Architectural landmarks telling contrasting stories in Ethiopia's recent turbulent History

This Article covers a brief overview of two landmarks in Addis Ababa, telling contrasting stories about recent historical events in Ethiopia.

If you're a tourist, chances are you'll get to visit the newly built Adwa Museum, which was built at Piassa, the heart of Addis Ababa, to commemorate the victory of Adwa and Ethiopia's fight against colonialism. Walk down about a kilometer from the museum via Churchill Avenue, the gradient of the road rapidly decreases as you reach the Post office HQ. Look to your right, and you'll see a unique monument standing in the Ethiopia-Cuba Friendship memorial Park that somehow looks out of place yet tells a story in Ethiopia's communist past.

The Ethiopia-Cuba Friendship Memorial Park

As you enter the Park, you're greeted with the 50-meter-tall monument, a gift from North Korea, which adorns a red star on the top, and a golden badge of honor that contains a hammer & sickle (both of which symbolize communism). Below it, you'll see sculptures of male and female Kalashnikov-wielding soldiers. It was built to remember the Ethiopian and Cuban soldiers involved in a military conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia, from 1977 to 1978, over the sovereignty of a region in the eastern part of Ethiopia called Ogaden. Ethiopia had garnered support from other communist nations, the Soviet Union, & Cuba. The Cubans (then being led by Fidel Castro) sent 12000 troops and airmen to help Ethiopia.

On the opposite sides of the park, you'll find two stone carved sculptures of two people facing each other showing comradery.

Memorial for Ethiopians & Cubans that fought in the Ogaden War

On each side of the tall monument, you'll find two wall reliefs, telling a story of the Ethiopian people's struggle to overthrow the last Emperor of Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie, and a representation the revolutionary process with Mengistu Haile Mariam in military uniform. On the right wall relief, you can see The Emperor riding on horseback, seemingly ignoring the people affected by terrible famine just below them.

Emperor Haile Selassie ascended the Ethiopian throne in 1930. His reign, while marked by modernization efforts and the establishment of Ethiopia as a founding member of the United Nations and making Addis Ababa a significant center for the Organization of African Unity, it was also characterized by feudalistic structures and economic challenges. The seeds of discontent sowed during Emperor Haile Selassie's era provided fertile ground for the Marxist Derg military junta, led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, to seize power in 1974.

Initially hailed as liberators, the Derg's promises of radical change soon turned into a nightmare as the country descended into civil war.

Go out from the park & walk another 1.7 kms until you reach Meskel Square, and you'll find the Red Terror Martyrs Memorial Museum. This museum was built to remember the victims of the "Red Terror," a brutal campaign to eliminate perceived enemies by the Derg regime, that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians. The nation's progress under Emperor Haile Selassie was undone, replaced by economic collapse, famine, and a mass exodus of refugees.

These two landmarks tell in their contrasting messages, offer a sobering reflection on Ethiopia's complex history and the enduring human cost of political upheaval.