With a rich and fascinating 3000 year history, Ethiopia (modern Abyssinia) is the only country in Africa never to have been colonized. Haile Selassie, Abyssinia’s last emperor, deposed in a military coup in 1974, is said to have been the 237th descendent of a lienage which goes back to King Solomon of Judea and Abyssinia’s Queen of Sheba.
Addis Abeba, (which means “the new flower” in Amharic) the capital, was founded in 1887 by Emperor Menelik II, on the site of hot springs. Located at an altitude of 2,400m, it has a pleasant temperate climate.
A city of 5 million, Addis has all the vibrancy, chaos and warmth of a large African city. At times more sprawling village than capital city, Addis is a melting pot of ethnic groups, with every shade of skin colour and every manner of national costume rubbing shoulders in its dusty, potholed streets. With an eclectic mix of architectural styles going from Italianate palaces (influenced by the Italian occupation during WWII) to Byzantine splendour to the Stalinist-realist style, it has a certain baroque charm, when one gets over the sensory overload.
But it is the kindness of its people which impresses us most. On the day of our arrival, we find ouselves giving chase to a street urchin who had pick-pocketed Conrad’s iPod, with the entire neighbourhood helping us to go after him until we finally recover it.
