The chains of heaven
In his book “homo deus” Yuval Noah Harari claims that today people only die from starvation when the reasons for starvation are man-made, that is by politicians in cold blooded intent. If that is true, Ethiopia is a perfect example.
Peasant woman in a village in Tigray
For 30 years EPRDF ruled Ethiopia. EPRDF (Ethiopian people’s revolutionary democratic front) was not a party, but a government coalition of four regional parties representing ethnic groups inside the multi-ethnic state of Ethiopia: the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), Amhara Democratic Party (ADP), Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) and Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM). The EPRDF originated from the coalition formed to fight the communist dictatorship under Haile Mariam Mengistu, which was finally overthrown in 1987.
Peasant man
Although the TPLF represents only about 6% of the population of Ethiopia as a part of EPRDF it had a leading role in Ethiopian politics. Meles Zenawi, the first democratically elected Ethiopian prime minister was member of the TPLF and ruled the country from May 1988 – 20 August 2012.
Peasant woman
With the elections of April 2nd 2018 Abiy Ahmed became prime minister of Ethiopia. Abiy is member of the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) representing the Oromo ethnic group of southern Ethiopia. The Oromo together with the Amhars are the biggest ethnic groups in Ethiopia and together add up to two thirds of the population. It might be of interest that the prime minister’s backing ethnic groups are Muslim, while the wide majority of Ethiopians are orthodox Christians and Mr. Abiy himself is practicing protestant. As administrator in the Oromo region Abiy had to deal with the integration of a million of Oromo refugees from the ongoing civil war in Somalia.
Boy with self made violin
Mr. Abiy immediately started an ambitious project of reforms. He set out to improve the relationship to neighboring South-Sudan, Sudan and Eritrea. In particular with the latter, Ethiopia had fought a bloody war between 1998 and 2000 and under Mr. Abiy’s initiative a peace treaty was finally signed in 2018. The attempt of a peaceful settlement of these conflicts was honored with the Nobel prize for peace for Mr. Abiy in 2019.
Boy with kite
Ethiopian politics under EPRDF until 2018 was characterized by ethnic federalism, a power-sharing system giving influence to individual ethnic groups. Another of Mr. Abiys reforms did away with that. The parties working together under EPRDF were fused into one new “prosperity party”. However, TPLF refused to participate in the new party. They see Mr Abiy's reforms as an attempt to centralize power and destroy Ethiopia's federal system. The conflict intensified when Mr. Abiy announced a reform of the army, which was dominated by TPLF officers. 160 high ranking TPLF officers were sacked. Other TPLF members were accused of corruption. But the reforms also led to ethnic conflicts. Thousands of Tigrians were displaced from their homes. In southern Ethiopia 800.000 Gedeos were displaced. Since the 2018 election of Abiy, around 1.5 million Ethiopians were forced from their homes by ethnic violence – the highest number of internally displaced persons of any country in that period.
As a consequence, the government of Tigray, led by TPLF, renounced the authority of the federal government. After Mr. Abiy deferred elections on grounds of corona until 2021 the TPLF declared his rule illegal and announced their own elections in Tigray, which in turn were declared illegal by the central government. Eventually the central government sent their army and air force to attack TPLF positions. The disputed reasons were an attack of TPLF on an army garrison in Tigray and a genocide committed by TPLF which cost the life of 800 Amhars.
Berhan, showing her homeland
The ethiopian region of Tigray is one of the most remarkable places on earth. It combines the likes of spectacular natural beauty of the American West with the cultural heritage of spanish Andalucia: some sand stone table mountains of Tigray carry monasteries more than a thousand years old while cliff faces hide carved in churches where monks guard relics of a Christianity unspoiled by the turbulences of all the schisms the christian church has experienced in the many centuries of her existence.
Land of plateaus and canyons
In 2005 the british writer Philip Marsden looked for a guide and a donkey and walked hundreds of miles from the ethiopian Jerusalem in Lalibela across the highlands of Tigray to the ancient historic site of Aksum. His experiences are put down in the brilliant book “the chains of heaven”. I had to go there. But how to walk in such a wild place in the time available for a working class hero?
I discovered TESFA. In 2010 Mark Chapman founded this organization to organize hikes, first in the area around Lalibela and then in Tigray. For the visitors little compounds were built in scenic spots along the route. The compounds have a couple of simple rooms, a toilet, a kitchen and a communal eating space, in Tigray usually built around a court yard. The treks are accompanied by a local guide, food is provided by the local villages closest to the compounds. A donkey led by one of the villagers carries the luggage. The income goes to the villages.
Baking injera pancakes, the traditional ethiopian food
The hike in Tigray begins in the town of Adigrat. Berhan Teklay, our guide is waiting for us at the new Agoro lodge on a hill outside town. My only hiking companion is not there yet. So we get a tour around the lodge, which is another aid project of the Spanish NGO “manos unidos” to give local builders and hotel staff the possibility to learn western standards. Later it should provide work in an area which due the proximity to the closed border with enemy Eritrea has a high degree of unemployment. At first site the place looks very posh, with solid, well made brick buildings in a traditional style, nice furniture and decoration. Everything is locally made. However, at a closer look some first faults appear. Fittings are loose or badly made, the shower is under water which does not run off. And that even though the lodge is not open yet since the permit was not yet given.
Typical meal of injera and sauce
Eventually Costas, a 33 year old Greek, shows up with a tiny back-bag. That in contrast to mine, which is huge. Since I did not want to return to Adigrat after the hike but go to Mekele to join another tour into the infamous Danakil depression, the lowest point on earth to see the volcano Erta Ale, I brought all my luggage. There is one donkey to carry the back-bags. I am assured that even a donkey as little as this one can carry 80 kg. The weight would not be the problem, but the balance. I have my doubts. Before I had seen a donkey collapse under a load of stones. After it was lying on the path in the middle of his spilled load, he got a couple of well meant swipes with a stick, got up again and carried on. A bit further on they did the same thing with a(n unloaded) collapsed sheep.
Our group and the donkey with my back-bag
The donkey has trays cut from old fuel barrels on his side and eventually they manage to somehow balance the load and we can set off. The path carries on climbing for most of the day with incredible views from the high plain into deeply carved canyons. It looks a bit like canyonlands in Utah, but here every available space is covered by terraced fields. There are no villages but the countryside is dotted with isolated farms. We are far above 2000 m and our destination for the first night is at a height of 2973 m. Even walking without luggage is exhausting. But Berhan not only has enough breath to walk like a goat, but also continuously tells us stories and gives information about the area. However, she is young. But there are also old people we meet, according to her one woman is 80, an old man of 82 and another woman “above 90”. They all still walk well without visible heart pounding or gasping for air and sometimes carry heavy or big loads. Berhan, who is from this area, seems to know all of them.
People along the route
90 year old woman
Our destination is called Enaf. A couple of bedrooms, a kitchen and dining room with a bed for the guide, toilet and a simple shower are arranged around a courtyard with a gate, which is locked at night. Since there also is a kind of lookout tower it looks a little like a fortress.
Sunset in Enaf
The compound is right at the edge of a cliff. The views, in particular at sunset are spectacular. At the bottom of the valley we see little farms and tiny people and livestock moving around. Sounds, voices, the barking of dogs reach us as if from another world. We avoid using the shower after we notice that the donkey, which had to carry our luggage, is charged with big yellow plastic jerrycans to go down into the abyss to get the water for us. Some local women prepare lunch from injera, the ethiopian pancakes, coffee and dinner of a soup with pasta for us. As soon as it gets dark it is dark. There is one single red light at the horizon. No lights in the valley. All the sounds have completely disappeared. There is no electricity and no roads for motorized traffic in these valleys. After dusk it is time for the villagers for sleep.
Shimbrity
One of the reasons for the size of the back-bag is that I have filled all the space with old children clothes, pencils, soap and other little giveaways. I try to distribute my gifts evenly to all the hosts in our various camps. While the women are reasonably well dressed most of the men and children wear rags which are mended many times. Even on these rocky paths few of them wear shoes.
Preparing dinner and coffee
The next day we get an impression how difficult the terrain is here. The path literally drops down a vertical cliff. And unfortunately up again on the other side. This would not even be a route for a donkey. Our luggage arrives on another, even longer route at the destination.
There is a path to go down here
Berhan and Costas
Tigray is one of the cradles of Christianity. The first Christians arrived in Ethiopia in the 4th century and monks started carving churches into the sandstone. Every day we pass at least one. Today it is Eyesus Gohgot. A three nave hall is hacked into the rock. The walls are covered with colorful paintings of biblical scenes full of dripping blood and severed heads. These churches are also full of hidden literary treasures. There are books many hundreds of years old which sometimes tell biblical stories which were banned by the official (catholic) church and survive in the mountain stronghold of orthodox christanity. The priests in the churches readily show the colorful miniatures in books which are sometimes more than 800 years old. Ceremonial fans full of paintings and so fragile that they seems to dissolve in dust when opened fill some ancient cupboards. We meet a couple of people from a german university who take pictures to digitize what they can find before it is lost. These books are not treated as relics but used in daily service.
The church of Eyesus Gohgot
The holy man of the severed heads
The church of Maryam Bezuan
The straw covered floor is alive
Visitors have to take of their shoes when entering the churches. The floors is either covered with ancient carpets or straw. It is doubtful whether anything was ever cleaned, taken out to air or exchanged in the last millenium. The consequence it that the floor is home to a blood thirsty population of flees, which especially like to infest clean ferenji, ethiopian for foreigner. In a shop for agricultural chemicals I had found by chance in Axum I had bought a big spray can of insecticide. Every evening I put my clothes into a plastic bag, spray in it and close it with a rubber band. Before dinner I spray the bedroom and air it later to not suffocate myself. I have some doubts about the effectiveness of the stuff after I see a big and very lively spider in my bed after the treatment one night and two crickets chirping next to my head another.
View from the compound at Gohgot
The hospitable farm at Gohgot
The next night we spend at a place called Gohgot at 2575 m on a ledge in the cliff wall a couple of hundred meters above some farm houses. From above we see a lot of activity around one of the houses. After lunch Berhan tells us that we have to go down. There is a family celebration and we have to attend. I am not looking forward to climb up the steep cliff after dark and tired as I am but she insists and we stumble down.
Old man inviting us to come into the family home and join the party
We get a warm welcome and have to sit with the family and guests around a low table with the festive meal. There is a big hemisphere of dough on a plate. A woman forms little balls from the dough with her fingers. The balls are speared with wooden sticks, dipped into a sauce and eaten. As a courtesy to the high guests the hosts prop their sticks with balls and sauce into our mouths. This comes with a jerrycan of self-made beer brewed from the leaves of a local scrub. It is poured into a big jar and then handed around. They check carefully how much we drink and encourage us to have bigger sips. Against all expectations my belly seems to accept the unusual feed.
The festive meal
The thing is that I do not like this particular brewery. Berhan loves it. And it is available everywhere. The next day we pass another farmhouse. In the yard women are busy doing their hair in preparation of yet another party. Again we are invited for a treat of balls and beer. It would be very rude to refuse. After we have got our fill we stumble on right into a steep uphill grade.
The girl who ran up the hill to bring the jerrycan of beer
Not much later we see another farm somewhere below us. A girl starts shouting and Berhan tells us to stop. The girl has got an enormous jerrycan and starts running up the grade towards us in an unimaginable speed. Eventually she arrives, pulls out a big cup and starts pouring beer of the same brand. I pretend that my belly isn’t doing very well and get away with only a little share. Berhan and Costas put away with a considerable part of the jerrycan.
Cheers!
The next nights we spend at compounds called Erea at 2650 m and Shimbrity at 2710 m. Again the locations are spectacular at the edge of a cliff. Both are close to other ancient churches like the one of Maryam Bezuhan. In all the churches the priests present their books and the fleas attack the feet.
Monk showing one of his holy books in the church of Maryam Bezuan
At night in Erea my phone rings. A call from at home. A tourist group on tour in the Dankil depression was attacked by Afar nomads, some were killed, the others kidnapped. This was exactly the tour I wanted to do three days later. The next morning I call the operator and ask what is going on. They tell me that there is no problem. The army will clean up the place. They will restart their tours in a couple of days. Nevertheless I cancel my booking. Even if I am not shot by an Afar, I might get shot by a nervous watchman with his finger on the trigger while I go for a nocturnal pee.
Plowing....
... sowing ....
... and threshing
In this area it is harvest time and the farmers are busy in their fields. The means are little advanced since the stone age. Wooden plows pulled by oxen are the most advanced tool. Women turn over the earth with little hoes, little babies on their backs. Oxen are led around in a circle for threshing. Tef, the grain which Ethiopians love so much to bake injera, their pancake like bread, has very small grains. With this threshing method a big part of the harvest must be lost. Boys are turning over the straw with wooden forks. All these people are incredible hospitable and always offer the stranger a share of what they have got. A group of farmers has set up a little camp for harvest and they offer a big bowl of delicious pop-corn. Fortunately these people are too busy with their harvest to think of brewing beer.
Girl offering pop-corn
Few of the farm houses have wells. Water also for drinking has to be carried for long distances in jerrycans. Women dig holes in dried out river beds, where the remaining pools of water is infested with excrements of cattle. The holes fill with fresh water filtered from the ground, which is scooped into the jerrycans. Brewing weak beer with that water to add alcohol is a way of disinfection which was also used by the people of medieval Europe.
Fetching water
Water wells
After five days of walking we arrive in the town of Hawzen. While Berhan and Costas go back to Adigrat, I stay. Friends in Ethiopia had recommended the Gheralta Lodge. It is a beautiful, stylish place with delicious food and an unforgettable sunset over the surrounding table mountains. They are the reason I wanted to stay here. Many of these mountains have churches hacked into impregnable positions high up on the cliffs.
The entrance to the church of Aduna Yermata
Passage to Aduna Yermata
Interior of Aduna Yermata
Sometimes your chances of visiting a county as a tourist is limited to taking your chance in a brief period of political stability. Ethiopia and in particular Tigray has regularly seen periods of extreme hardship. The peaceful town of Hawzen saw one of the bloodiest events during the civil war ending with the disposal of the communist Derg. On June 22th 1988 around 2,500 people were killed when the Derg ordered the Ethiopian Air Force to bomb the town’s marketplace on a busy market day.
The Gheralta lodge
Rooms and common area
In 1983 to 1985 a wide spread famine affected Ethiopia and supposedly killed more than a million people while half a million left the country and more than 2 million were internally displaced. Tigray was especially affected. The famine was mainly caused by Derg government counter insurgency strategies to suppress the TPLF.
Sunset view from the Gheralta lodge
Wikipedia has its own entry on years when famine struck in Ethiopia. 1958, 1966 and 1973 were other years when hundreds of thousands of people died, and in particular in the northern provinces like Tigray. The famine in 1973 was the reason for the fall of emperor Haile Selassie and the victory of the communist Derg movement. Haile Selassie had the money and means to help the population. He did not take any measures but on the contrary prevented foreign observers from going north and eventually, when foreign aid arrived, prevented it from being transported to the affected areas.
What has this old farmer at Shimbrity seen?
A lot of these people you see on the photos are peaceful farmers who try to gain a living from their poor little plot of land. They don’t care whether their politicians are from the TPLF, ODP, ADP, EPDRF, SEPDM or what ever other acronym you can imagine, whether their rulers are in Mekele, Addis Ababa, Asmara or Rome if they are left alone and can gain enough to feed their family. For a while they had the chance to have some additional income by a bunch of strange visitors from faraway places who took pictures of tools they would love to replace and churches they are went to since they were born. The greediness, competition and zeal of politicians not only spoils their lives and happiness but also corrupts all the efforts made by charitable people around the world to help.
Final drink after the walk. Note the posters on the wall of the bar
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