THE DAY IN HARAR

Sunday was our day in the Old City of Harar. We had organised our guide, Biniyam, on arrival the day before. At 8.30 we were ready, showered, well if washing in an Addis “bakkie”, the same as those that the ladies back home sell the koeksisters from, counts as a shower and breakfasted and ready to roll.

When Biniyam, as in Benjamin in the bible, arrived we made our way to the old walled city, which is about 1000 years old and considered as one of the 4 holiest cities to Muslims. As it was Sunday it was not as busy as weekdays, however it was still a hive of activity. If you consider that in an area with a 3 and a half km circumference there are 5500 houses and about 30000 people, I would imagine there is always a hive of activity of one sort or the other. The city has 5 old and one new gates. All the gates are named and have huge historical significance, which is well documented and easy to get info on. For us it was about the visual and sensual experience of the day.

We entered the city at the gate connecting the Christian market on the outside to the bustling market on the inside. Immediately we were transformed into a different world. Every possible type of fresh produce is available; bread rolls, spices, vegetables and even kerosene oil were all available within a metre of walking. The ladies sat chatting, reprimanding children, drinking chai and bargaining with customers all at the same time. All produce is sold in little piles or by the kilo. A kilo of anything is about Br 7 or 8, which is about R5.

Once you move on from the official market place you enter the world of the “shops”. This to me is the most fascinating. All the shops are little, at the maximum 3x3 metre. There is no such a thing as a till, just cash and a written receipt. Every shop is stocked to the brim with whatever its line of trade is. Mostly you get similar sort of shops together, so if you are shopping for material, you go to that area, which then is placed conveniently close to Girr-girr street, where all the men with their sewing machines are sitting on the street and stitching away and all you hear is girr-girr, girr-girr as you walk along. We are not talking of the latest Bernina or Elna machines here, it is old Singer types which are mounted onto the table and works with a foot pedal and these guys pedal like any good Argus rider. My favourite shop, though, was the one selling real sandals made of real tyres and I believe that they are real strong, but boy, are they uncomfortable. The “chat” chewing cobbler even gave me a branch of chat to chew. Dick was not impressed!

The butcher shops were “grillerig” to say the least. Goats’ meat and camel and flies all in the same space. No fridge of any type or description. Mind you, most of the time there is no electrical power. Apparently the dams are not full enough to produce enough (sounds a bit like Eskom). This presents major challenges to the locals, however they seem to have innovative ways of overcoming this. The cherry on top re the butcher shops was the man sitting on the pavement with the last remains of a camel for sale. When we requested to take a photo, he called a little girl to come and push back the camel’s lips, like in a smile. GROSS!!

We also went to see several museums and places of interest, amongst others a typical Harar house, with all the decorative customary trimmings. It was absolutely fascinating. This particular house is also used as guest house. We were very tempted to book in there for a night. There was even a proper bath in the bathroom, but at Br 300 per night we thought that it was a bit out of our range. We are sitting in the Br 50 to 75 per night for either a camp site or a room. Real cheapskates!!

The architecture in the old city is a real mixed masala. The overall impression that one gets, is of the old Bo-Kaap, as it was before the 60’s. It has the same feel and aura. Most of the houses are painted either white, light blue or a sort of turquoise colour. There are also some houses unpainted where you can clearly see the wall construction. Only wood, stone and mud were used to build all the houses and believe me, they are still all standing. These houses all date from about late 17 and early 18 hundreds. The very first houses were made of grass and wooden sticks. None of these survived. There is also quite a lot of Indian architecture around. To me that all looks like good old slum buildings at the moment. Furthermore there are 82 mosques, mostly small ones serving a small area and its inhabitants, one Catholic church and one Orthodox church and of course one main Mosque, dating from the 12th century.

The streets were crowded with people of all shapes and sizes, looks and intention. Women mostly selling goods and men mostly lying about chewing “chat”. There are actual chat markets in the city where the women sit and sort out the chat and sell it off to dealers. By the end of the day everybody is totally relaxed! There are lots of children and lots of older people. We also saw a fair amount of beggars and many requests were made for money, but above all it was about the most amazing photographic opportunities, the colourful clothing, the interesting shapes, the obvious difference between the different people who make up this fascinating place. The only handicap is that you cannot just click away and take pictures of people, as many of them object to being photographed. Luckily the guide could negotiate every now and then. We ended the day by going to see the hyena man, in this case a young guy who feeds the hyenas every night just outside the wall of the city. The best was that the Hyenas did not object to being photographed.
We could have spent another week in the old city, just to be there. We said that the ideal would have been to be invisible and to be able to take any photo that you see, however that and reality does not sit together, anyway after walking around for the whole day and having seen and experienced so much we were bushed by the evening. The smells of the spices and the constant calling of “farangi” “you” and “give me money” as well as the steady feeling of getting pulled into the old world around us, made this day a highlight for us.