The images that I associate most with Ethiopia are those from the famine in the 1980's, starving babies, with bloated stomachs, large bald heads covered in flies, large, blank eyes filled with the look of complete surrender to the inevitability of death staring at the camera, sitting under the burning sun, in the middle of the desert.
I look out the window and I see sheer mountain peaks, thin rocky ridge lines, steep flanks covered in ploughed terraces divided by stone walls, goats, cows and sheep grazing on the green grass and trees everywhere. I am yet to see any starving babies, instead I have been enjoying the tasty fare that traditional Ethiopian food has to offer, including plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and my new staple - coffee.
I look around the bus trying to validate my preconceptions, I like to think of myself as relatively well informed - after all I did read an article in Kenya that the UN agency the WFP (World Food Program) said that nine million people were at risk of starving this year in Ethiopia, and I see Save the Children signs everywhere. Instead people are busy sending messages on their mobile phones, chewing chat, roasted barley and sugar cane - no starving babies here either.
The gap between the portrayal of Africa, and the reality of Africa seems to grow wider and wider the more time I spend here. The rare times that Africa makes it to the news are usually stories about natural disasters, famines or violence, and whether they occurred twenty years ago or yesterday, the sheer weight of the sum of negativity means the overall impression that we carry around with us is one of hopelessness and suffering. Even when these ideas run in to the wall of reality, I keep looking to try and prove the errant preconceptions I have. Perhaps confronting these myths also means confronting all of the other erroneous news that feeds the warped ideas of reality that we construct in our heads, and try to impose on the often resolutely stubborn reality. We know so little about the world despite being so interconnected and hearing and reading about it every day.
Can I have finally stumbled on a justification for wandering about the planet ?
Nonetheless, I will keep my eye out for some starving babies (Got to get my hug count up)
1 comment:
Thing is, starving babies and their parents probably can't afford bus fares.
But still , there is some truth in what you say. Humanitarian agencies put out statements about the worst things that happen. Floods, famine, war, refugees. But Ethiopia is a big place hey? And the beggers in Addis are considered to have an income in comparison with those in rural areas.
Travelling is a good thing - you get to see lots of interesting things. But you aren't necessarily getting to see the worst. Inshallah you will have to look harder to find it. The thing that struck me was that in those barren deserts that you have to pass through in Sudan, people live, scrapping something out of the dirt. I can't imagine how. I can imagine what happens when the meagre crop they try to grow fails for the second time.
I was the same the time I was in Ethiopia - knowing only of starvation. But I did see enough poverty in the capital to make me think that it must be much worse in the rural areas.
Whatdoyareckon?
Post a Comment