Arthur Larie

Tears of paradise

In Ethiopia, the mention of the Nile stirs crowds, unleashes passions. "Water will be at the heart of the conflicts of the next century," proclaimed Ismail Serageldin, former vice-president of the World Bank, in 1999. A decade's span has seen this prophecy unfurl in the Nile's basin, a battleground where  Ethiopia and Egypt contend on the political stage for control over the world's longest river. To grasp the origins of these tensions and transcend the bellicose rhetoric that casts shadows on the river, this series delves into the intimate and sacred relationship Ethiopians hold with the Nile, a river that has shaped the bodies and imaginations of its inhabitants for centuries.

In Ethiopian cosmology the Blue Nile holds a sacred place. Considered one of the four rivers of paradise, its waters are said to flow from the Garden of Eden across the highlands of Abyssinia. Nestled within these mountains, pilgrims have flocked for centuries in search of miracles. 

These images aim to unveil the profound connection between individuals and the river. Through intimate scenes of daily life and details of existence along the Blue Nile, this narrative delves into the river's place in Ethiopian identity and reveals the sacred myths buried within the tears of paradise.