Our city has seen the resurgence and demise of various types of red light districts from its inception, and an actual detailed explanation on the ins and outs of them is not something that is general knowledge. Due to the above mentioned reasons, people who actually experience them are the only ones that have an inkling on what goes on there, and have an inkling of the environments and the characters that inhabit them.

A few years ago a book entitled “MEHALYE MEHALYE THE KASANCHIS” came out and cause a quite uproar among addis readers since it gave an unabridged accounts of the various establishment and character that inhabited the Kasanchis Red light district. It was crude and shocking, but was the first experience of the actual people living in it and as such gave a truthful insight on the realities of what actually happened in these places, which to a closed society was quite shocking. From the actual confirmation of homosexual activity to the rampancy of unprotected sexual encounters shocked its readers.

MEHALYE MEHALYE THE CHECHENYA, follows the kind of formula trying to expose what is actual happening in the CHECHENYA red light district, although it is not as crude and firsthand as the first one, it works to expose the depravity that people living in CHECHENYA are engulfed in. The book is a collection of letters of the author’s friends and people who interacted with the characters that inhabited and colored CHECHENYA.
It is books that gives clear and concise scenarios and lets the reader decide on who should be condemned or praised in the whole debacle that is CHECHENYA. It is also a book that connects with the characters of CHECHENYA, like the 15 years old prostitute “MITITI” or the barmaid which detailed here account on how she used witchcraft to retain her clients. All in all it is a book that has become a reasonable window into the life of Chechnya, in a manner that is clinical as well as precise. It is a must read for adult Ethiopians to get the realities of what prostitutes, barmaids are doing and how the society is reacting to their existence.

With the critical infection rate of HIV AIDS and the ignorance on the real life knowledge of red light districts this book is an eye opener. It sheds light on the challenges, risks, tragedies and triumphs of it all it shows the humanity of the characters of CHECHENYA, and shares the abuse and problems that they encounter. It tells you of scenes where wives look for their husbands and mothers look for their daughters, trying to save their fate from the fire pit of CHECHENYA. Of underage prostitutes that are forced to support their families out of lack of “viable” alternatives. It is a book that can be used as a viable reminder on the actual risks one can get themselves on when considering this life as an alternative.

All in all it is a book that is a must read if one wants to find out on the “darker” and seedier side of Addis and the realities of red light districts and demystifies the CHECHENYA presenting it in all of its glory, and it is a book that is written with the care and respect for its characters and the environment they are forced to inhabit, whilst being true to its hellish experiences.

As an Ethiopian I have always grown up with the sense of unrepentant pride in my country and in all things Ethiopian, however remote their connection to Ethiopia might be. This phenomena was something that was witnessed by all my contemporaries, and is something that I full heartedly agreed on and participated in. But thanks to the inadvertent exposure that I was subjected to in my school days, and the different exposure that I experienced hence, I saw the importance of understanding other cultures and the counter productivity of excessive nationalism.

And as such I have toned down the passion for my country and was impatient with people who were excessively patriotic. This may also be by the fact that I wanted my country’s historic and cultural relevance to be conjoined and shared with that of Africa and the world, and I believed that this excessive nationality built a wall of ignorance and hate that prevented understanding and mutual respect. I believe that through this exchange of cultural awareness and understandings a lot of the possible conflicts that may arise could be neutralized.

In the last few years, though I have witnessed the Ethiopian identity being dragged further and further down the pride totem pole of regular Ethiopians, being aptly replaced by money and other quite trivial elements. The youth today are more or less concerned only with their own problems and thanks to the advent of unfettered “globilazation”, they are incredibly confused on what should be a priority and what should be implemented. There is a sense of disorientation that comes with too much exposure of foreign elements, which leads to a mass misunderstanding on virtually everything from line of thoughts to culture awareness and more.

Yesterday I went to “ANBESSA GIBI” (Lions Compound, the Black Lion Zoo in Addis Ababa) in hopes of recapturing that awe that I felt when I first saw these majestic lions that are a symbol of ethiopianism, and what I saw had me both elated and at the same time concerned. I was elated by the fact that these beautiful animals had the aura of total and absolute power that couldn’t be washed by the glaring noise of a small carnival nearby and couldn’t be subdued by the countless amount of people who harassed the lions of a chance of a photos being taken near them and couldn’t be contained by the dirty and small cages that they were contained in. It was a power that I felt from one gaze from TENKIR ABEGAZ (17 years old Lion, currently the oldest lion in the zoo), which I felt in my core, and touched something deep inside me.

I was concerned by the apparent cheapening of the whole zoo, with countless photographers bothering the lions for a chance of selling photos, and the lost look that I saw in some of the lions being caged since birth, I felt like they knew that something was missing and were hankering for it. And I associated that with my own and my countrymen’s struggle for identity, which will either break out or die in a sea on non-entity globalization.

All in all I was myself relieved of this gloomy prospect by the curious and alert look that MEKONNEN TEGAFAW(a 7 Years old Lion) showed me. He was sleeping and I was peering curiously at his constitution when he suddenly opened his eyes and followed me with his eyes all the way till the end of the cage and back (four times). I don’t know if he was looking at me like a prey, which admittedly you might sometimes feel like when gazed at from a full grown lion, or it was because I wore “black”, and he liked it. All in all I felt like if through his captivity and depressing conditions he could still have the energy and the desire to be curious of his surroundings without losing his aura, then there still might be hope for us also.

We as Ethiopians should regard our heritage carefully and consider the amount of toil and blood that was spent to make it what it is, and without the need for excess we should learn to understand, love respect and share the reasons for being Ethiopians. We should work to build ourselves to better Ethiopians for our country and be better Africans for our continent, cause we owe it to ourselves. We should not let ourselves be washed away by outside influence, but a sensitivity to what positive things this outside influence could give us should be exploited. All in all let’s just be proud of being Ethiopians.