Ethiopia III Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
"Return to Ethiopia" Trip
September 22 - October 7, 2012
50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps in Ethiopia
October 2 - Tuesday
Wolieka (Falasha Village) - Gondar
About one kilometre (half a mile) north of the Gondar limits and just just off the main road, lies the tiny village of Wolleka, which was formerly in habited by Falashas, or Judaic Ethiopians.
The Falashas call themselves Bete Isra'el and practiced Judaism, which was the dominant religion of north-western Ethiopia for hundreds of years.. After the coming of Christianity and its adoption as the state religion, leaders from the northeast gradually penetrated and converted most of the Bete Isra'el.
The penalty for not accepting conversion was loss of land. The remaining Bete Isra'el communities had to subsist on marginal land, and pottery, blacksmithing, and weaving became important parts of their economy. Recent research has shown that it was probably the Bete Isra'el artisans who actiually built the Gondar castles and provided many of the other artifacts that supported the Gondar culture.
After a mass evacuation to Israel in 1991, only a few individuals still live in Ethiopia. Examples of their curious artifacts, earthenware pots, and figurines, made by their Christian neighbors who have remained behind, may, however, be purchased at the village, as well as in Gondar itself. The Falasha figurines, made of black or red pottery, are unique and in great demand.
(Important note: All photographs, except where mentioned, are copyrighted as of October 8, 2012, by Darrel and Betty Hagberg. Please request permission to use and please credit them).
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Betty McLaughlin Hagberg, Web Master
Updated on 9 November 2012
