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3/15/1957 - Addis Ababa: First Impressions by Smith Hempstone Jr.

NOT FOR PUBLICATION INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS SH Addis Ababa First Impressions Narch U S Embassy Addis Ababa Ethiopia mailed Nairobi Nr Walter S Rogers Institute Current World Affairs Fifth Avenue New York New York Dear Nr Rogers Addis Ababa black Rome It sprawls counted small hills tumblesdown steep gorges roads power eminates Nobody knows people Addis guesses range The capital built Nenelik II about sixty years Before Nes Negast ruled great shifting tents In Addis Ababa means New Flower still looks could moved overnight The streets jammed floqks sheep goats coming market burros carrying firewood helmeted members Imperial Guard bereted Army police black robed Coptic priests wearing white turbans llowed entourages servants guiding their mules beside sewers sports roaring breakneck speed threading their through holes between motorcycle taxis German businessmen Point IV nicians jostle other sidewalks girls watch doorways Posters signboards 6xhort wanderer three languages Socony Vacuum gasoline Michelin tires Ipana tooth paste Cows graze field behind gates which proclaim their pasture University College Addis Ababa Nud behind fences sharpened stakes against modern office buildings oversized cakes fields beside elegant compounds embassies ministries There cadillacs streets during hyenas night The business center Halle Selassie Square which everyone still calls Piazza In center Piazza triangular where monument progress under construction gigantic pissoir_ surmounted large stone The Emperor scheduled dedicate edifice completion until recently entire diplomatic corps invited attend functions grand penings service stations On Piazza three stores There onfldential Se___e copies Sylvia Pankhurst EthioP_iap 0berVer O corner offices Ethiopian Airlines offices United States Information Ser From window USIS library which serves auditorium showings Americana President Eisenhower Inauguration How Write Police Report Accident crowds legged gazing spacious street level window display pictures depicting Russia Soviet Information Center Jutting Piazza triangular King George Bar An unkempt white gazes moodily saucers corner table Otherwise empty except flies bartender polishing glassware dirty Six streets Piazza One these Churchill Road Addis Ababa named streets fewer bered houses plunges which Piazza Indian shops houses rumored belong Empress proud pastures unbuilt University College inistry War gloomy dilap idated story building Opera House Ras Hotel ending abruptly yards further railroad station Djibouti Addis Outside Opera House which built impress Visitors Emperor Silver Jubilee stands heroic modernistic Lion Judah stone The Opera House movies there night basement which opened special occasions Vice President Nixon visit Addis Ababa night The Ras which number hotel fairly OPERA HOUSE LION modern crowded flash light batteries laces High jinks basement lebby cases It Addis Ababa volving sight which country people coming Bishoftu Road sufficient interest warrant lengthy investigation wonder Friday nights dinner dance nights Addis Ababa young bloods dressed perfumed gather their proud featured ladies dance music Imperial Band available during hours i_njira highly spiced national Ethiopia Directly opposite Ras astride which rises field Emperor Jubilee Palace sedate plush Ghion Hotel owned Ras Empress At Ghion visitor murky swimming three decent chance escaping amoebic dysentery Leaving Ghion filtering northwestward through Addis twisting alleys streets climb again another eucaliptus covered LEGISLATIVE ASSETBLY brown Gibi palace Wingate Ave Advisory Only which leads Emperor palace Here fences corrugated metal shield sensitive Europeans Ethiopian aristocracy sight slums native homes On right stands modernistic Legislative Assembly purely advisory Haile Selassie Cathedral jumble Byzantine Roman built logically enough Haile Selassie Further Wingate toward palace first monoliths erected commemorate eration Ethiopia Italians On right second monument large cular which contai Emperor lions He favored visitors seems concentrate autographed photoaphs The palace grounds second monument acres fields palace grove trees The which reminiscent Bucking Palace guarded Emperor Imperial Guard They helmets khaki uniforms boots HAILE SELASSIE CATHEDRAL pictures gates This business picture taking A jumble Black Rome Ethiopia deserves moment explanation In country areas tribesmen believe capture their souls photograph their refusal personal superstitious officials police remote areas Addis taking pictures anything distrust foreigners their authority If letter someone Imper government necessarily anything permission photographs anyway Imperial important thing usually allowed tures In Addis despite constitution which specifically permits picture taking pictures street scenes which illustrate wardness Ethiopia And situations where despite letters accompanied government press officer refused permission photo graph gates royal palace So On other Wingate Avenue elaborate compound which bailiwick grace saying teetotalling former Lutheran Church official U S Ambassador Joseph Simonson stands chateau style house which Addis Ababa CHURCH OF ST GEORGE residence Emperor second sybaritic break tradition Duke Harar center palace intrigue which delights Ethiopian Beyond Wingate Avenue solves which climbs brooding heights Mount Entoto where Nenelik first thought locate Addis Ababa Swinging westward coming Piazza direction circular Church St George where Emperor coronation place broke tradition being crowned Aksum Ethiopia Holy City It Lent rigorous Lent Coptic church total abstinence Tues Thursdays courtyard church addition usual quota lepers cripples beggars holds goodly supply penitents They spill courtyard street around heroic statue enelik And Piazza That brief physical Addis Ababa It sprawls miles crowded dirty Imperial clothed ragged grandeur tawdry glory nation built superstition The social capital brilliant brittle exhausting Ethiopians their European hostesses their accepting refusing ignoring invitations doing opposite thing No hostess knows whether guests dinner As defensive measure dinners buffet being brave enough seated Generally speaking younger generation Ethiopians officials socially Europeans The themselveS Among those attend European functions there sharp splits based where Ethiopian educated educated France usually Frenchmen American educated youth friends Americans Professional contacts harder still develop maintain Ethiopians practice forgetting pointments pinned And again tremendous hierarchy bureaucrats hangers provides screen worthwhile official which breached Statistics government publications almost existent press strictly controlled limited propaganda A decision matter impossible because ultimately everything referred Palace ovement outside capital authorized writing midnight curfew enforced On ledger there ernment officials intelligent urbane discuss problems their country record The people courteous helpful eager education Only young Ethiopian teacher there difference among white Our older people think whites Italians quite naturally distrust whites It younger generation Ethiopia This distrust whites although Ethiopians regard themselves white developed official policy which results government Emperor Off various nationalities STATUE OF NENELIK II among European advisors against other Until recently Ragged grandeur tawdry glory cases British French against Americans Swedes Italians Russians playing hands As American influence built Ethiopia Swedes tended British French attempt maintain balance power written about Russian influ Ethiopia It wsrumored Kenya supplied directed Russians operating Soviet hospital Addis Thousands Russian technicianS stationed Ethiopian capital In point Russian staff Ethiopia smaller American staff The hospital Addis since Czars little pansion since The information center rather building library volumes excellent pictorial display however effective country where illiteracy spread The staff Russian Embassy itself small although colonels recently assigned there military attaches In cases Russians prefer exert their influence Ethiopian government through Czech Yugoslav diplomat There question making intensive efforts swing Ethiopia Bandung neutralism But realize their position Emperor precarious softly The Emperor himself seems firmly committed Western policy It among younger generation educated Ethiopians finds neutralism And usually takes international blackmai India opposes issues young Ethiopian educated U S something million U S Ethiopia sends troops Korea backs United Nations million U S started opposing U S policy younger generation foreign educated serves Ethiopian government They Paris New York London better Gondar Harar Jimma They speak French English drink scotch drive sportscars dance lights turned Artie Shaw records They power afraid their Any indication dissatisfaction their position government policy Gojjam Ogaden And worse death Ethiopian Addis Ababa center their world All power glory authority wealth All barbarism It better quiet support palace factions Wait That That What everywhere Addis Wait There changes Wait stick No however seems quite waiting Sincerely Smith Hemps Received New York