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Three weeks ago I was in Harar.
Harar?
Where is that ?, you ask.
Harar is an ancient walled city 500 km east of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is in Africa. Some say its the 4th holiest city for Islam after Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem, but that is arguable. It was a center for Muslim trade and learning a few hundred years ago, but today it is just an old city with dozens of old mosques with some dating back hundreds of years. Harar's streets are so narrow that in places, only one person can pass through at a time. And the people of Harar are very friendly, so its a great place for street photography.
Here are a few photos of the inside of the walled city of Harar. Its only about 1 sq km in total size, but 82 mosques, three of which date back to the 10th century, 102 shrines, 382 narrow streets, and the tiny homes of nearly 40,000 people are crammed inside the walls. As there were no good hotels, we stayed in a homestay owned by a Muslim lady called Khatija. It was very basic and we had to share one bathroom and one toilet. Water was available intermittently, and electricity was also intermittent. People of Harar tend to sit around just chatting with each other, and chewing Chat, a kind of plant that has mild stimulant effects.
The next photo is a view of people busy with their morning chores in Harar.
More than 80 percent of the people in Harar are Muslims, with the rest being orthodox Christians.
Lots of young people sell food on the narrow pavements of Harar:
This Muslim man had a beard dyed orange with hanna.
But I came to Harar to see holy men feeding wild and vicious Hyenas. Not just feeding them with pieces of meat, but actually feeding them mouth to mouth. Pieces of meat are put on a stick held between the Hyena man's own teeth. The Hyenas come up to his face to pluck the meat
Hyenas are believed to be able to chase Djinns or evil spirits, and people believe Hyenas can even foretell if its going to be a good or bad year for crops. The Hyena men of Harar call out to the wild Hyenas living in the bushland around the city, and they are fed with meat and offal every night. Once a year, on Ashura (the tenth of the month of Muharram in the Islamic calendar), one of the sheikhs of four rotating shrines would call out to the hyenas and feed them a bowl of wheat porridge to divine the city’s future in the coming year. If the hyena ate deeply, it would be a year of plenty. If not, then not. The feeding of Hyenas probably began initially as a practice to placate Hyenas from attacking livestock and people, but it eventually developed into a regular ritual related to spirits and prophecies
Sometimes the meat is simply given by hand to the Hyenas ... which is not really advisable, because hyenas have teeth and jaws which are very powerful, which can easily crush bones. Some years ago, while camping out in the Serengeti in Tanzania, I heard a lot of noise outside my tent. Peeking out through my tent flap, I saw hyenas rummaging through our camping cooking stuff. I knew it was perfectly safe, as long as I stayed inside the tent and not go out, because the tent is perceived as a solid object and animals couldn't comprehend that there were edible morsels inside. Anyway, next morning, upon checking our mess tins and empty food cans, we saw some puncture marks made by the hyenas teeth .... so you really dont want to mess around with hyenas.
It seems strange to be standing just a few paces from a pack of vicious wild Hyenas, and yet feeling quite safe that these wild hyenas are not attacking us. In fact at the invitation of the Hyena Man, one of the participants of my PhotoSafari to Ethiopia was brave enough to go and sit by his side during the feeding. Sally appeared a little apprehensive but the Hyena man assured her that the beasts will not harm her. Here's a photo of Sally with the Hyena Man of Harar.as he was feeding them.
In fact, one of the Hyenas even stood on Sally's shoulder to get q piece of meat from the Hyena man. Brave girl.
The next photo should give you an impression of how huge these Hyenas are. The Hyena's neck is easily the size of a man's chest. If they should decide to wrap those powerful jaws around a human head, they could easily crush our puny skulls. Now you can see why I was scared to fool around with these wild animals. So Sally is very brave.
Ethiopia is fascinating. I was there last year, and the year before that. And I came again this year because there is so much more to see in Ethiopia. I intend to return to Harar and to Ethiopia again sometime in January of 2015, for another photosafari with about 6 amateur photographer friends. If anybody from this forum wants to join me in this non-profit, shared cost photosafari to Ethiopia in January of 2015, please send me a message. I can probably accommodate upto 4 more people. Check out my past photosafaris to exotic places at
MY PHOTOSAFARI WEBSITE
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