Among the locals of Harar, Yusuf is known simply as “Hyena man”– a title he inherited from his father, Yusuf Saleh who began feeding hyenas in the 1960s to protect his livestock. As a child I took the train from Le Gare in Addis Ababa down to Dire Dawa and Harar. It would have been the elder Yusuf who I watched in wonder feed the hyenas raw meat directly from his mouth – it is an experience you do not easily forget especially as a child!
The tradition carries on and has evolved into a popular tourist attraction. Beyond this fact is the incredible connection between Man and Beast and with a Hyena regarded widely as a vicious scavenger….
Harar however has a long history of living peacefully with hyenas. Centuries ago, hyenas attacked and occasionally killed residents. They needed to do something to stop this and came up with cutting holes in the walls of Harar and tossing scraps of food out to the hyenas. This ingenious plan worked and the hyenas never attacked the townsfolk again.
Hairat is a very short documentary by Mexican Ethiopian filmmaker Jessica Beshir. which premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in 2017, and won several awards at various festivals for Best Experimental Short Film.
Hairat was Brooklyn based filmmaker Jessica Beshir’s directorial debut. Born in Mexico to an Ethiopian father and a Mexican mother, Jessica grew up in Harar and has known Yussuf Mume Saleh, “The Hyena Man of Harar”, since childhood.
Hairat tells the story of Yussuf Mume Saleh’s hypnotizing nightly ritual of bonding
with hyenas in the outskirts of the walled city of Harar.
Jessica Beshir returns to Harar, the city of her childhood, to tell the story of this unique relationship between man and wild beast. Shot in black and white, the film follows Yussuf for one night as he feeds hyenas outside the walls of Harar, a task he has been carrying out for 35 years. The voiceover is a love poem, written and read in Harari by Harar-based journalist and poet Elias Shagiz Adonay Tesfaye, who Jessica met by chance during her trip to film Yussuf.
Jessica has said of the film “I wanted it to feel like a poem. I wanted to distil the images to their essence. I wanted no distractions. I just wanted to focus on this man and his hyenas.”
View the film here https://vimeo.com/267410891
Image: By Gusjer – The hyena man of Harar
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