![\"|](\"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/HISTORY-IN-A-VESSEL22.jpg\" "\\"|")
<\/p>\nOn a recent afternoon in Addis Ababa\u2019s Friendship Park, rows of glass vessels glimmered under museum lights. Round-bodied, long-necked, and unmistakably Ethiopian, the Berel\u00e9 once carried honey wine to emperors, warriors, and wedding guests. Today, it sits in a museum case\u2014its curves recalling centuries of feasting, ritual, and memory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The bulbous, vase-shaped glass vessel, has long been an enduring emblem of Ethiopian heritage. Once central to communal gatherings and ritual celebrations, it is most closely associated with tej<\/em>\u2014the country\u2019s traditional honey wine.<\/p>\n Historians trace its origins to the Aksumite Empire, where tej was reserved for royalty and the elite. Over the centuries, the vessel made its way into households and tej betoch<\/em>\u2014specialized honey-wine houses\u2014its form inseparable from the ancient craft of fermenting honey with gesho<\/em>, a bittering plant that defines the drink\u2019s flavor.<\/p>\n The Berel\u00e9\u2019s<\/em> distinctive shape is not merely decorative: its wide bowl and narrow neck are thought to concentrate the wine\u2019s floral aroma, turning a simple sip into a ceremonial act. \u201cIt was more than just a drinking vessel\u2014it was part of a traditional Ethiopian living,\u201d said Abel Assefa, director and curator of the Yimtubezina Museum and Cultural Centre.<\/p>\n But with shifting social practices and the spread of modern customs, the Berel\u00e9<\/em> slowly receded from everyday life. Today it is more often prized as a cultural symbol than as a household necessity. Still, it endures\u2014as a fixture at weddings and festivals, a sought-after souvenir, and increasingly, an object of scholarly and artistic attention.<\/p>\n That shift is the focus of a new exhibition, Neger Bemessale<\/em>, Taj be Berel\u00e9: The Story of the Birill\u00e9 in Ethiopia<\/em> as told by Ian Campbell, now on view at the Centre in Addis Ababa\u2019s Friendship Park. Running from Sept. 30 through Jan. 18, 2025, the exhibition presents a sweeping view of the vessel\u2019s relatively recent history through the lens of Campbell, a historian and consultant in cultural heritage management.<\/p>\n The show brings together more than 150 Berel\u00e9<\/em>, 100 of them distinct in shape, texture, and design, each with its own historical associations. Nearly 20 paintings by four contemporary Ethiopian artists accompany the glassware, visualizing the vessel\u2019s place in everyday life and memory.<\/p>\n For Abel, these artworks underscore how deeply woven the Berel\u00e9<\/em> once was in Ethiopian life.<\/p>\n The exhibition is also a story of collection. Campbell\u2019s assemblage, amassed over more than 35 years, began as an act of curiosity. That spark grew into a lifelong pursuit fueled by travel across Ethiopia, visits to Addis Ababa\u2019s sprawling Merkato, and the historic city of Harar, gifts from friends, and trades with local merchants.<\/p>\n Now, for the museum\u2019s eleventh major exhibition, that archive is on public view. Organizers say the show has drawn both local and international visitors: casual enthusiasts eager to understand Ethiopia\u2019s traditions, and scholars seeking primary material for cultural and historical study. For the public, it is a reminder that the Berel\u00e9\u2014once a vessel for honey wine\u2014remains, in form and spirit, a vessel for memory.<\/p>\n For Abel, the Berel\u00e9<\/em> is a witness to history. Imported over centuries from glassmaking centers across the world, the vessels carried with them layers of symbolism. Some were decorated with political emblems, others with royal insignia, only to be repurposed as power shifted in Ethiopia.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the reign of Haile Selassie I, several Berel\u00e9s<\/em> now in the museum featured the image of the Italian royal family,\u201d Abel said. \u201cThese were later altered by etching a cross over the glass.\u201d The same pattern of revision followed the tides of politics: vessels adorned with the Imperial Crown were subsequently reworked by the Derg regime to display its ruling committee.<\/p>\n Though the Berel\u00e9\u2019s<\/em> presence in Ethiopia dates back to the 14th century, Campbell\u2019s collection reflects a more global journey. Many of his rarest pieces came from Bohemia, a region once part of Czechoslovakia and now in the Czech Republic. One Bohemian flask, in particular, holds deep personal significance for Campbell, who has spent decades building his collection.<\/p>\n Campbell, a historian best known as the author of The Plot to Kill Graziani,<\/em> traces his fascination with the Berel\u00e9<\/em> to a chance encounter in the late 1980s. Browsing a shop in the capital, he noticed several flasks on display and asked why the dealer was selling them at all.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought to myself, \u2018They\u2019re not Ethiopian,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cGlass isn\u2019t made here, so why are they in the market? Why would anyone buy them?\u201d That moment of skepticism turned into curiosity. If there was a market for these \u201cfunny-looking\u201d flasks, Campbell reasoned, there had to be a reason.<\/p>\n What began as a casual purchase soon became a lifelong pursuit. \u201cAt first, I didn\u2019t know the history,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cBut the more I collected, the more I realized there\u2019s a story behind the Berel\u00e9<\/em>.\u201d Unlike manuscripts, crosses, or paintings\u2014objects that already drew collectors\u2014he found himself charting unexplored territory.<\/p>\n Abel, the museum director, stressed that Campbell\u2019s work went beyond acquisition. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t only about gathering pieces,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was about understanding the full story of the Berel\u00e9<\/em> up to the present day.\u201d<\/p>\n That story, told through glass, is one of continuity and transformation. From its beginnings as an Aksumite royal chalice, to a politicized canvas marked by crowns and crosses, and now a museum centerpiece, the Berel\u00e9<\/em> is more than an artifact. It is a fragile but enduring archive of Ethiopia\u2019s shifting empires, its contested identities, and its communal rituals\u2014silent yet eloquent in the weight of its history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On a recent afternoon in Addis Ababa\u2019s Friendship Park, rows of glass vessels glimmered under museum lights. Round-bodied, long-necked, and unmistakably Ethiopian, the Berel\u00e9 once carried honey wine to emperors, warriors, and wedding guests. Today, it sits in a museum case\u2014its curves recalling centuries of feasting, ritual, and memory. The bulbous, vase-shaped glass vessel, has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":47247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1944],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-47245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}