ADDIS ABABA – The 16th Ethiopian Cultural Sports festival to take place in February this year, the games organizing body, the Ethiopian Sports Commission announced. The host city is Ambo in Oromia region, some 110 kilo metres from Addis on the road to Wollega.
The cultural sports festival is expected to put together the two Administrative cities- Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa and all regional states, according to the official announcement. The Sports Commission had other two announcements during the press conference held on Thursday.
The first was about the Ethiopian schools sports festival which will be staged in Tigray’s capital Makalle and the other is the women’s sports festival set to take place in Jigjiga, the Somali region capital. The women’s festival also serves as a tool to empower the women’s in the men’s dominated country. It is expected that the games expand the role of women in the country’s sports sector.
This time Ethiopia is well known in the world of athletics through its best female athletes. In the last two Olympics, London and Rio, the country earned gold medals only through females. This shows their domination surpass that of the male gender. In London Olympics in 2012 Ethiopia earned three gold medals through Tirunesh Dibaba in 10, 000 meters, Tiki Gelana in marathon and Meseret Defar in 5, 000m while in Rio Olympics the lone gold medal was earned through Almaz Ayana in 10,000m.
Look at the results of the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics. In Athens Meseret Defar and Kenenisa Bekele brought two gold medals while in 2008 Beijing Olympics Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenenisa Bekele brought four gold medals, two each. Ethiopia first earned Olympic gold medals in women’s race in 1992 in Barcelona Olympics through the legendary athlete Derartu Tulu.
She was also the first athlete to get Olympic gold from Africa. Derartu is currently the President of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation. Ahead of the Barcelona Olympics the Ethiopian athletics name is associated with the male gender. Ethiopia has begun collecting Olympic medals in 1960 in Rome. The first athlete to get gold medal was Abebe Bikila in marathon. He was also the first African athlete to take medal in the Olympics.
That is starting from the 1960 Rome Olympics Ethiopian Olympics heroes were the male gender until Derartu brought the women’s name to the forefront. The fact confirms that Ethiopia remained the pioneer both in male’s and female’s events. The Jigjiga women’s festival has a mission to keep up the fast growing women’s role in the Ethiopian athletics.
The roots of the Ethiopian traditional games and sports date back thousands of years. The problem here is Ethiopia as a country of rich cultural and traditional heritage, it has yet to have its past fully documented and understood. In Ethiopian calendar the country marked the Ethiopian Christmas yesterday, January 7. On the eve of Ethiopian Christmas the Addis Ababa Sports Bureau had concluded a week long cultural sports competition.
Gena was one among the many. With colour and big festivities, besides the religious Holy Day, one finds the Gena game around Christmas in Ethiopia. Gena is the name that alternately represents ‘Christmas’ in the Ethiopian official working language, Amharic. Gena is a traditional sporting game created and played in the highlands of Ethiopia; the game bears many similarities with modern day ‘field hockey’. The traditional game is usually played in a wide open area located between two towns, yet the game area has no official boundaries.
The two opposing teams try to throw a ball made of wood in the air and attempt to hit it with their sticks, all done to prevent the other team from bringing the wooden ball to their town. The game received its name from the Christmas celebrations called Gena, proving their association.
Gena is believed to be good for the body, mind and spirit, as it initiates healthy competition between towns, neighbours, and family members. It facilitates a strong feeling of bonding and friendship, not only on a local level but also in a national way.
In modern day Ethiopia, attempts are made to play Gena in a fixed pitch equal to the size of the football field. The same attempt is made to have equal number of players on both sides as it is seen on the photo. In Addis Ababa Gena has been played at Janhoy Meda, commonly known as Janmeda, around Christmas.
Janmeda has been an open space at the centre of Addis Ababa during the time of Emperor Haileselassie. The season’s Gena competition was played both at Janmeda and the Youth Training Centre, opposite to the former Imperial Hotel. To keep the traditional games, the country’s Sports Commission has taken full responsibility to organize the festival. The February festival is the 16th edition.
The Ethiopian Herald January 8/2019
BY SOLOMON BEKELE
