Travel Guide Shashemene

Altitude: 1,700 m. Population: 250,000. Distance from Addis Ababa: 251 km. Situated at the crossroads of the main north-south axis and the asphalt roads leading east to the Bale Mountains and west to Arba Minch, Shashemene is a fairly large town. It has quite a few hotels. Messy, noisy and lacking in architectural interest, it has perhaps grown too fast at the crossroads of trade routes.Rastarafism. But it's home to a community of some 800 people of twenty different nationalities, including almost 300 Rastas who landed from Jamaica to reach the famous "Zion", the Promised Land. Most of them are non-Ethiopians, settled on 200 hectares of private land to the north of the city, donated by Haile Selassie himself after the Second World War, to thank all the blacks who had supported Ethiopia during the war. However, the emperor didn't appreciate the divine worship he received from his marijuana-smoking, vegetarian admirers. For the past three decades, the anniversary of the emperor's birth has been celebrated every July 23 by local and foreign Rasta communities, as well as on November 2, the date of his coronation in 1930. Under the aegis of the Ethiopian World Federation founded in 1937 in New York, the first black repatriates descended from Caribbean slaves, especially from Jamaica, settled here between 1955 and 1960. After the nationalization of these lands in 1974, many left the country, and it was only in the 1990s that the Rastafarians finally settled in Shashemene. In recent years, reggae seems to have taken off in Ethiopia, attracting new fans in Addis Ababa and prompting some young locals to spend an afternoon in Shashemene or an evening at a concert.Visit. Those interested in Rasta culture can visit the Banana Art Gallery, near the Twelve Tribes of Israel Center, where contacts can be made to gain access to the Rasta village, which is not open to the general public. It's best to have a specific reason for going there and, in any case, to be accompanied by someone who knows this Nyabinghi community well, as the atmosphere is far from being as cool as you might imagine.Warning. There are problems of ill-will and insecurity towards tourists, so you must remain vigilant and not accept the services of strangers in the street, or false guides who are not accepted in the community. Many pretend to be Rastas, offering you ganja (totally illegal and punishable by prison in Ethiopia), and want to show you around the village by asking you for a large sum of money. It's also advisable not to walk around at night.The surrounding area. Not far away, the Wondo-Genet hot springs are a nice detour. Shashemene is also interesting for its proximity to the Lephis forest, Lake Chitu and the Senkele sanctuary.