At the time of its birth, Addis Ababa was a small and sparsely populated settlement in the middle of forests and rivers, with no electricity and running water, no roads or telephone lines. In a little more than one hundred years, Addis has become one of the most dynamic and most promising African megacities, recently boasting of the latest generation of 5G telecom technology, a growing digital economy, a space station located up there on top of Entoto hills and some of the best hotels, restaurants and recreational facilities on the continent.
Addis Ababa is a rising mega city judging from the new skylines adorning the horizons of a once forested-town as foreign visitors used to describe it in the early days following its founding by Emperor Menelik II in 1898. The forests of eucalyptus trees have now given way to the forests of mortar, steel and glass. Its architecture too has undergone a radical metamorphosis. The place of the old thatched huts is now taken over by modern high rises.
The Ethiopian capital also witnessed its first architectural revolution after the Italian occupation. The fascist authorities were determined to turn Addis Ababa, the New Flower, into the “New Rome” with wide squares, Roman architecture, bridges and streets, cinema houses and stores and market-palaces that reminded that brought to mind the prewar faces of most Italian cities. The Italianization of Addis Ababa was cut short after liberation although some of the old fascist-inspired architectures are still standing tall in the heart of the Ethiopian capital.
In a blog post about Piazza which is largely considered the most important part of the city built during the Italian occupation, Gabrielle Tesfaye, a travel writer starts her coverage of the Ethiopian capital “… in Piassa, the oldest part of Addis Ababa, rich in heritage buildings and original traces of the city before its expansion into the new construction being built now. My first time walking the streets of Piassa on my earlier trips was so refreshing, because I was use to being in Bole (the newer buildings, downtown area, mall etc) of the city. Not that I don’t like Bole, I do! But Piassa has its own style, a unique heartbeat, from its street shopping, vintage balconies to its historic cafes, Piassa is not to be missed if you are visiting in Addis Ababa.”
The second architectural revolution of Addis Ababa took place during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie who introduced new styles of buildings, streets and parks and public places. He built a new palace that imitated although remotely, European residences of monarchs and prime ministers. However, Emperor Haile Selassie was not Louis XIV of Frances and he had no ambition matching that of Versailles. In the post-Italian period, Addis saw its deepest transformations and modernization even though the old Menelik-era buildings and thatched houses were still surviving until well into the 1960s. Houses with corrugated iron coverings had become popular and that was a relief to the low class residents of the city who were soaked to their bones with rain water during the wet seasons as the thatched roofs could not protect them from the elements.
The decade following Emperor Haile Sellassie’s dethroning did not bring about significant changes in terms of Addis Ababa’s modernization. The military Derg was not so much interested in beautifying the capital. It was rather focused on building prestigious projects in agriculture and industry that was inspired by the Soviet Union’s Socialist era success.
The Derg left the capital largely untouched by Soviet -style architecture but started building the rudiments of condominium housing projects that were also inspired by soviet-style housing estates that were built for workers and rented at low cost. These housing projects were not however as widespread as they were during the succeeding decades of EPRDF rule when generous Chinese loans and assistance went into the construction new streets, overhead bridges and the first modern citywide railway system.
To give the devil its due, this period saw a radical overhaul of the capital as the regime in power presumably decided to turn the capital into a symbol of the economic success it was justly or unjustly proud of. Addis Ababa saw its greatest expansion and renewal in this period. Modern high rises adorned the city’s skylines. Banks and malls started to be located in new high rises with modern architecture. The inner-city railway system completely changed the face of Addis Ababa. Hotels with impressive designs, such the Sheraton Addis saw the light of day and boosted the capital’s prestige in the eyes of foreign visitors. The Chinese put their architectural marks on Addis by financing the construction of the headquarters of the African Union. Condominium housing projects expanded in all directions and gave a new lifestyle to hundreds of thousands of residents of the capital.
In the middle of all this change, the old contrasts between shanty towns around the capital and the high rising buildings in the centre continued unabated. Even though the city authorities planned the expansion and modernization of the capital by displacing tens of thousands of residents in the old residential quarters and allocated them to low-cost houses. The plots of land they left behind were incorporated the real estate market that was controlled by the state and driven by new investment capital.
Dozens of private real estate companies came into being as they were inspired by the successes of the earlier years. This process is still underway as we write these lines, as well as the contrast between the old and the new elements in the capital’s architecture which is increasingly looking like a fortress of high rising building surrounded by shanty towns particularly in the north-western parts of the city. Demolished slums areas thus continue to coexist with shiny and glass and steel adorned apartment buildings. This has created additional problems on the demands for water and electricity in the expanding capital that has never been met even when the population had not attained its present size.
This has in turn given rise to lifestyle contrasts between the wealthier residents and the poorer ones whose consumption and spending patterns remained almost the same. Brand new cars continued to zoom on the newly built streets and avenues of Addis while most city residents continued to use their legs or an increasingly insufficient and inefficient public transport system to move around the capital.
The city infrastructures could not keep pace with the needs and demands created by the population boom that has shaken Addis over the last few decades. People from different parts of the country flocked in search of new economic opportunities in the rising metropolis. From a sparsely populated, calmer and less noisy city, Addis is fast turning into a vibrant and yet, noise-polluted, dusty and sizzling capital similar to other big African capitals as far as its vibrancy is concerned.
New and ultra modern hotels and restaurants came into being in the posh eras around Bole airport and the new residential quarters spreading around the capital. These hotels and restaurants serve a high class clientele with fat purses. On the contrary, in the slum areas of Merkato for instance, unemployed and homeless residents go to low quality eateries as well as in alehouses serving locally brewed drinks. The contrast between the hotels and restaurants in stylish areas of the capital and those in poorer neighborhoods is simply mindboggling. What is common to all of them is the fact that traditional Ethiopian foods are served in almost all pricey restaurants as well as ordinary eateries in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopian traditional dishes are not created in Addis Ababa but were brought in from the various rural areas by migrant farmers and their families. As one blogger remarked, “Traditional Ethiopian cuisine bears a resemblance to Indian food, especially in its heavy use of spices. One of the most commonly used ingredients in Ethiopian cooking is berbere, a potent Ethiopian spice mix consisting of up to sixteen different spices like chili powder, cardamom, fenugreek, cloves, nutmeg, coriander, and cumin. It’s used to flavor many dishes when cooking Ethiopian food.”
Addis Ababa is certainly a city of many contrasts and in this increasingly digitalized world, the city is embracing all the features of telecom modernization. It is in the process of adopting a 5G telecom network while the 4G generation is expanding throughout the country. A foreign visitor to Addis Ababa recently described his impressions of the city in a travel blog site by saying that, “There is a bus service in Addis, as well as a metro, but in general, I find taxis the simplest way to get around – and that’s coming from staunch budget traveller! No Uber here (although the app Ride is new on the scene!), but the quickly recognisable blue vehicles are all taxis and tend to be very reasonable if you remember to haggle. With a name translated as New Flower, Addis Ababa, typifies a lot of what is so magical about Ethiopia, not least the country’s love for bringing a sense of the poetic and magical to everyday life.”
Recreational outlets in Addis Ababa also bear a stark contrast. Those located in the city centre are more popular for their hospitality, the quality of the foods they serve, the artists who perform during night times and the high-pitched music magnified by the loudspeakers.
Addis Ababa is no more the bucolic and sleepy rural town that used to be a hundred years ago. It has now become one of the 10 best global destinations for tourists and visitors. As one blogger recently noted, there are many things worth visiting in the Ethiopian capital, including among other things museums, churches, old and new architectures that bear the marks of the past and those of the future. Addis Ababa’s architecture will continue to improve with the introduction of new construction technology as the tallest building in the capital has recently demonstrated. Addis will keep on building, growing, inventing and adapting to the digital era on its way to becoming Africa’s top city that combines both its glorious past and its promising future.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 2 JUNE 2022
