Spiritual Envy in Harar

Here is one of my first posts at my Camera Lucida blog (2005-2013). It was on Harar:

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Friday September 30, 2005                                                                                                              Writers in Harar 

Arthur Rimbaud has his own house/museum in the city of Harar. Perhaps it is in the name of literary tradition that Canadian novelist Camilla Gibb has made a special ode to this walled, Southern Islamic city in Ethiopia in her new book "Sweetness in the Belly".

It is always curious why writers pay such high praises to this city. Although Rimbaud initially said he was living in boredom, he stayed in Harar on-and-off for ten years.

Sir Richard Burton preferred to investigate Harar in his "First Footsteps in East Africa" rather than travel to the northern Christian Highlands of the Amhara people. And even Evelyn Waugh couldn’t see the ancient strength of this Christian civilization, and in his journalistic travelogues "Waugh in Abyssinia" and "Remote People" at times appeared much more complimentary toward the Southern Harare/Somali Muslims. His novel "Scoop", based on his journalistic experience of the fascist invasion of Ethiopia, is centered around the fictional ‘East African’ country of…Ishmaelia. This is all the more surprising in light of Waugh’s recent conversion to Catholicism. But it could just be that he was temporarily side-tracked by the Catholic (yet fascist) Italians. And such a basic Christianity may have been too much to handle.

I suspect that it is mostly atheist/pantheist/agnostic writers who are lured into the facile spirituality (sensuality) of places like Harar. As always with exotic works, the subject rings of the writer/traveler himself, in his spiritual (or similar) quest to find some meaning in his life. Usually, the farther away from home, the better.

The disciplined, ancient and exclusive Christianity of the highlander Amhara is too difficult and too demanding, and too close to home. I think this Biblical fear drives these writers away. It is easier to wallow in the accessible sensuality of a Southern Muslim city, in search of a generalized spirituality.

The Islam of Harar may be beguiling, and easier to enter. But it is far less forgiving and far less compassionate than the Christianity of the austere Highlanders.

From a TVOntario interview of Camilla Gibb, who says that after the events of 9/11, she changed the direction of her novel to take on a lighter, gentler Islam, making her an (atheist) Islam apologist: 

When the capacity for some kind of spiritual life is taken from you, and not even fostered, you can never reclaim it, or at least not in any kind of conventional way... 

It is curious that a devout atheist should end up writing a book...that has so much to do with spirituality, but I think it is born of a place of envy.

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Post on Gibb and her background

NB (2021): I cannot find the source of the TVOntario quote above, but I will still leave it up, and update any new finds.

Addendum (2021): Here is a drawing by Vincent Smith (whose drawing of Rimbaud's house in Harar is here).

It is fascinating that he titles this image "Ethiopian Women Wearing Traditional Shama"

Shama is the general term used for the traditional Amhara dress, which consists of finely woven cotton material made into dress and shawl. There is NO mistaking shama.

What we have here is "traditional Harari women" and the requisitory veil that Muslim women wear.

Facts become irrelevant (or not necessary) for the lazy, and agenda-prone writer/photographer/traveler.

And, Vincent Smith is a "civil rights" era Black American, so he clearly brings his own agenda with him. 

And the agenda is as I wrote above: the beguiling spirituality of Harar for the atheist traveler.

Also, the spiritually confident, strict, Orthodox Christian Amhara would have none of this facile traveler, and make demands on him that he wouldn't be able to meet.

More posts on Ethiopian dress:

- The Diamond Receptacle

Faya Dayi - My comment - More Reivews and Critique - on Beshir's Film - At Film Comment

Posted at Film Comment:

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Dear Mr. Taylor

You set the tone of your review of Faya Dayi with this phrase, in the first paragraph:

"In cahoots with the editing and sound design, the heavy monochromatic images cloak Ethiopia

in a hazy, dreamlike aura that's foundational to the film's tone and point of view."

And in the following paragraph, you ask:

"Does the gorgeousness of the imagery actually serve the film, or is it too loaded down to carry its

 own weight? How much movie truly lies underneath all this black and silver? Well..."

I believe you are asking about form and content, the perennial choice that all artists must make with their work,

and which they must decide takes precedence, or whether to weigh them both equally.

Beshir chose form over content. Or more precisely, she chose to camouflage content with form.

The "hazy, dreamlike aura" hides this content, which you adroitly describe: "There isn't much structure

connecting one scene or testimony of Faya Dayi to the next..." And "...Beshir's style doesn't really facilitate the

sort of portraiture she's aiming for..."

Beshir uses khat as a subject, a protagonist, that leads and guides the direction of the film, but whose "haze"

hides the truth of these Oromo youth. For example, the young man who wants to go to Egypt has no game plan,

and khat becomes his crutch, his "co-actor," as the drug he takes to avoid the reality, the content, of his life.

And Beshir also uses this khat as a stylistic, cinematic metaphor, to hide from us, the viewers, the content and

reality behind her film. She films as though she herself is under the chewable spell of this drug, and it is likely

that she took khat as part of her filming process.

Khat causes devastation, but it also produces the spiritual Sufi high, and it provided her (literally, possibly, but

certainly cinematically) the form with which she can shoot and produce this film, whose main protagonist, as

I said earlier is khat, but perhaps khat's merkhanna might be more precise.

She cannot full-on discuss the devastation that the khat crop produces for this Harari-Oromo Ethiopians,

since khat is after all part of the merkhanna, the spiritual high, that is sought after by the regional Sufi-Harari

Muslims. This film should have centred directly on this agricultural devastation, rather than weave through

"spirituality" and mekhanna, through khat.

Khat thus becomes the distinguishing object, the"Sufiness," and the merkhanna upon which this film rest

it laurels.

But what is Beshir hiding, what is she camouflaging?

Of course, more directly, it it the devastating, life-destroying drug that has become the life of these

Harari-Oromo youth.

But Beshir is also projecting a political angle, and a strong one. The Harari-Oromo youth,

through oppression, governmental neglect, and poverty, are forced to give up other cash crops like coffee

in order to grow this substance for their livelihood, and their energy-inducing chanting calls

(mimicking religious chants) gives them the rhythmic, and spell-binding, strength to harvest their currency.

And of course, through the haze of her cinematography, it is not clear which government, which export route,

 and what kind of neglect.

Once Beshir starts to clearly answer, or present, these issues, then her khat thesis of the oppressed, neglected,

and devastated Oromo youth falls apart.

Beshir is talking about the governments previous to this one, whose current leader is Abiy Ahmed Ali,

a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize winner, whose father is Oromo-Muslim (and mother an Orthodox Christian Amhara -

and he himself grew up a Christian, and married an Amhara Christian wife), and who was born in the Jimma

region of the Oromo province.

Previous to PM Abiy Amhed Ali, Ethiopia was run by two successive, vicious, Marxist governments.

The first was installed after massacres of hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian, of all ethnicities, as the

Emperor Haile Selassie, the emperor who stood his ground against fascist Mussolini's invasion, was deposed

in the early 1970s. Decades of rule under Mengistu Haile Mariam, the Communist head of state of Ethiopia

until he was removed by another group of hard-core Marxists in 1991. This second group also spared

no lives to further their totalitarian regime.

PM Abiy was a young man when he became an officer and joined forces to oust this second regime.

He eventually went on to become a re-elected leader of Ethiopia (Ethiopian elections were completed

just last year).

During both these eras of Communist rule, through manufactured famines, mass executions, perpetual states

of emergency, and innumerable non-trial arrests, Ethiopians still endured. But, these totalitarians saved no

person, had mercy on no-one. Oromo, Amhara, Tigray, and a host of smaller ethnic groups received the same

harsh treatment under the self-installed "judicial" system of these post-Haile Selassie, and pre-Abiy Ahmed,

leaders.

This is the back story Beshir's camera cannot tell you, which Beshir will not tell you.

She theretofore picks up a pet project - khat - which she remembers her grandmother harvesting in her garden

as she practiced her Sufi incantations - and projects it into the lives of these Oromo youth, upon whose poverty,

and whose backs, she builds her cinematographically hazy images, from her smart, Brooklyn apartment,

gathering monies and grants from a host of "sympathetic" agencies, and screening her films in

art-house film festivals, who profess support for oppressed peoples of the world, in the pop-corn outfitted

theatres, in air-conditions auditoriums.

And, here is, I believe, her end goal. Her film, and her picking at these sores and frustrations, could instigate

enough anger in her "oppressed" Oromo youth, that they may be ready to pick up whatever sticks, stones

and few gunpowder, to start their own "revolution" for "freedom." And these Western audiences would shower

their support, their concern, and their editorial opinions. Faya Dayi becomes/is a reference manual.

Beshir is evasively active in numerous Oromo liberation groups - through Facebook, Twitter, and through her

meetings/screenings of her film Faya Dayi, and other films she's done to date, namely one titled Hariat on the

hyena in Harar, in the US and now in Canada. She will never openly present this, since there would be too much

negative reaction, especially from her funders, and especially from her viewing public.

Her film gives her some validity in the eyes of those who publicly pronounce this liberation movement, and acts

as a documented reference for future activities, and actions. They can cut through the form in Faya Dayi, andget at its content.

One other thing Beshir won't dwell upon is her use of "Ethiopian" as she describes her identity. She calls

herself Mexican-Ethiopian.

She shows no love for Ethiopia, and uses that word opportunistically, as she uses those devastated youth of

Harar, to gain access into world view, and to be recognized (and noticed). Mexican-Oromo doesn't cut it.

And if she were really sincere, she would simply call herself "Oromo" and return to the land which she

left as a teen-ager, and make amends. Opening up a drug rehabilitation centre would be one way.  

And PM Abiy, through his Ethiopian First commitment, has already started khat-rehabilitation projects for

these youth. Beshir already has the place to go, where her Faya Dayi prize money might stand a chance.

I will be watching her next subversive, elusive, moves, as I suggest you do too.

I commend you for understanding the elusive nature of this documentary.

Sincerely,

Kidist Paulos Asrat

Art and Commentary by Kidist Paulos Asrat

https://artandcommentarybykidist.blogspot.com/p/ethiopias-elections-strong-and-united.html

Flutter of the Butterfly's Wings

 

 [Photo by KPA] - Blue Morpho Butterfly 

The Butterfly Conservatory, Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens, Ontario

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I am part of an email group, and have attended meetings and social gatherings with this group in New York for a number of years. We discuss mostly socio-political issues, mostly centered around the United States, and with my contribution, Canada. A few times, I have presented the Ethiopian point of view, my idea being that the Christian country has more in common with the West than with the East.

Recently, I presented a proposition that we should support the PM of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, and his efforts to build this greater Ethiopia, in the tradition of the Ethiopian emperors, up to and including the late Emperor Haile Selassie.

One member of the group would have none of this, and my earnest efforts and my individual pursuits, from my art, to my Reclaiming Beauty (and Camera Lucida) 10+ years of documentations, stories, photographs, and views.

She accused me of "narcissism"  - imagine, a supposedly honorable member of this group stooping to name-calling. She demanded to be removed from this list, and so she has been.

I wrote about Mullarkey here, about five years ago. She's a painter, and I said about her work:

Her style is stark and bleak...

I have been called worse than a narcissist! But this has only built a thick skin, and I continue with my endeavors and ideas. Who is one "email" acquaintance to dictate my ideas and my thoughts? I have never personally met this woman, who has only recently asked to be included in the group. Late to come, first to go! Good riddance.

Those intuitive and intelligent should realize that what I say makes sense. The world is now constructed in "global" terms. A small country in the north of Africa could be the butterfly wing that starts the wave of crashes around the world.

About 70 years ago, a similar event occurred, where Italian Fascists decided that they would complete their earlier entry into Ethiopia, which was met in defeat under the now celebrated Adwa Victory, and take that land as part of their late-comers colonial swoop.

They failed again, but in a different way. Ethiopia was eventually liberated, with men from all over the country taking arms to fight this enemy. But, Haile Selassie's appeal to the impotent League of Nations (precursor to the United Nations) was ignored, and the world sided with war, with devastating effects of the Second World War.

Sometimes faith in your message is what you need, or to be more precise, what you are obligated to have. Other messengers have come up short, wrong, and even pernicious. I have a long history, both at Reclaiming Beauty, and at Camera Lucida, of siding with Truth.

Shame. 

Jessica Beshir's Khat-High "Obs-Doc"

 I love the way ALL reviews of Faya Dayi, Jessica Beshir's khat-high "obs doc," skirt around, carefully, culturally-sensitively, around the fact that khat is a narcotic, which induces a "pharmacological" reaction in all its users.

Here is one interesting one:

[Faya Dayi is...] an evergreen psychotropic drug....[From The Brattle - for an upcoming interview with Beshir on December 13, 2021]

Evergreen - definition