Ethiopian history is global history

The issues of museums and cultural heritage in Ethiopia is one of those fields which challenges the so-called development model. The Mekele Conference, entitled Development of Museums and Heritage in Africa – Opportunities, Challenges, and Collaborations, was held in November, 2012. For the LISTROS e.V. initiative, it was a timely moment, coming at the end of our annual festival, LISTROS DAY 2012, held in Addis.

The word Listro comes from the Latin word "Lustra" and means "make it shine". Shoeshiners in Ethiopia and their handmade shoeshine boxes are also called Listro.

In connection with our initiatives we use the term "Listros" for all young boys and girls, who need to earn money. LISTROS do not only work as shoe shiners, but also as errand boys, ticket sellers, newspaper boys, shepherds, fruit sellers, maids, waitresses and in lots of other little jobs.

LISTROS DAY was established on October 20, 2007 in Addis Ababa in connection with the Ethiopian Millennium. LISTROS DAY 2012 was one step further in our efforts to foster recognition and respect towards all Ethiopians who have a rough start in life. As an annual campaign, it celebrates all Listros and their illustrious achievements in Ethiopia, and invites a change in perspective, giving the young generation of Ethiopia a “new view of their own future”. While paying respect to the dedicated youth and their services, it addresses and discusses their issues and questions in public. At the same time, LISTROS DAY aims at mobilizing the Ethiopian society to show solidarity and communal engagement in order to reduce the challenges these young people face.

The LISTROS DAY 2012 featured a of new initiatives. It hosted an IDEA CONTEST (What would you do if you were the next Prime Minister of Ethiopia?) and a football tournament for ten primary schools around Addis, a LISTROS CONFERENCE for 1,200 working youth in Addis Ababa, and an IDEA CONTEST (What kind of society do you wish to live in – Ethiopia in 25 years) for university students. All of these were opportunities to start a grassroots dialogue between youth, civil society, and decision-makers, giving a voice especially to young working Listros to address their circumstances and issues directly with representatives from the government and the civil society.

Therefore, the LISTROS e.V. was very happy to be invited to actively take part in the Mekele conference, which brought together a number of experts in various fields to address their issues and challenges in Ethiopia's development process, and which gave us the opportunity to integrate the Listros into this cultural heritage dialogue. I gave a short lecture and could present an installation with Listro-Boxes.

The Listros are a symbol for all those who are unrepresented in the dialogue for change. My personal contribution as a founder of the LISTROS e.V. was to proffer the idea that our cultural heritage is not only about digging up artifacts to uncover our past. Those under the earth were saved by nature; but those above the earth need to be saved by people of current generation, and to be acknowledged and preserved in Ethiopia's development history.

While the treasures of the earth give us some guidance of where our society is going, there is also history happening now, a living history that is changing shape every day and transforming our societies from within. The Listros are part of this process, and if they are recognized as part of our history, so too will they become involved in the protection of the stories that live in, around, and below them. This conference represented, for me, the opportunity to acknowledge their contribution and all peoples who are making global history happen now, and to integrate this greater dialogue into daily life.

A major strength of this conference was in highlighting the role that museums have to play in preserving our history, which is in danger not only of being subsumed in the progressive push for a more modern Ethiopia, but suffers from a lack of resources, time, and awareness about our cultural heritage. The danger comes not from any one agent, making it a difficult issue to tackle. This conference was the first of its kind, and acts as a symbolic starting point to address these concerns. I therefore want to thank those who invigorated this idea and who were responsible for funding, supporting, and planning this event. They gave us the opportunity to begin to rethink Ethiopian history, diversify our museums, engage dedicated experts on meaningful issues of culture and identity, and to draw our youth and the general public into the conversation.

What I recognized in this forum was the willingness of experts at all levels - directors, curators, and other actors - to revitalize and energize our young people to take an interest and stake in the preservation of our common, though complex, cultural heritage. When museum strategies only look outward to engage foreigners and international organizations, they neglect the country's citizens who are not only making these stories, but those who will, in future, be responsible for protecting this legacy. At the moment, many museums are not visited by our youth; as a result, they do not know what they stand to lose.

What I took away from the other specialists and participants in this conference was that they are also struggling. They cried for financial support and knowledge exchange at this forum – and they should get it. Furthermore, they need new modes of collaboration, from the government to the museum officials to academic institutions, on both national and international levels. At the same time, it is not only the government and international organizations who should be financing or weighing in on these issues; Ethiopia has a vibrant civil society whose financial power and opinions must also be included. If innovative, collaborative, and inclusive approaches are sought, not only international partners will collaborate.

The modern museum is not only a place to store history; Ethiopia's museums should overcome this idea. There have been some attempts to engage contemporary artists and tell the stories of modern life. However, this is not enough. If we want people to share a sustainable interest in maintaining their histories, museums should open their doors and act as forums and workshops for promoting modern teaching, learning, and ideas. They should have exhibitions that bridge ancient history and modern, grassroots history and discover the common links that enrich Ethiopia's present. Moreover, there should be support from the government, both financially and as an official part of the Ethiopian Millennium program. There is no doubt about how important Ethiopian history is, not only for Ethiopians and Africans, but for the world. Ethiopian history is global history. 

The Listros box as an inspiration for dialogue

LISTROS e.V. has a gallery in the center of the city of Berlin with a permanent installation of 3,500 shoeshine boxes from Addis Ababa. This space shares these stories with the world. When we shipped these 3,500 boxes to Berlin in 2010 as a part of the LISTROS DAY 2010 activities, part of the difficulty of carrying out this initiative was getting the permission of the government to send these stories abroad. Some of the representants did not want to show these as the face of Ethiopia, as all they could see was dust, dirt and toil. They did not want to further chip away at a negative history that they believed is shared on the global stage.

What we brought is indeed dust, mud, sweat, and toil, but this is part of Ethiopia. The heaviest thing that we brought was bigger than these containers that carried the boxes: what we really brought were the stories of the young people who used these boxes to survive. This is a survival story, and this is a story of life in Ethiopia as people experience it. It is not a problematic story about poverty, but a solution; it is the story of people seizing life and successes alongside the trials that they experience. These stories are all over the streets of Ethiopia for everybody to see, but this is not yet truly seen. This is call for a change of perspective not only from global civil society, but for Ethiopia to change its perspective.

The Listro-Box installation at this conference involved a workshop, using the Listro-Boxes as a representation of Ethiopia's living history. The boxes are the self-made history of the Listros, a physical manifestation of the untold stories and struggles they overcame in contributing to the development of our country's bustling cities. The boxes hold the dreams of those who most of the time migrated from the countryside to the city to seek their fortunes, and embody the entrepreneurial spirit that played a large part of the modernization process. Listros are part of the modern story of this pursuit of progress, who took what chances they could within an infrastructure that offered them no support. This is not a new story, nor is it one that can be solved quickly. Still, they strive in their own ways to contribute to their own, their family's, and their country's development, and the box is the link and the symbol of work and self-support, made by life.

The idea was to show 20 shoeshine boxes that were collected along my way from the Addis to the conference in Mekele. People's first reaction was to laugh, taken by surprise by the boxes. They were also surprised to see that boxes in different places looked different, had a different form and shape and variety.

The highlight of this workshop was the half-golden box. I golden a box that came from the center of Makele with real gold-plat. The idea of a golden box came from the artist Robert Weber in Berlin, which he came up with in 2005. The concept was to coat one shoeshine box with gold-plat, giving it symbolic dignity and freeing it from the mud and dust, which brings new value to the box and the life around the box. I golden only half of the box. This, for me, represented the modernization process and to show the aggressive power it can have in the pursuit of process while neglecting the effort that goes into that. Change is important and is necessary to move forward, but change also has to be planned with all players in the community. The neglect of their fears, hopes, and opinions is the reduction and denigration of their history.

The reaction of people at the conference was effusive, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Many people were thankful and grateful for having their eyes opened through this initiative. After the installation, this half-golden box together with other 19 boxes was presented to the Institute of Ethiopian Study. Ato Ahmed Zecharia of the I.E.S. accepted this gift gratefully, a move which symbolized a first foray into a new dialogue.

The reason why the IES was chosen was partly due to the fact that this institute is located at the University of Addis Ababa. This means that the installation can start the process of engagement with young people to research and reflect on the history from below. Now we know that there is no history written about the grassroots activities of the nation, though there is a lot of history to be written in this area, not only concerning shoe-shining, but also shoe-making, leatherwork, and other handcrafts in Ethiopia. This brings together the history of modernization with the history of industry and of culture, cobbled together to make a picture of Ethiopian society.

Because of the installation, and with support from the IES, the first student approached us to join a Master's program that we are now strongly sponsoring at the University of Addis Ababa on the social psychology surrounding the circumstances of the Listros in Addis. Through this program, we want to provoke students to reflect on how society views them, how their story fits into that of the nation, and how they got there in the first place. Thousands of young people are leaving their families with the hope of attaining better education, a solid job, and support for their families, and there is a lot of hope placed on the opportunities of the city. However, there is a limit on what the city can provide for them. What does this mean for those who come to the city with hope? What are the stories that are being overlooked, even as they represent the development and progress of our country? What does it mean that those who come from the land with hope are seen as a problem, though they represent a grand solution?

These issues are a part of our modern life in Ethiopia. The way that we choose to solve these discrepancy will determine the future of the country. The point now is to find a way out of this paradox together. To do so, these phenomena need to be studied, understood, and discussed with the public/in the public arena, because that's where the solution lies. Therefore, we are very happy because the IES understand this and are committed to go beyond what we understand and to offer the opportunity to foster discussion among young people on how to find solutions and make them a reality. What this conference showed us is that there are many others working on these and similar questions, and that together, new approaches and collaborations can be found to bring this dialogue further.