Gambella, West of Ethiopia, on the border with Southern Sudan. Extreme borderland, entangled with multiculturalism and wars. There’s a smell of genocide in Gambella.

This is the story of a margin on the margins. Ethiopian colony in Sudan, Sudanese enclave in Ethiopian territory. Ethnic groups -Nuer, Anuak- , Highlanders (forced) migrants and Sudanese refugees of civil wars. The failure of multiculturalism. Failed dreams of modernization and industrialization. Violence.

This is a history of violence, stupidity of identity, wars and dirty State business. This is a story of  a remote globalization in a forgotten place.

In the Heart of Darkness?

Epiphany procession day3

“No one has a legal duty to be a victim of genocide. The statement is indisputable not only as a moral principle and as a matter of natural law, but also as a clear rule of positive international law.”

I found this sentence in an academic article full of clichés. It is said that there is an on-going genocide in the region of Gambella.

Baro River flows to Sudan (cf. this picture). It is also the heart of the Gambella region and Gambella city. People use to go to the river to wash, refresh, chat or just take some time. People belong to many different groups: indigenous Nuer, Anuak, Majangir… or settled Highlanders (for the Abyssinian highlands regardless Amhara, Tigray or Oromo) or Sudanese refugees. The situation of demographic, ethnic and cultural diversity leads to situations of complexity. Inducing tensions, conflits or violences. At least it is what is written in the books… So far, it looks like a paradise.

“the earliest beginnings of the world”

Or “the earliest beginnings of the world”. 
Of course Conrad confused Eve and Britney Spears (cf. previous picture). In the age of globalization, the scramble for Africa seems to belong to a remote time. Nowadays remote and margins are the centre of the World! 

(Click on the map to see where we are. The map doesn’t show the picture was taken in a brothel of Gambella. We just slept one night in the place because all the other hotels were full. No way to participate to the scramble for African flesh.)

Before the integration of Gambella to the Ethiopian kingdom, the region was occupied by five groups, mainly the Anuak and the Nuer. They still live in this region, between Ethiopia and Sudan.

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From Jimma to Gambella: coffee plantations, forests, tea plantations, deforestation, timkat…

Click on the picture below to see the trip on a satellite image. Then you can play with the scale and change from satellite to map, from map to relief…

“Demain, dès l’aube, à l’heure où blanchit la campagne,
Je partirai… “

(I always remember Victor Hugo’s poetry in those occasions)

Soundtrack: Mulatu Astakte, Kasalèfkut Hulu (From All the Time I Have Passed), 2:45

Rastafari driving through the Highlands.

following the timkat and the prayers (click on the picture below to know where you are)