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THURSDAY. IfcBMUAHY 28, lbb3
Mt,Llr(JD MAIL, iiimunt., WLUtunu. UniAUM
3,000-Year-Old Monarchy Hurrying To Catch Up With Rest of World
By DON DILLON
United Press International
Addis Ababa - (Ml - Ethi
opia la a 3,000-year-old mon
archy hurrying to catch up
with the rest of the world. It
is a land of jet transport
planes and donkey caravans,
parking meters and horse
drawn taxi-buggies, shiny
new schools and illiteracy.
It is a place where the pre
dawn howl of hyenas awaken
newcomers to iis modern cap
ital, where half the clocks are
six hours ahead of the oth
ers, and where the tablecloth
is made of bread and eaten
with the rest of the meal.
A little bit of it, along the
Bed Sea on the eastern bulge
of Africa, is one of the
world's hottest areas. But
most of it is a plateau a mile
and a half abo' e sea level
with a climate in which you
can swim every day and sleep
under a blanket every night.
The plateau is pocked with
mountains two or three miles
above the sea and with gorges
larger than the Grand Can
yon of the Colorado river. The
whole country is about the
size of the United States from
Maine to Lake Mic'-igan and
from Canada to Tennessee.
Constitutional Monarchy
The form of government is
constitutional monarchy and
the degree of democracy per
haps corresponds to the na
tion's educational and eco
nomic development: There
are no political parties and
the senate is appointed by the
emperor. The chamber of dep
uties is elected and appears
to be moderately independ
ent of - but never hostile to
-the emperor.
Foreign diplomats were as
tonished by the two-day revo
lution in December, 1960, by
the imperial household guard
-and they still differ-about
its purpose. Some describe it
as a demand for faster re
forms and economic progress;
others call it a naked power
grab by totalitarian minded
officers.
All agree that the 2,000 vic
tims on both sides included
some of the best brains in a
country which urgently needs
all the educated and trained
men it can develop.
Leaders of the rebellion
were hanged and put on pub
lic display. Haile Selassie was
on a state visit to Brazil when
the revolt broke out. When
he got home one of his first
acts was to absolve his son,
Crown Prince Asfa Wossen.
Prince In Broadcast
The prince had said In a
broadcast during the revolt
that "the laws and regulations
of the country have been
abused to deprive the com
mon people of their rights
and privileges In order to
boost up the riches ' the fa
vored few." He explained
later that he had been forced
to make the broadcast.
The middle-aged crown
prince attends public affairs
with his father now and P
pears to have preserved his
standing as heir apparent.
Addis Ababa is surrounded
by peaks but it is still 8.200
feet up. A visitor can find
himself puffing as he walks
up the soft slopes of Haile
Selassie avenue, the main
downtown street.
Other major streets bear
names such as Churchill,
Eden, Wavell, Wingate,
George VI and Smuts. The
names used to be such as Bad
oglio, Graziani and Mussolini.
They were renamed when the
British army in 1941 ended
the five-year Italian occupa
tion - the only break in Ethi
opia's 30-century history of
independence.
Have No Names
Many of the side streets
have no names and the
houses are unnumbered. This
makes no problem for the
postmen; everybody goes to
one of the city's two postof
fices to pickup his mail. The
dial telephone system is effi
cient, but looking up an ad
dress in the directory can be
disconcening. Most simply list
postoffice box numbers but
many are such as these: "Near
police station number five,"
"Behind ammunition store."
Everywhere you look in
Ethiopia you see animals. Un
dersized Brahmin cattle
..United Pr slenetstiaron
graze in the centerlancs of
downtown Addis Ababa bou
levards; hippopotami are
common along the ivers; fam
ilies of baboons caper beside
the dusty roads, countryside
game includes elephant, rhin
oceris, giraffe, zebra, wart
hog, orix and cheetah.
The hyenas are seldom seen
but they perform a useful
function: a dead animal in
the streets need not be re
moved; the carcass will be
consumed between midnight
and dawn.
Tamed Chained Lion
And in the courtyard of the
emperor's office palace is a
tame chained lion named To
jo who enjoys being petted
by emerging visitors.
The ruler's name is Haile
Selassie I, emperor of Ethi
opia, king of kings, elect of
God and conquering lion of
the tribe of Judah. He has
reigned since 1930 and is sup
posed to be the 325th mon
arch in a dynasty started by
the son of the Queen of She
ba and King Solomon.
The 70-year-old widower
emperor lives in Jubilee Pal
ace, a two-story tan stone
structure.
He likes to receive visitors
and does so as often as possi
ble in his 20-by-30-foot of
fice. He sits at a low carved
wood desk at one end of the
office, usually wearing a
brown khaki uniform with
almost a square foot of rib
bons on his chest.
For American Newsmen
The audience this corres
pondent attended recently
was for a dozen American
newsmen, some of them
travel writers. The frail
looking, bearded, five
foot . six emperor answer
ed their questions through an
interpreter, t'.-en asked ab
ruptly: "How do Americans
feel about Africa?'1 The ans
wers were scarcely enlight
ening. The lion of Judah then
emphasized the "importance
of what tourists say."
A palace official suggested
later he was referring to of
fensive remarks attributed to
an American senator about
the ability of Africans to gov
ern themselves.
When the formal audience
was finished, the king of
kings stepped around his desk
and chatted briefly in Eng
lish. He remarked that the
United Nations seemed to be
doing "much better" than the
League of Nations. He did not
refer directly to his celebrate
ed - and unsuccessful - per
sonal appeal to the league in
1936 to head off the Italian in
vasion of his country. But he
noted that "the : .embers of
the league were not strong
enough morally to make col
lective security work."
Slate-Owned Airlines
Much of the country's pas
senger and freight moves via
the slate-owned Ethiopian air
lines. It is an efficient, profit
able line set up in 19,45 with
technical assistance from
Trans World airlines.
The company recently
bought two Boeing 720B jets
for its routes to Greece,
Spain, Germany, Kenya and
West Africa. The line uses
propellor planes including the
old reliable DC3s to serve 33
Ethiopian cities.
Some of the provincial air
ports are just grass strips. An
Ethiopian pilot told this cor
respondent that a Goba air
port the crew sometimes has
to shoot the circling vultures
for safety reasons before take- and Ethiopians tell you the
off.
Only about 7,000 tourists
came here last year but a re
vitalized Ethiopian tourist or
ganization thinks the figure
may reach 20,000 in 1963. It
advertises such countryside
attractions as churches Sewn
from solid rock at Lalibela,
huge ancient obelisks at Ax
um, and Lake Tana, the head
waters of the blue Nile. Near
Bahar Dar, on the south shore
of Lake Tana, the Nile
plunges over Tissisat Falls,
perhaps the most spectacular
in the world with exception
of Victoria Falls.
Addis Ababa pretty well
shuts down from 1 to 3 p.m.
daily. The men return to their
homes - plastered cement
block structures with tile or
galvanized steel roofs - for
the heavy meal of the day.
The food is called wat - an
assortment of hotly spiced
meats and vegetables with
side portions of yogurt and
rice.
. No dishes are on the table.
Instead, the whole table is
covered with a thin, soft grey
millet bread called injera.
The wat is served in little
piles atop the bread. Each
diner tears off a four-square-inch
piece of the "tablecloth"
and folds it into a sort of
open envelope vhich he uses,
one-handed, to pick up the
food.
The time system is confus
ing. Public clocks now oper
ate midnight-to-midnight as
elsewhere. But many people
still follow the Old method In
which the clock-day starts at
dawn. Thus a public clock
will say 6 a.m. at dawn but
other timepk. )s will say 12.
When you have a 10 a.m. ap
pointment it pays to find t
if you should be there in mid
forenoon or six hours later.
Twist parties have become
popular in Addis Ababa
homes and the Ras hotel spon
sors a twist session every Fri
day night. The city has two
night clubs, a good theater
featuring American and Eu
ropean films, and a prostitu
tion district in which red-curtained
doorways have replac
ed red lights for identifica
tion purposes.
There are perhaps fewer
than 40 neon signs in the city.
The radio station broadcasts
mingle Ethiopian music with
such exotic tunes as "The Yel
low Rose of Texas."
Business establishments
range from the "atomic laun
dry" in Addis Ababa to a big
Dutch-run sugar plantation on
the Wonji plain to the south.
The major export is coffee
jjj- ttCi -i i i "rfii .-.J
EMPEROR'S RESIDENCE Jubilee Palace, shown above
in a picture taken last December, is the residence of
Haile Selassie I, emperor of Ethiopia who has reigned
'ince 193!), and is supposed to be the 325th monarch in a
beverage originated here and
took its name from the prov
ince of Kaffa.
In Neutral Camp
Ethiopia seems determined
to stay in the cold war's neu
tral camp. Officials privately
express concern over Commu
nist Chinese cultural and ec
onomic penetration of Africa
but they think Peking should
be in the United Nations.
They say they have held o
recognizing Peking only out
of deference to "our Ameri
can friends."
American foreign aid has
dynasty started by King Solomon and the Queen of Shcba.
Although the Emperor lives here, he rides across town to j
work in the older Menelek Palace. (UPI) j
NATIVE HOUSES Tnesc native nousrj be- of the world. Story of progress in Ethiopia,
side the Blue Nile in the village of B'har which hopes to be prime force toward
Dar arc pretty much the same as they were African unity, is told in the accompanying
3.000 years ag'1. but much of Ethiopia is dispatch. lUPI)
changing in order to catch up with the rest
in Biscuits
f Parslcv Flakes y
hi su'e my re ufscent rawer
1 P?jfx? jid piekfd fw garden
4...k ...... ' 1
4 jrs aid i regular U o:. t's. . jj
CRESCENT
V Sfict Mtrchanfi S'c l3
'
concentrated on education
and the peace corps is both
active and popular. Yug
slavia is building a hydroelec
tric project on the upper blue
Nile. Nearby is a handsome
technical school itiilt by the
Russians. Ethiopia hopes to be
a prime force toward unity
of the continent.
A heads-of-slate meeting is
scheduled for May in Africa
hall, Addis Ababa's most im
posing building. This seven
story edifice is headquarters
of the United Nations commis
sion for Africa Its stained
glass windows depict ancient
ignorance, a black man slay
ing a dragon symbolic of col
onialism, and a free people
marching forward.
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