The story is well-known in some parts of the world: God created Adam. Later, God created Eve from a rib of Adam. By God’s design, the two would live, without troubles or death, in paradise. Adam and Eve, 1968, woodcut; Helen Siegl, 1924-2009, American born Austria. The Woodmere Museum, Philadelphia […]
Tag: Ethiopia
Angel’s Trumpet (Brugmansia)
Very far from its native lands in tropical south America where all of its species are thought to be extinct in the wild, Angel’s Trumpet shrubs are a perennial in Addis Ababa which has a subtropical climate and is located at 7,500 feet. The bush with its spectacular blooms grows both in her gardens and […]
Ethiopian basketry
Made originally with grasses since time immemorial by agricultural peoples living in the northern and central highlands, these baskets are both functional and decorative. Many have an attached, woven stand. Then with thread and grasses in the primary colours favored by the cultures of Ethiopia. A basket used to separate […]
The Lions of Judah
Here below is an undated photo of Haile Sellassie I** , the last Ethiopian emperor, 1892 -1975 The wainscot may indicate that it was taken during the emperor’s exile in England (1936-’41). Today is his birthday. Books continue to pour off the presses about his life, relationships and policies. And so many paintings. His photo and the imperial […]
January 7: An Orthodox Christmas, 2016
It is today Christmas in the Orthodox world. The fast before Christmas in Christian Ethiopia is broken at midnight in the night between January 6 and 7 when the birth of Jesus is announced. Vast numbers of people are in the churches, in church compounds, touching the outside of the walls of the church compound. Genuflecting. […]
IN MEMORIAM Two Vanished Men
I heard this week that a friend of my youth, Bentley Angliss, died in Madrid in April. It was with Bentley and his friends that I spent the last few years of safe haven while at university in London before we launched ourselves to our various fates in the ‘real’ world. We lived in a little Georgian house in The Mount […]