Daily Times

Africa beckoned me — sub-Saharan Africa to be precise — or what is known more commonly and historically as ‘black’ Africa. Although I have lived in Morocco and have also travelled to Egypt, neither country feels or looks African. Both countries are geographically in Africa and yet they are not ‘African’ in the sense that the rest of the world knows or understands that continent. Clearly, there is a distinction between the Arabicised, predominantly Berber North Africa and the black, sub-Saharan, ‘real’ Africa.

It is amazing how many people think of Africa as if it were one big country inhabited by black people of similar looks and features. By contrast, everyone knows that Koreans and Japanese people, for example, are worlds apart from Jordanians and Pakistanis, although they are all Asians. The Chinese are very different from Indians, although the two countries are not just in Asia but also share a vast common border, all of 3,225 kilometres. Or, for that matter, how different south Indians are from the people of northern or eastern India. Like Asia, Europe or South America, Africa is neither homogenous nor monolithic. It is vast — the second largest continent after Asia. With a total area of over 30 million square kilometres, the continent is nearly three times the size of Europe and larger than China, the US, Western Europe, India and Argentina combined, or about 10 times the size of India. Given the size of Africa, I had to satisfy myself with only a part of this vast continent, visiting eight countries in eastern and southern Africa, from Ethiopia in the north to South Africa in the south, from the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela to the spectacular Cape Peninsula.

Lalibela in Ethiopia is the site of about a dozen churches from the 12th to 13th centuries. Like the first European to write about them in the 1520s, I have to say, “I weary of writing more about these buildings, because it seems to me that I shall not be believed if I write more.” Suffice it to say that these churches were not ‘constructed’; rather, they are the remnants of hills and escarpments that were deliberately hewn or chipped away slowly and skillfully by human hands with very rudimentary tools. Only Petra in Jordan has comparable structures — standing monuments that bear testimony to human application, commitment and patience.

Some below ground level, others above, these amazing churches provide the site for constant bible recitals and prayers by the highly hierarchical Orthodox Christian priesthood. Their robes, which are predominantly white, indicate their respective positions in the hierarchy. After the recitals are done by the high priests, the bible is passed around to be kissed by the numerous lesser priests. This ancient civilisation clings to an ancient calendar derived from the Egyptian-Coptic. According to the Ethiopian calendar, the current year is 2005, which began on September 11, 2012 of our (Gregorian) calendar. Ethiopians reckon their time in two 12-hour cycles of dawn to dusk (day cycle) and dusk to dawn (night cycle), as opposed to our midnight to midday (noon) and midday to midnight cycles. Although this appears bewildering at first, it is more logical than the system the rest of the world follows, in which the new day starts not at dawn but at midnight. Ethiopia is not just one of the most ancient civilisations in the world, the earliest homo sapiens may have set out from this region to populate the rest of the world. The skeletal remains of ‘Lucy’ were unearthed here in 1974. She is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years ago and may be one of our biological ancestors.

Muslims know Ethiopia as Habsha, the land of the first emigration of Muslims. Fleeing from persecution in Mecca, some of the earliest Muslim converts had sought refuge across the Red Sea from Hejaz, in the Christian kingdom of Aksum about 400 km north of Lalibela. By all accounts, they were very well treated and some settled in the area for good. The Kingdom of Aksum was one of the major powers in the third century, besides Rome, Persia, China and India. The origin of the Ethiopian monarchy goes back to the second century BC. Also known as Abyssinia, Ethiopia has had the distinction of being the only country in Africa (besides Liberia) not to be colonised by European powers, except for a brief occupation by Italy (1936-41). Ethiopia also has the honour of having defeated a European power (Italy) in the Battle of Adwa in 1896 at a time when the European military might have appeared invincible.

As such, Ethiopia enjoyed great prestige in Africa, becoming one of only four African member states of the League of Nations, a founding member of the United Nations and the headquarters of the Organisation of African Unity (now African Union). In 1930, Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned Emperor of this poor but proud country as Haile Selassie (Power of the Trinity in Amharic). As if that was not enough, the emperor also bestowed on himself the rather pompous titles of King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah and Elect of God. The Rastafari religious movement, named after him, considers him to be a reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

More recently, though, Ethiopia became synonymous with famine and starvation. The Great Ethiopian Famine of 1888-92 killed a third of its population and, 100 years later, during the famine of the 1980s, as many as a million Ethiopians may have lost their lives. Although the famine of the early 1970s caused ‘fewer’ deaths by Ethiopian standards — just about 100,000 — it led to the downfall of one of the world’s oldest monarchies and a sad end to the long reign of the ‘Lion King’.

(To be continued)

The writer is a former academic with a doctorate in modern history and can be reached at raziazmi@hotmail.com