Harar, Ancient Hyena Town
Harar is one of the oldest cities in Ethiopia and a fascinating place to explore. We arrived to this World Heritage Site on April 4, 2014 and enjoyed our stay, visiting different museums, temples, markets, tombs, a traditional house, and the surreal hyena feeding at night, all happening somewhere within the 368 alleyways that are beautifully squeezed within the 1 sq km (0.4 sq miles) of this walled city.
We enjoyed walking and getting lost in the crooked streets of Harar town. The colorful and curved walls of the traditional houses kept us intrigued along the way. Harar is steep in history, some evidence suggests it was founded by Arabian immigrants in the 10th century and other sources date the first settlement all the way back to the 7th century. Even if the precise origin of the city is unknown, the truth is that this city grew into a crossroads commerce between Africa, India, and the Middle East and became a place of powerful merchants and dynasties. Harar surrendered to Menelik Emperor in 1887 and became part of Ethiopia. Later, it was invaded by the Italian, but despite these attacks it was still able to retain their own ethnic identity, language, and culture to this day. Within the walls of Harar, we discovered a maze of narrow twisting alleys replete with historic buildings, including 82 mosques, 2,000 traditional houses, tombs, and an Orthodox and a Catholic church.Ā
The traditional Harar houses are built to counterbalance the outside temperatures, when it is hot outside the house feels fresh and vice versa. The internal design and decoration of these houses is full of color, objects, and symbolism. What took our breath away was the community living in Harar: the massive assistance of believers to their temples, the beggars of different ages asking for money on the streets, the vivid markets, the mules carrying heavy lifts of wood, the women in bright dresses, the goats walking freely everywhere, the men chewing chat leafs (alkaloid plants) all day long, and the children playing and looking at us with curiosity, it was just like time had never past there, Harar is a living museum!
One of the experiences that impacted us the most in Harar was the feeding of the hyenas. Feeding hyenas is an ancient practice that has allowed the people and the hyenas of Harar to live in harmony for centuries. Traditionally, the hyenas were given a fatty porridge to discourage them from attacking livestock during a drought. Following that, an annually feeding started taking place during a festival called Ashura, in which hyenas are fed porridge as a foretelling of the city’s fortune for the upcoming year. In the 1950s, the hyena man of Harar started feeding them camel skin and beef meat to acquire good luck. He realized it was a great way of making money as a tourist attraction and since then the show has been taking place every night.
On April 5, 2014, we walked along the dark streets of Harar, following a local guide to the hyena feeding site, with the simple intention of watching and taking a few pictures. Since we were attacked by a baboon and a dog in Zambia, we have been hyper vigilant and hesitant about taking any risk with animals. But the longer we watched the hyenas being fed, the more tentative we were to play an active role in this show. The hyenas were literally eating from human hands and mouths, with just a short stick as an intermediate. We decided to kneel down next to the hyena man and trust Africa’s second largest predators. A hungry hyena was standing right in front of our face and another six were surrounding us. We were as vulnerable as someone could be, it was impossible not to freeze thinking about the worse and wonder: “Why am I doing this?” Then, the hyena man passed a stick and instructed us to hold it in our mouth. He then rolled a piece of meat around the end of the stick and the hyena gently ate from it. The hyena was as close as you could never wish, but luckily she seemed to prefer the beef flesh! Feeding the hyenas was a crazy, unforgettable, adrenaline provoking experience. Even after the fact, we couldn’t stop questioning ourselves if it really happened. Could this surreal encounter with hyenas be the needed catharsis to our animal phobias? We don’t think so… But take a look at our videos and you may be tempted to having hyenas eating from your mouth too!! š
Gisela Feeding Hyenas
Sal Feeding Hyenas
