by Vivienne Mackie

Created on: May 06, 2008   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

HARAR'S HYENA MAN

I've heard of some weird things in my travels, but feeding wild hyenas by hand has to be one of the strangest. Harar is an ancient Ethiopian city with a long checkered history, much of it violent and un-Western, so this hyena-feeding seemed to slot into this unique place.

My husband and I were visiting Harar for a few days at the end of a month in Ethiopia. We flew into Dire Dawa, the closest airport, and were met by an NTO (National Tourist Office) driver/guide, Sebsebe. The Institute in Addis Ababa thought it was wiser to have an NTO escort, as at that time there was still ethnic faction fighting in this area, and some resentment towards outsiders, or "farengi", which we so obviously were. Sebsebe organized for a local guide to take us around Harar: Abdul arrived, and he was great, brimming with information about local people and culture.

On our first evening they planned to visit the Hyena Man before dinner.
"The Hyena Man? Who's that?"
The mysterious reply, "Wait and you will see."

So we waited in our faded and tatty hotel room at the first-class Ras Hotel, and wondered what a third-class room would look like. We had a very plain, sparsely furnished room with no hot water, due to a small "technical difficulty", which turned out to be a burnt-out geyser.

Sebsebe and Abdul picked us up at the hotel at 7:30pm and drove us to the place just outside one of the old gates in the stone walls enclosing the Old Town, where tanned animal skins are laid out to dry. Here by a big tree the Hyena Man feeds the hyenas at night in a large dusty open area.
He was there, dressed in tattered clothes of a nondescript color, his dark-skinned face blending into the darkness. Next to him was a large hessian sack, bulging unevenly.
"In that sack are reject pieces of meat and bones from the butcher", Abdul explained. "Every time a different butcher gives meat."

Sebsebe stopped the car next to the tree and left on the headlights, shining onto the man and his sack.
Soon the Hyena Man started calling, a wild, high-pitched chant, and one by one the hyenas came, slinking down from the hills.
"He's even given them names, you know", said Adbul, "And I think they know their names."
We smiled, doubting, but what do we know of this business of feeding hyenas?

We could see quite well with the car's headlights on the scene. First came two hyenas, their red eyes glowing in the dark. They circled at a distance, and two more came. Then two more, then three, all silently circling. The chanting

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