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Tigray
Cultural Renaissance in the Midst of Ethiopian
Crisis
Ghelawdewos
Araia, PhD
January 20, 2020
IDEA
Celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Tigray
is the quintessential Ethiopian state where
virtually all tangible and intangible cultural
heritages of the Ethiopian nation-state had begun.
Now, in the midst of socio-political crisis that
has engulfed all Ethiopia, by a twist of
historical irony, relative peace has reigned in
Tigray and the abler and extraordinaire Tigrayans
have begun in earnest recapturing and reviving
traditional mores, customs, belief systems, as
well as material cultures that were subdued and
suppressed for a long time.
The
revival of Tigrigna music, Tigray women hairdo,
and the many paraphernalia that accompany those
cultures began some twenty-five years ago, but the
exploration of hidden and forgotten material
and/or conceptual aspects of civilization have
just begun enjoying justice in the last two years,
thanks in large measure to the diligent efforts of
Tigray TV and Dimtsi Woyane TV (DW), the two state
media have brought the remotest and out of sight
Tigrayan heritage to center stage. I will discuss
evidences of cultural revival and exploration by
Tigray mass media by providing examples of some
footage later.
Before
I delve into the new frontiers of the rich residue
of Ethiopian civilization in Tigray, however, I
like to make a footnote in regards to the
incredible Tigrayan altruism and toleration in
embracing and hosting other Ethiopians in spite of
the horrific attacks and killings that the
Tigrayans themselves have sustained in the last
five years.
I
always have maintained that Tigray is not only an
integral part of Ethiopia but it is also its most
crucial embodiment, and to my gratification, the
present Tigray Government leadership, instead of
demanding secession from the Ethiopian body
politic, has on the contrary, came up with a
viable strategy to preserve the Ethiopian
constitution and the federal structure in
cooperation and collaboration with the thirty-four
other Ethiopian federalist forces that have now
established one unified organization. This
wonderful Tigrayan altruistic sentiment, tainted
with tolerance, reminds me of a victim Amish
people in the United States who forgave and
embraced their own killer.
The
narrative of “goodness” vs. evil was captured
by the famous and late African-American Nobel
Laureate Toni Morrison in her Ingersoll Lecture
Series entitled “Altruism and the Literary
Imagination”, and this is how she presented it:
“On an October morning in 2006, a young man
backed his truck into the driveway of a one-room
school house. He walked in the school and after
ordering the boy students, the teacher, and a few
other adults to leave, he lined up the girls, ages
nine to thirteen, and shot them…What made this
massacre especially notable was the fact that its
landscape was an Amish community – notoriously
peaceful and therefore the most unlikely venue for
such violence…The Amish community forgave the
killer, refused to seek justice, demand vengeance,
or even judge him. They visited and comforted the
killer’s widow and children (who are not Amish),
just as they embraced the relatives of the
slain.”1
The
exemplar Amish narrative, in very similar fashion,
was demonstrated by the enormous human capacity
for goodness by the Tigrayan people, and this very
mindset has now served them as vehicle, fulcrum,
and priceless investment in maintaining peace and
order, in engaging in development programs; and in
restoring, exploring, and refurbishing the very
features and dimensions of culture.
In
many of my previous writings, and more
specifically in my book entitled Cultures
that We Must Preserve and Reject (Tigrigna and
Amharic), one of the themes I have addressed was
the unique Ethiopian rock-hewn churches nowhere
else to be found in our planet earth; and I
mentioned the many rock-cut monasteries and their
locations in Tigray. Unfortunately, the rock-hewn
churches in Tigray (126 of them) are not
well-known compared to the eleven churches in
Lalibela, but even the latter are not so familiar
to people outside Ethiopia, compared to the
Egyptian pyramids and temples because the
Ethiopian Ministry of Tourism is in deep slumber.
At any rate, of the 126 rock-hewn churches and
monasteries of Tigray, 94 are fully functional and
they offer Sunday sermons and services to the
Christian worshippers; six of them are residential
edifices to monks, and the rest 26 are dilapidated
and don’t provide any service. The majority of
these churches are found in Enderta (Ger’alta
and Seharti), Kilte Awla’elo (Tsera’e,
Wonberta, Atsbi Dera, Desa, and Tsa’eda Emba),
Tembien (Tanqa-Meles, Tahtay TseTsera, La’elay
TseTsera - Qola Tembien – and Dog’a Tembien;
Agame (Ganta AfeShum, Haramat), Adwa (Emba Seneiti,
Tsedeya), and Aksum (Enda Aba Libanos).2
At
present extensive exposition of the Tigray rock
churches has taken place due to Tigray TV and DW
TV combined documentary films, as already
mentioned above; some of the recent documentary
filming of Churches and monasteries are discussed
below:
1.
The Monastery of Kibtseya
(etymology: from kebitseya (Tigrigna), meaning
“I have given up on it”) is located in the
District of Amba Alage, sub-district Fana in
Southern Tigray, some 120 km to the south of
Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray Regional State.
The Church reflects unique 14th century
architecture, and the monks in the monastery claim
the church is 800 years old; additionally, they
say that the oak tree in the monastery is 500
years old and serves as an open-air court whereby
criminals convicted of murder are tied against the
tree and are given a chance to repent. In this
monastery, the monks cohabit with wild animals and
predators such as leopards and they even pay
visits to the newly born beasts.
2.
The Monastery of Aba Yohanni,
located in Qola Tembien district, is supposedly
established by Abuna Aron in the 6th
century Common Era (CE) during the reign of King
Gebremeskel. In this splendid rock-hewn church,
one can see four hanging stone bells that are used
for announcing liturgy procedures; and the unique
cross that the monks call the “fish cross”, a
different design from the Aksum processional cross
is found in this monastery; the “fish cross”
is also known in the rest of Ethiopia as Afro
Ayigeba and it is for the most part associated
with Lalibela churches. In nearby to Aba Yohanni,
there are ten exquisite rock-hewn churches.
3.
The Mariam Denglat monastery
church, located at the District of Sae’se’e in
Tsaeda Emba (Kilte Awla’elo) could be reached by
climbing forty-meter long ropes only, but
according to the local historians or oral
tradition, in lieu of the present ropes, there
were ladders stuck on the parallel double holes
dug unto the rocky mountain; the ladders are long
gone but the engraved holes are still visible;
now, it has been proposed that some Italian
engineers would install iron ladders unto the
rocks, but while the idea is good, in order to
preserve the sacredness of Mariam Denglat and
honor the religiosity of the monks, I suggest that
Ethiopian engineers should take the task of fixing
ladders to the rock mountain of the monastery.
4.
The monastery of Abuna Nazrawi,
situated in the sub-district of Hawzen in Agame is
202 km to the north of Mekelle. This monastery too
can be reached by climbing using ropes. It is very
similar to Mariam Dinglat and the monastery of
Abuna Aregawi Debre Damo. One of the obvious
reasons for making it difficult to access these
monasteries is the demand for solitude by the
monks and the significance of aloofness and
self-containment in prayers, as well as observance
of other religious requirements in a serene
environment.
5.
The monastery of Asira-Metira
is found in Atsbi Womberta (Kilte-Awla’elo,
sub-district Qal Amin, is believed to have been
founded by Abuna Estifanos during the reign of
King Gebremeskel in the early 6th
century CE; the fact that many monasteries were
established during Gebremeskel is not surprising
because the king, the son of the legendary King
Kaleb, commissioned the arts and the construction
of churches along with his contemporaries Abuna
Aregawi (one of the nine saints) and St. Yared,
the founder of church hymn and father of Ethiopian
music; apparently, it was Yared who first composed
musical notations or more appropriately hymn
notations for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo
Chruch (EOTC). Interestingly, as in Abba Yohanni,
one can see metal round belles at Asira Metira as
well; the monastery is cohabited by monks and nuns
and some of the nuns have gone as far as Israel to
study irrigation techniques and apple farming
methods, and as a result this monastery now boasts
a 5-6 hectare farm that accommodates close to one
thousand apple trees; the monks and nuns of this
monastery strongly believe in self sufficiency
through hard work as per the precepts accorded to
the Biblical Adam and they reject begging and
dependency.
6.
The monastery of Gunda Gunde,
found in Agame, Irob district, is surrounded by
rugged mountains and rough terrain and is
virtually impenetrable unless one belongs to that
locality and would know the way and means to reach
the sloppy hills of the monastery. In this kind of
environment, travelers could easily lose sense of
direction; that was what happened to the Ras
Woldeselassie’s forces who came to pursue the
Dejazmach Subagdis fighters in the early 19th
century; they lost their way and they were forced
to go back to Cheleqot where they came from; the
brave DW journalists who ventured to document the
Gunda Gunde monastery have also lost their way
until ultimately they got assistance from the
local people who cooperated in touring them
around. I personally believe ecologies like the
Gunda Gunde and vast deserts like the Sahara could
have an impact on our entorhinal cortex, the area
in the brain that is responsible for sense of
direction; for pious Christian Ethiopians,
however, the loss of direction around sacred
places emanates from the divine power of the
saints after whose name the monasteries are
founded; oral tradition has it that Ahemd Gragn,
who destroyed and burned hundreds of monasteries
in the middle of the 16th century,
could not do so to some churches because they were
either “hidden” from his sight or his forces
got lost in the wilderness of the monasteries. If
one manages to reach the Gunda Gunde monastery,
however, as the DW journalists finally did, s/he
would enjoy not only the hospitality of the
villagers near the monastery but also have an
opportunity to grab the delicious orange fruits of
Gunda Gunde.
7.
The monastery of Abuna
Yama’ata (one of the nine saints) documentary
video that I watched was produced by other film
making travelers and not Tigay TV or DW TV.
Tourists and believers have to make their way up
the rocky mountain literally hanging in the air;
like Mariam Dinglat, there are holes dug unto the
rock of the mountain side and sojourners have to
step carefully unto the holes, climb up, and
finally walk on the narrow street-like strip on
the edge of the church; it is one of the most
frightening rock-climbing mountain monastery in
the whole of Ethiopia; I personally believe that
one must have a unique climbing ability or the
agility of a goat in order to successfully reach
the top of Abuna Yama’ata.
Cultural renaissance is also
taking place in other frontiers, including the
renewal and/or revival of traditional music and
dance, as well as the promotion of development
projects in agriculture and industry as we shall
see below. Most of the events documented by DW or
Tigray TV were produced during Ethiopian Christmas
holiday of 2020 (EC 2012).
Medebay
Zana is
found in the North-Western (Semien Mi’erabawi)
zone of Tigray and is surrounded by the Central
Zone to the East; La’elay Adiabo to the North;
Asgade Tsimbla to the South-West; Tahtay Koraro to
the North-West; and by the Tekeze River to the
South. The event in Medebay Zana was dominated by
musical entertainment and Tigrigna dance,
accompanied by Chira Waţa (Ethiopian violin;
also known as Masinqo in central Ethiopia) the
Meleket (trumpet) playing group. There is no doubt
that these Chira Waţa and Meleket performing
artists have well–preserved the Tigray musical
culture, but the dancers somehow distorted he
Tigrigna dance by haphazardly moving around in
circles. Tigrigna dance has two levels of
choreography: the first one is known as Kuda, in
which case the dancers move in a form of a ring by
elegant back and forth steps of the feet, and in
this regard the women were better than their
counterpart men because they very well performed
in a ballet-like formalized steps while at the
same time maintain the tip of their toes in
graceful steps; the men, by contrast, were unable
to dance in the manner the women did, and worse
they were throwing their elbows and shoulders
downwards while moving, which is not a Tigrigna
dance at all. The second level of Tigrigna dance
(the climax) is known as Miwaal and dancers at
this stage stop from moving around in circles and
organize themselves in duets (in most cases, a man
and a woman), facing each other while they move
and shake their shoulders as if to challenge each
other; it is in effect a friendly and/or romantic
gesture expressed in dancing; moreover, the duets
usually, but not always, celebrate their dance by
turning around (facing opposite directions) and
scratching each other’s back. All this beautiful
melodramatic Tigrigna choreography is now at a
great risk because the young generation seems to
have lost the traditional values of Tigrigna
dance.
The youth must learn dance
from the relatively old people who still maintain
the very essence and characteristics of Tigrigna
dance, and should perform by example to the very
young boys and girls (ages 7-12) who participated
in the extravaganza of Medebay Zana..
The other two events that I
found quite interesting are the Gumaye
rich culture of Raya and the traditional smoke
sauna produced by Tigray TV. Gumaye is an
expression of love and admiration of beauty,
including nature, both animate and inanimate; the
songs or hymn of Gumaye are somewhat similar to
the crying women chorus during mourning and
funeral in mainland Tigray; it is also very much
like opera duet expressing and/or exchanging ideas
by the performers on stage; in the Raya case, the
venue could be the plain field or the stage in an
auditorium. So, the two men who performed for
Tigray TV could either concurrently express
themselves or opt for non-simultaneous
performances, and their songs (the Gumaye) could
either be the same in content (e.g. expressing
love to women) or simply admiring the landscape as
one of the Gumaye performer presented it to the
Tigray TV female journalist who was holding an
open umbrella over her head; the Gumaye singer,
incidentally, was admiring the mountains
surrounding the town of Mekoni of Raya Azebo.
The smoke sauna, which I like
to label “organic sauna”, popularly known as Ṫish or Ṫush, is practiced almost all over
Ethiopia, but what makes the Tigray traditional
sauna different is the Tigray hairdo which is
known as Quno and which comes in different styles
such as Difin and Gilbich, and for teenage girls
and young women it is Ga’me, that the smoked and
buttered women wear. The women are smeared with
locally made butter known as Leꝅay on top of their entire
head; then, they are totally covered with the
Shamala (cape-like blanket) and they sit on a
special wood burning smoke that comes from a round
hole under the women in Ṫush; beneath the Shamala is
just the skin; for effective cleansing the women
are smoked naked.
Other important documentary
made by Tigray TV is the Raya Horti (Horticulture)
and the Desta Berhe Vegetable and Fruits Farm,
which is an impressive and extensive 50-hecatare
irrigation farm that produces 26 different kinds
of vegetables, including cucumber, broccoli, okra,
iceberg, eggplant, cauliflower, Zucchini,
strawberries etc., not to mention pepper,
tomatoes, and pepperoni.
There are now many modern
irrigation farms especially in the Raya and Shire
area, two zones of Tigray which are suitable for
extensive agriculture; some of these farms are
mega projects; others are small but viable for
supplying produce and marketing, and of the latter
type of farms, which has now become a model is
that of Almaz Baltina that produces organically
produced pepper and Shiro and this farm, named
after the owner Almaz Tsehaye, is located in Shire
Endaselassie and sends its produce to major cities
in Ethiopia such as Mekelle and Addis Ababa. There
is no doubt that Almaz, a strong and confident but
descent women can be a real model not only for
women but also for men who aspire to be successful
entrepreneurs.
One industry initiated by
Diaspora Ethiopians and which is still under
construction is the Raya Alamata Paper Industry
which is situated on 1500 hectares and is
prospected to hire 1000 workers; this is a major
industry with initial 140 investors and it could
be one of the biggest paper (in pieces and in
bundles) producing industry in Ethiopia that could
potentially supply paper to firms, whole sellers,
and retail industries to all Ethiopia and
neighboring African countries.
One final thing I want to
mention, which apparently is more relevant to me
personally as an educator, is the Geez language
course offering initiated by Aksum University,
which is a wonderful achievement. Geez, which is
now confined to the EOTC, was once the language of
the elite and grassroots populations during the
heyday of the Aksumite Empire and civilization.
But the most important thing associated with Geez
is the fact that the original and authentic
civilization of ancient and late antiquity of
Ethiopia in this language. Ultimately, thus,
mastering Geez would enable Ethiopian scholars,
intellectuals, and researchers to penetrate into
the greatness of ancient and medieval Ethiopia
that have yet to be explored and written. If
Ethiopians achieve their goals in rediscovering
and revitalizing Geez language, then the real
renaissance for all Ethiopia will become a reality
of admirable success. That will be the day!
The Tigray renaissance is
indeed promising, but all the rosy scenarios I
documented in this text should be understood in
the context of the many social and political
(mainly administrative) problems that have
directly affected the likelihood of the people of
Tigray and that are not resolved yet. It should
also be known that the renaissance phenomenon in
Tigray has occurred by default, following the
so-called reform/change a couple of years ago in
Ethjiopia; we all know that Tigray was almost
forgotten in the 27-year EPRDF rule and the people
of Tigray have yet to come to terms with problems
associated to cadre ill governance that frustrated
and angered so many Tigrayans.
By way of concluding, I like
to underscore that the Tigray renaissance would be
incomplete without Ethiopian nation-wide renewal,
and full-fledged florescence should come for the
entire Ethiopia if indeed the country is going to
be not only economically viable but also competent
in the global political economy in general and
international trade in particular. The Tigray
renaissance should set an exemplar model for the
rest of Ethiopia, but Ethiopia’s development
agenda has now encountered a major hurdle coming
from counter-revolutionary forces affiliated to
the new regime that has embraced neo-liberalism at
the risk of abandoning or stalling major
foundational economies such as infrastructure
(e.g. the Awash-Hara Gebeya-Kombelcha-Mekelle
railroad; intriguingly, “Mekelle” is now
omitted from the lexicon of all state media that
broadcast on the this railroad), power (the
Ethiopian Light and Power Authority – ELPA –
is next to Telecom to be sold or privatized), and
delaying the construction and completion of other
projects necessary for the advancement of industry
and agriculture (e.g. the Grand Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam – GERD - ).
A new email exchange that IDEA
has obtained with respect to GERD is contrary to
what Gedu Andargachew boasted as an Ethiopian
success following the Washington DC meeting of
Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt in which also the World
Bank and the United States were represented. The
new information actually reveals that there were
secret dealings in which Ethiopia will cede 75% of
the Nile waters to Egypt and Sudan, and
effectively honoring what Egypt had been arguing
all along as its “historic right”, i.e.
reaffirming its colonial treaty rights. We wish
the information IDEA got is false; otherwise, the
systematic arrest of GERD could infuriate
Ethiopians who made enormous contributions toward
its construction and could instigate uproar of the
people and ultimately lead to a mass rebellion.
The Ethiopian crisis is
seemingly inexorable unless the
counter-revolutionary forces are defeated, both at
party and government levels, in the forthcoming
election, but in the event the “reformists”
prevail but the Ethiopian crisis continues, the
Ethiopian defense forces, if still intact, should
intervene and save Ethiopia from further
destruction; and as Addis Fortune aptly puts it,
“Does it require the army to intervene if and
when constitutional provisions are violated and
trampled by the political class? Or any other
group for that matter! Leaders of the Ethiopian
Defense Forces would do historical justice in not
only safeguarding the constitutional order but
also in their determination to not submit to
unconstitutional demands that come from the
political establishment.”3
Notes:
1.
Toni Morrison, Goodness and the Literary Imagination, University of Virginia Press,
2019, p. 13
2.
Ghelawdewos Araia, Cultures that We Must Preserve and Reject መንከባከብና ማስወገድ ያለብን ባህሎች፣ ክንዕቅቦምን ክንነፅጎምን ዘለና ባህልታት 2005/2008
editions
3.
Addis
Fortune Editorial: The Ethiopian Army at a
Conceptual Crossroads, December 28, 2019
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