Rural Governance in Urban Space: A History of the City Management of Addis Ababa (1991- 2005)

Abstract

Urban management in its modern form has been introduced very recently in Ethiopian history. The earliest urban centers in the country were managed as garrisons and market centers. This paper is an attempt to analyze the historical experiences of the Ethiopian government in managing Addis Ababa during its early decade to the national election of 2005. For this purpose, the primary data were obtained through in-depth interviews as the major historical sources. Different documents were also consulted for the analysis. The sources indicate that the managements of the city during those decades were not successful and were characterized by failure to recognize that, “cities are engines of development”, “rural biased” government policies, lack of expertise and experiences in urbanism, and labelling some Ethiopian towns as “colonial”.