I was navigating through the narrow alleys of a slum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital city, watching the place get dismantled piece-by-piece. Young men worked together to haul scrap metal, tin roofing, clay walls and other materials from the neighborhood and onto large trucks. Standing in one man’s front yard, I was told through his daughter, the translator, of the multiple times in his life that he’s endured this ordeal. “In Ethiopia,” she explained, “the government does not care if you own your home.”
A set of huts in view of my hotel.
The larger context is that the country has for decades been racked with instability—be it socialist dictatorship, tribal conflict, or border disputes. The most recent example is prime minister Abiy Ahmed’s crackdown on the rival Tigray military forces, which has caused years of fighting, a half-million deaths, and millions more forced into refugee status. While the conflict is more complex than a mere land ownership issue, it doesn’t help that there is no legal framework for sorting out such territorial disputes. Instead, rival Ethiopian groups just drive each other off the land once they have their respective turns at power.
A slum under demolition in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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