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Sister Angelica, St Mary Catholic Church |
"Antonius will be your name," the fragile Sister Angelica with the watery eyes said to me as we parted ways, visibly pleased in her belief that she was doing the work of God by attempting to convert me to Christianity.
By account of this little old lady’s soft hands, with their gentle touch, one could hardly imagine her having any crusader-like ambitions.
Seconds later, outside the St Mary Catholic Church grounds located in the old walled town Harar, a historical Islamic stronghold in eastern Ethiopia, I was approached by a young woman with enlivened eyes.
She wanted to know my name. The tour guide, Tewdros Getahun a.k.a. Tedy, did the introductions. Tedy seemed to know every girl in Harar, which isn’t impossible when you’re 19 and grew up surrounded by the rest of your small town’s estimated 91,000 residents.
Our chatter was small-town-pleasant; we took some photos and then passed the Jamia Mosque, set slightly opposite the nun’s sanctuary.
From the lively yet tranquil mosque, the road winded towards the centre of town where locals were getting drunk at less-than-favourable bars while the sun was making way for the night sky.
All these moments in less than an hour, I thought, wondering how this town became infested with scores of tangible contradictions. Perhaps that’s what makes Harar feel different to most places.
This is a rare part of our world; here it seems time forgot to exist and as if Ethiopian authorities abandoned this former trade centre.
Widespread poverty on the streets is blinding and everything seems to be standing still. Yet in its heyday, when Harar was under Islamic leadership and independent from the rest of Ethiopia between 969 and 1886, it was a trade magnet. Its first leader and spiritual guide was the Emir Abadir from Arabia. Lying near the Red Sea resulted in the settlement of nearby Yemenites who inter-married with the Ethiopian population.
Harar established trade links with nations like India and China long before there was an Indian restaurant and Chinatown in every major world city.
Its reputation also grew as a base for Islamic teaching in this part of Africa.
Bearing testimony are the 88 mosques inside the one-square-kilometre walled town.
Some have even called Harar the fourth holiest Islamic town, after the Middle Eastern centers of worship in Saudi Arabia, and Jerusalem which houses the Dome of the Rock.
By the mid-1500s the Muslim leadership built walls around Harar to keep out expanding tribes from other parts of Ethiopia and to fend off possible conflicts.
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| The main gate of Harar old town |
But come 1887, Ethiopia swallowed Harar under its Emperor Menelik. The town’s walls weren’t destroyed but opening up saw an influx of new influences and around it sprawled what is remains referred to as the ‘new town’.
Despite this, Harar’s old town still displays untouched alleyways, totaling 386, leading one on a visually enriching and time tripping route.
French poet Arthur Rimbaud spent some of the last months of his life in Harar before being buried in 1891. It’s easy to see why he made Harar his home.
This place grows somewhat somberly silent after sunset and has a way of infiltrating under one’s skin.
Culturally, it’s a treasure chest with inhabitants as easygoing as late Sunday afternoons. Despite what might seem like a hole for the world’s forgotten, Harar elicits no shortage of inspiration for those who seek nourishment of the soul instead of simply the senses.
The three-storey wooden house where Rimbaud supposedly resided is now a museum, following intervention from the Ethiopian government to renovate it. “Eight families lived here,” spoke the museum’s guide in heavy tobacco-stained perfect English. “It opened as a museum in 2000. The guest house is for French students who visit for two weeks every year.”
Harar has a sister-city agreement with Charleville in France where Rimbaud was born in 1845. Small, colourful glass has been inserted into the museum’s wooden window panes. The walls were painted breezy blues. One the top floor, which offers 360 views of Harar, murals showcase Ethiopian faces.
When I visited, the first floor exhibited the work of a French photographer, capturing evocative scenes from the sister-cities. This floor also has a mostly French-language exhibition about Rimbaud and photos from the early 1900s of Harar. They’re evidence that not much has changed inside the old town.
Back downstairs on ground floor the museum guide opened a glass door that revealed a library of books about Rimbaud as well as Harar. Two hours after browsing the tiny museum I was ready for yet more history lessons.
To continue…
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