L’autre visage de L’ETHIOPIE : Entre marathons et traditions ancestrales – Documentaire voyage – AMP

L’autre visage de L’ETHIOPIE : Entre marathons et traditions ancestrales – Documentaire voyage – AMP

Ethiopia is first and foremost a cadence. The rhythm of these thousands of steps… which
hammer the earth from 6 a.m. It ‘s dawn, the day has barely
broken and I can hear people running all around me . More or less quickly, but
still overall much faster than me. I don’t know why they’re all running, I don’t know where they’re
all going, but they’re definitely going. In Ethiopia, the marathon is a source
of dreams for the entire population. Well, listen Pongo, if they all run, should
we join in too? Go in small strides, go! I decided to set off to discover
this people with their legendary resistance, who have crossed the centuries
at their own pace… running. Hello, it’s Sophie.
With Pongo, I set off on a long journey. I don’t see. So I’m going to take the world
in my arms, feel it, touch it. But above all, I will
share my encounters with you and help you discover the world differently.
Looking at him, in the eyes of others. Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, is perched at an altitude of 2,500 meters… And
yet, it’s not short of breath! For 50 years, the country has won all the
Olympic medals in long-distance running. Mesquel Square, in the city center, is
a bit like the Place de la Concorde and the Stade de France all rolled into one!
This is where I have a meeting with one of the greatest runners in the
country. Guebreziaber won the New York City Marathon in 2010, but he
still enjoys training among the amateurs… Hello Sophie Hello Sophie!
Hello, how are you? Thank you for finding me here! You’re welcome, welcome to Ethiopia! I’m surprised there are so many
people running around me. Yes, and did you also train this morning? Oh yes, I have to do
my kilometers every morning! how much this morning? This morning, 27 km! 27 km this morning….good! …. what time??? Listen, I got up at 4 o’clock this morning… and
I worked out for an hour and a quarter. an hour and a quarter!! ….oh my god
!…is this your job or is this your life? my life, of course… why is it so important to run in
Ethiopia, where does this collective passion come from? You know in Ethiopia, almost
all children have to walk to go to school. For example, when I was
little, I had to walk 15 km. every day ? Yes, every day. Sophie, if you want, we’ll go running together. You know, here it’s a
bit of a unique place for us. Why not…but I’m
not a very good runner… Don’t worry Maybe you can get
on my right? so I keep my dog ​​on the left…and I can take your elbow? Yes, is that okay? Very good, very good. Yes… it would be better with
good shoes and without a dog, but it’s okay! You see, if you run
in this place 15km a day, you will become a professional in a year! …I’m not sure I’ll make it! But yes, you can! What’s funny about running with him is
that he’s very, very flexible on his legs, he jumps higher than what
I usually notice with my running partners, and then we didn’t
run in an orthodox way so I really felt all the movements of his body. In
theory, when you guide a blind person who is running, you hold him back with a small cord. There
we didn’t have any so I took his elbow, so I was very close to his body and I
could really feel all his movements and his thinness, he is very thin he must
have a super strict diet. In this square, all the sportsmen dream
a little of being the new Guebreziaber. What is that noise
? What are they doing? They do exercise,
aerobics, like in a gym. It’s almost military training
!…they’re counting, right? Yes, they count… 1, 2, 3… up to 10. It’s very strict! It’s no joke, eh… For most, becoming a professional
racer is the hope of a less difficult life. People here have to struggle with their
daily worries, their economic problems… In Europe, we have stupid clichés about Africa
: Africans are not hard workers… and I am really happy to be able to show the
opposite. Thank you very much for this walk. You’re welcome… thank you. Endurance, resistance
: the most disadvantaged Ethiopians have no choice
but to cultivate these qualities to survive. On the advice of my
marathon-running friend, I set off to meet the legendary “faggot women”….
These women carry their wood for dozens of kilometers to sell it at markets.
They live on the hills surrounding the capital, on the edge of the forest.

This is where I have to meet Shibre. She has to teach me how to “fagotage”…

hello Shibre… Welcome Sophie, welcome!

Thank you so much ! Nice to meet you. We’ll go to work soon. We’re
going to start collecting the wood. I hope I could help you. Yes, you will collect the wood. I arrived late. If Shibre wants to be able to
sell her wood before the end of the day, she must go and harvest it quickly.
It’s 5 minutes away, she told me. In fact, in 5 minutes we were
off for an hour’s walk. I feel like in Ethiopia everyone is walking all the time. To
go to school, to work… In Ethiopia, things are
not as accessible as at home. Education is a luxury, work too, so even if it is not practical, you have to
do it, even if it means walking for hours…. It smells good here!! is it the wood? Yes, we are in a eucalyptus forest… Eucalyptus, here, is the wood that is used for everything. To cook, to heat or
even to build houses…. This is where we’re going to cut the wood, okay? I’ll try, I’m sure
I’m not as good as you…well, so how do we do it? I don’t know
how to use this thing. you take it like this, firmly,
with both hands…and you cut, and you cut, and you cut.
It takes time, it’s a very hard wood…. Put both hands
like that to hit harder… But it’s crazy, it takes an eternity and a half, it feels like you’ve been
hitting it for 2 hours, nothing happens, the thing doesn’t move!!
we cut we cut and nothing happens!! come on cut! Shibre has been repeating this gesture since he was 11 years old…
5 hours a day harvesting branches. Be careful it doesn’t fall on you! It’s going to fall on my head! Move over! Watch out!
well done! It smells really good because you can smell the poor,
wounded tree, it’s still all wet. It’s smells very good here!
It smells really good in here! Yes, it smells strong, like eucalyptus… I am always amazed by the people
I see around the world like that, women in particular who sometimes have
a very hard, very repetitive life and they barely have enough to eat and
even then not every day and in my opinion their children come first before them for
meals. I am always amazed because they always do this without giving up, with strength and
courage, it is always quite impressive. Come on, can it be worn like a backpack? I
put it like this on my shoulders? Yes, wait. Ah, that makes her laugh! It’s funny, I find it less perfect but…
Ah well yes, I need that as well, it was missing from my equipment.
It weighs a dead donkey and it’s especially very wide… Pongo, you manage,
each to their own life now… I have 10 kg on my back…. Something as big
as 6 times me so each one has their own life Pongo She takes care of everything! So what do we do now? we’re going home. To dry the wood. Is this an old house? Have you
lived there for a long time? No, she’s one year old! Ah, so it’s brand new! and
so here we are inside? Yes, it’s a mud house. The walls are made of
dry earth. Afterwards, we will put lime on it. So this wall is a bit like it was
raw concrete but with, as if there was a bit of straw in it… and little
wooden hairs, it’s a bit more crumbly, you seem proud of this house.
For me, home is the most important thing. Before, I
had nothing. God willing, this is what I want to leave to my children.

you built it through your work? Yes, it is thanks to the wood that I
sell, to my work as a bundler, that I was able to build it.
Kids, come say hello! Shibre raises her four children alone. Her
husband died a few years ago. The little one doesn’t go to school yet,
it’s too far for her, 10km away. Others go when they have something in their
stomach, otherwise it is too tiring for them. In the afternoon, you have to go and sell the
dried bundles at the market. My back is put to the test. So I hear my faggot! Is it okay, is it comfortable? Comfortable ? um… I didn’t make one too
heavy! Sometimes I carry 30 kg! 30 kilos, my god! If my friend insists on knowing if I
am comfortable…it means we are in for… 3 hours of walking!!
I just understood! …and it makes her laugh! Isn’t it too dangerous with cars? Yes, people drive like crazy. The less poor sometimes have
a donkey to help them. But at 60 euros per animal, it is
still too expensive for Shibre. I don’t know how they manage to wear that
every day, it hurts their backs so much because there are little pieces of wood that
stick into their backs and buttocks. There are shoulders that are torn off by the
kind of straps that serve as straps , I don’t know how they do it.
We’ve been walking for half an hour and I ‘m already dead, and yet I eat my fill
every day, three meals a day… those who often have empty stomachs, it seems, I
really don’t know how they do it, it’s amazing… that’s it, we’ve arrived at the market… It’s funny because we walk past
people, there are loads of people laughing, looking at us. They must be
hallucinating to see a white woman with a bundle of wood like that on her back, they
must be wondering what we are doing. It makes them laugh, they wonder
what you’re doing there, carrying wood! Here is my buyer. What is your price?
It’s 20 birr as usual. It’s okay, I’ll take it. Okay, where do you want me to put it? over there.. come on I’ll help you. Let him go. Okay, I’ll put it there. Now we’re going to get the money. Each bundle brings
Shibre a little less than one euro. What can you buy for
20 birr? (pronounced butter) bread… bread for my children. And how many days do you last? It feeds them for one evening, I only
last one evening with that. I really hope you sell lots of wood and your children can go
to school and eat their fill. Thank you very much, I’m glad to
have met you. take care of yourself….maybe see you soon, and
you can really be proud of yourself! So, I spent a rather moving day with
a lady who I think gives beautiful lessons in dignity , and who reduces our little
everyday worries to what they are, that is to say not much compared to their life… And that
just allows us to put a certain number of things into perspective. Second day on Ethiopian soil.
I also got up with the sun. This morning I have to meet a Frenchman, Ethiopian at heart…. Francis arranged to
meet me at the fabric market. Pongo has acquired bad habits
in this country, he walks in the middle of the streets, he doesn’t want to stay on the right…
I don’t think we’ll end up in one piece, Sophie! Good morning ! Sorry, I’ll start
by crushing your feet.
No, it’s fine…
Nice to meet you. So it seems that you are an Ethiopian by adoption, can we say that?

It’s always difficult to say that you’ve been adopted by Ethiopians, but in any case I can say that I’ve been coming
here regularly for a while, really 2, 3, 4 times a year for more than a quarter of a
century. It is an extremely endearing country. So here we are near a
fabric market, right?
We are in a fabric market,
one of the most beautiful in Addis, yes. You’ll take me to see it up close, shall
we go for a little tour? Of course yes, maybe we will go that way…
We will go where you want, I will follow you, you are my guide. Francis discovered Ethiopia through his ears…
In the 80s, he fell in love with the musical richness of this country. Today,
he knows every nook and cranny of Addis… The Chiromeda market is where
you can find the most beautiful chamas, the traditional women’s clothing…. Live Francis asks for a Chama (not to be translated) So this is a chama? This is the basic chama What do we call the chama, it’s
a large piece of fabric it looks like? It is a large rectangle of hand-woven fabric
in which one wraps oneself. This looks super hot. Can we show Sophie
how they dress in a chama in Ethiopia? How do you put that on your
shoulders, your head…? I don’t know… I don’t know either…
Come on, I’m a model. On the head… the shoulders… we’ll
try not to overwhelm the dog with it. A little on the head is very
good, it’s Marian. On the shoulder… On the shoulders… No, Pongo! You bring the fold up
on the shoulder yes absolutely There, what do I look like now? To nothing? It’s very Marian for women
to be wrapped up like that. It was, or is a little less so, the
basic garment, it was used day and night. But do they put something underneath?
Because for example, I’m wearing jeans… Yes, yes, today they wear
something underneath, but in a rather distant past there probably wasn’t
much underneath. Because it’s not very decent
if you don’t put anything underneath. Yes yes yes but oh well.

There are ladies selling butter. What are they selling? Butter, kébé, it is
Ethiopian butter and in the making of butter, there are up to 25 condiments, including
certain woods which are supposed to have flavor. I have a spoonful of ibla, it’s
white cheese but like buttermilk. When you eat,
Ethiopian food is very spicy. When it’s too spicy, you
take this, and it mellows it out a little. I want half of it. How much is it? 35 minutes! but that’s a price for
the whites you make me! but no, it’s hot, it does
n’t keep, it’s more expensive! Francis is THE specialist in
Ethiopian music in Europe. And today he has booked me a meeting with a dance legend.
…Well, if we get there!! the dog! he’s going to bite me! but no, he’s nice. put it in the trunk! He’s nice, he’s a friend! This is
a guide dog from France! so you go up first! How ? so you go up first! He’s afraid of the dog! ok, he’s very nice I swear!

It’s very hot in this car, what do you think? Melaku Belay has been dancing 5 hours
a day since he was 13. Endurance… again.
The dancer masters 84 traditional dances of the tribes of his country. A
Sudanese refugee child, he lived on the streets. Today his shows
tour the world. He invites you to dance, you have to get up… can I leave my dog ​​with you? … Yes yes absolutely so there, I’m going to do the
Gondar dance. I take the energy from the ground, which comes from the earth, and I
bring it up into the legs, the spine, the torso, and then
up to the face, like this…actually I expel it from my lungs, like this…

You have so much energy! can i put my hand here? Don’t worry…let yourself be
guided, you will feel everything..! Well, I’ll start…

it’s funny… he moves so much that you get the impression that he’s like a puppet that’s
all dislocated, he moves everywhere, he vibrates everywhere… Everything moves, the shoulders, the stomach,
the chest, the arms, it’s impressive… And what’s also exasperating is that there’s
nothing but muscle… He’s very very thin and all muscular everywhere. With all the energy he
expends, it only half surprises me. He is adorable, he shows me all
his gestures… as soon as he changes movement he shows me his face, his shoulders…
Either it’s all in vibration… but it’s not in roundness. Oh well obviously except now… but
otherwise it’s rather very rapid movements. The spine must take quite a beating…
it vibrates completely, its whole body is just a vibration. We can imagine that we
can get into a trance quite easily… it’s incredible, thank you… really, thank you! Thank you so much ! Thank you! My pleasure ! So before leaving, the
marathon star – my friend Gebreziaber – offers me a nice gift:
A meeting on his favorite training ground: A
steep forest, at an altitude of 3000 meters. shall we start here? Yes.
Normally, when you run with a blind person, you need a rope. So I
have one, a little too big, so I suggest we hold it like
this…there. Can I stand on your right? ok, i’ll try not to
go too fast for you. we’ll see!! Don’t worry, it’ll be okay. How do you feel? I feel very good. So far, so good !
It’s crazy, because you’ve never used a rope, and you
immediately understood the trick. Are you still okay, Sophie? Very good, I’m happy! Perfect ! get lost!!
Go play somewhere else! he wants to train with us! Yes, but we don’t want him! Ahh
we want it to be far away To get away from the clichés of Africa,
we have to leave the marked paths… we’ve been

riding for almost two hours,
a good part of which is on track. This is the price to pay to go and see a village
where not everyone sets foot…
In Ethiopia, the end of the world begins with
the laughter of the Gurague children. One of the oldest farming people in the country….

I’m starting to hear a few children’s voices here and there, I have the impression
that we’re slowing down a little… We might be arriving at the village.

But in this southern region, you don’t just turn up unannounced. Because welcoming a
foreigner here follows an ancestral protocol. Come on, my dog, we’re not sorry we
arrived. Come on, we’ll harness you up and try to find Kelemoua.
Wow, I feel people approaching from everywhere… I don’t know who is who. Hello! Kelemua? Ah, nice to meet you
… Kelemua?? Hello, nice to meet you Hello Sophie, welcome!

The Gurague are one of the hundreds of ethnic groups that inhabit Ethiopia…
They are the custodians of a treasure… a plant … which apparently helps them fight
the curse of drought… Am I following you? Yes, Kelemua is the one who is responsible for welcoming me on behalf of the
village. And his hand never lets go of mine. I feel like I’m in the middle of a cloud of women… I don’t think there have ever been so many
women around me speaking a language I do n’t know. Rape me…

Is this your house? Yes, welcome to my place…

it looks huge, yes

It smells good, it smells of wood, there are rugs on the floor, it looks very big… do

you want me to sit down? ok. Wait, dog, move over! You are in one of our traditional houses.
First of all, I’m going to make you a coffee. Great, I was told that
coffee is very important at your place. Ah, coffee means a lot
to us, it’s a welcoming ritual…

ah, OK… …and I feel my hosts a little on their guard.

They look like big chickpeas. It’s never easy to come and
disturb the habits of a village. it’s in the fire, …okay.

How long does it take to grill? It takes an hour to do everything,
wash them, grill them, grind them, in all 1 hour. It smells very good, it doesn’t smell like
coffee at all yet, it smells like fire. Go ahead, you have to really
shake them up in all directions. It’s always when you do something with
people that the ice breaks… and especially in the countryside, people are very, very open,
ready to share with you what they know how to do. And there they are, taking you into their story,
they take your hand and you do with them what they have to do and suddenly the non-
verbal takes over and suddenly it’s won… shall we put the coffee in there? Yes, that’s it,
it’s won…so I understood…very good, and then what? Ah, we’re pounding it!
They are very amused to see me with the pestle in my hands!

You know what? I’m going to get up, it will be easier… They are hilarious
Yes, encourage me, it’s hard! Great, you’re doing it right!

I don’t think I’ve ever done anything funnier in my life!
yes, a song! Ah, that’s great, they’re making me yuyu!

In fact, I’m being clever, but I ‘m really touched by their welcome…

The Buna ceremony – Ethiopian coffee – is a tradition throughout the country. But at
the Gurague, it takes on another dimension… what I am experiencing is something huge !! This is just crazy.

And I who believed that I was going to wisely remain seated.

An hour has passed since my arrival… I have almost forgotten the purpose of the ceremony!

Ah, it’s snack time! She serves it a bit like
tea is served in the Maghreb, from quite high up it seems! If my ears do not deceive me
… The time has come. Thanks a lot ! It’s hot…I’m burning my
fingers. It’s a very, very strong coffee… it’s not bitter, but it’s extremely strong
and very tasty and very roasted.

I could never make a coffee in France
without thinking about this moment we just shared, and the way you prepare it.
Kelemua is silent…But I don’t
need her words to feel her smile. It seems the village has accepted me.

In Guademar, 50 families live without electricity, depending on the seasons.
Here, we have learned to deal with drought. And in particular thanks to a tree: The
Enset, a sort of false banana tree. In Europe, it is just a
decorative plant…but for my friend Kélémua, it is the pride of all her people!

We’ll let Pongo pass… I follow you oops sorry
Pongo licked her she doesn’t like that. Show me your trees! ah, but it’s
super big! It’s soft and round. It’s completely round, there are sort of
big, enormous leaves. It’s a huge trunk, all smooth, all
soft, which creaks and sounds hollow, but how do you harvest
it? Is it inside or is there a fruit? No, it’s in the trunk. So you have to cut down the tree
to harvest the enset, is that it? yes

we almost got knocked out… it smells like humus now that they’ve pulled the
leaves off it smells like damp earth yet it’s super dry.. it must be the sap we smell

we must be pushing it? Yes !
over there? like that ? Help me, I can’t do it alone! Yes, that’s how it is, damn

it…the more it goes on , the more it moves, we’ll get there in the end.
Watch out, it’s going to fall any minute…Come on, my friend…just a little more effort!
Just a minute! yes we got it! Just a minute…, yes that’s it!!

In fact it’s funny because it’s really a collective activity…It mixes
men and women but it doesn’t just mix men and women from the same household, from
the same family, it mixes all the people in the village. It’s quite different from
farming in our country where everyone has their own family or is an employee…

So I take a piece, oh it’s all wet.

shall we roll it? No, you have to peel it, it comes off
by itself, no need to cut. It must hold up well during the drought
because it’s quite wet inside so it must hydrate itself… it looks like a kind
of enormous leek… but with super thick leaves like a succulent and there are
layers and layers and layers of them, wait, Sophie! Leave it, you break them, let us do it!

Obviously, I have somewhat sabotaged the peeling of the local treasure…
Enset is one of the few plants capable of withstanding
several months of drought. And this is the only place
in the world where it is grown.

I hear them scratching
something…I guess that’s the next step? are they on the ground?

I haven’t yet fully grasped their technique, but I’m happy to let myself be guided…by Wudu.
She has been harvesting Enset since she was 6 years old! So here I am sitting on a kind of trunk.
Feet in a sticky molasses! Ah, like that… And then?
And after? with the foot of agreement, …very good and??

like this, use both hands, and scratch ! harder, press harder… That’s good!

For 7 centuries, the gurague have repeated this same gesture. The fibers of the trunk are scraped to
obtain a sort of paste filled with starch.

It smells a bit like cucumber… The left foot releases 10
cm of enset juice and at my feet, at the other foot, the one I use to block, I have a ton of
molasses which doesn’t look very appealing and it is this molasses which
in the south of Ethiopia saves 10 million people from famine. Have you ever seen a European woman do that?

No, it’s a first! so what? I’m not doing too badly?

You’re doing well, I’m glad to be doing this with you!

I finally got the hang of it. And after a few hours, I too
harvested a kilo of this porridge.
Bend down

Ah I have to bend down! A loot which, I was told,
cannot be preserved in the Western way….

We’ll stop here…

Sit down.

I have to bend down, okay… Ah, there are holes,
I imagine, in which we’ll put the baskets, ah no, we’ll empty them there… OK, fine!

Why are you burying it in holes? This is to ferment it. We bury it for
two weeks…so that it ferments well. All right. It looks more like
fertilizer than compost… and yet it will be food in the
end and not compost…
Now I want to understand how to
cook this Enset porridge… well, I suppose you
have some at home to cook with? Yes, come, I will teach you!!

everyone laughs as we pass by… We must be a little bit of an attraction with Pongo.
But it’s very sweet and kind like smiling. It is a very flat and gentle village
made of dry grass everywhere, it is very easy to move around there, the paths
are very very wide but on the other hand it is much more difficult to find your way around!
…It’s not like after the third crossing to the right, we’re not there yet! So
I’m not quite sure who lives where yet! Wudu will teach me how to make….the “kotcho
”. It’s the staple food here. Made with this famous fermented dough.

Is this your place? Well, now I’m your student to make the kocho.

It’s a bit the same touch as before it was fermented… There’s just a little less water
maybe in it… Ah and that’s the knife. I do it with you.

Hold it like this

Like this? do we make slices?

It smells like baker’s yeast, it’s quite a strong, quite acidic smell.
Let me do it now!

She cuts much faster than me… now it’s starting to get better.

It already looks like dough, you know, in France, we sometimes make
dough like that to make pies, and well, every time I try, I
mess them up!! (Laughs) So I hope that today you won’t miss your kocho because of me!

Yes, here we do the same…but let me do it instead!

She doesn’t trust me… now that I told her I mess up all my pie crusts!
She is a reasonable and wise woman! is that it? Already ? I’m jealous, you
were so fast! And yes, it’s done! She succeeded in less than 10 seconds
; Well, I’m exaggerating, she managed to make a super elastic dough in 30 seconds.
So now we have to flatten it. Well done, our kocho looks normal!

Well done Sophie!

more ?

Yes, come on… The kocho cake is far from having all
the virtues. For example, it is devoid of proteins. But in the Horn of Africa, it
already has the merit of feeding when we are hungry. It’s ready!

Can we taste? Shall we share? Let me try first…

Among the Guragües, the host always tastes before the guest.

Here you go, you can taste it. It tastes like a very thick, hot pancake….
A little sour…I understand that it can nourish your man…I think that when you eat
a good little treat you’re no longer hungry afterward but it’s very good and that’s a good thing.

Words are few, but actions speak.
So much so that I even dare to invite myself to sleep in the village.

It was Kelemua, the one who introduced me to the coffee ceremony, who
offered to put me up. Come on Pongo you know the
way! Obviously! Hop oh, great, there’s a little wood fire… Cool!
so this is my bed? we’re going to settle in nicely! It’s perfect! Pongo leave me alone
! Pongo is jealous of my mattress! Are you okay there?

It’s super comfortable! This is our guest house.

It’s a beautiful place, and I’m very honored and happy to be here!
I’m really comfortable here, I’m completely relaxed… I’m on a super comfortable mattress…
A pillow that’s just as comfortable. There is an incredible calm. This is the first time
I have heard such great calm in this village… It’s so wonderful… She’s
laughing… I don’t know why but we’re going to laugh together! How good we are
! Hospitality is not a legend here! Well, I’ll let you sleep…

Thank you… well I’ll get ready to sleep… thank you very much!! At night, the village of Guademar
plunges into a centuries-old silence… I feel that here,
my dreams can touch eternity.

Hmm, it’s a bit chilly in the morning here… I like the
sounds of the countryside… The animals, the people starting to get ready… Pongo coming back
from who knows where for his morning walk. The night was extremely calm! It’s
funny, by the way, this contrast between village life during the day, which is quite
noisy, there’s singing, everyone’s doing lots of things, and the night,
which is peaceful… Incredibly peaceful. It was my first night in this
Ethiopian village and boy was it really nice!
My host was patiently waiting for me to
wake up to offer me a gift… Salamno! THANKS ! This is the little
basket for putting coffee makers in! It’s a tradition with us!

I’m going to try to find a small watering hole to wash myself
a little because I feel like I’m a bit lost in my thoughts…

Wudu guides me to the watering hole. It is 7 a.m., and the village is still asleep. Here
too, Sundays are a lie-in! !! but yes Pongo, you’re happy!
Pongo definitely loves this village, he is as happy as a king! She’s a little scared of him
now because he’s charging at her! Go play I think this is the first time I’ve walked
so much to be able to brush my teeth! That’s it, we must be there!

Careful, there’s a rock… gently, climb… there’s the tap.

Ah, I have to get on that, hopla! There is the tap.

How does it work? ok a tap ok very good ! and I lift? Oh no, she shows me them all.
I’ll try this one. It doesn’t work. Ah there’s no water in the first one!

Take the can.
But how does it work? There
is no water today? And what do you do when there is no water like that?

We go to the river, or we stock up. These faucets don’t always work?

No, it’s random. There was water yesterday, there may be water tomorrow. We’ll see…

This morning, the pumps are supplying another village.
Guademar will have to wait. The wind coming from the Red Sea announces the end of the
dry season. In a few days if all goes well, the village should see rain again.

I think I know the village like the back of my hand now! It’s straight forward,
it’s quite simple, my dog ​​is free, he’s gone to play with the dogs and the
children! I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m going. We’ll see what these women do… if they
sing they must work at the same time! Ah, there she is, welcoming me.

Hey Sophie! let’s meet again! How are you ? What are they
doing? Ah, it’s the carpet I think!   That’s it,

so we’ll do the carpet.
like that.

I have a big bunch of filaments… Are these the enset leaves too?

Yes, these are the leaves of the tree that we cut together.

Ah OK !

One thing is certain, without Enset, we wouldn’t be able to live here. We all depend
on the enset! without enset we can do nothing. I didn’t understand how they
braided, I invented… I improvised! No, that’s not it, she undoes what I do…
There’s another one who takes my hands to try to explain! like that?
like that ? Okay, perfect, I understand. Ah, my poor Sophie, I feel
sorry for you for being blind. Sometimes you seem surprised that I can
do things here. Is it because I’m a foreigner or because I’m blind
? The blind people here, they do nothing? Yes, I am surprised. Because I
know you can’t do it, but you try anyway. You know,
the blind people in our country, they don’t do anything. In villages, in the countryside, they are
useless, they do not work. They must be bored?

Oh yes, they are bored. Come on, let’s go! Go to work!!

In this village where the blind have no role, I feel like I have made my way.
I don’t know if I managed to change their view, but they managed
to change mine on Ethiopia…. Sophie, come with us. Do you know how to
dance? Do you want to dance with us? Yes, why not!

….the complicity between women did the rest. I’m fine here, I’ll stay
a few more days… Just for the pleasure of being with all these women!

From this trip to the Gurague peasants, I will long remember
Kélémua’s silent smile, and the laughter during the coffee ceremony.
I will also remember my two feet wading in the mush
of this miraculous plant… And I will never forget that early
morning at my friends’ house in Guademar.

A Addis Abeba, Sophie part à la découverte d’un peuple à l’endurance légendaire qui a traversé les siècles en courant. Comme Gebregziabher Gebremariam, l’un des grands marathoniens africains, qui fait paisiblement ses 27 kilomètres chaque matin.

Pour d’autres, l’endurance est une nécessité comme pour ces femmes qui portent jusqu’à 40 kilos de bois sur des dizaines de kilomètres pour les vendre à une population qui ne cuisine qu’au charbon.

L’ethnie Guragé vit dans le Sud-Ouest de l’Ethiopie, au cœur d’une zone rurale très fertile. Cette tribu se distingue par son incroyable hospitalité et son travail agricole.

Sophie découvre les traditions des cultivateurs du bananier d’Abyssinie. Sa racine comestible, qui peut atteindre 40 kg, est une nourriture de base pour plus de 10 millions de personnes, même en période de sécheresse. Une culture qui protège la région de la famine et tord le cou aux lieux communs.

✋Les plus belles destinations, c’est ici 👉 https://bit.ly/2Vlfz9o 👈 Abonnez vous ! 🙏

Titre : Éthiopie : Addis Abeba + Chez les Gueragué
Un film de Alex Badin
© AMPERSAND