Description
Ethiopia, often praised for being one of the only two African countries never colonised, is still subject to highly miserabilist western media coverage. Famine, drought and war were for long the only focus of western media, to the detriment of the myriad political, social and cultural stories to be told about the country (Brookes 1995; Gill 2010). While western narratives evolved to include the state’s role in regional stability and the global war on terror, the overall discourse about Ethiopia is not attuned to the country’s own image projection (Fanta 2015; Newbery 2021).
Breaking away from the state’s image, this paper intends to investigate one of its citizens, internationally renowned model Liya Kebede. Multiple narratives and counter-narratives are in play, among which the model’s own account about her relation to her home country through her investment in business and philanthropic activities, and the story of a black African female model in the US.
