Filed under: Arts and Culture, Food and Drink, Africa, Ethiopia, Budget Travel
One of Africa's best attractions are its markets. Full of vibrant life and color, an African market always makes for a fascinating visit.
Harar has one big and several smaller markets. There used to be one at each of its five gates, but some have dwindled to barely half a dozen women selling tomatoes and potatoes. The only big gate markets now are at Assum Gate, where there's a busy market for qat, Africa's favorite narcotic leaf, and at Asmaddin Gate, which has a huge market--Harar's biggest and some say the second biggest in Ethiopia, with only Addis Ababa's famous Merkato being bigger. Merkato is unfair competition since it's the biggest African market of all!
The markets are dominated by the Oromo, a different ethnic group than the Hararis. The Hararis live in town and the Oromo farm the surrounding countryside. Most sell fresh produce and you'll see piles of fresh vegetables as well as sacks of grain. People also sell manufactured goods, mostly cheap Chinese imports such as shoes, blankets, radios, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
The Oromo have a strict segregation of the sexes at the market. Only women sell food, while men will often sell manufactured items. Men never sell qat. In his Eating the Flowers of Paradise, Kevin Rushby tells a story of an Oromo man whose wife had died. Needing money, he went to the market with a bundle of qat. He was laughed out of town and even years later he was known as "the man who tried to sell qat." Nobody could explain to me why this division of labor exists; it's just the way it is.
Gallery: Markets in Harar, EthiopiaContinue reading A visit to an African marketA visit to an African market originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
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