How Do Christians, Muslims and Rastafarians in Ethiopia Coexist?
As a 2011 IRP Fellow, Megan Verlee originally traveled to Ethiopia to learn more about why a country that she thought was managing to be a multi-religious society seemed to have growing conflicts.
While she did not find much conflict between Christians and Muslims, as she had thought she might, she did encounter unexpected divisions among Muslims themselves--between more traditional practitioners and people who have joined what are seen as more fundamentalist and somewhat more contemporary schools of Islamic thought.
Verlee also discovered tension between native Ethiopians and Rastafarians who have settled in Ethiopia. "What is it like to come to what you see as the homeland and find out that the people who are already there don't necessarily think you're home?" Verlee asks. "I found two communities that are trying to figure out how to live together, and it's not always easy," she says.
In closing, Verlee speaks of the value of overland travel--how moving across a country as its citizens do affords an intimate view of how the country works. In the case of Ethiopia, traveling by bus over unpaved, hilly roads drove home the difficulties the country faces in infrastructure and development. Verlee says, "It really made you understand: This is why this country's hard to move around in."
Megan Verlee reported from Ethiopia on a grant with the International Reporting Project (IRP). Video by Melody Wilson.
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