Old Ethiopian (?) Book

This is the book we acquired in an Ouagadougou antiquities shop during our 2007 West Africa trip. As I said at the time, we really don't have any idea what we acquired:

"... lost among the carved wooden doors, masks, fetishes, and beaded jewelry, on a shelf in a glass case, I spot a short stack of dusty old manuscripts. We purchase the smallest book - hand written text on yellowing parchment, bound between covers of wood. No idea of age or origin, but are told it is Ethiopian. An ancient traveler's prayer book? Maybe. A desert trader's ledger? Could be. A forgery to scam tourists? All are possibilities."

Since we were told it was Ethiopian and we are about to embark on our Ethiopia adventure, I thought I would scan the pages and post a few here. Perhaps through the miracle of the intertubes somebody may run across this who can read it and tell us what we've got.

Some sample pages (probably not in order and may not even be right side up): 

Bad day in Burkina Faso

Our tour group in Oaugadougou

Apparently the political storms sweeping the African Sahara have blown into Burkina Faso. I am embarrassed to admit I didn't even know it was the name of a country when we visited during our 2007 West Africa Tour. The journal for our 4 days in Burkina Faso are posted here, here and here.


The story of this uprising is getting almost no press coverage here. It is funny how travel changes your perspective. Undoubtedly I never would have noticed this story if we had not visited. The people we met there were wonderful and our thoughts are with them.

Our fist camp in a Burkina Faso village

Burkina Faso army mutiny spreads to fourth city

"An army mutiny which erupted last week in the West African state of Burkina Faso has spread to a fourth city. Protests have now broken out in Kaya in the north of the country, following disturbances in Po and Tenkodogo. The trouble started last Thursday when soldiers and presidential guards in the capital Ouagadougou protested about unpaid housing allowances. Hours before the revolt broke out, tens of thousands of people had demonstrated against high food prices. President Blaise Compaore, a former coup leader in power since 1987, has sacked his government and appointed a new head of the armed forces to try to quell the unrest. His government warned on Sunday that mutinous soldiers would face "the full force of the law". BBC Ouagadougou correspondent Mathieu Bonkongou confirmed that the unrest had now reached Kaya."

Burkina Faso army mutiny widens:

"The West African country of Burkina Faso simmered Monday as a mutiny by soldiers spread to two more towns and a student protest turned incendiary. Troops in the northern town of Kaya took to the streets Sunday night and fired their guns into the air until early Monday morning, residents said. "There was a panic in town and we have closed classes as a precaution measure," said Anatole Kiema, a teacher at a grammar school in the town of Kaya. A resident in Tenkodogo, a town east of the capital, also said soldiers shot into the air for hours Sunday night before returning to their barracks. He said they also stole cellphones and went to bars where they demanded free drinks."

Not paying your army and police is always a bad idea. OTOH - Going into bars and demanding free drinks is my kind of revolution.

Tuesday Travel

A glorious morning, awakened by he roosters and livestock as they are released from the central corral at dawn. After a breakfast of eggs and oatmeal, we bid farewell to our hosts and walk out of the camp past baobab trees and curious locals. The crew breaks down the camp and reloads the cruisers.

A Catholic church decorated in the Gurunsi tradition is the first stop on a long travel day heading back North. Back to Ouagadougou for lunch in the hope of retrieving Bart and Cindy's lost luggage. Lunch was good, but Air France is still holding the luggage hostage. B & C stay in Ouagadougou with Yuouga and one car to wait them out.

We proceed North to Ouahigouya visiting Falani semi nomadic camps and a Mossi family farm along the way. Interesting specialization among the different ethnic groups in the same regions. The nomadic Falani always are associated with cattle, sheep and goats, while the Mossi are more traditional farmers and growers. The Falani will often manage the cattle owned by Mossi, but there can also be conflict when Falani cattle wander onto Mossi farms to graze.

At Ouahigouya, we stay at Hotel Amite'. A bit grim, with an AC that is not quite as loud as a 737 taking off, but a nice view of the sunset over the river. Only problem is that the hot water does not make it to the third floor in the morning. And we were staying on the third floor. Actually that was not the only problem, but we still welcomed the bed and cold shower after our first night of camping.

Birthday Camp

First camp - click image to enlarge

Paul reviews the plan for the day and the "do's and don'ts" for the tour over a hearty breakfast. We check out of the OK Inn to visit a craft market in Ouagadougou. Having seen enough crafts from the day before, we ask Paul to take Sigrid and I to a antiquities dealer Sigrid read about in a guidebook. It is a brisk walk of a mile or so, fending off street vendors every step of the way. Almost lost among the carved wooden doors, masks, fetishes, and beaded jewelry, on a shelf in a glass case, I spot a short stack of dusty, old looking, manuscripts. We purchase the smallest book - hand written text on yellowing parchment, bound between covers of wood. No idea of age or origin, but are told it is Ethiopian An ancient traveler's prayer book? Maybe. A forgery for tourists? Maybe. [Note from the future: I scanned in some of the pages from the book. Closeups linked here]

Rejoining the group, we tour a bustling colorful African market, then load into Toyota Land Cruisers of various age and conditions and head South and out of town. We are a caravan of four vehicles, one carrying cook and crew, the rest carrying travelers and luggage.

The Southern savanna is home to the Gurunsi people. Over the four hour drive, we made several stops. At an open air market, Bart warmed the crowd with magic tricks using a scarf. It was a big hit with the kids. In Poe, we had lunch at La Pyramide. It was a long, hot, dusty drive, which was a contributing factor to my surprise announcement that the cold Flag beer in my hand was the best beer of my life. Oddly enough, it tasted far better than Flag beer in an identical looking bottle I enjoyed the week before. Susan agrees with my assessment.


We arrive at a fortified home village with the mud walls covered by abstract frescoes of black, white, and red. This is our first campsite of the tour. More important, this is Sigrid's first real tented camping experience ever (the catered luxury camping of the Hemingway Tour in '95 simply does not qualify). Tents are pitched on the rooftops surrounding a central corral filled with cattle, sheep, goats, chickens and a few donkeys. We have dinner under the stars in the compound – rice, green beans, lamb and pili-piri sauce (already mandatory at every meal since Wes introduced it at breakfast). Then a surprise birthday birthday tart and a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday” for dessert. Today is Sigrid's 29^th Birthday! Listening to morality tales told by villagers around a campfire under a blanket of stars and a waxing moon completes the night.

[NOTE from the future: This is a partial post transcribed from the paper journal I kept on the tour, and am making an effort to post from Timbuktu on December 2. More pics and video will be added when i get back to SF. Also - to my sister Wendy - Happy Birthday! I intended to include a self portrait here as a birthday present for you, but ran out of bandwidth and time.]

UPDATE - Here you go Wendy - Just for you!

Ouagadougou overland

Our new hotel is the OK Inn Ouagadougou. A nice hotel but quite a bit less luxurious than the Sofitel in Dakar. Nice pool and grounds, clean room, good water, air conditioning, excellent food in the restaurant. It reminds me of the Menominee Howard Johnson, except for the food part. The hotel is located at the end of a long truck park off of the main drag. Many trucks stop here.

Ok Inn Pool

We visited a government sponsored, Artisan Village Sunday Morning. Picked up a hand crafted recycled paper journal for the sans-internet portion of the tour.

At dinner we met our guide “Paul” and tour companions for the the Mountain Sobek overland Mali tour. Paul is an interesting character, from the Togo tribe and having done post graduate work on the oral tradition parables of the animinst Ewe tribe. We understand his work is a reference. Big smile, very self assured and friendly. Interesting group too: Ten in all.- A potter, a lawyer, a dentist, a producer, a banker –all Americans, half Californians, all adventure travelers. There is no internet availability in the room, but a WiFi access point in the lobby. Internet access is charged by the minute, so we are creating journal entries off-line, in the hope that we will indeed be able to connect later and update everyone. If you are reading this, it worked. It will also likely be the last of our internet connections until Timbuktu. It looks like a great trip, and we start in the morning early. See you in Timbuktu.

I chat up a local on the hotel grounds.