Ashura

Tonight is the eve of A’shura, the muslim festival on the 10th day of Muharram. It’s significant here because legend has it that, on this night, the shrines in the hills around Harar play host to hyenas who come to eat porridge served up in a big stone bowl with lashings of butter. That’s not all, though. The murids at the shrines watch the hyenas carefully and based on how much the hyenas eat, make predictions about the fortunes for the coming year. The problem is that there are very few first-hand accounts of the hyenas eating porridge and those who have gone to the shrines and tried to film this porridge-eating have failed. We at Macquarie University, however, are unperturbed by such things as others’ failures or overzealous accountants and so, with much assistance from Nurredin Adem and the good people from the Ministry of Tourism and Sport, we have organised a vehicle and a film crew and are setting off for the Shrine of Aw Nagus tonight to observe, and possibly film, the hyenas partaking of the porridge. We’ve spoken with the man who actually feeds the hyenas the porridge and he is adamant that they come every year. On the night, people pray at the shrine until the hyenas come and when they eventually arrive, they’re quite skittish (which is normal for hyenas) and there can be no bright lights or children shouting and throwing stones. The hyenas eat the porridge and then the people slaughter a bunch of sheep so that the hyenas can follow up the porridge with some tasty meat and entrails. In terms of hyena behaviour this account sounds credible but I and the other Hararis that are coming with me to the shrine are still sceptical. Not so sceptical, though, as to miss a once a year opportunity to see something that could possibly be just legend or could be an intensely memorable connection between people and animals mediated by the peoples’ faith.