The Water Tower of Africa

Special day today in Lalibela. The prime minister Macron and the Ethiopian premier Abiy Ahmed Alì meet in the Holy City of the Ethiopian Church. It seems that Macron has promised a super restoration of the rupestrian churches (the removal of the horrible shelters that should protect them is planned...). The summit was held in the extraordinary church of Saint George, literally extra-ordinary, because it is an angelic work, an achirotopic church (built by the angels in just one night). Hence, while all the attention was addressed to that, I went with Setegn Mekonnen to visit the church of the Golgotha. Small and marvelous; one of the holiest places of the complex of Lalibela (unsurprisingly, it is believed to contain the tomb of King Lalibela himself). I gave the guardian-priest with the sweet gaze a postcardwith a reproduction of a picture ofmine. The one with the rooster lying on the cushions on the lion’s back. The christic symbols amazed him. So I got the authorization to draw him in return. Here then is the portrait of Kes Belay Hajitamu ( the latter is a patronymic). Red chalk. The drawing has come out quite lifelike, he was overjoyed. As a reward he touched my eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hands with the cross. He did so with very fast movements, taking me by surprise. Apports: Priests with processional crosses in a rare 1930s photograph in Lalibela. Lalibela