You Go America, Tomorrow?

Looking for Solomon, finding the U.S.

Charles Paul Freund | July 21, 2003

Have your summer travels been short on adventure and exoticism? Then accompany Tahir Shah on his latest excursion into the truly bizarre. Shah has previously searched for flying Incas and trained as a sorcerer in India. Now, he's gone through Ethiopia looking for the storied biblical gold of Solomon, and he's written it up in his new book, In Search of King Solomon's Mines. I won't tell you what he learned about Solomon's gold, but I will reveal another of his discoveries.

Shah found the modern equivalent of locating ancient treasure, an alternative dream of fabulous and unending wealth. This is the contemporary version of finding a seam of gold at your fingertips, of falling into a cave filled with Solomon's emeralds. According to Shah's narrative, it is a vision of heaven on earth, a myth that combines Eden with everlasting riches. It is the Ethiopian obsession with America.

Shah, accompanied by a local man named Samson who is obsessed by the devil, meets a seemingly endless succession of people who have endowed America with magical properties. They assemble curious bits of lore, study maps when they can get them, even try to keep track of how deep the Rio Grande is at various times of the year, in hopes of someday swimming across it. There are many variations on the theme that America offers freedom and opportunities, or that you can achieve wealth "for free."

Shah's story will make you feel better about your own travel headaches. Next time you're having an airport hassle, or are standing in a way-too-long car-rental line, you can think of him. He went through Ethiopia by train (leaking roof, stripped of lighting fixtures), Jeep (only one brake pad, unable to turn off engine unless facing downhill), bus (one driver arrested miles short of the destination, another suffering a urinary infection that required him to stop every few minutes to urinate in the bushes), Land Rover (jammed in with two dozen other passengers) wild mule (don't ask), even by camel in a salt caravan.

He spends a night in jail, too, suspected of being a spy. How does he get out? Here's what happens: The military commander of the region comes to Shah's cell to interrogate him. He wants to know all kinds of things about Shah and his journey, but most of all the commander wants to know this:

"Are you from America?"

"No," answers Shah, who is an Englishman of Pashtun descent. "From England."

"I want to go to America," replies the commander. "Can you give me any advice?"

This is not the first time Shah has been asked this question, and he hastily scribbles a list of suggestions (which have included marrying an American and swimming across from Mexico). The commander asks if he can do anything in return. "You could open that," says Shah pointing to the cell door. The commander snaps his fingers and Shah and Samson are free.

In a rare moment of comparative luxury, Shah checks into Lalibela's Sheba Hotel. Lalibela, where whole churches have been hewn from solid rock, is surely one of the world's most amazing places, though the hotel is empty. It is, in microcosm, an image of the frustrated wealth Ethiopia might be enjoying if not for a recent history of war and tyranny. Anyway, Shah writes that,

When I asked the clerk for my room key, he toyed with it, unwilling to end our conversation.

"I see from the register you're from America," he said.

I replied that I was.

"Ah, I am going to America."

"Oh, when?"