Strolling through Harar

Inside the old walled city of Harar, narrow lanes twist their way uphill and downhill in a confusing maize, offering unexpected treasures: An underground cinema which can hold more than 500 spectators, the birth place and later residence of Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia, with an impressive adjacent library, an Indian merchant’s house often mistakenly called Rimbaud’s Home, since it was built on the site where the French poet Arthur Rimbaud was said to have lived while working as a coffee trader and gun-runner in Harar between 1875 and 1884, Anisas colorful Guest House, and adding a special flair is the city’s bustling street life. Men are playing domino and chequers in coffee houses, street vendors squat on the ground offering their goods, Tailors Street is humming with people. A man carries a sewing machine on his back, ready to install himself and to begin work. Another is busily peddling on his antique Singer, changing a zipper, a third sows a gown and further down, yet another tailor is adorning a nearly finished garment with beads and ribbons while young women stand in groups laughing, chatting, waiting to take home their clothes or selecting a piece of shiny artificial silk or satin to order a new one. A young girl hangs colorful washings on the UNESCO World Heritage Site wall, another tows a heavily loaded donkey home. A man in dirty rags and of undistinguishable age sleeps off his stupor of khat and shisha in a street corner. In the meat market, a swarm of eagles lingers on the roof top of the hall, waiting for a treat.

Harar is also famous for its hyena feeding ceremony which takes place every evening outside the city wall.The origin of feeding the hyenas dates back to the great famine between 1888 and 8192 when wild hyenas scavenged the town at night in search of food. After the drought, the people of Harar started feeding the hyenas to tame the animals so that during another shortage of food supply they would not attack men or live-stock. Today the tradition is held up by the hyena men who perform the feeding of wild hyenas for a living.

“…. Illuminated by a single light bulb, a man sat on a small stool on a hillside over-grown with brush. Next to him stood a big basket covered with a cloth. Few people had gathered around him. He clapped his hands and waited for a moment. Then he took a piece of raw meat from the basket, spiked it on the tip of a stick and took the other end of the stick into his mouth. Like shadows from the underworld, two hyenas appeared over the top of the hillside. They ran towards the man and jumped at the piece of meat. The lucky one ran away with the prize, the other sniffed around the basket until it received a piece of meat. More and more hyenas materialized out of the dark, drawn by the smell of blood. They circled around the man and the basket ready to jump at any moment at the meat offered to them. Meanwhile, another man had piled a bunch of bloody bones into a heap. The smell of fresh blood, raw meet and bone attracted the hyenas. They turned away from the man with the basket and jumped at the pile of bones, fighting for the best pieces, growling, gnarling and baring their sharp teeth at each other. When the last bone was gnawed cleaned, the hyenas vanished into the night without leaving a trace.”
(Harar, april 2019)