U.S. Embassy Provides Grants for Cultural Preservation in Harar

[Harar, Ethiopia] – On Thursday, June 25, the U.S. Embassy and the Harari Culture, Tourism, and Information Bureau, signed two agreements on cultural preservation in Harar. Signatories for the two organizations were Mr. Michael McClellan, Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy, and Mr. Yimaj Idris, Head of the Bureau. The event took place at the Teferi Mekonnen Palace in the Jugol area of Harar.

Representing U.S. Ambassador Donald Yamamoto, Mr. McClellan signed the first grant from the U.S. State Department’s ‘Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation’, which provides USD $35,000 to preserve the Teferi Mekonnen Palace. The grant provides for a survey of the structure, documentation of the present state of the building and its context, and structural consolidation work required to carry out further conservation and to prevent further deterioration of the Palace itself.

The second grant that was signed, from the U.S. Embassy, provides USD $ 35,150 to catalog and preserve the collection of Islamic manuscripts currently held at the Palace. This grant will provide the equipment and supplies needed to establish a Manuscript Presentation Center at the Palace.  The Center will protect and conserve this important collection of Islamic manuscripts in Harar. The Embassy is also supporting an American Fulbright manuscript specialist to visit Harar later this summer to do an assessment of the manuscripts and develop a work plan for their preservation and presentation to visitors at the Palace.

In his remarks at the signing ceremony, Mr. McClellan noted that these are just the latest in a series of grants the U.S. Embassy has provided to preserve Ethiopia’s indigenous faith cultures, both Muslim and Christian. In 2008, the Embassy provided a grant of approximately USD $ 10,000 to the Institute of Ethiopian Studies to purchase several Islamic manuscripts and small Christian icons that were in danger of leaving the country. In 2006, the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation also provided USD $35,000 for the preservation of the Shek Hussen Shrine in the Bale Region, a project that was completed late last year.

In his closing remarks, McClellan said, “The U.S. Government believes it is especially important to work with Faith Communities around the world to preserve and protect monuments and artifacts of culture related to expressions of faith, tolerance, and mutual understanding.

Ethiopia’s long history of inter-faith tolerance and co-existence is especially notable in this context and we look forward to further efforts to preserve and protect the monuments and artifacts of Ethiopia’s indigenous expressions of religious faith.”

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