Over Lake Tana on a twilight
descent into Addis Ababa
a glance to the northwest
revealed a cluster of mushroom
thunderheads with lightning
bolt stems set
against a burnt orange sky
crowned by radiant Venus
Out the starboard window on the flight to Addis Ababa, the Nile was a glowing snake slithering through the Nubian desert. Over the Ethiopian Highlands the aircraft descended through a grey ceiling above a bright green quilt of farms and huge, extinct volcanoes rising from the Rift Valley: scattered grass-hut-villages felt like a another planet after the staid landscape of Northern Europe. After years circumnavigating the globe, Nick would land in the nation where our Australopithecine ancestors evolved.
During final approach the 7,726’ capital never looked so verdant. On the hotel balcony later that evening the roar of lions echoed throughout the city. At dawn, he was awakened not by Allahu Akbar, but by an Orthodox Christian muezzin calling the faithful to prayer over loudspeakers in Ge’ez, a language related to the Coptic Church of Egypt. Exiting the hotel in search of a cab, a swarm of impoverished children descended from the shantytown across the street to beg just as a decrepit taxi arrived to spirit him away.
He first made a pilgrimage to Trinity Cathedral where Haile Selassie (1892-1975) was finally laid to rest. Now in a marble sarcophagus alongside his wife, the former Emperor’s bones were exhumed from beneath an Imperial Palace toilet in 1992. He’d been imprisoned after the 1974 Marxist coup d’etat led by Mengistu Haile Miriam, then was reportedly murdered in 1975, suffocated with a pillow. Selassie, who ruled for 45 years, was revered as a leader of African Independence through his bold opposition to Italian Colonization (1935-1941) and for being one of the founders of the African Union.
It’s claimed he is a lineal descendent from the union of biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (the biblical “Queen of the South” who “came from the uttermost parts of the earth, with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones", I Kings 10:2) during a trade mission to Jerusalem. Their son Menelik I established the Ethiopian House of Solomon in the 10th century BC after Sheba’s death. King Solomon purportedly sent Israelis to help his son rule and gifted him the Ark of the Covenant containing the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. Ethiopia became Christian in 325 CE when Ezana was crowned Emperor in Axum. Those who refused to convert revolted and became Beta Israel, fleeing to the more defensible terrain around Lake Tana and forming an independent Jewish state with its capital at Gondar. The Christian royal house of Axum continued the biblical lineage interrupted only when Yekuno Amlak re-established the Solomonic Dynasty by defeating the Zagwe interlopers in 1270 CE.
The House of Solomon was the foundation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church and Haile Selassie became known to Rastafarians as the Lion Of Judah, or Ras Tafari (Prince Tafari), God’s representative on Earth: “King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Elect of God and Light of the World, his own divine Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I”.
During a state visit to Jamaica in 1955, Haile Selassie offered Ethiopian land to African descendants throughout the Caribbean. Many Rastafarians subsequently settled in the town of Shashemene, a few hours south of Addis. The Rastafarians who arrived were actually fulfilling the philosophy of Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican activist of the 1920s who founded the United Negro Improvement Association and encouraged the African diaspora to return home to bring an end to European colonization. The Rastafarians also considered Garvey a visionary as he predicted a black King would lead the dark skinned people of the world to deliverance in an African Promised Land: “Look to Africa for there a King will be crowned”. When Ras Tafari Makonnen was coronated in November, 1930, the Rastafarians took his name to honor the realization of Marcus Garvey’s prophecy. Ethiopia is considered the Land of Zion by the Rastas, with many viewing Haile Selassie (Jah) as the Second Coming of Christ. To this day many think that because God cannot be killed, Haile Selassie’s death was a hoax, while others believe his spirit lives on.
The famine of 1983-85 was one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 20th century and made world headlines. Civil war, poor harvests and a Biblical drought led to the deaths of over 1 million Ethiopians.
In May 1991, as political unrest arose across Ethiopia due to the failure of the Mengistu Regime to defeat the rebellious provinces of Eritrea and Tigray (the former voting for independence in 1993 followed by a twenty-year border war, and the latter a bitter, ongoing conflict with the Tigray Peoples Liberation Army currently marching on Addis), Israel made a covert plan called Operation Solomon to airlift all remaining Ethiopian Jews to Tel Aviv. It was the third and final Aliyah mission returning Ethiopian Jews to Israel, the other two being Operations Moses & Joshua, but Solomon was the most ambitious: 35 Israeli aircraft airlifted 14,323 Ethiopian Jews in a 36 hour period, with one El Al 747 setting a passenger record carrying 1,088, including two births on board.
In the National Museum of Ethiopia, up Niger Street from Trinity Cathedral past the lion house, are the 3.4 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis bones of “‘Lucy’ In the Sky with Diamonds” and “Ardi” a 4.4 million-year-old Ardipithecus ramidus, found respectively in 1974 & 1992 in the Afar Depression of the Great Rift Valley in the Hadar desert east of Addis.
Lucy was related to the same bipedal group of early hominids that left the seventy 3.6 million-year-old Laetoli Footprints found in the volcanic ash of Tanzania. Older by almost 2 million years, Ardi’s pelvis suggests she might have been a transitory genus, combining both tree climbing and bipedal attributes. Not only is Ethiopia Zion in a religious sense, but in a human evolutionary sense as well.
After the museum visit Nick grabbed another rickety cab and headed north up steep, winding Algeria Street to the top of the mountain overlooking Addis Ababa. There at 9,570’ King Menelik II (1844-1913) built Entoto Maryam Church and the Emperor’s Palace. He was crowned King of Kings and Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah in November 1889. Menelik II is still celebrated for leading Ethiopian troops to the only victory of an African nation over colonizing Europeans (Italy) in history at the 1896 Battle of Adwa. Under Mussolini the Italians successfully returned in 1935.
After exploring the ancient lineage of the capital, he boarded an Ethiopian Air Cessna to Bahir Dar on Lake Tana in the Ethiopian Highlands, source of the Blue Nile, with monasteries on 19 out of its 37 islands purportedly having held the holy of holies at various times. Historically housed in the Saint Mary of Zion Church in Axum, The Ark of the Covenant is moved between churches for security reasons, evidenced by the 800 Ethiopians reportedly killed in February 2020 protecting Saint Mary’s church against a rebel attack: “Amnesty said witnesses could easily identify the Eritrean forces by their vehicles’ licence plates, distinctive camouflage and footwear, as well as their use of Arabic or dialects not spoken in Ethiopia. Some told residents they were Eritrean.” (theguardian.com 2/21/21)
He took a long boat across the muddy waters of the largest lake in Ethiopia (55 x 41 miles @ 5,866’) to Marzio Island to visit Kebran Gabriel. When they beached it was like taking a step back in time as the soothing sound of cooing doves filled the air, huge spiders clung to tremendous webs in the treetops and a multitude of eagles bobbed on branches hunting for fish. Except for the doves it was totally silent. The twelfth-century circular church with dark, eight-hundred-year-old paintings of St. George inside, is set atop a hill with a sunrise view over calm lake waters. A gnarled monk in a white robe chanted in ancient Ge’ez as papyrus boats swept past on the lake below, while huge white pelicans floated peacefully and Nile perch flopped on its radiant surface. The Lake Tana region became the locale for most of the Beta Israel people descended from Jews arriving before 650 BCE because of their revolt; Jewish historians have deduced this based on their style of worship and sacrifice practiced over two and half millennia before being airlifted to Israel.
The 18-mile drive downriver from the source of the Blue Nile is lined with varying tribes in colorful garb, with all males carrying a long stick to swat cattle. On the journey he glimpsed the eternal female from the time of Christ in white robe with red sash around her waist balancing a pitcher atop her head walking through a field of wheat. Their destination was Tis Abay, “Great Smoke” in Amharic, a 138’ high thunderous waterfall where “The Grand Canyon of the Nile” begins a 5,000’ drop on a 900 mile journey to its confluence with the White Nile at Khartoum, Sudan. The spray of the falls soothed the skin in the hot, dry high altitude air as it wafted through lush stands of trees. It’s not known precisely how long this stretch of river is because the gorge is practically impenetrable, although it was rafted in 1968 by a British expedition. Naturalists say the falls are a demarcation between the flora and fauna of the highlands and gorge, with species taking different evolutionary paths in the two distinct ecological regions. The Blue Nile is also the source of 80% of Nile water as it flows approximately 1,000 miles north from the Sudanese capital to the Mediterranean, or some 2,000 miles from Lake Tana, interrupted only by the new Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, 10 miles from the Sudanese border.
The following day Nick took another hopper from Bahir Dar airport to Lalibela where 11 Christian churches are carved into basalt. During the Fokker 50 flight there were endless green mountains strewn with conical grass-roofed huts with stick walls below. Occasionally, clusters of these classic African huts formed villages with cattle and crops surrounding them. Close to each settlement was always a grove of trees encircling a circular Christian church. The Lalibela airport (8,065’) was a dirt strip with a two room terminal while the potholed road into town was lined with vibrant poinsettia scattered throughout a village of dark, grass-roofed, two-story-high-conical-huts made of rounded boulders.
Built by King Lalibela in the 12th century, there are two complexes of churches rough hewn from red basalt, six in the north and 4 in the south connected by natural and carved passageways, with one called the Jordan River. Each rock-cut church carved into basalt through trenching around and down to form a block, then cutting doors in the base to hollow the structure out from the inside is an architectural marvel. To the west is the most famous and most exquisite: Beta Giyorgis, or Church of Saint George, cross-shaped and 36’ deep, with three doors and twelve ornamental windows.
According to the Ethiopian Royal Chronicles a dense cloud of bees surrounded King Lalibela at birth. His mother claimed these bees represented soldiers who would one day serve him, and chose a name for him which means “the bees recognize his sovereignty”. His ambition was to build a New Jerusalem after the original was sacked by Muslims in 1187. The fact these churches are carved into volcanic rock and hollowed out from within by the hands of Homo sapiens, sets this ancient Christianity apart. It is rooted in the earth in a pagan way. There is no aloof, abstract striving toward heaven with soaring cathedrals, it is more an ascetic meditation in a darkened cave. The skeletons of mummified monks, skins stretched taught over ancient bones, fill cavities in the basalt walls around many of the churches. The monks live and die in homes carved in the walls beside the churches, carrying the meditative nature of their existence into eternity.
Fighting and famine, however, seem endemic to the region as part of the human condition: “Rising tensions between the Ethiopian government led by Abiy Ahmed and the Tigrayan TPLF, previously the dominant group in the country’s politics, led to the start of fighting in November 2020.
Initially, Ethiopia, in alliance with neighbouring Eritrea, seized control of Tigray, amid multiple reports of atrocities. Tigrayan forces regrouped and staged a counterattack, regaining much of Tigray in June and capturing parts of neighbouring provinces.
Despite a recent counterattack by Ethiopian forces in October, the TPLF claims to have gained further ground, seizing strategic towns on the road to Addis, prompting speculation that the capital itself could fall to the rebels.” (the guardian.com 11/2/21)
“Since hostilities began, there have been mass rapes and massacres of civilians on a large scale. As far back as January, aid agencies were sounding alarms about how much worse the situation could get. Continued fighting, bureaucratic hurdles and aid blockades have since led to a continuing famine affecting hundreds of thousands of people. More than two million people have been displaced from their homes and tens of thousands more have died.
The declaration of a nationwide state of emergency by the federal government on Tuesday has triggered fears of more instability. The United States embassy in Addis Ababa has also issued a travel advisory, warning its citizens to avoid travel to Ethiopia.” (aljazeera.com 11/4/21)
“Since war broke out in northern Ethiopia in November 2020, thousands of people have died, and millions remain displaced as the conflict has expanded from Tigray to the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government declared a surprise truce, saying it hoped the move would ease humanitarian access to Tigray and “pave the way for the resolution of the conflict” in northern Ethiopia.
It called on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to ‘desist from all acts of further aggression and withdraw from areas they have occupied in neighbouring regions’.
The rebels in turn urged ‘the Ethiopian authorities to go beyond empty promises and take concrete steps to facilitate unfettered humanitarian access to Tigray.’
The conflict erupted when Abiy sent troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF, the region’s former ruling party, saying the move came in response to rebel attacks on army camps.
Fighting has dragged on for more than a year, triggering a humanitarian crisis, as accounts have emerged of mass rapes and massacres, with both sides accused of human rights violations.” (aljazeera.com 3/25/22)
Yet, there was a glimmer of hope when: “A convoy of aid trucks has arrived in Tigray, the first emergency food supplies to reach the besieged region of northern Ethiopia by road for more than 100 days.
Two weeks after Abiy Ahmed’s government declared an immediate ‘humanitarian truce’ with rebel Tigrayan forces to allow aid in, the World Food Programme said it had received the assurances it needed to dispatch 20 trucks containing vital supplies of food.” (The guardian.com 4/1/22)
Just when it seemed things couldn’t get worse: “The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) said on Monday that people are suffering from severe drought in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. According to a report, the situation is critical as it has not reached this magnitude in the last 40 years.” (Dailysabah.com 4/12/22)
“Reports of fresh offensives were followed by Ethiopia's air force announcing it had downed a plane carrying weapons for the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). The government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the rebels have accused each other of undermining efforts to peacefully resolve the brutal 21-month war in Africa's second most populous nation, and traded blame over who was responsible for returning to combat. UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was ‘deeply shocked’ by the renewed fighting and appealed for an ‘immediate cessation of hostilities and for the resumption of peace talks’.
The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, called for a ‘de-escalation’ and the resumption of ‘talks to seek a peaceful solution’. The United States urged both sides ‘to redouble efforts to advance talks to achieve a durable ceasefire’, a US State Department spokesman said. The TPLF said government forces and their allies had launched a ‘large scale’ offensive towards southern Tigray early Wednesday after a months-long lull in fighting. But the government accused the TPLF of striking first and violating the ceasefire.” (france24.com 8/25/22)
“A National security adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Wednesday that the Eastern African country's government has agreed to hold peace negotiations with Tigrayan rebels after receiving an invitation from the African Union (AU).” (sputniknews.com 10/5/22)
“Now hopes for peace lie with a surprise announcement this past week by the African Union, inviting both sides to talks in South Africa. But the prospects for that initiative are uncertain. Tigrayan leaders have accused the mediator, the former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, of siding with Abiy. After initially scheduling talks for this weekend, the African Union said on Thursday only that they would take place ‘soon.’
The most striking change in recent weeks is the return to the war of Isaias Afwerki, the dictatorial leader of the nation to the north, Eritrea, and his army, one of the largest in Africa, which was accused of many atrocities in earlier fighting. Eritrean troops have pounded Tigray with artillery barrages from across the border and captured the Tigrayan town of Shiraro, where recent satellite images showed hundreds of marching soldiers and lines of artillery field guns. In an unusual move, several thousand Ethiopian soldiers have been flown into Eritrea to help with the assault, officials said.” (nytimes.com 10/8/22)
“A deal has been reached in the Ethiopian civil war with both sides agreeing to end hostilities after two years of fighting. The African Union (AU) has called it a new ‘dawn’, according to the AFP news agency. The war, between the Ethiopian government and northern Tigray forces, led to a severe humanitarian crisis. According to the World Health Organization, almost 90% of Tigrayans need food aid. About a third of the region's children are suffering from malnutrition.” (bbc.com 11/2/22)
“Ethiopia reached a peace agreement with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebels this month. The Nov. 2 deal follows two years of fighting that killed about 500,000 people and displaced 3 million from Tigray, a region in northern Ethiopia.
Article 6 of the agreement lays out the terms for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of the TPLF combatants. But these types of programs fail almost half the time. Will the Ethiopian peace agreement hold — and can Ethiopia avoid another conflict?” (washingtonpost.com 11/18/22)
“Around 600,000 people are estimated to have been killed during an armed conflict between the Ethiopian government forces and the rebels in the restive Tigray region, Former Nigerian President and the African Union's lead mediator in the peace talks, Olusegun Obasanjo, told the Financial Times on Sunday. ‘The number of people killed was about 600,000,’ he said. Ethiopian officials said on November 2, 2022, when the peace agreement was signed, that it stopped ‘1,000 deaths every day,’ Obasanjo recalled. Tim Vanden Bempt, a member of a research group investigating war crimes committed during the Tigray conflict, said that this estimate might be ‘roughly correct.’
‘Based on reports from the field, the number of dead could be somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 civilian casualties only — this from atrocities, starvation, and lack of healthcare," he said, adding that as many as 200,000-300,000 people died on the battlefield, according to unofficial figures.” (sputniknews.com 1/15/23)
“Just before the peace agreement to end Ethiopia’s civil war, troops from neighboring Eritrea massacred hundreds of civilians, looted businesses and arbitrarily detained civilians already facing extraordinary suffering, according to rights groups, aid workers and news outlets. The Eritrean soldiers were fighting on the side of the Ethiopian government, which was waging a two-year civil war against the leadership of the northern Tigray region.” (nytimes.com 3/1/23)
“The bloodiest conflict in the world last year was not in Ukraine but in Ethiopia, The Economist claimed on Monday, citing Comfort Ero, the head of the think-tank Crisis Group. ‘No estimate for Ukraine is as high’ as the 600,000 non-combatants that reportedly lost their lives in the Tigray War between 2020 and 2022, the outlet concluded.
Figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) suggest approximately 22,000 civilian casualties in Ukraine, which breaks down to just over 8,000 deaths and 14,000 injured in the conflict as of March 2023.” (rt.com 4/18/23)
“Clashes between Ethiopia’s military and the local Fano militia flared up in several areas of conflict-torn Amhara region, according to local media on Wednesday. The authorities have expressed concern about ‘significant human casualties.’
More than a dozen people were injured when Fano fighters, also known as the Amhara militia, fought with Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) troops near the town of Debre Tabor on Tuesday and Wednesday, Reuters reported, citing a doctor at a local hospital and a police officer.” (rt.com 8/2/23)
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his government to evacuate more than 200 people from the violence-plagued Amhara region of Ethiopia. The order concerns 204 Israeli citizens and Ethiopian Jews in the northern cities of Gondar and Bahir Dar, according to a video statement by Netanyahu on Friday. He said the evacuees were transported on four special flights to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, and would be flown from there to Israel. ‘We will receive them here with warmth and welcome,’ he added. ‘Welcome to the state of Israel.’
Gondar and Bahir Dar, the regional capital, are among six cities in Amhara that have been wracked by fighting between government troops and local Fano militiamen. There have reportedly been a large number of civilian casualties. The Ethiopian government declared a six-month state of emergency in Amhara last week.” (rt.com 8/11/23)
“Ethiopia’s parliament has approved a state of emergency in the Amhara region, where fierce fighting has been raging between state troops and local Fano militia fighters, resulting in scores of civilian casualties. The government declared a six-month state of emergency last week in response to violence that broke out earlier this month in the Amhara regional capital of Bahir Dar, Gondar, the historic town of Lalibela, and other cities.
‘Related peace and security issues shake the constitutional order, present a danger to the sovereignty of the country, and public peace and safety. Therefore, to stop the situation, declaring a state of emergency has become necessary,’ Government Chief Whip Tesfaye Beljige said, as quoted by AFP on Tuesday.” (rt.com 8/15/23)
“At least 183 people have been killed in clashes between the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) and local Fano militia fighters in the Amhara region since July, the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said on Tuesday. The UN said more than 1,000 people, including three journalists, had been arrested nationwide after the government banned public gatherings under a state of emergency law introduced in response to the violence earlier this month.
The OHCHR also claimed to have received reports that at least 250 ethnic Tigrayans had been detained in the disputed area of Western Tigray, where the federal government vowed last week to dissolve all illegal administrations. Fighting flared in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region earlier in August after months of tensions arising from a government order for regional security forces to be integrated into the federal police or army.” (rt.com 8/29/23)
“The Ethiopian federal government and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), an armed group seeking self-determination in the East African country’s Oromia region, resumed talks in Tanzania on Tuesday, aimed at ending a conflict that has raged for decades.
The negotiations, which began earlier this year, come at a time when Ethiopia is experiencing an increase in ethnic tensions and violence following a devastating two-year war in the Tigray region that only ended in 2022.
Years of unrest in Oromia, the largest Ethiopian region, surrounding Addis Ababa, are rooted in grievances about alleged marginalization and neglect by the federal government. They have resulted in hundreds of deaths and the displacement of tens of thousands.” (rt.com 11/9/23)
Ethiopia landlocked no longer as it joins BRICS:
“Muse Bihi Abdi, the President of Somaliland, a breakaway Republic in Somalia seeking state recognition, met with Prime Minister Abiy. They agreed to lend port access to the Red Sea for landlocked Ethiopia. This comes days after the President of Djibouti mediated an attempted reconciliation between the governments of Somaliland and Somalia in Mogadishu.” (telegra.ph 1/1/23)
“Ethiopia is officially part of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group of emerging economies, following an invitation from the group last August, the Ethiopian government confirmed on Monday.
‘Today is a historic day as Ethiopia has officially joined the BRICS,’ the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released through the social network X (formerly Twitter), welcoming its integration into ‘this important partnership platform.’
Its membership recognizes the rich multilateral contribution of Ethiopia to promote international peace, security and prosperity; and the continued commitment and leadership of Ethiopia to South-South cooperation, it added.
The African country was invited to join BRICS during the group’s 15th Summit of Heads of State and Government, held in the South African city of Johannesburg on Aug. 22-24.” (efe.com 1/1/24)
“Somalia is prepared to go to war to stop Ethiopia recognising the breakaway territory of Somaliland and building a port there, a senior adviser to Somalia’s president has said. A memorandum of understanding signed on 1 January allowing landlocked Ethiopia to develop a naval base on Somaliland’s coast has rattled the Horn of Africa, one of the world’s most volatile regions.
Somalia claims Somaliland as part of its territory and has declared the deal void. Last Sunday its president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, called on Somalis to “prepare for the defence of our homeland”, while rallies have been held in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, against the agreement.
“We are pursuing all diplomatic options and I think Ethiopia will come to its senses, but we are ready for a war if Abiy wants a war,” said the adviser, referring to the Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed.” (theguardian.com 1/13/24)
“The president of Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland has said his government will press ahead with an agreement signed earlier this month with landlocked Ethiopia to give it access to the sea by way of Somaliland’s coastline.
The deal has been condemned by regional and international groups, as well as Western countries, which say it interferes with Somalia’s territorial integrity and is causing tensions that could threaten stability in the Horn of Africa region.
Somalia has also protested the deal as a threat to its sovereignty by Somaliland, a region strategically located along the Gulf of Aden that broke away from Somalia in 1991 as the country collapsed into warlord-led conflict. Somaliland has not been internationally recognized.” (apnews.com 1/26/24)
“Somaliland firmly rejects Somalia's criticism of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ethiopia, emphasizing that the agreement reflects a ‘sovereign decision’ between two independent nations. The statement, issued on February 11, 2024, underscores the foundational principles of the accord as ‘mutual respect’ and ‘aspirations for greater regional stability.’
On the same day, the government of Somalia called on the African Union (AU) and the United Nations to condemn the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Ethiopia and ‘the self-proclaimed republic of Somaliland,’ branding it as ‘illegal" and a "clear violation of Somalia’s sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity.’” (english.almayadeen.net 2/12/24)
Back in Addis Nick grabbed a quick meal at the Hard Luck Cafe, fitting for a city filled with wounded from its ongoing wars, begging for anything they can get. He marveled at the working clocks of Addis as he headed to the airport, most with the wrong time, because after all, Abyssinia is a timeless land.
flying to Djibouti
above the Hadar where Lucy
lay scattered by millennia
rivers of lava run black
through salt pans and
cracked earth
© 2021 James B. Angell All Rights Reserved