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Photo Samples, East Africa
To most people, East Africa is "the
real Africa". 95% of all the photos of lions and cheetahs shown in magazines are
from Kenya or Tanzania, and it may come as a surprise to many people, that East Africa is
much more than Kilimanjaro and a dozen national parks. In particular Ethiopia contains
lots of human heritage, and being the oldest continuously Christian country in the world,
the culture is unlike anywhere else on earth.
As usual, all photos are, of course © Claus
Qvist Jessen, and none of them are to be used without my permission. |
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| Some of the
strangest buildings in the world are the rock-hewn churches of lalibela, northern
Ethiopia, here the Saint-Georges Church, the youngest and most famous one. The churches were literally
chopped out of the bare rock, more than 700 years ago - all manually,
whereafter the whole town was renamed according to the local King
Lalibela.
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Prayer
and singing in one of the underground Orthodox churches in Lalibela, northern Ethiopia.
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Traditional Ethiopian way of making coffee;
Lalibela, Ethiopia.
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| Beggar;
Lalibela, Ethiopia. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| Another
Orthodox priest; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| One of the
almost 2,000 year old stone stelae in Axum, northern Ethiopia. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Road sign; Axum, northern Ethiopia. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Preparing to celebrate, this elderly guard (Axum) has hardly loaded his
weapon. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| Celebrating
the return of the "Italian Stelae", a 30+ meter, 1800 year old stone stelae
which was confiscated by Mussolini in the 1930'ies. Axum, Ethiopia. © Claus Qvist
Jessen |
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| In the dry
season, not much is left of the Blue Nile at Tana Falls, just a few miles south of Lake
Tana. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Small boy displaying one of my Rapala plugs, used in vain in the Blue
Nile, right downstream Tana Falls, when I hoped for a giant Nile Perch.
Not a strike all day! © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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A strange
tradition in Harar, Ethiopia is to feed the wild, spotted hyena with meat. Every night, a
local man sits down at the eastern edge of the town, and the hyena get so close that they
can be fed with a piece of meat on a 20 cm wooden stick. Try not to remember that the
strong jaws of the spotted hyena closes onto the prey at a force of 1100 pounds - stronger
than any other mammal!
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| Wild spotted
hyena; Harar, Ethiopia. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| Compared to
Ethiopia, Djibouti is expensive and uninteresting - but not bad at all. In particular the
sea-front shows lots of local colour as these fishing boats. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Scenes from the metal workers
market; Asmara, Eritrea. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| The Denkalia
Desert along the Red sea Coast of Eritrea is one of the hottest and driest regions in the
world. The desert drive from Massawa to the only sizable town, Assab, takes more than 18
hours, but fortunately a devote Muslim always knows the way to Mecca. © Claus Qvist
Jessen |
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The most deserted town on earth - almost. Assab was built to service
Addis Ababa, however, after the separation of Eritrea from Ethiopia,
it's been a ghost town, a ghost town with the biggest harbour of East
Africa. For security reasons, photo is forbidden!
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Everything is falling apart in Assab,
even this dry fountain. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Old man from
the desert town of Assab, south-east Eritrea.
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| "I don't
care!". Lazy camel at the market in Keren, northern Eritrea. © Claus Qvist
Jessen |
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Tribal man of
the Eritrean lowlands; Barenthu, north-west Eritrea.
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| Colourful
tribal woman; Barenthu, north-west Eritrea. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| Colourful as
anywhere, these woman of Tocombia, north-west Eritrea (very close
to the Sudan) are attending the weekly Tuesday
market. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| Cattle
herder; Tocombia, north-west Eritrea. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| Making
traditional coffee; Tocombia, north-west Eritrea. © Claus
Qvist Jessen |
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Decorative missile outside the police station in Hargeysa, capital of
the non-exixting Republic of Somaliland, northern Somalia.
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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At the market;
Hargeysa, Somaliland, northern Somalia. All the sacks of rice and corn
are marked "Donation from the USA/EU. Not for sale or trade". Obviously,
the donations are misused! © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Butchers market;
Hargeysa, Somaliland, northern Somalia. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Very decent,
Somali, money changer; Hargeysa, Somaliland.
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Somaliland currency, the Shilling, is worth next to nothing, so more than a few hundred
dollars has to be transported in a wheel barrow; Hargeysa. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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One of many
Somali refuge camps; Hargeysa, Somaliland.
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Happy girls from a refuge camp; Hargeysa, Somaliland. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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In Somaliland, it's still possible to see the traces of the fighting of
the past. Here, at the Killing Fields-like plains outside Hargeysa,
sculls and bones are still washed out of the ground, each year during
the rainy season. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| Somaliland
tortoise roadblock on the "main road" in between the local capital Hargeysa and
Djibouti. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Local mosque;
Berbera, Somaliland. No entrance for non-Muslims.
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| Curious
(and afraid) boys;
Berbera, Somaliland, northern Somalia. They had never seen a white man
before. © Claus Qvist Jessen |
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| A Somali boy
tries a fishing rod for the first time; no big success. Berbera, Somaliland, Somalia.
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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My personal bodyguard; Berbera; Somaliland, northern Somalia. A bloody
idiot which cost me kilos of qat and who did whatever he could to
prevent me from fishing.
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Very decent
girl from Berbera; Somaliland, northern Somalia.
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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Henna hands; Berbera; Somaliland.
© Claus Qvist Jessen |
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