ON ETHIOPIA
“Visit Ethiopia” was the first thing I ever put on my bucket list.
After visiting, I changed my bucket list to include a section called “places I’ve been but want to return.” Again, Ethiopia earned the first spot on this section of the bucket list.
When Quintin and I first started planning this trip in 2019, I knew we would visit Ethiopia. However, when we started planning our visit, we ran into the same conundrum outlined in my ON ZANZIBAR post; the areas I wanted to see were impossible to visit without a driver, many of the places would require a guide for days long stretches, and the places are FAR apart. Given our budget, it was looking like my Ethiopian dream would be better suited for a trip when we were both employed.
Ever convinced the budget can be sorted (it almost always can) I called up a friend from high school who lives in Addis to get his ten cents. He seemed to think we could work out the budget. My man.
With talks of budget on the back burner, we moved to the next step: guides. And this my friends, is where we met our match. Given the recent civil war (displacing people), COVID (displacing people) and continued skirmishes up north (displacing people) the network of guides, drivers and homestays has scattered making it difficult to coordinate a journey. The more people we spoke with, the more I realized that now was not the time to visit.
My dreams of visiting Ethiopia, thwarted.
I told myself “next time” and we moved forward in our planning efforts, which led us to Oman. And wouldn’t you know the cheapest flight from Zanzibar (where we were) to Oman (where we were going) is operated by Ethiopian Airlines, with a layover in Addis Ababa. As luck practical business acumen would have it, Ethiopian Airlines allows you to extend your layover for a few days at no additional cost. It wasn’t what I envisioned, but I was going to get to visit Ethiopia via a three day layover in Addis.
We arrive at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport and swiftly have our binoculars confiscated (not allowed in a time of war, unbeknownst to us). We take the hotel shuttle to our room and pass out. We wake up the next morning eager to get out onto the streets. Here are our findings:
On our first day in Addis, we go on a food tour. As we’re stuffing ourselves on a meal suited for 10 patrons, we learn that Ethiopians STAY fasting. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church observes endless fasting periods throughout the year. Think 55 days for lent, 15 days for the Last Supper, 15 days honoring the Virgin Mary, 15 days to honor the Prophets, 40 days for Christmas and 25 days for Epiphany IN ADDITION TO every Wednesday and every Friday. It quite literally comes out to be just shy of half the year.
In Addis Ababa there are proper streets, with proper street signs, which display the street names in plain English. When we were walking around, Google Maps worked perfectly and we easily navigated from point A to point B using the map and the corresponding street signs.
Addis is an enormous, sprawling city so at some point (READ: several times a day) you’re going to need to get in a cab. Negotiating with cab drivers is perhaps my least favorite thing to do on planet earth because once you’ve entered into a negotiation, you’ve already lost. To my sheer joy, RIDE is available in Addis. RIDE is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a RIDE sharing app. Hassle, eliminated, we’re going to breeze through Addis.
How naive I was….
Unbeknownst to us, nobody uses the street names in Addis and as a result, nobody knows them. For example, you wouldn’t say “I’m on the corner of Colfax and Colorado” because nobody would know “Colfax” or “Colorado” …even a cab driver who has lived in Addis Ababa for his entire existence and been a cabbie for 30 years. Rather, you would say “I’m by the Conoco across from the Phillips that’s by National Jewish hospital” and the cab driver would be right there.
First, and in our case foremost, we’re not from Addis meaning we do not have the ability to provide context on our location. “I am at a coffee shop in the neighborhood if Gergi” is the absolute most I could hope to muster, which is inadequate because there are at least 7 coffeeshops per street and Gerji has 53 streets. Second, I don’t speak Amharic so even if I knew precisely where I was, I couldn’t communicate it. Third, and central to my frustration, is the application that put the two of us in touch gives said cab driver my EXACT coordinates so we don’t have to communicate at all. We don’t have to discuss gas stations, or street names, or coffee shops because the dot on your phone shows you my precise, exact, location.
Not how it works in Addis Ababa.
The driver gets your coordinates. Then he calls you to confirm where you are (troublesome for aforementioned reasons). If you’re lucky, somebody on the street will overhear your inability to describe where you are/speak Amharic and will take your phone to set the driver straight. Then, you get in the car and the charade continues as you have to explain where you’re going…all the while you can literally see the CORRECT DIRECTIONS on the drivers phone, on Google Maps, leading you PRECISELY where you need to go. When I tell y’all that in all my days I have never been so confused as to why something wasn’t working….
RIDE as an application; flawless, perfect, works as it should. RIDE in practice; an utter and complete failure because it simply doesn’t account for how Ethiopia works.
Haile Selassie I, the former Emperor of Ethiopia, is the father of the Rastafari movement. I had no idea. Here’s the skinny…
The term "Rastafari" is derived from the name "Ras Tafari," which was one of the titles of Haile Selassie I before he became Emperor of Ethiopia. "Ras" is an Ethiopian title roughly equivalent to "Duke" or "Head," and "Tafari" was part of Haile Selassie's pre-coronation name, Haile Selassie Tafari, or Ras Tafari.
Haile Selassie I, then known as Ras Tafari, was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. His official title included "King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah," which resonated with biblical language found in the Old Testament. The coronation fulfilled what Rastafarians believe to be a prophecy from the Bible, which they interpreted as pointing to the coronation of a black king in Africa. Ras Tafari was that guy.
Ok, now zoom out. Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican political leader and activist, played a crucial role in inspiring the Rastafari movement. He emphasized black pride, self-reliance, and the repatriation of Africans to their homeland. Garvey's teachings laid the groundwork for the Rastafari belief in Africa as the promised land and the importance of a black king's coronation. Rastafarians, influenced by Garvey's ideas and their interpretation of biblical scriptures, began to see Haile Selassie as the earthly representation of Jah (a shortened form of Jehovah or Yahweh), which is a central concept in Rastafari theology.
OK now zoom back in. Haile Selassie's role in resisting Italian colonization during the First Italo-Ethiopian War (1895-1896) and his symbolic leadership during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935-1936) contributed to his heroic image among Rastafarians. The fact that Ethiopia was the only African nation to resist European colonization added to the country's significance in Rastafarian beliefs.
OK now zoom back out and the movement has spread globally, but especially in Jamaica, where social and economic conditions fueled a desire for spiritual and cultural identity. Rastafari became a way for many Jamaicans to connect with their African roots and resist the legacies of slavery and colonialism. Haile Selassie visited Jamaica in 1966, and as RUMOUR has it, there was a horrid drought in Jamaica and when his plane arrived, so did the rains, further solidifying his position as a god-like man.
So y’all we get to Ethiopia and my friend is telling me all of this and I’m like…there’s no way, I MUST have mentioned to Fanuel that just yesterday we were at a Rasta hotel called “the promised land” and now he’s here pulling my leg. I go home, look it up, and of course he’s gotten every detail correct. But then I start think…wait, something really bizarre is happening...
We book a flight to Zanzibar, and when we arrive we learn the island was colonized by Oman. This is weird because our very next destination is Oman…and we had no idea. Before we get to Oman, however, we have this three day layover in Addis. We had all but given up on the hope if visiting Ethiopia given the conflict, but the cheapest flight between Zanzibar and Oman took us straight into the arms of Addis. And because of that, here we are, in Addis, learning about how the Rasta movement is based on the belief of an Ethiopian Emperor’s divinity. But the last place we stayed in Zanzibar was a Rasta hotel. It begs the question…which spirit knew all of this would play out as we were planning this leg of our journey?!
Anyways, I saved the best for last. The highlight of Addis was getting to spend the day with a friend I hadn’t seen in 13 years.
Fanuel and I met in the 5th grade and we were friends up until we graduated high school. We were once twins on twin day, I copied his math homework more times than I can count, and we had a ruckus of a good time in AP Psychology and English Lit.
After high school I lost touch with everybody because I’m not good at staying in touch. Infrequently, we would swap Facebook messages. When Q and I were trying to get the lowdown on whether we should visit Ethiopia, I remembered Fanuel was living in Addis so I sent him a message and I kid you not, 30 minutes later we were on the phone swapping stories and coordinating who he knew in the places we were trying to go.
On the day we were meant to meet, we settled on 9AM. Having spent many years of my childhood with Ethiopians, I knew 9AM meant noon, and didn’t even bother to send a “we still on for today?” text until 11:30AM. I was elated when we finally met up at 2PM.
I all but shrieked upon seeing Fanuel walk through the park entrance looking the EXACT same. I actually did shriek and when “OH MY GODDDD FANNY” escaped mouth he was like “Damn, Molly, nobody has called me that in a minute.” Fanny be cool, me being an embarrassment. Just like old times.
It’s always a great day when you get to spend time with an old friend, and it’s even better when they haven’t changed a bit.
