Arie in Ethiopia: The Merkato

I was on a plane for Obama's inauguration, so I didn't get to see it. But I didn't miss his speech. For days afterward, vans were driving around Addis Ababa with loudspeakers broadcasting it. OK, so I didn't hear it all at once, but I got the gist. There isn't as much Obamania here as there was in Kenya or Uganda, but he's still everywhere. Even the local news (or is that Al Jazeera?) -- "something something something OBAMA something something GAZA something something OBAMA something ISRAEL something something". One evening late at night I was standing on the balcony of my hotel room looking over the city and suddenly from a PA system I heard "PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA!" And then silence. Here's a photo of a street in Addis.

I stopped by the Sheraton today. It was pretty amazing. I'm used to thinking of the Sheraton as a mid-range hotel -- nice, clean beds, but nothing fancy. Not in Addis Ababa. In Addis, the Sheraton is a massive compound in the middle of the city. Once you get through the gates (and they don't let taxis in), you get to beautifully manicured gardens and an enormous building. The lobby is beautiful. I didn't get to see a room -- $300/night is slightly out of my price range -- but I'm sure they're amazing. I think it's a hotel for rich first worlders who really aren't interested in being in Ethiopia. I heard from a female friend that it's an uncomfortable lobby in the evenings -- there are basically only Saudi businessmen and prostitutes. And she wasn't wearing a turban. No wonder she was getting dirty looks.

From the Sheraton we walked to the Piazza, a neighborhood in the northern part of Addis that has a strong Italian influence. Addis is a very hilly town, and it's about eight thousand feet above sea level. Even coming from Kampala, which is 4000 feet up, I had a bit of altitude trouble. Not outright altitude sickness or anything, but I was often out of breath at the top of a hill. Also I had a sore throat, which is apparently an altitude thing.

Anyway, we made it to the Piazza (shown), which is just a little place where a bunch of streets meet and there's a tiny little green space, a few bushes and trees. A homeless man lying in the bushes saw us walking by and yelled pretty much every obscenity in the English language. I was impressed with his English, honestly. Most people here don't have such good accents.

The Piazza is the upscale part of Addis -- the more expensive stores and restaurants are around here. It's also the area that bears the most obvious Italian influence, with coffee shops scattered around.

Our first stop was the St. George Cathedral, coronation site of Haile Selassie (and a pilgrimage site for Rastafari). Saint George is the patron saint of Ethiopia. His relics were carried into the Battle of Adwa against Italy in 1896, the only time an African army defeated a European one in a large-scale conflict (although it was Italy, so it barely counts). Italy burnt it down in retaliation for an attempt to assassinate the Italian viceroy during the occupation, but it was rebuilt in 1941.

After seeing the church, we decided to get some coffee. Although coffee is now grown all over the world, it's native to the Kaffe region of Ethiopia. Allegedly a shepherd (named Kaldi) noticed that his sheep were more energetic after eating the beans (you could read the Ethiopian Legend of Dancing Goats). Traditionally in Ethiopia it was used for religious ceremonies -- until the early part of the twentieth century, it wasn't legal to drink it in a secular context. It made it to Europe through the middle east -- the Pope was asked to ban it because it was a "Muslim drink", but in 1600 he said it was fine. (It was also repressed by Islamic authorities at various times, and the Mormons still ban it.) To preserve their monopoly, Arab states prohibited the export of unroasted beans or plants, but Dutch smugglers brought plants to Europe.

Coffee is one of Ethiopia's major exports. Something I didn't know is that it takes about one hundred and forty liters of water -- eleven hundred and twenty cups -- to grow the beans for one cup of coffee. It was actually banned by Ethiopia's Christian community until the late nineteenth century, being seen as a Muslim drink. It's a big export of Uganda, though something that surprised me is that it didn't come to Uganda directly from Ethiopia -- Europeans brought it there from Brazil in the nineteenth century.

Anyway, we went to a little coffee shop and I had some. I don't normally drink coffee, but this seemed like the time to start. After coffee, we had a traditional Ethiopian lunch, then went to the Merkato.

The Merkato is a gigantic market. It got its start during the Italian occupation, when the Italians wouldn't let Arabs use the primary market, so they relocated to the west of the city. Over time local merchants moved in as well, and now it's this enormous market -- it covers several square miles and more than ten thousand people work there. It's the largest market in Africa. (The primary market grew up into the Piazza.)

The Merkato isn't like the other markets I've been to in Africa. In Uganda, the markets were sort of large makeshift structures made of wooden planks and plywood sheets and whatever else they could find, with the interiors roughly divided into cubicle-type arrangements for individual vendors. (The markets in Cambodia were similar.) But the Merkato is more like a western strip-mall for pedestrians -- the individual stores are real buildings and there's no real center. Instead, it's just store after store after store.

Like other markets, though, there are districts. We approached through the electronics district, which was basically a lot of guys selling all sorts of little mechanisms and devices. There were also lots of people selling DVDs. We wandered around for a while. There were roads through most of the Merkato, and occasionally cars would drive by, but most of the traffic was pedestrian. As you can see, the roads aren't in good condition.

One of the striking things was the people carrying enormous loads. It's routine to see people bent half-way over with a gigantic package on their shoulders as they walk very quickly. Sometimes children, but generally adult men. The stuff looked very very heavy. I guess that's the primary mode of transport.

Unfortunately, the Merkato is a hotbed for pickpocketing. Prepared, I had left most of my valuables in the hotel safe and kept a close eye on the rest.

We wandered into the khat district of the Merkato. In the road was an enormous pile of plant stalks (shown). I guess the plants are brought into the neighborhood whole and the sellers strip the leaves off. Khat is a shrub that likely originated in Ethiopia whose leaves and stems contain an amphetamine-like chemical. Ancient Egyptians believed that it unlocks divine energy when chewed. It's not incredibly potent -- on the contrary, it's considered less harmful and less habit-forming than tobacco and alcohol.

I'd heard little about khat before coming to Africa, but in this part of the world it's very popular. Major growth countries include Yemen, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Some estimate that forty percent of Yemen's water is used to irrigate khat. Somalia banned khat during Ramadan and there were street protests. A majority of Yemenis chew khat. Saudi Arabia, however, vigorously enforces a ban on it.

Kaht is only potent when fresh (the active chemical breaks down within forty-eight hours) and only grows in this region, so for most of history it was only used in this area. Air travel has brought khat to other parts of the world. The WHO has not scheduled khat because it's viewed as a regional problem. Khat was banned in the United States in 1993. Here's a photo of a sheep skull that was sitting in the road near my hotel.

The Merkato is also the site of an enormous coffee auction every morning, but we had missed that by many hours. Also I don't buy coffee by the kilogram.

More of my trip to Ethiopia coming soon.