08 | Spicy Diesel from ኢትዮጵያ

At our base, we are a very colourful bunch of people. Local South Sudanese, Kenyans, Europeans, Australians, Ugandans, a few people from Ethiopia, etc. Let me introduce you to Adebabay, one of my colleagues from Ethiopia. 

Ade, as most people call him, keeps telling me things about Ethiopia that I find quite mind-blowing, so I decided to share them with you. 

It all began with a cup of “Spicy Diesel”. Ade makes Ethiopian coffee every day after lunch. One day he invited me to try his coffee. That day, I was about to find out more about the origin of the name “Spicy Diesel”. 

It is spicy. But it’s not diesel — at least not the kind of diesel that runs combustion engines. But I can clearly see how this “diesel” runs humans: it’s strong. And it is exactly what you need in a hot tropical climate. I am certain that Ethiopian coffee has helped people around the world to make sure they use their time efficiently. Spicy Diesel is a good alternative to power naps, as it will make you work instead of sleep. Over a lifetime, frequently drinking Spicy Diesel can save a few valuable years of your life, instead of wasting them on sleep. 

Speaking of years: It is 2015, at least in Ethiopia. 

As I am writing this post, it is February 15, 2023. Not so in Ethiopia, where today is the 26/05/2015. The Ethiopian calendar has 13 months, twelve of which have 30 days. The thirteenth month is called Pagume, (which translates to “forgotten days” in Greek) and has five days or six days in a leap year. 

Another fascinating thing about Ethiopia is the language, called Amharic — አማርኛ. Possibly familiar to those of you who like to travel; the Ethiopian Airlines lettering: የኢትዮጵያ. 

Amharic is a so-called Semitic language, as are Hebrew and Arabic. The term Semitic is used to describe a family of languages, but it has been criticized to be racial terminology when referring to people. This is where the word “Antisemitism” comes from (which mostly refers to hatred against Jews in particular). 

Back to Ethiopia: Instead of Ethiopians, many people from Ethiopia call themselves ሀበሻ (“Habesha”). I was told that Ethiopians are not necessarily considered African — it depends on who you ask. But don’t worry — it’s mutual: There are Ethiopians who do not consider themselves African either.* Considering Ethiopia's unique history and culture, this does not sound too surprising. For example, Ethiopia is one of the very few countries on the African continent which has not been colonized — at least not during the historical period of canonicalization. When we begin talking about neocolonialism, we may have to tell a different story, but that’s for another time. 

For now, I will leave you with an optical interpretation of the Amharic alphabet. Here are my favourite ones:

Noses: ረ ሩ ሪ ራ ሬ ር ሮ ሯ
People: ደ ዱ ዲ ዳ ዴ ድ ዶ ዷ
Reindeer: ኸ ኹ ኺ ኻ ኼ ኽ ኾ ዃ
People with Reindeer antlers: ጀ ጁ ጂ ጃ ጄ ጅ ጆ ጇ
Kings: ቨ ቩ ቪ ቫ ቬ ቭ ቮ ቯ
Robots: ጸ ጹ ጺ ጻ ጼ ጽ ጾ ጿ
Punk robots: ጰ ጱ ጲ ጳ ጴ ጵ ጶ ጷ

And now, I am going to have some Spicy Diesel.**
Anyone else need coffee?

Take care, Markus