In April 2019, Mike Mamo’s borkena essay “A Year of Ruptures and Hope” framed Addis Ababa’s contested status and elite recklessness as central tests of Ethiopia’s first year under Abiy Ahmed.
The capital question is not urban trivia. It sits at the hinge of Oromia claims, federal symbolism, and who gets displaced when master plans move.
Mamo’s tone treated hope as provisional. Rupture was already visible in identity politics and elite bargains that treated the city as a prize rather than a shared civic space.
Kept as politics archive, the Addis Ababa question essay belongs with eviction and federalism files. Capitals reveal who the Ethiopian government thinks the country is for.
Sources: borkena
