EAST AFRICAN BUSINESS WEEK, KAMPALA, UGANDA
Travel
Sunday, December 01, 2013
By Kenan Kalagho, DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA.
It
is a three-hour flight to Addis Ababa from Dar es Salaam and we touched
down at Bole International Airport around 7:00pm in the afternoon.
(Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis built by the Monarch PHOTO BY KENAN KALAGHO)
I
was the lone invite from Tanzania by Bioscience for Farming in Africa
(B4FA), a UK-based journalism fellowship programme that takes place in
the four African countries of Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana.
We
had been invited to attend the 9th Annual Meeting of the African
Science Academies (AMASA-9) with the theme ‘The role of biotechnology
for Africa’s development’.
Seated beside me in the plane, was
Nsubisi Kalunga a district official from Ruvuma Region. He was also
heading to Ethiopia for a seperate workshop on entrepreneurship.
On
the ground at Bole, I kept wondering why many African countries fail to
learn from Ethiopia in terms of how to invest in the airline business,
like has been done by South Africa and Kenya.
For those who do not
know, Ethiopian Airlines has been flying for nearly 70 years while many
African airlines did not even stay in the air for a quarter of that
period!
There was the hotel kiosk at the airport for ‘Dreamliner
Hotel’ where I and my colleagues from Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana had been
booked.
My two colleagues from Uganda had arrived much earlier and
were already waiting in the lounge as we drove to the hotel located
around Meskel Flower Street in Addis Ababa. It is a place very much up
to standard with very good services.
While in Addis Ababa, (new flower in Amharic) , I was eager to trace the roots to Ethiopia’s great pride as a nation and people.
Many
of the leaders trace their origins to Jewish ancestry. King Emperor
Haile Selassie, a former hereditary leader, who was known as the ‘Lion
of Judah’ was said to be a descendent of King Solomon.
Our tour guide
through the city, John Endegena first took us to the ‘Red Terror
museum.’ This is a monument to the many victims who perished while
fighting for revolution against the ‘DERG,’ a dark period in Ethiopian
history, in the early 1970s, in which Mengistu Haile Mariam was
dictator.
Inside the museum there were thousands of human skulls and
bones apparently awaiting recognition from relatives upon DNA testing.
According to a museum guide, Menberu Bekele, most of these people were
hanged.
It is a very sad story and remains fresh 40 years on. Indeed
Ethiopians do not want to forget. Hence the words, ‘never ever again’ .
It
was also a surprise to learn that most of the workers taking care of
the museum were also the survivors of that dreaded time. We moved
towards an open space called ‘Meskel Square,’ where trainings, sports
activity, worships as well as public meetings have been conducted since
time immemorial.
On our way to Addis Ababa University and the Holy
Trinity Cathedral, our tour guide, John, told us that despite their
country having a population of 85 million people with around 85
different ethnic tribal groups, (some are light skinned while others are
dark skinned), they all live peacefully without segregation amongst
themselves.
The tour guide at the Cathedral showed much admiration for the late Imperial Majesty Haile Sellassie.
He
said it was the former Emperor who influenced the construction of the
Cathedral from 1931 to 1944 and even after his death in 1974 he was
buried inside it.
Inside are three flags representing the navy,
ground and air forces with paintings depicting scenes from the Old
Testament, through to the birth of Jesus and his disciples in the New
Testament. There are also ten pillars to symbolize the Ten Commandments
but written in the Aramaic language with the Emperors’ and the Queen
tombs lying besides the altar.
Sahile Dereji, the tour guide at the
Cathedral said, the place is also a burial place for famous scholars,
dignitaries and high profile personalties in the country. This is also
where the former Ethiopian premier Meles Zenawi is laid to rest.
We then paid our respects at the premier’s tomb where two armed soldiers were on guard around the clock.
Later
we had a chance to experience what Addis nightlife was like. Most of us
missed the warning notice at the hotel to be careful of ‘Addis city
boys’ calling themselves tour guides. Possibly it was the excitement of
going out.
Not long afterwards, we run into a guy who introduced
himself to us as ‘Mr. Solomon’ and was willing to show us around the
exotic Meskel Flower street.
I and my fellow participant from
Nigeria, Kenneth Azahan, became more interested when ‘Mr. Solomon’
suggested that we visit the university girls hostel where he said was a
nice place we could exchange ideas with students.
As we walked with
‘Mr. Solomon’ and asked him about the city’s security and safety at
night, he assured us that Addis was as safe at night as daytime.
We
eagerly followed him to the location south of Meskel Flower Street where
we later discovered that the university girls’ hostel, ‘Mr. Solomon’
was referring to was actually a brothel he partly owned or was employed
to bringing in foreign customers.
After this discovery ‘Mr. Solomon’
was far less trusworthy to us. His frantic attempts in persuading us to
buy drinks for the ‘students’ fell on deaf ears.
We were very much
afraid after seeing that he had lied to us. However, we did assure him
that we were coming back the following day. Obviously we never did.
However
this experience was very much made up for by the traditional Ethiopian
band that entertained us at the Hilton Hotel a day before our departure.
The music sent many dignitaries and academicians to the floor dancing
to the tunes of Ethiopia.
As I woke up the next morning heading back home, I saw the many city towers under construction.
This
gave me an impression that Addis was in high gear for development and
it was just a matter of time before it turned into another ‘paradise’
city.
Added on: Sunday, December 01st, 2013
