Ambling around Addis

The capital city Addis Ababa (New Flower), founded in 1887 by Emperor Menelik II, is the pivot around which the country seems to move. This city radiates palpable energy that manifests itself everywhere: in its pulsating nightclubs, atmospheric restaurants, sprawling bazaars, spiffy malls. Whirring cement mixers punctuate streets ever so often, while metallic cranes dot the skyline. The city’s quest to bolster its infrastructure, a tangible symbol of modernity and development, is all too evident.

One of the fastest growing cities in Africa, Addis is also the financial nucleus witnessing an unprecedented economic boom. In a fraught global economic climate, Ethiopia has clocked an astounding 11 per cent GDP growth over the last decade.

Culture Crucible
Addis isn’t all about boring economics and finance. It is a repository of millennia-old art and history peppered with museums which offer an engaging peek into the world’s oldest civilisation. Known as the Land of Origins, Ethiopia’s story could be that of humankind. The Ethnographic Museum, smack dab in the heart of town, showcases facets of Ethiopian life, death, customs and cultures. The “Red Terror” Martyrs Memorial Museum is a sombre throwback to the late 1970s, when dictator Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam launched the horrific Red Terror Campaign, massacring thousands.

Addis has a million stories to tell. And, perhaps, the best place to tune into them is at the National Museum on the main King George VI Road. The museum displays rare exhibits dating back to the country’s last emperor, including artwork, royal jewellery, formal apparel and statues. You’ll find them here in segments along with archaeological treasures, the oldest tools in the world and remnants of ancient civilisations.

An assortment of Ethiopian handicrafts

The real treasure, however, can be found in the museum’s dimly-lit basement. I watched in awe the casts of hundreds of bones belonging to a hominid — Lucy — that walked the earth 3.2 million years ago, which have been painstakingly reconstructed. Known to be man’s original ancestor, Lucy’s discovery in 1974 by an American archaeologist in Hadar shed new light on evolution. She walked upright but had a small brain, upending previous theories that humans developed large brains first.

Outside the National Museum

To Market, to Market
After a heavy dose of culture, I headed to merkato — Italian for market — for some fresh air. Addis’s world-famous bazaar is a seemingly endless, al fresco sprawl of vendors selling everything under the sun. Spread across a gently hilly district west of the capital, merkato is miles and miles of tiny, corrugated tin stalls, splintered by narrow alleys into districts. Like Aladdin’s cave, you’ll find a trove here. Gold, silver, rare coins, spices, poultry, coffee, footwear, apparel — there’s even a recycling market, where sandals made out of old tyres, coffee pots made of old tins and other funky stuff can be bought, my guide Assfer tells me.

At first merkato struck me as Addis’ underbelly — grimy, chaotic, ugly. However, closer inspection reveals a meticulous organisation of space and turf with different sections for different products. Merkato claims to be the largest open air market in Africa, and even if you’re not keen to splurge your Birr here, it’s well worth a dekko.

But be warned, a trip here can be both exciting and exasperating. The crowds are impenetrable and the atmosphere so thick, you can slice it with a knife. Vendors are everywhere, peddling wares from pavements or tin shacks doubling as warehouses. Navigating the market, with its flow of vehicles, people and livestock, can be overwhelming. Everyone seems to be rushing, women carrying voluminous bundles or porters with large packets on their heads. Gridlocks are common with goats and donkeys strapped up with heavy cargo, collectively bottlenecking bituminised pathways.

Amidst all this mayhem, my eyes fall upon a beautiful stone statue of Queen of Sheba, the mythical ruler of an ancient city state in what would be modern-day Yemen. At her feet sits a lion, the symbol of Ethiopia’s emperors. Besides her rests an obelisk, a symbol of Axum, a 10th century city in northern Ethiopia. For the Ethiopians, Queen of Sheba (or Makeda) is an icon, and Ethiopian history recounts how she bore King Solomon a child, who eventually left Jerusalem for Axum, taking with him the Ark of the Covenant, and founding a line of emperors that lasted until Haile Selaisse was deposed in 1974.

A Sensory Feast
Despite its unflattering images of starvation and famine, food is one of the highlights of a visit to Ethiopia, Addis in particular. Ethiopian cuisine is nothing if not a sensory feast of flavours and textures. A smorgasbord of spicy wots (stews), vegetarian dishes and lentils, all placed on the spongy bread injera, constitute an everyday meal. The bread is astonishingly versatile, pairing well with both bland lentils and searing hot curries.

Ethiopia also has an entrenched coffee culture which they take very seriously, and coffee ceremonies are ubiquitous. Legend has it the bean was discovered centuries ago by a shepherd in northern Ethiopia. And it’s a real treat to watch traditional Ethiopian coffee being roasted by hand, ground by mortar and pestle, and brewed in a jebena or traditional clay coffee pot.

Be that as it may, the Italian imprimatur on the nation’s coffee drinking habit still persists. Italian migrants have been living in Ethiopia since the 19th century and espresso machines are omnipresent, busting out aromatic macchiatos and shots of espresso. An apt metaphor for a city that has embraced foreign cultures wholeheartedly while cherishing its own.

Neeta Lal is a senior journalist and editor