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DANCING GRASS: HARVESTING TEFF IN THE TIGREAN HIGHLANDS [Abstract ID: 1203-05]
"Dancing Grass" captures a communal harvesting of teff among the Tigreans of Northern Ethiopia. Teff is a cereal core to Ethiopian national food identity and at the center of the livelihood of the smallholder farmers. The film follows the sequence of events as they unfold in the homestead, fields and neighborhood of the author's oldest brother and his family. First comes the cutting of the 'dancing grass'; then its drying and stacking; then the threshing and winnowing; then the sale of teff on the local market; then off with a donkey to the mill; then Injera is prepared for the family and guests; then coffee drinking and blessing; and finally the biblical Mesqel fire, celebrated at the end of the rainy season by the Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia. One may generalize that in the face of globalization, Dancing Grass portraits a dignified and caring life of smallholder farmers in one of the oldest traditions of agrarian society. "Dancing Grass" is the second film in a series entitled "Guardians of productive landscapes" currently produced under the auspices of the Department of Integration and Conflict at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany.