2nd
Christmas Hockey
Ethiopians celebrate Christmas on the 6th January (29th December in their calendar), and the name they give the festival surprisingly – given that they’re extremely religious and most people are Christian – refers to a hockey-like game which is played at this time of year. Many people have heard of the western name and understand it as Christ’s birthday, but less attention seems to be paid to it than Easter or to other saint’s days (Mary is top dog in these parts by the way). Ganne (Amharic) or qiile (Afan Oromo) is a public holiday but it seems to carry less importance and the usual trade of animals in preparation for the day’s meat feast doesn’t seem to have happened yet. However, things often don’t go the way you expect here and there could easily be the same sudden, chaotic migration of people to their hometowns clutching bleating lambs or upside-down chickens that there has been in the past.
But, as you can imagine, little (none) interest was paid to the 25th December and why should it if that’s not when they decide to celebrate? However I was shocked - but not surprised - to find out from students I taught on Christmas Day at the college that they weren’t aware which other countries celebrated on the 25th. When I asked them this question, they could only respond with ‘your country’. I then asked them which other countries are Christian and was met with blank faces. So I headed for the world map in an effort to convey the enormity of celebrations that occur on the 25th. Without having the statistics, at least half a billion people across the world must be celebrating on this day but even with over exaggerated hand gestures on the map my students stared at me with vague interest. Typical! So stubborn are the Ethiopians to have their own way. Of course that’s what makes them such an interesting bunch. It is borne from living in a country with comparatively few links to the outside world – one, state-owned national television channel (ETV, which sounds like a US cable entertainment channel), newspapers which report little of what is happening outside of Ethiopia and which are also kept on a tight leash by the government. People with a satellite dish can access digital channels from the Middle East, including news channels such as the BBC and CNN, and the working professionals who watch these stations do have a better idea of life outside Ethiopia.
Anyway, back to the hockey. Apparently played mostly in the countryside and steadily dying out with each generation, the game is like field hockey, which must be a challenge on the dust and rock with rogue tufts of grass that’ll kick the ball up - probably into nether regions. An American Peacecorps friend witnessed a game of qiile in the town of Ambo last year and wasn’t impressed: “it was basically a large group of men running in circles whacking a ball. When they saw us they all charged towards us waving their sticks violently in the air so we ran in the other direction to escape. We didn’t understand.” The Dean of my Teacher Training college in Nekemte, Tesfaye, explained: “traditionally one village plays against another neighbouring village and they meet roughly halfway between the two. Each team can have as many players as they like, as many players as they can get. And there is no pitch – the team which pushes the game into their competitor’s village wins.” Power in numbers then. So that would explain the madness the American volunteers saw. Tesfaye added that fewer people play it recently and they have introduced goals and a pitch to ‘modernise’ it. My colleagues at college also explained that the reference to qiile at Christmas has only been used since the fall of the communist Derg regime, which suppressed any traditional customs, music and language. When the TPLF came into power in 1995, ethnic groups were allowed to practice traditions again and to speak their native languages. Unfortunately my colleagues couldn’t remember what Christmas was called before that time.
I got nowhere near a hockey stick on Christmas Day but I did teach my usual four lessons on a Friday (the main reason was that I didn’t want to interrupt my programme of teaching because there are so many other interruptions throughout the term). After getting stuck at work until 5pm for various frustrating reasons I returned home to get down to Christmas business. My housemate (Frits from Holland) and I had invited most of the foreigners we knew in the town,plus some we didn’t, to our house for a kind of Christmas gathering - everyone brought some food and drink and I had a Christmas playlist at the ready (comprising of the only Christmas songs I had – Boney M and the Jackson 5 – and the rest was Prince, The Meters and some Fleetwood Mac). The group was quite multinational; there were three English, two Dutch, four Swedes, an American, various Ethiopians popping in an out, and a jumbled Spanish/English/Dutch guy (sorry Sebastian). However the food was quite British: a roast chicken with roast potatoes and veg (done by the only people with ovens in Nekemte), mince pies and some chocolate logs sent out by my mum. While the object definitely wasn’t to over-indulge, everyone agreed it was the best feed they’d had in a long time. Most people have lost weight since arriving, although it isn’t down to a lack of food – there is plenty of fruit, veg and meat in Nekemte – it’s down to the type of food. In terms of nutrition and diet, I am probably the healthiest I’ve ever been. Every meal is vegetables and fruit with occasional meat. So on Christmas Day we all welcomed a bit of chocolate from home, not too disappointed that we couldn’t be there.
