This columnist is not a weatherman but as climate change has become a household name, he is indeed interested and sometimes alarmed how Ethiopia’s climate is undergoing a sharp change from cold and moderate to warm. Many places, localities, regions, and towns that were known as having temperate climates are now increasingly assuming arid and hot features. Addis Ababa itself is not spared from the impending climatic calamity. If allowed to continue at this pace temperatures might continue to rise and change the Ethiopia capital into one of the hottest spots in Africa.
How many of us have noticed how the month of Ginbot or May was unusually hot even by Addis Ababa’s standards? Drive the short distance south of Addis and when you reach the small town of Dukem, you feel as if you have reached Dire Dawa as the heat abruptly raises breathing becomes labored and you often reach for your water bottle. You start to feel the heat as soon as you reach Kaliti, which is now a booming district with a new road that is serving as the main gateway to the south of the country.
According to the Ethiopian calendar, the month of Ginbot or May on the Gregorian calendar, is a time of preparation for the next three months of rain and shine not because we are going to go through something remotely resembling the European winter, but because the following month will usher in the season of farming and tough work on the farms. As the first raindrops announce the coming of the rainy season and the harvest that will only come after four months of arduous work in the farms and fields.
The two months that followed the big fasting season of Lent are usually allocated for feats and festivals. Most of the weddings take place during this interval. There are at least two reasons for these weddings to take place at this particular time. First, the fasting season is over, and people are free to enjoy their much-loved meat and butter dishes they wash down with strong liquors. In Ethiopian culture, both in towns and the countryside, a wedding ceremony without meat and butter is not only unthinkable but it is considered anathema. That is why weddings have to be postponed until the fasting season is over. The second reason why most weddings take place during the two months of Ginbot and Sene (April and May) is that the rainy season is not considered the most ideal time for weddings to take place. In the countryside in particular, most people are busy with farming and resources are so scarce that nobody thinks about organizing weddings and festivals that are expensive by Ethiopian standards.
What is amazing about Ethiopian culture is that the year is divided between a season of work, a season of fun and a season of rest. This did not come by decree or by consensus. Nature itself has allocated the time of the year in such a way that it reflects the cultures and ways of life of the people. The rainy season is of course the time for work as most people live in the countryside and are engaged in farming activities. The time for fun comes both after September or the New Year followed by a time for rest from farm work and other activities. Most workers take their leave after September. The time for fun also comes after the end of the fasting season although it lasts for a relatively short time.
I guess that nowadays, the rainy season may not look and feel like the “old” rainy season, a generation or two back when people spent days and nights listening to the incessant showers that beat their roofs and prevented them from going out. The old rainy season was famous or infamous for the terrible cold that accompanied it and people were buying additional blankets to ward off the biting cold of the nights. The streets of Addis looked more like the Italian city of Venice without the boats floating on the lake. Addis is now enjoying better roads but most of them have no modern sewerage systems and as soon as the rain starts to fall, they turn into rivers. As the little drainages are clogged, accumulated garbage tends to obstruct the flow of traffic and may lead to fatal accidents.
Amid all the discomfort, the rainy season in Addis has also its particular charm for at least two events. First, it’s the graduation season as hundreds of thousands of students leave high school or college and the mood around campuses is one of relief if not celebration. Hard-working and successful students may miss the disruption or end of campus life, but their less enthusiastic peers may feel like they are released from prison despite the farewell parties that accompany graduation time.
The second social event that gives Addis a more vibrant allure is that the rainy season is generally considered the season of book publishing, book reading, and book business. The season is regarded as the best time for reading because the rains prevent people from going outside and even create the mood for staying in bed with a good book. As schools close their doors, most students have nowhere else to go and are believed to visit public libraries and places of culture. Of course, there are other recreational our educational outlets these days as technology has created alternative ways of “killing time” as some people call it.
The rainy season is also a season of book publishing as demand for reading materials rises and publishers are working harder to meet the demand. However, with the sharp and frequent rises in publishing costs, it may be difficult for most authors and publishers to enjoy the rainy time. However, booksellers may enjoy a sharp rise in business and profits. Booksellers are not involved in the production of books incur lower costs and enjoy more profits. They face fewer risks and a good time for selling popular titles and educational materials in particular.
A few years back, book exhibitions were popular in Addis, and the capital’s only exhibition center was often crowded with ordinary book buyers, students, and book lovers in general. It is not clear whether this culture is still alive since the boom time for publishing books seems to have passed a long time ago and there is less appetite for reading. Again, technology has stolen the show as more people are attracted to ready-to-use and ready-to-enjoy alternatives. They carry entire libraries in their pockets, something that was unthinkable even in science fiction movies a couple of decades back.
A warm and rainy season may sound like a paradox because the two are often considered mutually exclusive. It is either a warm season or a rainy season. A rainy season is usually supposed to be cold. In Ethiopia, many natural phenomena are replete with paradoxes. In old tourist posters, the country was often portrayed as the land of “13 months of sunshine” which is now replaced by a more realistic or more captivating and less exaggerated motto-the Land of Origins.
Ethiopia was once called “the water tower of Africa” or “the breadbasket of East Africa” although it mostly failed to feed its people in times of drought. It was also called the “Island of Christianity” as if it were the only land for Christians even when most people were turning their backs to God. More pious people may prefer to consider it “the land of God’s promise” However, all those popular misconceptions have largely passed into the realm of mythology.
One may wonder why tourists from Europe and America usually love the Ethiopian rainy season. The answer can hardly be esoteric because what is known as ‘the Ethiopian rainy season’ is not the same as European winter. Most tourists visiting Addis during the rainy season wear T-shirts and while residents who are strangers to extreme cold put on two or three layers of clothes before going out for work during the peak of the rainy season. For Europeans, a visit to Addis during the rainy season may feel like a recreation during their summertime at seaside resorts.
Anyway, you look at it, the rainy season is more interesting than the dry and sunny time that is almost looking at the exit door now. Most people have been irritated by too much heat during the day and even at night and looking at climate change as a real threat to their comfort zone. The rainy season will certainly bring in a time of relief and cold comfort. After all the ups and downs of life, people need some time to breathe until hectic times return.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
The Ethiopian Herald June 9/2024
