Visions of Ethiopia II: Sister Joan & the Shashemane faithful

Joan could not conceive.
For several years, she and her husband tried unsuccessfully to have children. Then, they took up the offer to repatriate to the Shashemane district in Ethiopia, as part of an imperial decree granting land for resettlement - primarily as a reward for material and moral support given by the African Diaspora during the pre-WWII occupation of the country by Italy.

The move proved fortuitous, and not only in terms of her fertility. Today, some 26 years after crossing from West to East, Joan is the mother of six, the younger ones still teenagers. Moreover, the couple are successful entrepreneurs in the community and are at the forefront of securing ongoing development (the region already boasts an upscale resort and an expanded and upgraded secondary school.

Then there's the regal- looking Gladstone Robinson, NYC-born, but no stranger to either Jamaica (where he befriended Mortimmo Planno among others) nor to Ethiopia, where was among the original "pathfinders" who started the Shashemane settlement. Hispioneering ways extended to his chosen vocation, pharmacy, and he opened the the first Black-owned pharmacy in the city of Asmara, thriving among no less than eight Italian-owned establishments.

Those remarkable folks, among others,were part of a revealing and marvelous documentary, the final in a series printed by Dr Anta and Shiva Merritt, a series aptly titled Visions of Ethiopia. The series also focussed on the human/spiritual wonders that the monolithic churches of Lalibela, the holy city(see URL). Carved out of the bedrock sometime around the 11th Century, the churches, themselves amazing, also hold an amazing collection of unique Ethiopian crosses ( including one with the now dreaded swastika design co- opted by Der Furher himself.)

Part travelogue, part social and religious history, part development activism, Visions of Ethiopia is a much-needed antidote to the misinformation and myth about the only unconquered African territory.

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Visions of - and for - Ethiopia

If you are among the unenlightened whose concept of Ethiopia involves famine and poverty (notwithstanding the present drought in neighbouring Somaliland), then prepare for an adjustment.

Firstly, Ethiopia is roughly the size of the American state of Texas and, save for a brief occupation by the Italians in the run-up to WWII, has never been subject to a foreign power.

Among the unique features of this ancient colossus is Lalibella, where churches carved out of solid rock have drawn pilgrims and other visitors for centuries. The stone churches, with their impressive craftsmanship and haunting iconography have been featured in many a travelogue, but what many of those visitors don't know, or just haven't shared, is that the surrounding communities, almost exclusively agrarian for millennia, are woefully underdeveloped.

At least they were until a group of committed young professionals decided to do something about it. Armed with university degrees and, more importantly, with a burning desire to see and implement change, the organization, Save Your Holy Land, has set about introducing modern communications, water systems (including a reservoir to support agriculture) and other projects aimed at increasing self-sufficiency among the residents and providing abase for community-driven improvement that will modernize without sacrificing the area's invaluable cultural and religious patrimony.

The future includes the construction, in collaboration with San Diego, California-based Sacred Places and Sactuaries (SPAS), of a multi-purpose center encompassing arts and entertainment, academic study, and skills training.

Drs. Shiva and Anta Merritt, founders os SPAS, shared pictorial highlights of their Ethiopian sojourn in a slide show that forms part of their "Visions of Ethiopia" program me done in collaboration with the arts- friendly Great Huts resort in Portland. Talking the audience through the images, the couple gave an expansive and movingly personal view of the dignity, strength and resourcefulness of the people determined to make something worthy of their gifts, despite the serious challenges of human and capital resource constraints. The film was accompanied by a display of modern Ethiopian religious art, honoring the established traditions, but smartly updating them.

The name Lalibella, which derives from the legendary king who spearheaded the construction of e churches, means "the bees recognize his sovereignty" -reportedly because a swarm of bees attended the future monarch at his birth. The inititatives depicted in this film, it is intended, will bring a swarm - controlled that is - of activity to the area with the aim of preserving it's vital treasures.

The monoliths of Lalibela

Taking kids out of the exploitive tourist trade and into productive activity

Other members of the group brought satellite communications, cell phones, set up a hospital and built a reservoir.

Cranial psychotherapy

Gashe Haile Tedesse, artist who reproduces sacred articles from the Holy Land