ADDIS ABABA – Tourism Ethiopia announced that it has launched a fascinating ‘Life in Palace’ project that enables tourists to observe in person the previous Ethiopia’s royal family’s lifestyle.
Tourism Ethiopia CEO Sileshi Girma told The Ethiopian Herald that the project has intended to promoting Ethiopia’s historic royal families and their lives in their palaces.
The pilot project that applied in Gondar and Jimma mainly focused on involving tourists to attend and engage in the occasions that the royal family had been doing in the palace and the way it had been undertaken, he said.
“The visitors will be checked out the door and they enter to the castle and meet the royal family [assigned actors as king, queen and their staff]. They will also involve in public feasts, one of the events that take place in palace where the king and queen dine with the mass.”
The tourists can also take a picture with the king and queen of the royal family, he noted.
Tourism Ethiopia is working to advance the project one step by renting Kaba or King robe to visitors and coronate them as king and queen so that they can return to their nations as king or queen coroneted from the castle of Gondar or Jimma, according to Sileshi.
“We will also prepare horse riding and make the day of the visitors based on their wishes.”
Tourists will take part in banquet hall as their wish. They will sing and dance decorated by the traditional costumes at King Dawit’s house of rhyme, in the castles of Gondar, he disclosed.
As per Tourism Ethiopia’s survey, visitors are happy to see the inception of the project and ready to pay for it, he expressed.
Tourism Ethiopia is working together with Gondar culture center in popularizing ‘life in palace’ project.
Currently, about 150 individuals are employed for the project in Gondar. The organization is also working with Amhara state culture and tourism bureau to pay for the actors [who represent royal family] from the entry ticket, he noted.
The project in Jimma will be launched [with 100 individuals] together with the inaugural ceremony after the completion of the renovation of Abba Jifar palace, according to Sileshi.
Country’s trained human capital should engage in the tourism industry and support the inspiring progress in the area, he believed.
Tourists shall to get the already promoted tourism attraction in place. “In addition we ought to add vale on the cultural heritages, to meet tourist’s expectation and beyond.”
Previously, tour guides informed tourists about a given historic place year of establishment and location of the castle and perhaps they also told them the king’s deeds during his/her reign, Sileshi remembered.
However, this project allows visitors to partake the royal family’s life and the residence lively in an appealing appearance staffed with decorated kings and queens on the throne, he indicated.
Tourism Ethiopia is very committed to promote the project locally and globally, he mentioned.
Currently the organization designed about five pilot projects and they will expand it across the country through time, according to the CEO.
About 200 tour and travel companies and other stakeholders have recently visited the project in Gondar and agreed to extend support towards the successful realization of the project, he pointed out.
Tigist Andargachew plays as queen Mintwab who is among Ethiopia’s most influential women in history and the wife of King Bakafa, Ethiopian king during the Gondarian period. She is known for her pursuit of wisdom.
“The ‘life in palace’ project gave us exceptional opportunity to know more about the history of the country and the royal family and promote it to the world,” she said.
Visitors were enjoying watching our performance in showcasing the history made in the palace. “We tried our best to practically show what has been undertaken in the castle among the royal family. Therefore, the project teaches the people and visitors about Ethiopian history beyond visiting bare castle,’’ she stated.
Samuel Malede, the one who plays as King Bakafa said: “Our effort is about giving life to the history of the royal family who ruled the nation encircled by the castle fences. We had leaders that built such astonishing progress in the sixteenth century.”
Therefore, the project also energize the generation to ask themselves that why it doesn’t yet have better leaders such as King Bakafa and Fasil who were great kings who had patience and wisdom, he underlined.
“We showcased how the history of the nation and the royal family had been performed practically in the palace and visitors astonished utmost after visiting the play in the castle.”
Ministry of Culture and Tourism needs to support the project to get more visitors and promote nation’s history with practical showcase than guiding and telling tourists “something has been made here”.
Samuel called on the ministry and other stakeholders to equip the actors with the needed costumes of the then royal family. This will enable the actors to attract more tourists and pleased them with lively royalty so that the visitors will come back, he believed.
The pilot project is implementing in Gondar and Jimma and soon will be reached in three states including Tigray and will be applied across the country based on its progress, it was learnt.
The Ethiopian Herald February 25/2020
BY YOHANES JEMANEH
