By Cristina Fernandez-Pereda, New America Media
Editor’s Note: An Ethiopian community thrives in Washington D.C., and is branching out beyond small businesses and cab driving to professional fields. NAM contributor Cristina Fernandez-Pereda is a journalism student. Her profile of Little Ethiopia is generated under the J-school partnership with American University.
WASHINGTON — When Ethiopian immigrants started arriving in the 1970s, 18th Street in Adams Morgan neighborhood was their first home. Then when prices went up, the community had to find a new place. The U Street corridor, an area that was largely abandoned, was perfect for a new community. They revived it with their restaurants and stores, and it became Little Ethiopia, with its heart beating at the intersection with 9th Street.
Dereje Desta is the publisher and editor of Zethiopia, the leading publication among the Ethiopian community in the metro area. For one morning, he became a guide to journalism students to help them immerse in the community and learn what “Little Ethiopia” means beyond the intersection of two streets with more than two dozen Ethiopian-owned businesses.
Washington D.C. is home for the largest Ethiopian community in the country. Other large communities are in Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Seattle and Atlanta. As Selam Mulugeta, office assistant for Congressman Mike Honda, chair and founder of the Ethiopian American Congressional Caucus described, churches and Ethiopian-owned businesses help authorities locate this community all over the country. And most of them are in the nation’s capital.
The number of Ethiopian citizens in the Washington, D.C. metro area varies all the time and no one has exact data on this population. According to the Ethiopian Embassy estimates, around 200,000 citizens in the metro area are of Ethiopian descent. The Ethiopian Community Center estimates around 150,000 people from the African country.
Most Ethiopian immigrants come to the United States for education purposes as part of the African country’s immigration policy, the Diversity Visa Lottery — an immigration agreement with countries that have low immigration rates to the United States — but economic and political reasons are behind this decision too.
According to Desta, most Ethiopians consider that they are very well integrated in American society. The interaction between Ethiopians and Americans is not only limited to locals’ admiration of Ethiopian restaurants.
“The Ethiopian community is very well integrated in the American culture because of all the business owned by Ethiopians and also because they work with Americans in other fields,” said Hermela Kebede, executive director of the Ethiopian Community Center in Washington, D.C.
However, Ethiopians are waiting to see how the community evolves, as they are in the middle of a transition between the first generation of immigrants and their American-born children, who are now graduating from college.
“As Ethiopian-Americans, they have their Ethiopian side. But they are living in America, so they have an American side too,” Desta said.
The immersion of Ethiopians in the American society and their search for their own identity clashes with a very specific characteristic of the country they come from.
“It’s a very unique country. Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that was never colonized, so Ethiopians are very proud of that,” Kebede said.
Ethiopian youth, after studying with Americans, are now also competing with locals for jobs.
Ethiopians have been traditionally known to work as cab drivers in the area. Even though there is an extended number of them who still do — 11 percent of employed Ethiopians in the year 2000 were taxi drivers, according to Shaller Consulting. Many also hold jobs as university professors or accountants.
“We have also become wiser after living here for a while,” Desta reflects after showing an Ethiopian-owned Italian Restaurant. La Carbonara — the name of an Italian pasta recipe — emerges right next to the Mexican restaurant El Sol, also an Ethiopian property. After some years in the restaurant business, Ethiopian immigrants are now renting their properties to run other kinds of businesses, Desta explained.
Some Ethiopian shops display Barack Obama’s campaign message, ‘Yes, We Can,’ in their windows. It is, after all, something that applies to what many Ethiopian want to say about their community and their younger generation. They want to continue to prosper and thrive.
After exhibiting arrogance for the past few days, officials of the Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) have been forced to finally hold a press conference and answer questions regarding the donation of money to the Federation by Woyanne money man Ato Al Amoudi (it is an insult to Muslims to call this drunkard womanizer a ‘sheik’).
The boycott that is being called by Tegbar and other concerned Ethiopian groups is taking its toll on the Federation’s one-week event this week in Washington DC. The RFK Stadium, where the event is being held, has been empty, and today some of the vendors who had paid $3,000 each for concession stands to sell food and merchandises such as CDs, books, and teeshirts, have started to demand that their money be returned.
Even some of the soccer players seem to have boycotted the event. Out of the 600 players and their families, very few of them are showing up in the stadium. Rather they go to the several other events in Washington DC that are organized by the local restaurants, businesses and independent groups. All the Ethiopian restaurants and coffee shops are filled with Ethiopians who have come from out of town for the weekly event. They just stopped going to the stadium.
The arrogant ESFNA officials will hopefully now start to listen to the people’s voice, be humble and clean up the mess they created.
Ethiopian Review associates are currently attending the press conference and will report about it when it is over.
Tadelech Dalacho
Minister of Culture
and Tourism
Ethiopian Review’s Intelligence Unity (EIU) has learned that all 17 artists who have been touring the U.S. with the Ethiopian Minister of Culture and Tourism, Wzr. Tadelech Dalacho, have defected today and are now seeking political asylum.
Wzr. Tadelech has returned to Ethiopia by herself… more details shortly.
Kassa Yafet Gerbrevold had been the subject
of an international manhunt.
PHOTO: POLITIET/SCANPIX
(AFTENPOSTEN) — A body found floating in the harbour at Fredrikshavn, at the tip of northern Denmark, is believed to be that of a man suspected of murdering his young wife in Oslo early last week.
Police in Norway had issued an international warrant for the arrest of Kassa Yafet Gerbrewold, age 27. He disappeared after the body of his 19-year-old wife was found in the Anker student housing complex where they lived in Oslo.
The young woman had been stabbed to death, and her family had appealed for her husband to report to police. Instead he’s believed to have fled Norway on the cruise-ferry Stena Saga Sunday evening June 22.
A body was found floating near the North Quay 39 in Fredrikshavn Wednesday morning, reported Danish TV2. Police in Oslo were informed of the discovery, reported VG Nett.
Police in Oslo wouldn’t initially comment, though, saying the body hadn’t been formally identified. A spokesman said the Oslo police were working closely with their Danish counterparts to identify the body.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Woyanne-run Walta Information Center (WIC) and other Woyanne media continue to refer to Meles Zenawi’s wife, Azebe Mesfin, as ‘first lady’ (referred to others as ‘First Witch’). But it is President Girma’s wife who should have been called “first lady,” not the prime minister’s wife. No other country where there is a president the prime minister’s wife is called first lady. On another note, Azeb Mesfin is one of the most hated persons in Ethiopia next to her husband Meles. In a matter of few years, she has become perhaps the wealthiest women in Africa through corruption. Most of the profitable companies in Ethiopia share their profits with her. She heavily invests the money she steals from Ethiopia in the U.S. real estate market. She is buying houses and commercial properties in several states, including Washington DC, Ohio, California, and Arizona.
ADDIS ABABA (WIC) – First Lady Azeb Mesfin is elected president of the Organization of African First Ladies (OAFLA).
[It should be named OAFB — Organization of African First Bitches — who are partners in their husbands’ crimes.]
According to a press release issued by National Coalition for Women Against HIV/AIDS (NCWH), the first lady was elected on the OAFLA General Assembly held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from June 29 to July 1, 2008.
With the election of Azeb, the secretariat for OAFLA will now move to Addis Ababa from Lusaka. The outgoing First Lady of Zambia served as president for the last two years.
First Lady of Libya, Madam Safia Gadaffi, was elected vice president, the release added.
OALFA was established on 8th July 2002 as a result of the Geneva special meeting attended by thirty-seven African First Ladies, it was learnt.
