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By AFP
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From its hill overlooking the Ethiopian capital, Berhanu Mengistu's century-old gabled family home has seen emperors and governments succeed one another.
He resisted the economic stagnation and rapid population growth that replaced his former patrician neighbors with a hive of huts.
But now he is alone in a weed field, the corrugated roof and red plaster walls of the house are hit by a changing urban landscape of open slums, tower cranes and skyscrapers. twinkling.
Sumptuous palaces like that of Berhanu are scattered throughout Addis Ababa, built for imperial court courtiers and foreign affairs moguls, but most have fallen into neglect as the government focuses on a boom. ambitious construction.
"Nowadays, most of the buildings you see are more of European architecture," said Berhanu, head of the logistics chain whose house has belonged to his family for seven generations.
In the capital, older and poorer neighborhoods, such as the one that once surrounded Berhanu's home, were razed to make way for glbad and concrete towers, touted by the government as a symbol of rapid economic expansion. one of the African regions. poorest countries.
But conservatives fear that the vertiginous development is at the expense of the architectural heritage of the capital.
"There are isolated efforts to protect and save historic buildings, but it's really very limited," said Fasil Giorghis, a renowned architect.
"It's not even a given that you should protect a historic building."
Addis Ababa was founded in the late nineteenth century by Emperor Menelik II, who extended the Ethiopian empire from the northern highlands to its modern borders.
The young city soon filled with houses belonging to members of the government of Menelik, among which Yemtu Beznash, ancestor of Berhanu, matriarch of the family and administrator of a powerful tribunal.
Menelik, who died in 1913, also hired Armenians as engineers from the city, while merchants came from India and Yemen.
This cosmopolitanism was disrupted in 1974 with the arrival of the Derg military junta, which dismantled the Ethiopian empire.
Fasil recounted how, as foreign traders fled, the Communist-minded Derg gave up his old homes to poor tenants, who could not afford to maintain earthen walls and wooden floors.
The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which expelled the Derg in 1991 and continues to govern today, presided over an economic boom.
Entrepreneurs from China and elsewhere have set to work to build half-built skyscrapers that give the capital a jagged and unfinished look.
Maheder Gebremedhin, an architect who runs a commercial radio show, explains that the neglect of old buildings is due to the cost and complexity of the renovation, as well as a lingering ambivalence about the imperial past.
"Because of ideological change, there is no point in keeping these buildings," Maheder said.
Government and private donors have successfully restored a handful of buildings, including one of Menelik's palaces and the manor of a former Defense Minister converted into a museum.
However, city authorities have acknowledged that most of the 440 heritage site buildings are dilapidated.
"Because of our ability as a developing country, they can not be repaired all the time," said Worku Mengesha, spokesman for the Addis Ababa Tourism Board.
Ten years ago, foreign embbadies and Ethiopian conservatives tried to restore the Mohammadali House, once owned by a wealthy Indian businessman and with well-known Indian and Arab architectural elements, in addition to its style. Ethiopian from the imperial era.
However, bureaucracy and poor construction have put an end to their efforts, Fasil said.
As a result, he is padlocked and abandoned. Parked cars shelter under its Indian-inspired arches and abandoned trousers hang from its faded staircase.
Other historic buildings retain their role as housing for the poor during the Derg period or their slow decay.
The vast former palace of Hojele Al-Hbaden, a rich traditional ruler of the menelik era, still houses residents of his western region, who spend hours after work socializing in the panoramic veranda.
But it is more and more dilapidated, with a whole rotting wing that once served as a clbadroom safe for the school.
Three years ago, when the city authorities destroyed the houses around Berhanu, he kept the bulldozers away by making his home a historic building.
Berhanu now hopes to turn the story of his family into national history.
Standing near a large portrait of the matriarch Yemtu, he spoke of his dream: to create a house museum whose rooms are filled with family and heritage photographs, including a snakeskin covering the walls.
"This is not just our property, it belongs to all Ethiopians and all inhabitants of Addis Ababa," he said.
He hopes the city will agree.
In the slums that the government wants to erase, his neighbor, Solomon Damana, recently resolved a dispute with the city authorities and follows orders to demolish the small family home in which he was born and raised and was transferred to a one bedroom apartment the suburb of the city.
"I'm glad one of them is not being demolished," he says pointing to Berhanu's place. "It's a historic house."
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