Ethiopia Diaries Part III: Lalibela and Axum

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Lalibela

Lalibela is a small ancient settlement further north from Addis. Its famous for its late 12th and early 13th century churches. These Monolithic structures carved out from the mountain under the leadership of the King of Lalibela sit close to the River Jordan. They are living working places of worship and ought to stand as wonders of the world being a true marvel of construction. We had journeyed there for Timket. I could not think of a more appropriate place to celebrate Epiphany (Christ’s baptism). The church tabots (replicas of the ark of the covenant) are taken in holy procession escorted by priests and the faithful to a body of water. There is an all night vigil and then the crowd are blessed with the sprinkles of water and precious religious views are renewed. It is very hard to describe the euphoria and the numbers of the people involved. There is a complete riot of rich colours. The priests wear a base colour of white which is layered with shades of red or purple or other bright and bold colours. The leaders of the church are sheltered with exquisite cloth umbrellas. There is continual chanting and chiming of the bells that speaks of an intense spiritual purity that is not often seen in the west – if at all. Being a stranger to the Orthodox tradition it was all new and exciting to me.

I noticed among the crowd a few African Americans who were not orthodox, but took the ceremony really seriously. They kept the all night vigil and were in fact baptised and renamed. On the one hand I was pleased for them that they had found some spiritual depth and seemed genuine, on the other hand I was a bit concerned that unless they had studied and come to it as the conclusion to a theological journey and exploration were they not crossing the line between tourist and genuine worship. Those concerns did not run anywhere near as deep as my discomfort caused by the Italians. Let us be clear I am devoted to the traditions of Rome and would not seek to write off a whole nationality. Some of the Italians tested my patience. I did not like the tone and attitude that they displayed to their guides and to other Ethiopians. There was a sneering arrogance about their incessant demands and how they spoke to young children who in a polite and none threatening way asked for pencils and paper as people walked around the churches. I found myself intervening a couple of times firmly telling the Italians, ‘dignita’ (dignity).

One of the interesting aspects of the career focus of the children was that many of them if asked what they wanted to do explained they would like to be priests. This stood in stark cultural contrast to the youths that I try to mentor in London. I don’t think anyone has ever said that they wanted to be a priest.

One afternoon our group took a walk up the side of a mountain in to a church that was literally carved out of the mountain. The inside was dark and cool. There were decorative rugs on the ground and traditional orthodox icons on the walls. Curiously some of the images of Jesus were white. This was a little confusing as I expected them to be black. One of the Deacons explained that many of the icons are gifts from western orthodox Churches and hence the white imagery, but he was under no illusion that Jesus was black. I don’t want to appear twisted on the issue of race, but I was reassured by those words.

Axum

We flew further north to Axum. There we were met by a local Mr. fix it, called Haile Mariam. He kept saying the translation of his name was the power of Mary. One of the problems about travel is that sometimes unusual and out of context cross references are made. Haile liked to hold my hand as we walked or sat down and talked. I had seen other men do this, but had not really understood what it meant. I gently tried to loosen his grasp a little, but his grip was sure and certain. I was not sure if I pulled away that he would be upset, or if I kept my hand in so to speak he might think he had permission for other familiarity. In my head I was trying to work out if the power of Mary was in any way connected to ‘muscle mary’ (which is basically a gay man).

I had been going through my supply of Birr and so had everyone else. We owed Haile money and we thought that we could go to a cash point and settle up with his guide fees. Haile knew at that point we were in trouble (that’s probably why he was holding onto me so tightly). Joking aside he let us all go through the ritual of visiting the local bank etc to try and draw out money. We bowed to the inevitable. We were broke. I called my contact in Addis and told him of our predicament. He said that he would lend the money to us and we could pay him in Addis. I have to give thanks for both guys Haile because he never once panicked, or got heavy at any stage and handled a tricky situation with grace and a little humour.

Crisis over we headed to the Remhay Hotel. It was a delightful place complete with a swimming pool. My few words of Amharic were useless with the local staff because they spoke Tigrinya. It was obviously the choice place for weddings and one was in full effect, so we diverted to the monuments. The outstanding feature are the Obelisks or Stele. This perpendicular structures rise from the ground and shoot strait into the air. The great stele is a massive 33m long and lies broken on the ground. It is widely reported as the largest single block of stone that humans have ever tried to erect and towers over the Egyptian Obelisks in its ambition. There is great scholarship and fascinating history around these objects which is worthy of greater study. I just stood and watched and looked around in awe. I saw the couple from the hotel taking wedding photos in front of the Stele just as the sun was drawing in it was wonderful.

We raced to St Mary of Zion Church. Its rectangular shape is reminiscent of an English country church. Rumour has it that the Ark of the covenant is there. Some scholars say that the podium on which it is built may well be Africa’s first church constructed by King Caleb around the 4 or 6th century. That’s a wide margin of error, but History is not my strong suite. It resonated with me because the coronation site for Haile Selassie I is in front of the Church entrance.

Fully charged on history we trudged back to the hotel and into the wedding reception. We danced and partied for a few hours. Even though we initially felt like gate crashers, we were made to feel very welcome and invited to eat drink and celebrate. It would have been rude to do anything else. I looked carefully at the black velvet like robes that the groom was wearing earlier in the day. It looked regal. A truly special garment for a special day.

One of the guys at the wedding was going to watch the football and invited me along with him. So off we went to some back streets of Axum. We walked into a crowded house well a room to be precise. There were about 30 people, squatting, standing shouting and drinking all in full enjoyment of Arsenal v Manchester United. I really had no idea how huge football was in Ethiopia. An enterprising householder had got a satellite signal from a South African sports channel that was covering the game live. He charged a few birr to watch and sold drinks to those that wanted it. I drank a Coke. It was only when I finished it that I noticed it had the words in Amharic across the red label. How cool is that I thought. As much as I wanted stay longer in Axum with the football posse, Gondar was calling.