The Slaughter of Fasika

The streets have been empty the whole weekend. Our car has not been bombarded by beggars. The diesel fumes are decreased which means I can breathe again! I am having difficulty recognizing the city as I know it. Fasika, Amharic for Easter, is not only a national holiday here, the whole city actually seems to observe it.

The drastic upswing, however, is the animal market. The explosive jump in sales this week must be great for the herding population. Everyone is hauling their new goat or an ox home for the Fasika celebration. Its not rare to see goats strapped to the tops of mini-taxes, or drapped across shoulders. On Saturday, twenty of the Ethiopian staff at Bingham all chipped in together to purchase two oxen, which means each ox is split into 10 equal parts. Then they draw lots to see who gets which pile of meat.

The ox is led into the Bingham forest and several Ethiopians rope up his feet and stand at a distance from him. He is quiet, compliant and appears to be submissive at his owners mercy. Without warning, an Ethiopian grabs him by the horns to turn his head while the men with ropes pull his feet out from under him. The efficiency of the orchestrated takedown surprises me. The ox is silent as he is flipped on his back, his legs tied up and his neck angled upwards. With one rapid stroke, the knife is dashed across his neck. The ox convulses as blood floods out his neck. The soil is drenched with a pool of red. Blood still gushes out, and several Ethiopians gather with knives out to begin the harvest. They are methodical like surgeons. Precise like painters. They continue unfazed, extracting the tongue, the heart, the kidneys, the liver, the stomach, the bladder, the ribs.



OT sacrifice descriptives are merging in my head as one graphic, penetrating image:
Then he shall kill the bull before the LORD, and Aaron's sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces, and the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. And Aaron's sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, the head, and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar, but its entrails and its legs, he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. Leviticus 1: 5-9

You can see more photos of the slaughter here. Vegetarians enter at your own risk.

DC