The nocturnal luminescence of Addis Ababa functions as a hegemonic spectacle, not an organic process of civic enlightenment. The city's outwards-facing brilliance, defined by gleaming infrastructure and glass architecture, serves to occlude rather than reveal the complexities of

The Gathering Storm Over Ethiopia Ethiopia stands once again at a historic crossroads—a moment thick with uncertainty, volatility, and the unmistakable scent of a gathering storm. The signs are everywhere, yet the political establishment clings to rituals of optimism, insisting

Ethiopia’s Survival Economy: Improvisation in the Absence of Policy In today’s Ethiopia, the most reliable economic policy is no policy at all. Households across the country survive not because of a coherent national strategy, but because of improvisation, endurance, and the

My random notes from my last visit to Addis Ababa: Home of the Braves [ Part I] To live in Addis Ababa today is to inhabit a city of dazzling ambition and deepening precarity—a city where glass towers rise while ordinary life sinks under the weight of inflation, evictions, and

The Ethiopian government’s online ecosystem today—its ministers, Prosperity Party operatives, influencers, paid consultants, and anonymous cadres—devotes an inordinate amount of time to displaying the “new” Addis Ababa: glowing streetlights, glass-clad towers, riverside

I saw the news that the military in Guinea-Bissau has arrested the president and canceled all institutions, including the ongoing national election. Few countries embody the tragedy of post-colonial Africa than Guinea-Bissau. Once the epicenter of one of Africa’s most visionary

Starting the journey for the warmth and light of the Algarve in Portugal and Andalucía in Spain. This seasonal migration is not driven by climate alone, nor by the seductive promise of a slower urban tempo—though both matter. It is, more deeply, a journey into a layered

While many remain mesmerized by the choreographed illumination of Addis Ababa—where light performs prosperity for the privileged and consigns the city’s poor to shadow—I stand today in Lisbon, where, in 1514, the first Ethiopian ambassador was received by the Portuguese crown.

Standing here on the shores of the Tagus River in Lisbon—the waters from which sixteenth-century Portuguese fleets sailed toward the Indian Ocean, Red Sea and Horn of Africa —one confronts an uncanny resonance between early modern naval ambition and the contemporary political

From the edge of the Iberian peninsula, the Atlantic reveals history as cyclical rather than linear. Empires past and present rely not only on force but on borrowed legitimacy, staging prosperity through spectacle, infrastructure, and urban performance. What changes over time is

Julie Mehretu at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. The unveiling of Ethiopian American artist Julie Mehretu’s major public artworks at the Obama Presidential Center on June 19, 2026, marks a significant moment in the cultural and political landscape of the United States.

The brutality and cowardice associated with the PP regime are evident to anyone observing recent events in Ethiopia, particularly regarding the well-known singer Teddy Afro. These issues do not need fabricated or AI-generated images for comprehension. The surge of digitally

Ethiopian migrants: the Invisible Casualties of the Gulf War The images from the Gulf are familiar: smoke over refineries, rubble, ultimatums. What they don't show is the quieter front line — the tens of thousands of Ethiopian migrants in Dubai and across the Gulf region, whose

Tulips are rising—like so many other things in social life. One of the greatest gifts to the world from the mountain regions of Central Asia and the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire introduced these lovely flowers in the 16th century to Europe, particularly the Netherlands. The