ETHIOPIA PROTESTS, LONDON

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power,

the world will know peace.”

Jimi Hendrix

About a week ago, I went to a freedom rally outside the Foreign Exchange Office in London, protesting against the oppressive regime in Ethiopia. The US government have publicy condemned the actions of the Ethiopian government, and the EU has stopped emergency funding, however the UK has remained quiet thus far. The protest aimed not only to raise awareness of the murderous regime, but also demanded that the British government break it’s silence and stop funding TPLF. Many of the Ethiopian diaspora too, have been divided due to political disagreements. But no matter your political position or ethnic group, you cannot excuse a government that enforces ethnic apartheid and murders its own people.

For many, the situation in Ethiopia is unclear, perhaps clouded by ethnic tensions. But for just a moment, rid your mind of terms such as Tigray, Oromo, Amhara, and remind yourself that we are all from the same Ethiopia. The same Ethiopia mentioned in both the Quran and Bible, the same Ethiopia that gave life to some of the world’s greatest athletes, the same Ethiopia that defeated it’s colonial invaders, the same Ethiopia that is the birth home of the first human to walk this earth, the same Ethiopia that has seen so much death and war, the same Ethiopia that has shared happiness and pride. We must not give in to ethnic apartheid, but instead stand in solidarity as brothers and sisters in the hopes of re-building the same Ethiopia that we love so dearly.

At the protest, I managed to photograph/film some key moments.