April 14 - Final Blog
This will be my last blog from Ethiopia and it might be time to tell you a little about the rest of the country. In spite of being very involved in the Jewish community in Gondar, we have had time to do a bit of travelling and see something of the amazing sights that Ethiopia has to offer.
I had no idea before I came here what a rich and ancient civilisation Ethiopia had – from, in the North of the country, one of the earliest Christian communities in the world, to stone age tribalism in the South. Gondar itself has a number of castles and palaces. In the tourist brochures it is known as ‘Africa’s Camelot’ – a bit of a misnomer as the castles stem largely from the 17th century and the intrigues that went on have more in keeping with the Tudors than the age of chivalry. However, the brooding presence of so many ruins in amongst the stunning scenery make them a very romantic spot. We were lucky to come out of season and see many of them without a single other visitor. High season in Gonder coincides with Timkat.. This takes place on the Christian festival of Epiphany and involves the priests of all the Churches taking out their replicas of the ‘Ark of the Covenant’ and processing them to the bathing pool built by king Fasilides for an all night vigil. The whole town follows them, singing and dancing and, when the sun rises, everyone leaps into the pool – particularly effective, I am told for those who wish to marry. Once dipped in the pool, they are sure to meet their intended in the coming year.
Those of you who saw the film ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ may be mistaken in thinking the lost Ark and the two tablets of stone once housed in Solomon’s Temple were found buried in Egypt. Not according to Ethiopian legend. This claims that when the Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon, he seduced her, and she gave birth to a son, who was named Menelik. As a young man, he returned to Israel to meet his father, and while there, stole the Ark of the Covenant from the Temple in Jerusalem and brought it to Ethiopia where it is still to be found in a Church in Axum. No one can say for sure if this is true, as no one has seen it. It is guarded day and night by a priest and only comes out – heavily shrouded in cloths on Timkat. Certainly Ethiopian Christianity is heavily influenced by the Hebrew Bible – so maybe it is true… There are no pigs in Ethiopia as Christians as well as Muslims observe the food laws. They observe Saturday which is called ‘Sanbat’ i.e. Shabbat as well as Sunday - ‘the Lords day’, they take fasts very seriously and observe a form of Jewish family purity. Their Churches are modelled on Solomon’s Temple with a ’Holy of Holies’ surrounded by two courts, one for the priests and one for the people. Men and women are separated on entering the Church and there are some Churches where women cannot enter at all.
Axum also boasts an older civilisation than even the Christian one. Contemporary with Rome and well known by the Romans – the Axumite Empire stretched across Ethiopia and encompassed the Saudi peninsular as well. The kings of Axum left behind tombs full of treasure, guarded by huge carved stelae. Unlike Egypt with which these tombs seem to have a lot in common, no one has robbed them – indeed no one seems to have been aware of their existence until the last century – and even now, only eight percent of the site has been excavated. The artefacts are incredible – including a metal whose make up has defied any analysis. If this were not so remote it would certainly have been seen as one of the wonders of the world.
But my favourite place was Lallibella. A town that was the centre of another Ethiopian dynasty in the 12th century. King Laillibella as a young man and a devout Christian made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was a long and arduous journey, and the King felt it unwise to encourage his subjects to face such dangers. So he decided to build Jerusalem in Ethiopia. He engaged a number of Crusader Architects who returned with him to his capital and built churches – not as one would expect, of stone or of brick, starting at the foundations and building up, - but by carving them directly out of the rock; starting at the top and digging down. He renamed four hills in the town, Horeb, Zion, Golgotha and Ararat. He named the river that ran through it the river Jordan. On Ararat he built a Church in the shape of Noah’s Ark, on Golgotha, not only the church of the holy sepulchre, but also the tombs of Adam an Eve. Another church houses the tombs of the Patriarchs, while one can also visit Bethlehem, journey through the dark tunnels of hell and enter two types of Paradise – the earthly one and the heavenly one! Writing it now, it sounds like a mediaeval equivalent of a theme park – but a thousand years of continual religious use as given these extraordinary Churches an aura of great sanctity. Were this Egypt – one guide book says – this would have the fame of the sphinx and it would be crawling with tourists. But because it is Ethiopia, and hardly anyone one ever comes here, you feel like a real adventurer discovering sites of incredible beauty for the first time.
Ethiopia really does seem to be a country unlike any other. The cradle of life (the earliest humanoid skeletons were found here) it developed great civilisations that rivalled those of our own. That we know nothing of them just shows the failure of our education – the narrow minded eurocentrism which brings the assumption that all of Africa is primitive. Yet Ethiopia produced a culture that was literate long before we stepped out of woad and animal skins.
As to the Jewish community – that too is of ancient lineage – maybe not as far back as the Queen of Sheba, it nevertheless points us to Judaism far more in keeping with our biblical roots than anything we find in Europe –either Ashkenazi or Sephardi. This Pesach, the synagogue will be host to another African Jewish community – the Abuday from Uganda – another Jewish story. There is a whole world out here of which we know nothing…
Sybil Sheridan will be returning to her duties at Wimbledon and District Synagogue on the 12th May 2009.