
Here is why You Should Visit Addis Ababa; The National
By Sonia Nazareth Travelers frequently use Addis Ababa, the sprawling capital, as no more than a glorified pit stop from which to enter Ethiopia, before swiftly moving on to explore the treasures in the rest of the country. But spend a few days in Africa’s diplomatic center, and you’ll discover that the city is deserving of its own […]

Tips on sustainable exploitation of E. Africa’s fresh water bodies, Daily Nation
By AGIE ASIIMWE-KONDE Plenty is expected from the first global conference on the blue economy being held in Nairobi from today to November 28. More than 4,000 delegates from 130 countries will discuss the opportunities, challenges and strategies to promote the creation of ocean-based economies built on fisheries, tourism, aquaculture and other marine-based initiatives. It […]

A guide to Africa’s ‘looted treasures’- BBC
By Ashley Lime During colonial rule in Africa, thousands of cultural artefacts were plundered. African countries want them back and major museums across Europe have agreed to loan the famous Benin Bronzes back to Nigeria. Now France has launched a report calling for thousands of African art in its museums to be returned to the continent. […]

Abreha and Atsbeha
By Stuart Munro-Hay According to the Ethiopian traditional accounts of the conversion, Frumentius was captured during the reign of Ella Alada (Amida?), who was succeeded by two brothers, Abreha and Atsbeha, who were the first Christian kings. It has been suggested (Hahn 1983) that these names were constituent parts of the titulary of Ezana and his […]

Museums in France Should Return African Treasures- The New York Times
The sprawling Quai Branly Museum in Paris is stuffed with treasure. It has some 70,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa in its collection, including magnificent statues from present-day Benin and delicate paintings that once decorated church walls in Ethiopia. But a long-awaited report coming out this week could have a dramatic impact on what visitors see […]

10 reasons to visit Eswatini, the African country you might not have heard of: Telegraph
Eswatini – or Swaziland, as it used to be known – is celebrating 50 years of independence today. Mike Unwin picks the highlights of the tiny southern African kingdom. Fifty years young This year marks a double birthday for Swaziland: in 1968, the nation not only achieved its independence from Britain (on Sept 6) but […]

The Economy
1. Population An important factor in the economic development of the Aksumite state would have been its demographic history. Kobishchanov (1979: 122-5), in his discussion about Aksumite population, somewhat adventurously concluded that the largest towns, including Aksum, were, `judging by the area they occupied’ to be `numbered in thousands or a few tens of thousands […]

The Ever-changing Geopolitical Rule-book of Ethiopia,
By James Jeffrey, The new cold war brewing in the Gulf region has rapidly rewritten the geopolitical rulebook in the Horn of Africa. As usual, US policy is playing a role, especially when it comes to its long-term ally Ethiopia, the Horn’s most powerful nation. Since the 1991 revolution that brought Ethiopia’s present government to power, the […]

The Regalia
By Stuart Munro-Hay The kingship was thus of a sacred or semi-sacred character (for a study of this aspect in later times see Caquot 1957). On the coins, the reigning monarch is depicted equipped with a regalia formed from various insignia whose significance is in some cases obvious, and in others obscure. The majority of […]

Four decades after Haile Selassie’s death, Ethiopia is an African success story, This is Africa
Authoritarian and landlocked it may be, but Addis Ababa will mark its last emperor’s death as a model of development. Ethiopia has changed beyond all recognition since the death of its last emperor, Haile Selassie, 40 years ago. Haile Selassie was surreptitiously murdered at the age of 83 by the military revolutionaries who had overthrown him […]

Aksum, the Capital City
By Stuart Munro-Hay 1. The Site Aksum was built on gently sloping land which rose, north and east of the city, to two flat-topped hills, now called Beta Giyorgis and Mai Qoho respectively. The hills around the town are formed from a granitic rock, nepheline syenite (Littmann 1913: II, 6; Butzer 1981). Between Beta Giyorgis […]

Aksumite History
1. The Pre-Aksumite Period This period is not of major concern to us here, and in any case we have very little information about it; but some consideration should be given to the situation in Ethiopia before the rise of Aksum, since the source of at least some of the characteristics of the later Aksumite […]

Archaeological Discovery
by Stuart Munro-Hay The Legends of Aksum The town of Aksum is today only a small district center, not even the capital of the northern Ethiopian province of Tigray in which it is situated. However, despite this relative unimportance in modern times, Aksum’s past position is reflected by the prime place it occupies in the […]

French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed support for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s reform agendas
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed support for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s ambitious reforms and diplomatic peace efforts. The 42-year-old African leader was on a working visit Monday to France on his first trip to Europe since taking office in April. In a joint declaration, France welcomed “the rapprochement between Ethiopia and Eritrea.” Both countries pledged to […]