IHMS 700 Series
HARARI LIVING ROOM
A Lively Museum Piece
Written by Professor Abdi Khalil
All alone, Harari Living Room is a dynamic family institution. It is one of its kind lively museum in the world because it has dual functions. Not only it conserves a collection of artifacts and other objects of historical, cultural, artistic or religious importance, but it also serves as a residence for a family.
Today, we want to shade light on some details of amazing Harari Living Room, known as Ge’y Garr or Gider Garr. When the name ‘Harar’ is mentioned, immediately Islam, knowledge, beauty, peace, unity and friendly City State of par excellence comes to mind. And, almost everyone agrees and gets excited to identify himself or herself as Citizen of Harar. It is a state where social engineering or unity and peace begin!
In addition to such mind soothing characteristics of Harar, visible historical facts such architecture, basketry designs, traditional attires, mosques, shrines, Islamic schools and Harari Living Room not only made Harar UNESCO’s Laurate City of Peace in Ethiopia but also the City of Diversity and Tolerance in Africa. As world heritage site, Harar unfolds many intrinsic qualities, refreshing characteristics, and divine consciousness that have contributed largely to the civilization of the Horn of Africa including Ethiopia.
Many historians around the globe have extensively written about Harar. Strikingly, they all have unanimously witnessed that Harar was a nation of par excellence – a nation of splendor of civilization, harmony of diversity, organized administration, dynamic trade, Muslim cosmopolitanism, dedicated humanitarianism, knowledge creations and disseminations.
Today, however, our focus will be on one of Harar’s civilization flag, the Harari Living Room (known as Gider Garr or Ge’y Gar). Unlike any living rooms in the Western world, the Harari Living Room is loaded with meaningful, insightful and educational codes. We will explore some of the architectural features and its contents, which reflect the social characteristics of the Harari Society and the contributions that shaped the surrounding social institutions.
Of I enter
Ge’y Garr or Gider Garr,
The Harari deluxe living room,
A museum piece at each Harari home;
A virtual library, educational and spiritual center,
A multi-purpose place of relaxing,
And, the center for social gathering.
Passing through that decorated entrance,
Entering this earthly paradise
Takes you back to the delightful memories
Of all the centuries.
Special architectural designs
Of the doors, windows, inside walls,
Upstairs and down stairs,
Decorated with Harari handicrafts,
Stylized with Islamic scriptures,
Fill you with ecstasies and admirations
Of the unique and richness of Harari values.
Distinctive artifacts,
In all panoramic Harari living rooms,
With multi-purpose functions,
Gloriously are viewed
And, used
In all social and family functions.
The entire wall surface,
Covered with basketwork and wooden bowls
Small, medium and large niches;
The blood-red colored floor and nedebaa walls,
Catching all the oral and written histories,
Displaying Harari advancement and etiquettes.
Do you know that …?
The standard Harari living room,
Its platform is divided into five raised seats
Signifying social hierarchy and filial piety
Showing domains and privilege within the family
And, communicating honors in the society.
Majestically designed as sitting places,
The five divisions of nedebaa above the floor,
Amir nedebaa, Gider nedebaa, Sutri nedebaa,
Titt nedebaa and Gebti’aeherr nedebaa
Amir nedebaa on the side-high level,
A personal throne,
Designated sitting place
For the owner of the house.
Equally, Gider nedebaa,
Wider and larger seat at the center
As dignified site for the elderly,
The adult and the mature;
For, visiting scholars
And, learned personalities.
Cultivating social nobility
And, viability in the community.
Also, Sutri nedebaa,
A protective comfort station
As a napping and resting site
For the owner
And, the bread-winner.
Titt nedebaa at middle lower level,
A medium platform and sitting site,
For the common people, associates,
The ordinary and casual visitors.
Gebti aeherr nedebaa,
The platform behind the main door,
At the entry level of Harari living room,
A sitting site for the ladies,
For youth of all ages,
The mantle holders
And, the soul of the community.
Do you know that …?
All sides of nedebaa and the floor
Painted red as a remembrance of historical fact;
A memorial color of the Martyrs,
The 700 newly-wed couples,
Who were massacred in defending,
The sovereignty of Harar
From expansionists and conquerors
At the battle of Chalenqo in 1880s.
Do you know that …?
The colorful covering of nedebaa,
With assorted colorful carpets,
Beesaatt and Kalimm of high angora;
The lining of decorated mekhedaa,
Pillows designed with colorful flowers,
Placed along around the walls of nedebaa,
All symbolizing a perfect harmony,
United hands, and togetherness,
Respect among the family,
Unity in the community.
Do you know that…?
Sitting on the socially engineered nedebaa
Looking up above the main entrance
Viewing outstretched wooden logs
Designed to shelf decorated carpets,
A number of shelved carpets,
Signaling the number of available virgins,
Who have reached the legal age of marriage,
Ready for consented relationships,
To form heavenly bonded family
And, fulfill religious responsibility.
Do you know that …?
Strikingly attracting,
Many spacious and sized niches
Among them Eqed taqet and Teeli taqet
On the front and sidewalls;
Serving as organizing sites
Displaying historical artifacts;
And, shelving religious manuscripts.
Eqed taqet,
The two front large niches,
Hollowed and shaped;
Resembling graves and burial chambers;
Showing worldly destinations,
Reminding us the sudden and inevitable death
And, getting ready for the Hereafter.
All make you wonder of the advancement
And, the refinements of ancient times,
Visualizing divine laws in all Harari homes.
Above the larger front niches;
Equally, Teeli taqet,
The three triangular small niches,
Designed to hold small artifacts.
Also, reminding married couples,
As warner in subduing
Any astray relationship impulses;
Or, how to legally and religiously do
The three necessary pronouncements;
In the unlikely separation incident;
Handling in peaceful manners
With respect and ultimate justice,
Protecting the rights of the ladies,
And, correctly fulfilling religious duties.
Do you know that…?
On the walls and inside the niches
Displayed intricate and fine handicrafts;
Innovated and made genuinely
By talented and artistic Harari ladies.
Trained by their mothers and grand mothers
Or, graduated from Moya Garr,
A Cooperative Life Skills Development Center,
Within the fortified walls of Harar.
Assorted hand woven colorful baskets,
Known as Gey mott,
Made from stalks and straws
In all forms and shapes;
With thirty nine geometrical patterns
Sixteen types of traditional Gey mott
Can be produced artistically,
As already been celebrated a lot.
Among them
Many mystical baskets,
Hammat mott, Oukhaat mott,
Segaari, Mudaaye, Mih’kak
Aflala uffa and other handicrafts;
Placed in the niches and hanging on the walls;
Complemented by Fejaan, Gebetaa,
And, Aflala jars placed close to sanctum (de’ra);
All showing intricacy and social cohesions
Sending coded social messages,
Presenting viable information for all ages.
Do you know that…?
Among many plate-like baskets,
Known as Oukhat mott,
Are used for serving food,
On nedebaa as round table diner.
Having party like gathering,
Togetherness at every meal
As family eatery and sharing symbols,
In building humanitarian generations
Fijaan, decorated plates and bowls
Hanging and displayed on the walls,
Functionally used for serving food,
And as mobile hand washing sinks
In promoting hygienic manners.
The big wooden bowls,
Known as Gebetta
Curved out from tree logs
Made into assorted sizes.
Creamed with natural grease
Polished all around
To strength and preserve
Its decorative and functional values.
The many Gebetta
Are used for serving
Harari traditional foods,
Hulbut merekh and Shurr;
In the households
And, during big occasions,
Weddings and holidays,
As cultural and traditional symbols
Do you know that…?
The baskets blend beauty and functions.
They are also designed for special relations;
Like Hammat mott,
A basket named after mother-in-law,
Has symbolic significance
As a passage during marriage.
Every mother-in-law expects
This basket from her daughter-in-law
During the first year of marriage.
And, the mother-in-law carries bread
For social events in this basket;
Denoting good terms with her daughter-in-law.
Also, as decorative basket in Gider garr
Symbolizing the number of sons,
That are married in the household.
Do you know that …?
With loaded cultural and social meanings
Mudaaye, a richly decorated basket,
Is for storing assorted items;
Incense, chewing gums, scarfs and jewelries.
Significantly, bisha mudaaye (basket for gums),
And etan mudaaye (incense basket),
Have symbolic roles during weddings.
Three days after Harari wedding day,
The bride sends two bisha mudaaye
With chewing gums,
And two etan mudaaye filled with incense,
A bottle of water and kuhul (eye make-up)
To the bridegroom’s family,
To show the link and closeness
In marriage communions.
Do you know that …?
Mih’kak, a richly decorated
Medium to large-sized basket
With rounded base and foot-ring.
Four leather strap handles
Always as pairs
Decorating both sides of central wall.
Also, symbolizing during weddings
As a lid for darma darat,
A food plate used to carry food,
By the female relatives, friends
And, community members
To the bride’s or bridegroom’s family;
As a gesture of integration
Excellent connections and relations.
Do you know that …?
As the beauty of Harari Living room
Strikes you instantly,
Its messages penetrate you step by step;
Black clay long jars,
Known as aflala,
Are used to store valuables,
And covered by aflala uffa basket.
However, placing aflala uffa,
That is, putting the covers
Upside down on the jars
Also signifies
The lady of the house is a widow.
Proceeding with history and heritage
As a part of daily life in Harar,
Waaram moraja, spears holder spot
Keeping assorted spears,
Symbolizing courage and resolution,
Creating awareness, protection
And, readiness to defend the family.
Do you know that…?
The Islamic scriptures,
And, divine messages
Engraved all around the niches
Provide purity and spiritual elations.
The central neddeba,
As prayer platform is used
For daily religious obligations;
Of peace and togetherness;
The society’s vitality and virtues
As experienced by all for centuries.
The Harari unique deluxe room,
Telling a history spanning over a-thousand year.
It is a visual library of the Harari society.
Housing unique Harari culture and traditions,
Documenting visible and invisible literature,
Serving as social engineering center;
Retaining knowledge
And, sophisticated civilizations,
For the coming generations.
Last but not least, Harari identity is piece of the Islamic faith. All Hararis and their descendants determined to uphold Harari values – the Islamic Religion, the Harari Language and the Culture. Keeping their identity intact. In the past, Harar was severely attacked by invaders, expansionists and conquerors. Also, in this era of haters and hypocritical politicians, both Hararis at home and in diaspora should tandemly be able to preserve Harari identity by joining their efforts. With perseverance and determinations, let’s uphold and retain our ancestral AMANA! Stop political mafias, anarchists, political predators and cultural genocide criminals who relentlessly endeavor to further dehumanize and demonize the diverse people of Ethiopia including Hararis and the Muslims.
Resilience, and the oneness and unity of Hararis along with the surrounding brothers and sisters will give Hararis in the homeland a sense of confidence, togetherness, voice and continuity. People to people relationships is priority one! We must continue developing peaceful political and social movements, performing religious rites, engage in political debates, creating music, arts, writings, as well as provide financial support for the needy and development of Harar. Let’s continue sustaining substance and sustenance in all our efforts with diverse Ethiopian communities.
Aselam Aleykum