like the rawhide chews you might give your dog, only much longer). I watched several old local men and monks climb up without any safety ropes, the same way you might climb up your favorite tree or jungle gym in your neighborhood.

All of us visitors had a thick rawhide rope tied around us, and I climbed up using the hand and foot holds in the cliff and rope. When I reached the most difficult part, someone up top pulled me up by the thick leather rope tied around my waist. I couldn't imagine how strong someone would have to be to pull me up like this. But when I got to the top, I saw that the strong man pulling me up was the old monk you see here. Boy, was I surprised! I realized that maybe I should go to the gym more often. While it was quite scary, I enjoyed climbing up and down this cliff, and it's one of my favorite memories of Ethiopia.

 

The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, nearly one thousand years old, are among the holiest religious sites for Ethiopians and also one of the most amazing places I've ever been. In Lalibela, the local kings made churches not by building up using bricks or wood, but by carving down into solid rock. All eleven churches I visited here are carved out of solid rock and hollowed out inside. It was hard to understand how the ancient Ethiopians figured out how to do this without the roof caving in on top of them, but they did. And, moreover, these twelve beautiful red stone churches are still standing and in use today. The government recently put temporary roofs over them to keep the rain from eroding these world heritage sites so they might last for another thousand years.

 

Most of these places are in Northern Ethiopia, closer to its neighbors Eritrea and Sudan. At the end of my trip to Ethiopia I traveled to the walled city of Harar, at the eastern end of the country, near Somalia. Harar is famous as a town where the Ethiopian Christians and Muslims live together in harmony. For centuries the local people, who were all Muslim back then, believed that harm would fall upon the city if any outsider entered it. Then, in 1854, Sir Richard Burton from the United Kingdom disguised himself as a local and sneaked into Harar, where the locals soon discovered him. Instead of killing him, however, they decided to let him go in peace--perhaps because nothing bad had happened to the city because of his visit--and ever since they have welcomed visitors. Nowadays the people of Harar are so friendly that Harar was my favorite place in Ethiopia.

 

As you might guess from this story, we would call the people of Harar superstitious, or at least very interested in keeping up their traditions. Another example of this surrounds a legend they tell about a man many years ago who tried to end a famine by feeding the wild hyenas living outside the city's walls. A "famine" happens when there isn't enough food to go around, and many people starve. In Africa, famines happen most often because of "drought," a long, dry period without rain when farmers can't grow their crops or water their animals. Ethiopia lies in a dry place in the Horn of Africa, so Harar is susceptible to devastating famines when there's not enough rain. After this man fed the hyenas, it began to rain again, and the famine ended. And so the locals believed they had to continue feeding the hyenas every night or famine would appear again. Even today, every night after sunset outside the gates of the old city, two men call the wild hyenas to be fed.

I went to see one of these men and was shocked to see that he still had all his fingers! About a dozen wild hyenas came to him to eat the raw meat he offered them. When I dropped my camera out of my backpack, one hyena ran up near my feet thinking I was dropping meat for him to eat--that's how close I was! Since wild hyenas are smart predators that can kill a zebra or wildebeest, I was a bit scared to have a dozen wild hyenas running around me.

 

The most amazing part came when the man put the raw meat on a six-inch (fifteen-centimeter) stick, which he held in his mouth. The hyenas took the meat from the other end of the stick, almost kissing him as they did! He offered me a chance to feed the wild hyenas this way, or even just by hand. I'd like to say that I did so, but I couldn't get the nerve up. I kept thinking, "How will I explain to Mom how I lost my nose or got rabies?" Instead, I watched from about twenty-five feet (five meters) away. Had they wanted to, I am sure the hyenas could have attacked me, but they were used to tourists like me watching their daily feeding by this very brave man. Still, I don't think I'll ever forget seeing those aggressive hyenas growling and fighting over who got to eat the raw meat from this man's mouth!

 

Speaking of mouths, in Harar I also met this very nice family who made and sold toothbrushes on the sidewalk. These aren't the plastic toothbrushes you and I are used to. Instead, they're made using green sticks from a special bush, the Salvadora persica evergreen shrub. This family grows these bushes, using branches about as thick as a pen to make a toothbrush. They made several for me very quickly, carving a spiral design into the handle and cutting the bark off one end to expose the stick's white inner core. Ethiopians chew this end until the fibers turn into a type of brush, and then they brush their teeth with it. Because the fibers also contain chloride, anti-bacterial agents and vitamin C, it's a toothbrush and toothpaste all in one! The brushes last about a week and only cost a few cents, so they're a smart and inexpensive way for Ethiopians to keep their teeth strong and clean. I tried one and thought it was quite clever, although it tasted a little bitter at first. If I lived in Ethiopia all the time, I think I'd use the local toothbrushes made by this friendly family at their store on the sidewalk in Harar.

 

Travel Questions about Ethiopia:

 

1. A 'stela' is:
   A) a name of a dog B) a toothbrush C) a beverage D) a tall rock pillar like a tombstone.
2. Two historical changes happened when the giant stela collapsed and broke in Ethiopia. Name one of them.
3. Define 'quarried.'
4. How did Toto get up to the monastery?
   A) Stairs B) An elevator made of rope and sticks C) Climbing the cliff with leather ropes D) Jetpack
5. How did the people of Lalibela build their churches a thousand years ago?
6. What was the name of the city Toto visited where the man fed the wild hyenas?
7. What country was near this city?
8. What did the Ethiopian family make toothbrushes from?

 

Global Nomad questions about Ethiopia:

 

1. Draw a picture of your favorite site that Toto visited in Ethiopia.
2. Find Ethiopia on a map. See how that part of Africa looks a bit like the horn of a rhino sticking out of East Africa? That's why the region is called the 'Horn of Africa.' List all the countries that border Ethiopia.
3. Spotted hyenas are often thought of as scavengers, but they're actually quite successful predators. Research hyenas and write an essay on the different kinds of hyenas with particular emphasis on how spotted hyenas are different from other hyenas.
4. In many cultures and countries the people use local plants for health care, like the toothbrush in Ethiopia. Can you think of any plants you or your family uses for health reasons? Write a paragraph about how your family uses this plant, or do a cybersearch and write about the medicinal plant you found most interesting.
5. In the 1990s over one million Ethiopians starved to death in a tragic drought. Do a cybersearch on this East African drought and write an essay explaining what you learned.