RI remember the African markets of the end of the last century. For example, the market in Tananarive, the capital of Madagascar, which I visited in August 1991. Ninety percent of the sellers were women. But at the end of the day they brought the money to the men in cash. The woman worked; the man collected.
Now I’ve been between Ethiopia and Eritrea for three weeks to shoot two special episodes of A special day on La7, dedicated to the Ethiopian war of ninety years ago. In the field we decided to broaden our focus on Italian colonialismfrom the first landings to the fall of the empire, therefore from 1869 to 1941, passing through the defeat of Adua and the capture of Addis Ababa, from Crispi to the Duce.
The trip took us very far from the big citieswhere you can feel the pulse of a boundless country like Ethiopia – not a national state but an empire, a mosaic of ethnic groups – and of a country with a strong identity like Eritrea. Women are often in charge. Matriarchy is very strong, particularly in Christian areas.
Aldo Cazzullo (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
The women take charge of the small businessperhaps because they have more desire to work, to undertake, and also to collaborate with each other. And the proud gaze, the moral energy, the awareness of oneself, of one’s own strength and also of one’s own beauty, represent the future of a young and rapidly growing continent.
I remember one market in particular in Lalibela, the Jerusalem of Africa, the holy city of Ethiopian Orthodoxy: everything was managed by women. And in Eritrea only women can have a passport (the men are all linked to the army; the women are also authorized to leave the country once they have had their first child). So flights to Dubai are full of women going to work or they return with the goods purchased in the Emirates. In short, they keep the country going.
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All articles by Aldo Cazzullo.
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