Addis Memories Ethiopia's First Digital Memory Wall for Addis Ababa

Overview

Addis Memories (addismemories.org) is a digital memory archive dedicated to preserving the social and cultural history of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital city, through community-contributed photographs and personal stories. Describing itself as Ethiopia's first digital memory wall, the project invites the public to share memories before rapid urban change erases them from collective consciousness.

History and Background

The project is closely related to and draws inspiration from Vintage Addis Ababa, a pioneering crowd-sourced visual archive founded in July 2017 by Philipp Schütz, Wongel Abebe, and Nafkot Gebeyehu. Vintage Addis Ababa was the first major initiative to systematically gather private photographs — primarily from Ethiopians living in Addis Ababa and the diaspora — documenting everyday life in the city from the 1940s through the 1980s. The project was inspired partly by the archival work of Dutch photographer Andrea Stultiens, who had been preserving Ugandan photo archives. In November 2018, the project produced a photography book presenting 242 images and their accompanying personal narratives, sold internationally.

Collections and Holdings

The archive is crowd-sourced, relying on contributions of old photographs from private collections. The photographs primarily document everyday life in Addis Ababa, with most images dating from the 1940s to the 1980s. They cover periods under Emperor Haile Selassie and the Derg military dictatorship (1974–1991). Many images are studio portraits reflecting photographic practices of the era. Each photograph is typically accompanied by the personal story or memory of the contributor, giving the collection a strong oral history dimension alongside its visual content.

Significance for Media and Cultural History

The archive provides a counter-narrative to elite or state-driven histories, foregrounding the lives of ordinary Addis Ababa residents. It has received international media coverage including from The Guardian, and has been funded by partners including the European Union, Alliance Ethio-Française, and the Embassy of Switzerland.

Access and Usage

The archive is freely accessible online at addismemories.org. Submissions from the public are welcomed.