BY MULUGETA GUDETA
Capital cities are by definition, the political, economic and business nerve centers of countries. A few capital cities rarely get the opportunity to become the capital cities of a region, a country or a continent. Addis Ababa is one of the few African capitals that has secured the reputation of becoming the diplomatic capital of Africa and this is a great honor for Ethiopia and the entire people of the continent. Addis Ababa may not be the economic capital of Africa because there are more important cities across the continent that deserve the accolade. A city like Addis Ababa could win the honor not because it is the biggest, the most populous or economically the most vibrant city. It won the reputation for other no less important reasons.
Ethiopia in general and Addis Ababa in particular enjoy a history of being the melting pots of diverse cultures, with an original civilization like Axum and Lalibela among others, a geographic and traditional diversities unparalleled anywhere in the world. This is not an exaggeration but a fact of life confirmed and reconfirmed by experts. The very fact that Addis Ababa is chosen to represent Africa on the global stage as the diplomatic capital of more than one billion people is in itself a testimony to this honor.
When it comes to culture and art, the problem with Ethiopia is that it has not yet managed to sell to the world its endowments in these particular fields. Ethiopia’s cultural and artistic riches, their originality and uniqueness are characteristics that hardly deserve any elaboration.According to an online article by Sharra Grow and entitled”An Ethiopian Dream in Art Conservation: Ethiopian Art Conservation Program, the first program to train Ethiopian art conservators” It stands above all else that Ethiopia is a crossroads of history, art and culture. It is therefore not surprising that the amount of protected tangible and intangible Ethiopian patrimony dominates on the lists compiled by global institutions such as ICOMOS and UNESCO. This documentation has resulted in significant foreign involvement with numerous research and international conservation institutes which are active at various sites in Ethiopia. There are a variety of projects including everything from excavation sites to well-organized conservation campaigns on historical Ethiopian artifacts inside the country as well as those located in institutions and museums worldwide. Not only have these projects increased the international knowledge of Ethiopian history, they have also stimulated tourist activities throughout the country. In fact, cultural tourism has grown to the point of becoming the number one source of income for local Ethiopian professionals.”
The above description is only the tip of Ethiopia’s huge cultural and artistic iceberg whose foundation is not yet fully explored and located. The same can be said about Addis Ababa that is barely a hundred twenty five years old but has turned into the centre of Ethiopian traditions, cultures, arts and artifacts.
Another travel blogger describes Lucy at the national museum in Addis Ababa in the following terms: “As Probably Addis Ababa’s most famous resident, Lucy is a lady you simply have to see during your time in the capital. Located in the National Museum (10 Birr entrance), Lucy is 3.2 million years old and thought to be an Australopithecus afarensid aka an ancient individual from a species we as humans evolved from.
Unearthed in the Afar region of Ethiopia in 1974, a replica of her tiny skeleton is now housed in the lower level of the National Museum, which is by far the best floor here with its interesting exhibition that charts the evolution of us Homosapiens and our African origins.”
Lucy’s presence in Addis Ababa is perhaps sufficient to call the Ethiopian capital, “the centre of Africa’s and humanity’s ancestor” and this is good reason to single out the New Flower” as a candidate representative of Africa’s place in the history of evolution of humanity.
The positive role of art and culture in promoting the economic and political integration of the African continent is a foregone conclusion. This thesis was previously confirmed by the integration of the European continent whose union was preceded by the cultural integration and the spread of a kind of common cultural values in the context of the modern European state. When regional integration is based on solid foundations it has a good chance of attaining its objectives. when, on the contrary, regional integration has weak foundations it is likely to shake and crumble at the slightest political wind that may not always blow in its favor.
Many regional unions and/or economic integrations have fallen apart due to powerful political winds that shook them from their foundations. North African countries are famous for these kinds of failures. Once upon a time in the 1960s and 1970s Egypt and Syria and Libya had tried to form a union based on their shared Arab identities. Regional economic integrations have a higher chance of survival because their project may not involve political intervention in the integration process.Politics can also play a negative role in the downfall of planned economic integration.
One example of this is the central African economic integration that failed because of the interference of political events. “Early in 1969, the new Union of Central African States, which had been created only months before, was in shambles as the result of political strains among the member countries, Chad, Congo (Kinshasa), and the Central African Republic. When, in January, the Congolese president charged the Central African Republic with responsibility for the murder of several Congolese citizens, the Central African Republic responded by suspending diplomatic relations. These events were preceded by a brief customs war between the Central African Republic and Chad, which ended in the temporary closing of the border between the two countries.”
Contrary to the decades of the 1960s when civil conflicts and extern were rife, Africa is nowadays, in a better political and economic shape to promote regional integration as a prelude to full political union by 2063. This is not only a realistic vision but something that has also started to materialize at the regional levels. The process of economic rapprochement and eventual integration in the East African region otherwise known as the Horn of Africa is a living testimony to the currentreality of better inter-African rapprochement and less foreign domination or intervention in African affairs.
Artistic and cultural centers in Africa have constantly sifted from one country to the other and from one region to the other. Now it seems that the political center of gravity in Africa has apparently shifted from the north to the East of Africa and to Ethiopia and Addis Ababa in particular. What remains to be done is to upgrade the Ethiopian capital so that it would become the real cultural and artistic capital of East Africa and then Africa as a whole.
We have a continent of unparalleled history that was so far undermined by colonialism and neocolonialism. It is now time for Africa to wake up and reassert itself. For instance, the history of African art and architecture spans a vast period, beginning as early as 25,500 bc and continuing to the present. The earliest known African sculptures (500 bc to ad 200) are sculpted clay heads and human figures from central Nigeria. Many surviving examples of African art date from the 14th to the 17th century.
“However, most of the African art known today is relatively recent, from the 19th century or later. Very little earlier African art has survived, primarily because it was made largely of perishable materials such as wood, cloth, and plant fibers, and because it typically met with intensive use in ceremonies and in daily life. Scholars of African art base suppositions about earlier art mainly on art of the last two centuries, but they can only guess at the earlier traditions from which the recent art developed.”
African art does not constitute a single tradition. Africa is an enormous continent with hundreds of cultures that have their own languages, religious beliefs, political systems, and ways of doing things. Each culture produces its own distinctive art and architecture, with variations in materials, intentions, and results. Whereas some cultures excel in carving wood, others are known for casting objects in metal. In one culture a decorated pot might be used for cooling water, while in another culture a similar pot is used in ritual ceremonies.”
Addis Ababa too has a glorious history that is continuing to attract international attention. According one travel blogger, The Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa is one of the major churches in the city and a visit here is definitely one of the best things to do in Addis Ababa, not least because the country’s most famous emperor – Haile Selassie is buried here. Along with his wife, the 2 caskets sit in a surprisingly low-key part of the church, but the rest of the building is beautifully ornate, with some stunning stain glass windows, and well worth a look around (entrance 200 Birr).
The surrounding cemetery is also worth a stroll – with some famous residents, including Sylvia Pankhurst (the iconic British suffragette) who is buried here.It’s also a wonderfully peaceful haven in what can be a chaotic city.”
The same blogger went on to say that, “For those not in the know, Ethiopians love to dance their own dance to their own music!It’s a crazy combination, given that both elements are fairly bonkers in their own right and there’s few places better to give it a go in Addis Ababa, than Habesha 2000.
Located in the Bole region of the city, this is what is known as a traditional restaurant in Ethiopia, where local food is served and nightly live music, song and dance performances are given to an enthusiastic crowd daily at 8pm.”
Writing about the glories and potentials of Addis Ababa in this short article is like trying to scratch the surface of our capital’s multifaceted artistic and cultural characteristics and gifts. A very aggressive and sustained campaign need to be undertaken by all Ethiopian artists and men and women of culture to turn their capital into the artistic centre of East African region and then that of the whole of Africa because Addis Ababa has everything it needs to deserve this accolade.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 30 JUNE 2022
