Ethiopia, a landlocked African country about the size of Texas, is the place of my ancestry.

A Short History of Ethiopia

Ethiopia is unique among the other countries on the African continent. Ethiopia, as an ancient civilization and monarchy, maintained its freedom from colonial invaders for hundreds of years, until WWII, when Italy occupied it from 1936 until 1941. When 1974 rolled around, the reigning emperor, Emperor Haile Selassie, was deposed by Derg, a military junta (a small group ruling a country.

Derg quickly established a socialist state. The Regime finally collapsed under the weight of bloody coups, drought, refugee problems, and uprisings in 1991. The EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) can also claim to have brought down the previous regime. In 1994, a constitution was adopted, and in 1995 Ethiopia held its first multi-party election!

Land of My Father

During the hazardous times of the Derg, my father thought it wise to leave. He thanks God everyday that he happened to meet a missionary family that was willing to help him immigrate to the United States. Leaving Ethiopia at the time wasn’t as easy as flashing a passport and boarding a plane. My father was escorted to the border of Kenya, where he met up with another missionary family. He was able to stay with them until he was able to afford the passage to America.

The Land Of Opportunity and American Women

Once my father arrived in the US, he set to work finding a place to live, and employment. He found a cheap apartment to rent in Fresno, California, and quickly found a job as a custodian for the Parks Department. It was one of the few jobs where his broken English didn’t keep him from getting paid. After two years, my father was able to enroll in an ESL class. There is where he met my mother. My mother was a counselor in the school where my father was attending his ESL classes. She thought he was charming and he thought she was beautiful. After dating for three years, they married and I was born in 1981.

Long Story Short

My father saw my birth as a sign to him that his life was complete. He escaped a country that was, at the time, a deadly place to be. He came to a country where his life was his own and he flourished. He found a woman who loved him despite his low education and his heavy accent. And he fathered a child that could carry his family heritage. My father has lived through much, and experienced much.

I am proud of him and all that he has accomplished in his life. I am also proud of the fact that I am an Ethiopian American!

Travel to an African country that borders Sudan, Somalia, Kenya and
Eritrea can be dangerous to your health in more ways than one. But, if
you’re a skydiving, snowboarding, tomb raiding Indiana Jones kind ‘a
trekker, you might find Ethiopia just your cup of strong coffee.

Since the murder in 1975 of the emperor, strangled in the
basement of his palace, Ethiopia has seesawed from absolute rule by a
God-King, to Marxist/Military totalitarianism to the present Federal
Democratic Republic of Ethiopia with a Constitution. Though tribal blood
feuds do exist in parts of the country, the U.S. has an embassy in Addis
Ababa, and you can check the State Department’s travel alerts.

The Last Emperor

Now that you’ve packed and done your homework, you’re ready to go.
You’ve read that Ethiopia’s history goes back to the dawn of man.
Archaeologists have unearthed human remains that carbon-date 3.2
million years ago. I worked in the capital, Addis Ababa during the reign
of Ethiopia’s last emperor. A tiny man with a title larger than himself,
“Emperor Haile Selassi I, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Elect of
God, King of Kings of Ethiopia” proclaimed himself the direct
descendant of Menilek I, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

Each Christmas Day, the emperor opened his palace to foreign
embassy bigwigs for tea and sweets while his pet lions strolled around
the gardens. I got to go only because I was taking photos for an official
brochure. Can you imagine tea with Haile Selassi? I lived near the
palace and went to bed each night to the screech of peacocks and the
roar of those noisy cats.

To experience the geological diversity of the land you only have to fly
into the 8,000-foot high capital. The mountains and plateaus seem to
rise up to meet you. Eucalyptus forests, high canyons, steep gorges,
scrub desert and ice-cold lakes are secret untamed places for hikers,
climbers and happy campers. You’ll find yourself eating Injera and Wat
with your fingers. Injera is baked from a sourdough batter and placed on
your tabletop like a gigantic pancake. Wat is the stew that’s served in the
middle of the Injera. You tear off a piece of Injera and use it to scoop up
the fiery stew (chicken, meat or vegetables). You don’t want to find
yourself on the other end of a meal. At the Sudanese border, the Baro
River teems with crocodiles. Sadly, I lost a friend there. See http://
www.peacecorpswriters.org/pages/2001/0101/101cllook.html

Hyena Man

Addis is home to Ethiopian Orthodox Churches, U.N. Economic
Commission For Africa, museums and some modern hotels that did not
exist when I rubbed elbows with the little king! Back then there were no
streetlamps. After dark, hyenas skulked into the city scavenging for
anything they could get their jaws around, garbage or human. There
was a man, a prowler of shadows himself, who had a way with the nasty
predators. Wandering the back alleys, he mysteriously lured the beasts
to him and then out of town, kind of like a Pied Piper. We called him “the
hyena man,” and that is all we knew about him. Present day
“entrepreneurs” have made the former event into a thriving business
performed for tourists.

The Blue Nile Falls

We took off in a single engine Cessna T-210 from the ancient capital of
Gondar heading for Bahir Dar and Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile. In
Ethiopia, everything was ancient, including the Cessna. A former
Korean War Ace, Walt had been spraying malaria-infected areas for
years. The Blue Nile, as opposed to the brownish White Nile in Egypt,
gets its name from the waters of Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia,
from whence the river flows to Khartoum and on into Egypt. Walt didn’t
fly over the falls; he practically flew into them. Swooping low on the first
run, I nearly lost my breakfast, but I asked him to do it again for a closer
shot. Staring up at me through the tree branches of the surrounding
rainforest was the white-fringed face of a silky black and white long-
tailed monkey. Hunted to near extinction for its beautiful coat, the
Colobus Monkey, the only kind of its species without a thumb, is an
endangered acrobatic marvel of grace and elegance.

Mist from the thundering waters creates a rainbow bridge to the sun. I
was snapping photos when bullets tore through the fuselage,
zapping Walt in his bottom. We couldn’t see the shooters but we knew
they wanted the Cessna. Despite terrible pain, the seasoned pilot wasn’t
going to let them have it. Shouting obscenities over my prayers, he
managed to hold on to the faltering plane while the floorboards
soaked up his blood. We arrived in Bahir Dar with Walt’s pride as
wounded as his anatomy. After medical attention and a few belts of Jack
Daniels, the bush pilot was on cloud nine.

Rock Churches of Lalibela

Ethiopian Airways’ hotshot pilots take off and land on postage stamp
plateaus. A short flight from Addis is the tiny town of Lalibela whose
airport terminal, in my time, was a tin roofed hut. Never mind. Hidden
under ground are eleven monolithic churches carved from rock. Built in
the thirteenth century, the churches are holy places of Ethiopian
Christian pilgrimage. I had to crawl down into the subterranean spaces
on my hands and knees. Once inside, I was in the Middle Ages. A priest
with a torch stood in the darkness guarding an altar and religious wall
paintings. He looked like he’d been standing there for 500 years! Monks
tell you the Ark of the Covenant is similarly hidden in a monastery in the
ancient city of Axum, where Queen Sheba stayed in the 10th century
B.C. Someone should tell Steven Spielberg.

“Simplicity-Courage-Humor-Soul”®

A writer/editor, I work with one client at a time, beginner or pro, for a cost
effective solution to your writing and editing needs. Contact me at 
www.susanscharfman.com

Last Sunday saw the 60th anniversary of the birth of the legendary Bob Marley. Appropriately, thousands of Rastafarians, bedecked in red, gold and green, gathered in Meskal square, Addis Abbaba in Ethiopia, to salute their spiritual fellow traveller and great inspiration.

They formed part of a vast crowd that had assembled to commemorate the life and philosophy of the towering figure that was Bob Marley, who died of cancer, aged 36, in 1981. A musical tribute, in the form of a free concert, was paid by the likes of Youssou N’Dour, Baaba Maal and Angelique Kidjo.

There’s no question that Marley’s music captured the world’s imagination and was instrumental in establishing reggae as the pre-eminent world-music from the 1970s to the late 80s. He came to global prominence with his group The Wailers – who initially formed in 1963, securing quick credibility in Jamaica with a number of hits, produced under the guidance of Coxone Dodd.

International recognition was slower in coming – Marley even had a spell working on a car assembly line in the USA in 1969 – and only materialised once a deal with Island Records had been signed and the collaboration with producer Lee Perry established the sound that came to define Bob Marley and the Wailers to millions of fans around the planet. With the backing vocals of the I-Threes (including Bob’s wife Rita) and a new line-up in 1974, the Marley bandwagon began to roll in earnest.

1977 and 78 marked the release of 2 seminal albums: Exodus and Kaya – which ,in addition to the critical acclaim they received, were massively successful in commercial terms, too. Island Records calculated that, in 1981, the extent of Marley’s global sales stood at £100 million.

Record sales have continued apace since his death. In fact, the 1984 compilation: Legend has consistently topped album charts around the world. There’s a compelling view amongst critics that this appeal is based on the unshakable loyalty of his fan base rather than a significant growth in younger generation converts to Marley’s brand of reggae – which is now seen, very much, as ‘old school’ and the less vibrant and engaging upcountry cousin to the much sharper modern dancehall music – whose influences are drawn from hip-hop, funk and R&B and melded into a powerful, street, hard-hitting, in-yer-boat, urban fusion.

Personally, I happen to think that the music does stand the test of time. Some of the landmarks in the Marley catalogue are:
• Catch a Fire, featuring Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, and released in 1972. It was the first reggae album to be distributed internationally.
• Burnin’, 1973, containing the gems that are: ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ and ‘Get Up Stand Up’.
• Rastaman Vibration, 1976. It stormed into the US charts and articulated many of Marley’s core beliefs – take ‘War’, for example, with the lyrics coming from one of Haile Selassie’s speeches.
• Survival, 1979, with it’s pan-African message of solidarity – promoted by such songs as: ‘Africa Unite’ and ‘Zimbabwe’.

Chris Meehan is the features editor at www.Just-Jammin.com. As well as a freelance writer on many subjects
Provided By: Fun Stuff