April 2011
5 posts
3 tags
Gambella stories
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...
“the air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish”.”
– Conrad.
Gambella city: The Baro river
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...
Part 2. Gambella city (Britney in the jungle)
“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...