Black foam

Haji Jaber, Eritrean novelist, born in the coastal city of Massawa, published five novels, and won the Sharjah Award for Arab Creativity, and the Katara Prize for Arabic Novel. His works have been translated into English, Italian, Persian, and Hebrew. It could have been a very ordinary Saturday in Addis Ababa. Just like any day in December; its sky is gloomy, the weather tends to be cold, and its bars are preparing early to welcome crowds who do not waste the weekend without pouring all their fatigue on the benches of comfort: Stella, Heineken, Guinness, Corona, Hara... and the workers' bench: Saint George, which as soon as its name was carried by a football team, its popularity doubled before achieving anything. That could have been, if not for what is happening at the same moment on one side of the city, giving this time of year a certain uniqueness. Five consecutive buses surrounded by police vans, feeding the traffic, amid light rain showers, from the gathering point in Masqal Square in central Addis toward Bole suburb where the airport is located. On both sides of the muddy asphalt road, for six kilometers, curious onlookers, envious resentful, and mournful farewells. Only the last group was waving, only seeing their broken reflections on the dark bus windows.