8000 cities: beyond the contested urbanisation of Addis Ababa

The photo essay deals with Ethiopia's controversial urbanisation and the transformative spaces within the city. It explores various stages of urbanisation, the gradual transition from rural to urban spaces, inner-city migration, and the emergence and disappearance of different areas. The essay weaves together a network of exchanges through a series of images and a collection of conversations. It focuses on the rural-urban transformation in the eastern periphery of Addis Ababa, where geographical, ethnic, and social fault lines intersect. The narrative moves from the disappearing spaces on the eastern side of the Akaki Gorge to the emerging urban areas, including social housing settlements and gated communities of luxury villas. This photo series is part of the ‘Momentography of a Failure’ project, a collaboration between Ethiopian urbanists, professional and non-professional photographers, and residents of various neighbourhoods. The ‘Momentography of a Failure’ conducted a workshop that was part of the collaborative artistic research for the documentary film Rift Finfinnee (2020) by Daniel Kötter, and was led by Nafis Fathollahzadeh, Bisrat Kifle, Daniel Kötter, and the Center for Photography in Ethiopia (CPE).