Covid-19 brings out new Easter rituals in Ethiopia
Easter (ፋሲካ — Fasica) is one of the most widely-anticipated holidays in Ethiopia. Christians fast for 55 continuous days, during which time all meat and dairy products are not consumed.
People look forward to celebrating the end of the fasting season with their families and loved ones. Among them is Abebech (*not her real name). “I was looking forward to going to church for the ceremony, then breaking my fast with families gathered around, but we weren’t able to,” Abebech says, with a saddened look on her face.
The onset of Easter celebrations sees local markets fully packed with people trying to buy spices, dairy products such as Ayeb — Ethiopian cottage cheese, chicken or sheep to be used for the celebration. “I am used to going out with my mother to buy all of the materials needed,” Abebech continues, “ while my father and brother look for a sheep for the holiday.” Her family usually shops at Merkato, the biggest open market. But this year, they went to a much smaller nearby market. “We were afraid there would be too many people at Merkato, without the proper use of social distancing,” she explains.
It is common for the price of popular foods, such as garlic, ginger, feto (garden cress) and lemon, to rise considerably at this time. But according to Abebech, prices have been much higher this year. “I would have accepted a small price change, but since some of them were out of our budget we couldn’t afford to buy them.”
After Ethiopia saw the first case of Covid-19 on March 13, 2020, the price of popular produce was already on the rise weeks before the holidays. Garlic, which usually costs about 85–100 Birr/kilo, was selling at 200–250 Birr/Kilo on some markets. In order to avoid further market instability, the government stepped in to make sure prices were fair.
While the government action helped to bring down prices, the cost of most products remained higher than the previous year. The average price of garlic, for example, was 130–150 Birr/Kilo. On the eve of Easter, a small chicken was selling at 450–550 Birr at Shola market, with bigger ones going for as much as 600–700 Birr. According to some sellers interviewed by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), the change in price was due to challenges to the supply chain due to the transportation ban.
The changing face of markets
One of the most visible changes made in response to Covid-19 is the relocation of some of the busiest markets to a much bigger and open space. Atkilt Tera, a vegetable market, was moved to Jan Meda on April 7, 2020. The aim was to prevent the spread of Covid-19 by providing room for social distancing during buying and selling. The old warehouses in Atkilt Tera are now only used for storage of produce.
An official from the Ministry of Health, Dr. Lia Taddes, had made an announcement on EBC regarding the precautions that citizens should take when buying livestock. “After we saw that we thought it would be best to buy a slaughtered sheep from Addis Ababa Abattoirs Enterprise because it is guaranteed to be clean and safe,” Abebech says. She adds that most of the people who live around kera were waiting in line on a holiday starting from 12pm, “of course keeping their distance, which made the line longer than expected.” Her father was among those who were told that supplies had run out, after waiting in line until evening. “So we celebrated the holiday with casual foods,” Abebbech concludes.
Other families faced similar situations. They cut back on eating meat and had to settle for what they already had at home. Out of fear that Covid-19 could be transmitted from the contact of an infected animal, others preferred not to go to livestock markets at all. The low number of customers had a negative impact on sellers, among them livestock farmers, who have been hit the most. They had been preparing animals for sale during the profitable Easter season, so as to provide food for their families for the months to come.
It has been a somber Easter for many this year.
This article is part of Covid-19 Food/Future, an initiative under TMG ThinkTank for Sustainability’s SEWOH Lab project (https://www.tmg-thinktank.com/sewoh-lab). It aims at providing a unique and direct insight into the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on national and local food systems. Also follow @CovidFoodFuture, our Video Diaries From Nairobi, and @TMG_think on Twitter. Funding for this initiative is provided by BMZ, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
