Original subtitles

Where is home?

Most of us are born with the answer.

Others have to sift through the pieces.

♪ I took a walk through this beautiful world ♪

♪ Felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good in this beautiful world ♪

♪ I felt the rain getting colder ♪

♪ Sha la la la la

♪ Sha la la la la la

♪ Sha la la la la

♪ Sha la la la la la la

Admit it. You hear the name, Ethiopia,

and you think starving children with

distended bellies.

You think dust and famine and despair so awful

you frankly don't want to even think about it anymore.

But take a look.

Addis Ababa.

Capital city of Ethiopia.

A cool high altitude urban center that will

both confirm and confound expectations.

Fueled largely by direct

foreign investment and a returning

Ethiopian diaspora eager to be part of the new growth.

Things are changing in Addis.

It's one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

- It's not the first time the place has gone - through a growth spurt.

In the 1950s Emperor Haile Selassie known

as the king of kings,

embarked on a similar program of massive public works.

This was supposed to be legacy of Ethiopia.

The future.

But the next time Ethiopia found itself

in the headlines,

it was for this.

And for many of us, that was the end of the story.

So I'm looking forward to this week.

I can't wait to show you Ethiopia.

- I've been waiting for you, I mean, - I tell you right now.

You couldn't have picked a better time

because we have old Ethiopia right here

and we also have new Ethiopia right here.

And that's like a that combo is going to be so cool.

Marcus Samuelsson.

Maybe you know him from such shows as a lot of them,

or his many restaurants.

His best selling memoir, his status as America's most

recognizable black chef.

But Marcus isn't African-American.

He's Sweden-American, Ethiopian-Swedish-American.

Look, It's complicated.

What is true to say is that Marcus Samuelsson

like his wife, Maya,

was born here in Ethiopia.

So when is the last time you were in Ethiopia?

Four years ago, and you can tell it's changed.

Changed a lot.

I'm interested in seeing an African country

that was never colonized.

It was never taken by Europe.

No, that sense of pride,

You really hit the nail on the head.

I mean, that sense of pride is also the sense

of that everyone wants to come back.

How does it feel coming back?

Is it weird at all?

You feel like you're coming home?

It is weird. But end of the day,

I always love it. I miss it.

One foot of me is like, just Ethiopian,

But then the other foot is so Swedish or American

at this point, Right?

You do not speak the language, Or any of the dialects.

Ahh... You've since come back, You reconnected with family.

Yeah.

But it must be weird to, I mean...

It is. You need a translator.

No, But... I need a translator.

My wife is now my translator in life and in

culture and so many things,

But I think when you're a black man,

when you're immigrants,

when you're Ethiopian,

when you're Sweden,

I've been put into so many situations

that I put myself into.

So, I'm actually very comfortable in being

uncomfortable.

In the 1970s Ethiopia was hit with a tuberculosis epidemic.

Marcus, his older sister Fenti and his mom were all stricken

with the disease.

With no possibility of medical attention in their village,

facing the almost inevitable death of both her children,

Marcus' mom set out on foot with her daughter

at her side and

2-year-old Marcus on her back.

Walking 75 miles to the Swedish hospital in Aris.

Against all odds, they made it.

Marcus and Fenti recovered.

Their mother did not. Marcus and his sister

were adopted by

Ann Marie and Leonard Samuelsson.

And raised from that point on in Sweden.

Ethiopia it's language, it's food, it's culture's

were largely a mystery.

Marcus traveled and trained apprenticing in some of the

great kitchens of Europe.

He moved to New York.

At the remarkably young age after 23

received three stars from "The New York Times"

at his groundbreaking Restaurant, Aquavit.

It's been a pretty stellar rise since then.

And in 2010 he opened Red Rooster in Harlem.

I always find so paradox that,

I was born into very little food,

but yet sort of I made my whole life about food.

My sort of structure and pragmatism comes from being

raised in Sweden,

and my soul of vibrancy and warms to cooking

and feel-based food that I love, comes definitely from here.

- Weirdly enough the single aspect of Ethiopian culture - most westerners

Do know a little about is Ethiopian food.

So maybe you've had this.

Oh, wow.

That looks good.

That... that is exciting.

What is it?

This is typical, Ethiopian vegetarian,

make it really nice.

At Kata Togna Restaurant they do it classic.

Injera bread, that's Ethiopian 101.

I mean, you think about Ethiopian food right,

The foundation is really the Injera bread.

It's not just food, it's an implement.

Yeah.

We're having beyaynetu, a selection of stews or

wat as they called around here.

That's goman sauteed greens.

Shiro Wat which is a chickpea stew.

And tikil gomen, sauteed white cabbage.

Many, if not most of the dishes, spiced with the magical

mysterious flavoring of the gods. Burburing.

Can I give you one that normally we do it.

They say gursha.

You have to.

This is stuffing of food in your fellow diners'

face is called "Gursha",

and it's what you do to show your affection and respect.

Try this at the waffle house sometime and

prepare for awkwardness.

Now, Maya you were born here?

I was born here.

Left what age?

13.

I grew up in Holland.

Then after that we all went to

London, Germany, and I'm in New York now.

I don't want to say it's a rootless existence,

but it's...

You know, where's home?

I think for us now, Harlem is really home.

But when I've been gone for two years,

I'm like, I got to go back.

Because the beat is just so different than what Sweden

can offer me

and definitely what New York can offer me.

The median age in Ethiopia is under 18.

That means most people here don't remember

live aid or any of that.

Coupled with a recent economic boom,

this might be the first generation in decades

to enjoy a future with real hope.

Things are indeed happening.

In this case, at a vacant bus stop.

♪

They're Dog Town, man. Maybe next generation

Dog Town in Africa.

A few years back a couple of Ethiopians

who've been living abroad

returned to Addis with skateboards.

Today there are couple of hundreds skaters in Ethiopia

and more on the sidelines waiting for there chance,

waiting for a board, and waiting for pair

of sneakers.

It's funny now, it's like, skaterboard culture came from

white Southern California suburban,

they have pretty much track all skating culture back to like

one parking lot.

So what's coming out of this parking lot?

There are no skateboard shops in Ethiopia.

None.

They have to come all of them from abroad.

Woo!

Nice.

Little kid's good.

Little kid is amazing.

For those lucky enough to have them,

progression seems to be fast.

This gives me hope, honestly.

This can be a really cool town.

- Not just a great town with big buildings you know, but a cool - town, too.

♪

- For skater boys and television hosts, - alike,

The thing to do in late-night Addis is something

called turbo and tibs.

I feel like a college party or something

like that. It's perfect.

Turbo is a mutant concoction consisting of

gin, beer, wine, and sprite.

What's the first rule of drinking?

Don't mix.

Abenezer Tamesgen, Addisu Hailemichael and Buzeyo Julien

founded Ethiopia skate.

- The grassroots skating community that grew up in the - parking lots around Addis.

- Sean Stromsoe is a founding member who's been documenting - the group.

All right, man.

My first turbo.

Cheers.

It's like apple juice.

You're right.

Sweet. It is like apple juice.

Shekla tibs are chunks of beef or lamb fried in oil and

served in a charcoal heated clay pot called a shekla.

I like the fat. I love that.

They don't add the fat.

Every tibs house has their own version, but here,

it's served with a spicy dipping sauce called mitmita

and, of course, injera bread.

Yeah, that's good. that works.

Thank you.

How did this skating community form?

I mean, did people watch what other people were

doing around the world?

Definitely.

Some of them, they go to the internet cafe

and they just see videos.

That's how I started.

Back in the days, No internet for me.

I had to do it, like, the hard way, man.

I would tell you right now If I were Ethiopian,

if I even lived here, I would open a

skate shop tomorrow.

So what's the best thing about Ethiopia right now?

I think back in the day people want to get out from

this country, just leave. But now they're like,

They just want to work and their mind has changed.

Everybody's working together. And working for the better.

We're doing this for the next generation.

Because the next generation is going to take this.

So time to catch a bus.

You guys need to be me bodyguard.

No problem

Ah... this pace is awesome.

This is a charming Ethiopian institution.

They serve one thing and only one thing, Tej.

An alcoholic beverage made from fermented

barley and honey.

It's not highly alcoholic.

You have to hammer back a lot of this stuff to get a buzz.

Basically the people around here gotto load

down they've been working on this for a long time.

All day.

This is a working class.

This is where the workers go.

It's a cheap buzz.

Cheers.

You just knock it back.

All right.

It is good man. You feel the funk?

Yeah! It's working.

I've never seen a woman in a bar like this.

It's forbidden.

This is sort of guy thing.

It's my first time. Yeah guys after work all the farmer.

You're breaking major rules here.

Any how all like the saint speak to drinking.

There is lot of Jesus in the bar's.

So last thing I want to see in the bars the

disapproving gaze of a saint. In 1992, Addis emerged

from the stifling 17-year

grip of a hardline old school maoist regime called the derg.

Since then, the town has been enjoying something

of a musical renaissance.

But the story of Ethiopian music all the way back to the

beginning has been about finding ways to skirt

authority, to mock it even.

To say what you want to say one way or the other.

♪

The Asmari are Ethiopia's original freestyle rappers.

They have been around for centuries voicing criticism,

dissatisfaction, dissent, even when others could not.

How old?

Maya, about how old has Azmari been?

I would say what 2,000 years.

Yeah. like the first music we had, Right?

The trick is they've always used a system of lyrical double

meanings referred to as wax

me the apparent meaning and gold which is the

underlying or real meaning.

Poking fun at the audience is fundamental to the form.

Anthony is quiet and not saying much,

not because he is uppity,

it's just he finds the

language quite hard.

♪

Oh my dear Marcus,

my endearment.

He is the one, Obama's cook.

Now we can say we saw him with

out own eyes.

♪

Maya, You got to help him out.

Maya you go.

Disadvantage of adopted son, when she can move.

That what the sweet show without.

♪

The Azmari influenced the Ethiopian popular music, too.

The use of lyrical double meanings carried through

into Selassie's time.

They called it swinging Addis.

A golden time between 1955 and 1974.

Before those fun-hating comis came and ruined everything.

♪

Post-world war II, Ethiopia was in the delirious thrall of

America big ban and swing groups like Glen Miller.

And against the backdrop of a traditional and

official obsession with military marching bands.

Who had means and the will and the environment

to make musical magic.

And this man Mehamud Ahmed, has always been at

the forefront.

♪

When you look to the west, were there American

musicians who spoke to you?

Back then the ones I used to

listen to were Elvis Presley,

Sam Cooke, James Brown, and then

there was Nat King Cole.

There was this music I played

inspired by Elvis Presley's

music "Jailhouse Rock".

I used to dance and move my legs

just like Elvis Presley.

When I performed

fast tempo music

I used to shake my legs just like him.

♪

Combining elements of jazz, Swing, R&B and Distinctive

Ethiopian scales and time signatures and an always

killer horn section, well, Listen for yourself.

♪

♪

♪

Shola market in Addis, Ababa.

It's where you come for what you need.

What are we here to buy, by the way? What's the plan?

I want to make Dora Wat, really the king of chicken dishes in

Ethiopia.

All right, so we're going to head down here,

get some good butter.

Smell the fermentation. The funk.

Kibbeh, Ethiopian butter in various stages of

fermentation depending on what you like.

It is a primary ingredient in much of the cooking.

- There's between one that's really fermented and - another one is a medium,

So she says we should use the medium one.

Right.

For chicken soup.

And you use all the spices.

It is the most important thing.

People from gurage, Maya's tribal area

run the market.

So she knows the language and how to negotiate.

I can smell a frightened chicken from a mile off.

Here we are. How many do we need?

I just think we need three is fine.

My mama done told me get something for dinner,

In this case, chicken. Fresh please.

See ya, wouldn't want to be ya.

Oh, that's fresh.

I love all the sounds.

Like, it's like chicken there, music there.

♪

How does he get the skin off?

He just one move. He did it.

We used to use a hot boil water after killing it.

Right, dip them in.

That's how I grew up.

♪

Morocco has ras el hanout, India garam masala.

Ethiopia has this. The brightly colored burbery.

The color is amazing and those guys who grind this

stuff are covered with it, Breathe it, all day long.

♪

Still warm.

Wow.

That's sort of magic, Man.

Marcus left Ethiopia at age 2,

so finding and reconnecting with his

family has not been easy.

Tracking down a mom who died in similar circumstances on the

right dates, following a thread to a dusty village in the oromo

region, where Marcus found the man he has come to accept

as his biological father.

He also found Tigus, Solam, Zebini, Ashu and Daniel

presumably his siblings by another mother.

Together, Marcus and his sisters make doro wat,

a classic chicken stew.

In the '90s, go back to New York to be the chef I have to be,

I really need.

Welcome to Segai family meal.

So we start with the Injera bread, Right?

Besides the dorawat we have cabbage, beets, and collards.

Root vegetables finished with the livers and

giblets of the chicken.

Actually, It looks spicier than it is.

Good, very good.

Though a continuing bone of contention with his father,

Marcus and Maya have sponsored the girls

moving them all to the

city and getting them into school.

In the countryside, these girls faced the likelihood

of forced marriage,

even abduction and very little chance of the kind of

future they might have now.

So how'd that go over with the family

when you said, "I'm going to try to help you?"

I mean, my dad was, like, absolutely not,

we need them on the farm.

Right.

It couldn't have been done without Maya,

really not only translate but also understands the culture.

Because, I felt also bad coming in as the,

quote/unquote,

- American, saying okay, Everyone should move - to the city.

We have to be gradually two by, two by, two.

Right.

So when I had to pick which two,

I picked the girls because otherwise she would have been

out of school by second grade.

If she would have followed the tradition of the country.

Second grade.

That's it.

Uh-huh.

What after that?

You stay, you work at home.

It's been very enriching and loving,

you know, for us and we have a purpose.

You know, we know what our goal is.

Our goal is to get them through school.

You're looking at a chemist in a couple of months.

Whatever new Ethiopia you see, They're it.

Farmers coming in, and going to school, and now have options.

Addis is one thing,

a city experiencing a renaissance of sorts,

an economic boom.

Outside of the city, the farther away one gets,

one is reminded that in fact,

Ethiopia remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

♪

Marcus and Maya come from two completely different tribes.

Two completely different regions of Ethiopia with

distinct languages and cultures all their own.

Maya comes from the Gurage region,

a more fertile, green agricultural

area than Marcus.

It's about three hours out from the city.

And it's beautiful.

♪

Maya, it should be noted, left home at a much later age.

There's no question of identity.

She's African.

She's Guragen.

She retains close ties to her family and her village.

Welcome.

Thank you.

She was here just last year.

It's been four years since they've seen Marcus.

Maya's mother Besunash and de facto grandmother welcome us.

When visitors come, everything starts with coffee.

Smells good.

Traditionally, it's served here with a bit

of salt, not sugar.

♪

Maya's story differs from Marcus' in a lot of ways.

It was not disease or famine or poverty that drove

her and her brother, Petros, to Europe and a new life.

It was the brutal reality of politics.

So who was your father?

My dad was my hero and everyone's hero,

I don't mean everyone, but my brother could

explain a little bit more.

He was a local chief, and also a member of

the supreme or the highest court, you can say.

During a period, He was engaged in

more innovative and

experimental and mechanized farm.

During the communist period,

you know something unexpected happened.

In 1974, Emperor Haile Salasi was deposed in the very

unpleasant

General Lingistu and hardline communist

regime called the derg,

took over the country.

As in china, all agricultural property was taken over by the

state and broken up into small parcels.

Everything what my father had the land, the property,

is confiscated,

and those with authority, they had the chance

to work together, to cooperate,

or they were enemies.

Right.

Anyone deemed an enemy of the state, and this could be a very

dangerously loose definition,

but usually and typically included

educated, the well of anyone who associated with

the former government were hunted down, shunned, jailed,

harassed and often straight-out killed.

Maya's dad was all those things.

An educated landowner and part of the rural tribal

administration from the Selassie time.

Most people who had the means left the country.

I know this guy who is appointed,

Governor of the region.

Killed 60 people in the region.

In three years' time.

Nobody know when he coming, so he'd just knock on

our door and my mom.

She gets every time he comes,

He give her bullets.

He tells her, this bullet next time is yours if you

don't bring your husband.

So my dad always came to visit us in night time.

So he never been really home around

during the daytime.

- So for most of that time your father - had to live in hiding?

Yeah.

And we all survived by the grace of god.

We are blessed for this.

♪

Morning in Maya's village.

Marcus is a runner.

Every day, wherever he is, he runs a few miles.

Me, not so much.

But with my cardio shockingly

improved of late, I figured I'd give it a try.

♪

♪

Maya and Marcus' return not

to mention the invasion of a big

foreign television crew is

reason or maybe excuse for a big party.

And preparations have already begun.

Maya slips seamlessly from her other life as a high fashion

model back into a traditional role

in village life.

Working along with an army of other

women to prepare what looks like a massive feast.

How do the ladies feel about you cooking?

This is...

Causing serious problem?

No, you already crossed it, you're the first

foreigner ever in that kitchen.

A lamb of course, must be slaughtered.

Actually in this case, two lambs

Because here as in much of Ethiopia,

Muslims and Christians live side by side.

One lamb gets the halal treatment.

One for the Christians.

It's a peculiar history of

peaceful co-existence here of

which Ethiopians are quite proud.

The Christians came here during

the time of the apostles.

From the very beginnings of Christianity as a religion.

And the belief is that Muhammad

- after being persecuted and driven from Mecca by the - quraysh

Fled to Ethiopia where he found refuge.

Dog is happy.

Nice blood in his face.

Oh, yeah.

The production continues.

Women in the kitchen except for

Marcus who looks most comfortable there,

though his presence is a befuddlement to the others.

Men taking care of the meat.

Oh, bro food traditions, you're everywhere.

♪ You know, none of the

people are good cook today, consider themselves cooks.

All of them like...

More like real community,

when you kill couple of animals, right.

Everybody in the village has a chosen specialty.

Like your baba over there he does with the cracks.

So some of there is good at scraping the fur off.

Somebody else is... Everybody got an function and

it goes back to the first fire.

I will bring the dip. You know.

Normally we hold like this and we put everything

you want in here.

I got it.

You guys can take some and then we gonna take a round.

Perfect.

Gomman and Hiheb are like greens.

Like colors with a big hit of burbery and ayib cheese.

I like the cheese. It's like ricotta.

Lamb kitfu prepared Gurage style laboriously

diced, amazing.

This all like inner.

That's delicious.

This I love without reservation.

Barbecue. Now we're talking.

Man, What a meal.

Pretty impressive.

Then whisky, and music.

And the party really starts going.

Thank you for coming to Ethiopia.

♪

♪

♪

In 2004 at the prompting of his sister,

Marcus began an exhaust of search of for his lost family.

Who was he, after all?

Where exactly did he come from?

Who in his family survived?

Who was left?

Where were they?

He was told his father was still alive.

Living here in the village Aberagodana, South East

of Addis.

For adoptees looking for return to reconnect,

the journey is complicated.

For Marcus, each trip has always raised more

questions than it's answered.

This trip is no different.

Every time that last five-minute drive, right?

It's just makes me nervous, makes me really,

really excited and nervous at the same time, right?

But it's just, take the American hat off and Swedish hat off and

it's is just a different grid.

Saying a 110 speed.

It is not.

I come from a dusty place.

You're not kidding.

♪

Oh, they changed it.

They change it and make it big.

Yes.

I leave Marcus alone with his father.

This is between them.

Yes, Aberagodana I like it.

I like Aberagodana

♪

♪

He want us to see you,

he want us to see how you guys look-alike.

Proof!

Proof.

Good idea.

He has a better foot.

Yeah, He does.

I was not ready for this.

♪

♪

So how does it feel to be back?

I have to tell you, If I can be honest,

you seem conflicted.

Yeah, there's a thousand thoughts

going through my head.

I always feel a little guilty,

that I got out.

If you stayed what do you think you would be doing right now?

I would have been a farmer or

dealt with some kind of cattle.

- I am pretty sure you would have been a - shit farmer around...

I would.

I just, I can't see it.

You would be the best-dressed farmer, that's for sure.

Where is home for you, man?

What do you think I know?

Looking back on it all.

Yeah, that's an internal question for me,

I feel at home in New York and I feel very much

home when I'am in Africa,

But I also feel out of place,

And coming to this very place Aberagodana,

it gives me a lot of humility,

but I can't say it's home.

I can't say it's home.

Happiest moment in Africa?

Happiest moment is, I think

when we were at the my village for me.

The whole village comes together,

music, food, culture brings everybody together.

That eating together, Being together

it's by far the

happiest for me.

♪

♪