Tom Boylston in The Immanent Frame:
image courtesy of The Immanent FrameEthiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi died shortly before the 2012 Meskel festival, the Finding of the True Cross—one of the major festivals of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Its public centerpiece is the burning of a great bonfire in Addis Ababa’s Meskel Square, which takes its name from the occasion. State television broadcasts the ceremony every year, and the 2012 broadcast (2005 by the Ethiopian calendar) can be found on YouTube. The festival revolves around the bonfire, recalling the smoke that led Constantine’s mother Saint Helena to the recovery of Christ’s cross. On this occasion a kitsch re-enactment of the story precedes the lighting of the fire, as Helena and her entourage parade the cross, decked with fairy lights, on a carnival float [4:50-5:20]. Overlooking the whole event, and clearly visible as the fire burns, are several billboards depicting the recently deceased Prime Minister. One reads: “We will keep our word and fulfill your vision.” The religious connotations of the Ge’ez word ra’iy, “vision,” are presumably intentional.
The video tells us quite a lot about the tricky relationship between the state, ideas of nationhood, and public religion in Ethiopia. First of all is the very fact that this was televised and is now freely available on the internet for Ethiopians in the diaspora, as well as anthropologists, to think about. The camera also pays plenty of attention to the tourists at the event, in front row seats, and all with cameras of their own [3:05]. This is self-consciously a piece of display, to be recorded and circulated around the world. Some parts of the festival—the priests’ chanting leading up to the burning of the bonfire—are recognizable from events performed in villages across the country, although here the priests’ prayer staffs have conspicuous Ethiopian flags on them...[continue reading]
