By Valita Walston
Among the many groups that make up Washington’s diverse community is it’s Ethiopian population. For over 20 years this community has left a unique and culturally enriching impression on the city.
“Ethiopians are adventurous by nature. You will always find an Ethiopian anywhere in the world where there is opportunity,” said Wondimu Assemnew, head of Public Relations and Public Diplomacy at the Embassy of Ethiopia. [The stupid Woyanne cadre at the embassy is lying. Ethiopians are not being adventurous. They are fleeing the terrorist regime in Ethiopia.]
Deeply entrenched in the history and cultural landscape of Washington, D.C. – most noticeably the Shaw area – the Ethiopian community has prospered in small businesses and entrepreneurship.
Through store and restaurant ownership, many Ethiopians have incorporated specific aspects of their culture into mainstream D.C.
“I think the two cultures are interchangeable and they influence each other,” Assemnew said.
In 2005, members of the community petitioned to have a section of the city given the name “Little Ethiopia.”
Although the petition, which was supported by Ward One Council Member Jim Graham, did not pass in council, it stirred up controversy within Shaw’s African-American community.
Assemnew, a diplomat who resides on the city’s Embassy row, said both African-American and Ethiopian cultures work together to represent the District’s cultural identity.
However, in a city whose cultural identity is rapidly changing, the Ethiopian community has managed to keep hold of their businesses throughout the transformation of the District’s physical and demographical landscape – something Assemnew credits to Ethiopian cultural values.
“Ethiopians are successful people in general as a culture, wherever Ethiopians go they bring with them value, culture and identity,” Assemnew said.
Large numbers of Ethiopians began to migrate out of Africa during the 1970s due to war violence.
Many within the Ethiopian Diaspora settled all over the world with a significant number coming to the Washington area.
Assemnew believes it was the city’s African-American community that drew so many Ethiopians to the Washington area.
“I think the amount of economic activity and a level of comfort with the cultural diversity especially the African-American demographic probably had an influence with the Ethiopians that settled here,” Assemnew said.
The Washington area has been speculated to have the largest population of Ethiopian immigrants; however, according to Andrew Laurence, head of the Ethiopian-American Cultural Center, an “exact number for the Ethiopian population cannot be given,” due in large part to a lack of documentation.
What can be noted, however, is the business ownership throughout the trendy shopping district of the U Street Corridor where there are restaurants such as Dukem and Dynasty that have become culinary destinations for many Washington visitors and residents.
7 thoughts on “Ethiopian community provides added flavor to DC’s city culture”
The number of Ethiopians in America has grown in large number,over many large city’s.
Maney ethiopian’s came to America in the late 60th,not due to the war or financial,it was for education only.
After the fall of the Kingdom,many of the ethiopians stayed.
and made a differenc in the Metropolitan area.
Started getting into all kinds of activety.
Washington is home for a lots of Ethiopians for a reason that it has accepted many of us as a guest.
The hard fact is that the biggest Ethiopian population in Diaspora is found around Washington, dc. As the writer of the article mentioned most Ethiopians tend to keep their traditional values along with their religion. In addition to that there are a few Ethiopians who become suscceful in their own life through business, education, working hard and so on.
However, there have been noticed that most Ethiopians are not engaging themselves very closely as they wanted to internally to resolve their own country problems. In fact there are a number of Ethiopians who are persistently work day and night to bring the best solution to Ethiopia through a contribution of many strong political opposition parties. These individuals are scarifying not only their time and money but also they have lost many of their social life including their family life for the sake of their country. These Ethiopians are very patriotic and cannot sleep until they see their county’s freedom from the Weyane criminal group.
At the same time the vast majority of the Ethiopians residing around Washington, dc shows no care about the gross human rights abuse in Ethiopia by weyane. Some of them even though they know that weyane is the most criminal and corrupted country, they don’t want to step up and contribute their part. Of course they don’t mind if others strongly remove the woeyane criminal group without their contribution. And I call these groups very selfish and coward.
The other group of Ethiopians is the Ethiopians who knows that weyane is the worest animal groups that eats human beings just because they have a different view, but just don’t want even to hear about the worst part of Ethiopia even though the truth is that. They want to lie their internal mind by keep talking about the fabricated good parts of Ethiopia along many other weyane sympathizers that constantly talks about the fake growth of Ethiopia. These group talks how many buildings are in Ethiopia and how many restaurants and hotels and coffee places are in Addis and so on that is bounded by falsified facts. While they exactly know that Ethiopia is under a worst weyane criminal group and they exactly know that their families back home cannot afford life along with the daily intimidation by the weyane criminal officials. But knowing all these they are either ignorant to talk the fact or just idiot to understand the best for their country.
In general I would say having the biggest no. of population didn’t significantly brought a lot as it was supposed to fight the weyane criminal group. If not all but atleast one third of the population around dc would participate and engage in fighting weyane, weyane wouldn’t be existed anymore.
I urge everyone not to be just proud by the quantity but lets work very hard to show our quality. Lets the Ethiopians around Washington, dc stand against weaynae as we did back in 2005. The solidarity that Ethiopians in Washington show in 2005 should be implemented again to get rid of the weyane criminal group once and for all. Lets not be confused by the poor propagandist of weyane, EPRP, Mirchaw, and DENKORO hailu shwel group, instead lets all come together and find the best resolution to Ethiopia. At this moment we have ginbot 7 a party with the best priniciple and best leader that needed to be supported as soon as possible….
Death to weyane members and supporters…..
The Embassy guy is very stupid.
Yes Washington is home for thousands of Ethiopians for many years the very real reason is looking for freedom. Ethiopians work hard in raising their family , going to school,work to make a living and help on to get the country they love out of poverty,Dictatorship, human right abuse.
Weyanee is holding a Millennium Party for it’s Cadres and supporters the Tigran people only at Ethiopian Embassy . It goes to show you that the so called Tigray people are behind this doctorial regime 100%. Look ,what this people are all about . Since when government agency hold a party of the millennium for one ethnic minority . I don’t have word for this people….
በቅድሚያ በጣም ከፍተኛ ቁጥር ያለው የኢትዮጵያ ስደተኛች በግፍ ፈልሰው የመጡት በ80 ወቹ ሲሆን ይኽውም በደርግ ጊዜ በነበረው ቀውጥና በምስራቃውያንንና ምእራባውያን የንበረው የፖሎቲካ ሉይነት በነበረው ምክንያት ምእራባውያን በራቸውን ከፈተው ማለት ኢንደ ሰሜን አሜሪካ አውሮፓ
ያሉ አህጉራት በግፍ የኢቶጵያዊያንን
ስደተኞች ተቀበሉ ማለት ነው: ይህ ከሆነ በሆላ የደርግ ስልጣን ተለውጦ
የስታሊኖች ማለት አልባንያን ሞዴል
መንግስት ተተካ በዚህም ወቅት ብዙ ኢትዮጵያውያኖች በባህር ውቅያኖስን በማቆረጥ: የሰሜን አፍሪካን ደዘረት በማቆረጥ የስደቱ ጉዞ አላቆርጠም አሁንም ኢንደቀጠለ ነው: ሌላው በሐይለስላሴ ዘመነ መንግስት መጡ
የሚባሉት ኢትዮጵያውያኖችም ቁጥራቸው ያንን ያህል አይደለም ኢንዲያውም ይተወሰኑት የንጉሱ ዘመነ መንግስት ሲገለበጥ ሳምሶናይታቸውን አንገበው ሮጠው የገቡት የአቤቱ ሰለባ ሆነው ቀሩ: ወደ
ቁምነግሩ ልግባና ሰሜን አሜሪካን ያለነው ኢትዮጵያውያን ቁጥራችን በርከት ብሎ እየታየ ነው በግልም ብዞቻችን ትልቅ ኢድገት ኢያሳየን ነው ነግሩ ግን 1ኛ በሕብረት ያሳየነ ነገር የለም 2ኛ ስለ እናት አገራችን
ጉዳይ ሲነሳ ብህብረት ድምጻችንን አናሰማም: አሁንማ እስከነጭራሹ የወያኔ ካደሪዎች በያንዳንዱ አደርባይ ኢትዮጵያዊ ቤት ክሎዜት ከብተዋል: ተባበሩ እንዳትሰባበሩ.
It would be interesting to compare Ethiopias political parties to others in Africa.
I noticed alotof tribal hatred in the comments (e.g. Hagas Araya’s comment)
I seem to remember the previous Government in power was alot worse (would be interesting to know if Hagas was upporting them). I wonder if a future Government would be any better or whether it would be the same situation (ie another tribe in power ) would they just look out for there tribe to ?
It seems that the only solution for Governments in Africa is to have a power sharing agreement whereby all tribes a represented. Unity is needed, not this continious bitter hatred.
Good Luck Ethiopia !