Culture Smart! - Ethiopia--Culture Smart!

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

Adapted from Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past.

ISBN 978 1 78702 264 5

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library

First published in Great Britain

by Kuperard, an imprint of Bravo Ltd

59 Hutton Grove, London N12 8DS

Tel: +44 (0) 20 8446 2440

www.culturesmart.co.uk

Inquiries:

Design Bobby Birchall

Printed in Turkey

The Culture Smart! series is continuing to expand. All Culture Smart! guides are available as e-books, and many as audio books. For further information and latest titles visit www.culturesmart.co.uk

SARAH HOWARD is a botanical artist and writer who spent her childhood in Kenya. After graduating in African History and Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, she became a journalist and researcher for two Anglican agencies, and undertook the archiving of the Leakey family papers in Kenya. She continues to offer archival advice on private collections pertaining to East Africa. Since 1989 she has commuted between Scotland and Ethiopia. Turning her interest to plants, she trained in botanical illustration at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and helped to illustrate the seminal Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea (Addis Ababa University). She is currently working on painting portraits of Ethiopias endemic plants.

COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 affected millions of people around the world, causing unprecedented social and economic disruption. As the impact of this global crisis continues to unfold, in many countries social norms are being challenged, and enduring changes will be reflected in future editions of Culture Smart! titles.

Acknowledgments

Set in Africa, but not wholly African; an isolated nation, yet receptive to the outside world; hierarchical and conservative, yet innovative and desirous of modernity; conformist as a people, and yet fiercely independent as individualsthe Ethiopian identity defies definition. No sooner have you made a generalization than you realize it does not apply to some other part of the country. This is because Ethiopia was once an empire, made up of many different peoples and cultures.

Ethiopia exists simultaneously in different time periods. Its people, when they come upon something new that might work to their advantage, will embrace it and find ways to improve on it. But they see no reason to change something they have learned to live with over the centuries. Modern democracy has been slow to take hold, given the strong historical antecedents of an imperial past, and Ethiopian bureaucracy can baffle both foreigner and local alike, but they do not question it; instead, they do what they have always donework round it creatively.

All Ethiopians are proud of their history. They are so proud, in fact, that some outsiders see them as condescending. They resist foreign ownership of their assets, sometimes at the cost of economic development, and they resent outside interference. They are proud of being the only African country that fought off attempted conquest and colonization.

Outwardly formal and courteous, Ethiopians present themselves with gravitas, expressed in polite bows to whomever they may meet. Their courtesy is born of the consciousness of being members of a multilingual and multicultural polity, where in order to get on, people have to respect each other. When foreigners experience this, it is not because they are seen as superior, but because they are being treated to the same politeness as an Ethiopian from a different region.

Ethiopians also have a great sense of fun and are capable of great wit, with a penchant for puns and slapstick. This book goes a short way toward introducing you to the Ethiopian peoples. Take an interest in Ethiopias culture and history, and you will be warmly welcomed by your hosts.