Notes

The following are notes on some of the activities I’ve been up to in and around Addis. For the most part my posts have just been describing different experiences without any deep commentary on what I am witnessing. Soon I’ll attempt to address or bring forth what i see as some pressing issues.

The Coffee House

Across from the Egyptian Embassy in an area of Addis called Sidist Kilo is a little restaurant/bar called the Coffee House. On Thursday nights they have jazz night. It’s a cool little place, the music starts at 9:30 and goes till midnight. When you walk in there will be a woman in traditional dress doing coffee ceremony. The bathrooms (like a lot I’ve found) leave much to be desired. Anyway there’s a big screen TV over bythe bar area, where they show black and white snippets of jazz legends. From the bar sectin you can see the restaurant section and the bamnd on the little stage. In another room is a large what I thought was a grill.it’s like a fireplace and the room has chairs all along the walls for ppl to get cozy and talk. You can’t see the band but you can hear them from there. This band is 50% European and 50% Ethiopian. And they are very good. I couldn’t help but laughing at the dude on piano tho’ (I think he’s german). I think perhaps he had seen too many tapes of Ray Charles and he was trying look like he was ‘getting down’ or ‘feeling the music’. Or maybe it was the drinks. Well he was quite stiff and awkward-looking – hilarious!! Besides that the band rocked. There weren’t too many Ethiopians in the house when I was there. Mostly European farenjis. All the tables were candlelit and the food was excellent. I had pasta with what was supposed to be chicken herb sauce but they were out so I had tomato sauce. It was good. The person I went with had fish with sautéed veggies. That was good too (don’t act like you don’t know how we do). The price wasn’t bad. The whole meal (for both of us and drinks and tip) came up to less than 10 bucks! So that’s the coffee house, it took us a while to find but definitely check it out when you come to Ethiopia. Oh that’s one thing about this place, goodness! No signs!!! Not anywhere, there are pedestrian crossing signs. Stop signs. No parking/ u-turn signs. But as far as ‘this way to Bole/ Entoto /Amist Kilo/ National Theatre/ Piazza/ Cathedral? Forget it, you just have to get lost until you get the hang of it. something to work on.
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Traditional Dance Night at the Alliance Ethio-Francais

While at the conference of Christian/Islamic Relations in Ethiopia held at the German Cultural Institute (a conference that I will write about when I beat my bout of laziness) we saw a flyer to a night of traditional dancing at the ethio-french alliance. The French have their own school here, for their children. I believe the germans do too, and of course there’s an American school. What about the ethio-Malian/Ghanian/Togolese/South African/Congolese/Zimbabwean/Sudanese/Senegalese /Nigerian alliances or cultural institutes you say? There aren’t any. I feel your pain. Anyhoo… the most important bit of info that this flyer had on it was that the mug was free. So off we went that night (getting lost on the way). ‘it’s beside Paul Ries’ Peugeot company.’ Okaay and that would be where exactly? When we finally turned onto the very bumpy road leading to the alliance we thought surely this is not the place. All of the surroundings were quite run down. Then the guards opened the massive gate. Now this is another thing abut Addis. It’s full of contrasts. Right where you least expect it is a remnant of the Garden of Eden and 9 times out of 10 it’s some white folks on it. they sure now how to hook themselves up (or we like to hook them up), WHEREVER they are. Yes, a bit of Eden the Alliance is. The grounds are gorgeous, well-manicured. They hold classes there and the construction of the place itself is really nice. Carved wood trimmings, etc. there is a stone walkway leading up to the place where the dancing was to take place. Still thinking about the contrasts we entered the main building. It actually sort of reminded me of my high school in JA. There were ppl milling about everywhere. Ethiopians doing the French kiss on the cheeks (which is only once on each cheek and barely touching). There were Ethiopians speaking to their French counterparts in french. Little brown babies running around with their Ethiopian nannies chasing them and their white mothers getting caught up with their friends. In the room were several small round wooden tables and traditional round stools. On each table was a menu in French and Amharic of what was being served and the price beside each item. So not completely free. It was all good I wasn’t hungry anyway. We sat at a table in the smoky (from incense) dimly lit place. On either side of the room were the tables and many people and in the middle the area was cleared for the performers. This area had a red glow from the stage lights.

Men came out first, in the traditional white sandals, white pants, long white shirt and white wrap over the shirt. Some had a sash of sorts with Ethiopian colors on it diagonally across their shirts. They played traditional instruments, whose names I unfortunately cannot remember. They are stringed instruments, one resembles the kora or Senegal and there’s one that is played with a bow. Then a famous Ethiopian singer came out whose name I didn’t catch but I remember her from television on Addis Amet. ( not Aster). Then the dancers came out. Only 2. a man and a woman. And they were
Excellent - Dinqnash!!!!
As the night went on, more and more people came, the place was at full capacity. There were all kinds of people at this point. Teens, young adults, older adults – mostly Ethiopians. The atmosphere was festive. It’s very hard to describe the dancing. It’s called skista. It’s like doing the harlem shake while having a seizure. Primarily the upper body is moved. They popped their chests forward, the woman knelt on one knee and pivoted around while bringing her neck in and popping it out. The man invited a young lady from the audience to dance with him. She tore it up, she held her own and then some. He vibrated his upper body as if being shocked and she did the same, he popped his chest she did the same. It was excellent. She got a standing ovation. We left before it was over, but during the course of the performance the dancers would come on and then retreat only to return just as full of energy. The male performer sometimes performed with a stick. At one point one of the musicians and the singer had a little back and forth going through song. I wished I could understand Amharic at that point because the audience was cracking up. I hope to find a video I hear is floating around with the traditional dances of some of the major ethnic groups in Ethiopia, Skista sure would breath some life into popular choreography in America. I’m so bored with the dancing (or lack of) in our musical performances now. Black folks have pretty much stopped dancing and the others are just rehashing old Michael and Janet Jackson moves. It’s pathetic.

Fatima can you hear me?