Ethiopia-The Cradle of the Human Being-A Culture of Sharing

“People who eat from the same plate will never betray one another.” – Ethiopian proverb.

As such, I begin this section right there, where it perhaps all began-the cradle of mankind. I had the greatest pleasure of interviewing the Ethiopian ambassador to Berlin a few weeks ago on his experiences and feelings towards the cuisine of his country. What should have been a 20 minute- interview ended up taking over 90 minutes. I left the interview feeling as if I had just taken a trip to a far away place and back. I was so excited to learn about this culture and its food and here is the long-summary of our interview.

So, Ambassador Reshid comes from the southern part of Ethiopia, in the Oramia region. Once he completed his schooling, he left his home town and headed for Addis where he studied at the University of Addis to study economics, teacher in business education, followed by becoming a member of parliament for 10 years, before becoming head of mission to Berlin, which he took over in 2006.

Ethiopia has over 80 million people composed of over 80 different ethnic groups (I did NOT know this before the interview at all). Each group has their own distinct culture, and exercise their own language and customs. So, Ethiopia is a country with over 80 different languages and more than 200 dialects thereof. This is one of the main mis-conception that several people have of Ethiopia (including me) in thinking that the country is a land of one people. The ambassador spoke about the fact that despite the great diversity, the people are able to co-exist peacefully. There is the freedom of language, custom and religious practice, with everyone celebrating and respecting each others holiday.

I was beginning to feel a great sense of pride and the concept of ?one-ness? and community was a recurring topic throughout our interview, and every much symbolises the role of food within Ethiopian culture.

I was told that more than 15 million of Ethiopians depend on coffee. They produce coffee primarily for markets in Germany, Japan and Saudi Arabia. The coffee is very high quality and sold to selected markets in these countries, costing premium prices. I asked him about the practice of fair-trade, and he responded that this was one current issue on the agenda at this time. The coffee farmers in Ethiopia are very poor and still living in poverty despite their produce begin a luxury item in the exploring countries.

There was a pause in the conversation as I had vision of all of the farmers working their lives away and hardly making ends meet. Then I shook myself out of this train of thought and continued my interview. I posed more personal questions, and noticed immediately a light-ness in the air. The ambassador?s facial expression had changed radically from a serious look to an open half-smile as we emerged from the more serious topic of coffee farmer exploitation to my exploration of:

What does Ethiopian food mean or symbolise for you?!

?Since each ethnic group has their own food, its hard to summarize what Ethiopian food for me means?.

I actually felt slightly embarrassed at posing the question and thought that I perhaps, would have been more specific….but then he interjected my thoughts by adding..most assertively:

?For me its everything, for me. It is my identity, my culture, its the food the food that I like most than anything?.

I smiled and felt my heart get warm as he spoke these words. He then repeated this again, so as to affirm himself and I felt the conviction through each of his words. It clearly was everything for him.

How would you describe Ethiopian food?

?It is a spicy and delicious delicious food. Other people who taste it want to eat it again. It is also very comfortable and although Im living in Germany since 2006, I eat Ethiopian 99 percent of the time?

Do you eat different types of foods for say, Lunch and dinner and breakfast?

?Yes and no….we do not not really have specific foods for specific times of the day. Some people eat porridge made with either wheat, or barley or maize, which is mixed with water. Or some times in the morning you may just have some bread. For breakfasts I eat bread with eggs, but I like porridge?.

What was your favourite food growing up?

?Porridge. It my favourite food when I was growing up…my mom made porridge very very well…I only wanted to eat her porridge made from mostly wheat and sometimes barley..It was very tasty…really good?.

As he described the porridge to me, he smiled again and I noticed his gaze went down as if he was imagining himself begin a boy again eating his mother?s porridge.

It is sweet?

?Its not sweet…indigenous people do not put sugar into it, but when you one to the city, you put sugar into it. But porridge with sugar is what we often refer to as the ?artificial? one?.

What role does food play in the various celebrations like birthdays and weddings?

Birthdays are not celebrated. But when guests come to us, we try to give them kwalima , for example for weddings. It is a beef sausage, that is smoked, spiced and dried. a kind of beef sausage, is eaten. Or shiro, which is beans with spices.

A popular drink in Ethiopia is honey wine, which often served at festivals and celebrations.

So, despite the regional differences what are some qualities that really characterises Ethiopian food?

In all regions throughout Ethiopia one will find injera bread. This is eaten with different sauces, made from meat, vegetables or beans. This is one dominant aspect of our culinary culture. All regions have various versions of injera because perhaps of three aspects:

Our previous emperor belonged to Amara ethnic group and this food is most originally from this ethnic group. As a result, many people have been exposed to this and it has become popular. Its also easy to prepare and it can keep for 5 -6 days.

The ingredients used for injera is not expensive, so its very assessable to everyone. It is made from a healthy grain called Teff, which is similar to millet. This is what really characterises our culinary culture in addition to our strong sense of community.

Tell me about the strong concept of community

?We do not encourage people to eat separately…when I love someone, it is expected that I eat with him. When guests come, the family must eat with that guest. We also encourage everyone to eat from the same plate. This is an important part of our culinary culture. We have a saying that the one who eats from the same plate cannot effect or hurt the one who eats with him. Even here in Germany, when I invite my friends, and take them to Ethiopian restaurants, I will inform them that we will eat from the same plate. That is our tradition. Oh, we also will eat with our fingers and not with utensils.

Is there a particular way to eat the food with your fingers?

We advice people to eat with the right hand. It is like a taboo to eat with the left hand.. Well, actually sometimes we also eat using spoons, like for example porridge is eaten with the spoon throughout all parts of the country, even in the country parts.

What about meats, what types of meats are generally used in Ethiopian cooking?

Meats are mostly for the people in the highland areas. We even eat raw meats as well, which is a delicacy. People eat raw goat, sheep and also beef.

Any other comments you would like our readers to know about Ethiopia?

Due to lack of information, people do not have enough knowledge about our country…we want people to come and visit. It is an easy place within which to travel, even as s single women, which I explicitly asked, you will not be harassed. We have beautiful ancient churches. For that you would travel to the northern part of the country. If you want to see nature, ancient settings, there are also great places to visit. Go to the southern part of the region and you can see about 45 different groups in the same place, living peacefully, as one family…It is such a great thing to see.

You might also like:Ethiopia: Part 2
Ethiopia: Part 3-The Coffee Ceremony and Injera Bread
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