Rather than going 'international', there is immense possibility in being originators

Addis Ababa is one big building site. The amount of construction is impressive. The city is on the move. Not only is one impressed by the changes that are imagined for the city but also the realization that urban Ethiopia has an aesthetics unique to itself.  We were told there were more than a hundred embassies in this city as well as comprehensive representation by multilateral organizations such as the African Union, the European Union, and the United Nations. That also means politicians and NGOS are full on the ground.

Though Addis seems to be responding to the imperatives to develop and ‘intenationalise’, for a good part it is doing so on its own terms. We were left wondering what that might mean. Does it mean the infrastructural development of high-rise condominiums and global brand hotels? Is it the overzealous officiousness of what looks to be impotent security measures: not just at the airport but at hotel doorways you are subjected to full security checks with old, weary saluting men in garish colonial military uniforms? Is it calling yourself an international enterprise?

One observed a number of companies name themselves as international this or that. In itself this is not bad or specific to Addis as many  supposedly global companies call themselves international. In Addis however, one is left with the feeling that there is a certain amount of anxiousness in this naming practice because these supposedly international companies are not really part of the global economy in quite the way they project.

As African as we are we are still seasoned travelers. We have learnt certain expectations of ‘the international’: no magic disappearing water while taking a shower or brushing teeth in your international hotel room; not something that ‘tastes like chicken’ but chicken; provision for stable electricity so we can buy a cup of coffee at an international resort; road signage would be good; less donkeys on the freeways please; convenient access to money; the recognition of multiple currencies (not just the US dollar, the euro and the British pound);  the facilities to pay one’s bill in any credit card; and knowledge of electronic transfers.

Perhaps you will argue with this. Perhaps international does not mean capital flows freely everywhere or that its reach is uniform. Maybe donkeys, cows and goats do have rights to use main city roads. Maybe privilege does not mean reliable free-flowing water and electricity. Contrary to what we expect perhaps a little plastic card should not simplify life everywhere  in the world.

What Addis Ababa teaches one is the uneven access to ‘the international’.  It reminds us of the problems of trying to play catch-up games with the economic system of Western Europe and North America many African countries get caught up in. There is immense possibility in being originators, we learn when we notice the ridiculousness of being searched and saluted all at the same time at mall doorways. We marvel at architecture that is not all sharp angles but gently rounded in the most surprising ways and wonder why there isn’t more of that. We realize that modernity is organic and becomes what it needs to be, and we ask ourselves why is Addis the city to teach us this. Contemporary Ethiopia, we learn, will emerge from where it has come. What is more, in spite of the bourgeois Africans on its doorsteps and the international community it hosts, its desires will be realised whilst proclaiming there is no one size fits all African – donkeys on the freeways, pummeled roast chicken and declined Mastercard ( it does not take you everywhere).