Viral videos and Addis Ababa’s new boulevardCEFR B1
11 Mar 2026
Adapted from Guest Contributor, Global Voices • CC BY 3.0
Photo by Moti Abebe, Unsplash
A video of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s motorcade in Addis Ababa went viral after his visit on February 17. The clip, showing a newly finished boulevard with wide streets and bright lights, had more than five million views in a day. Earlier, a January livestream by US influencer Darren Watkins Jr. (IshowSpeed) drew about 10 million views in one day. These pieces of visual content focused attention on recent urban changes in the city.
The corridor development project is now central to the government’s agenda and aims to improve infrastructure, housing and public spaces. Over the past three years it has added walkways, bike lanes, green spaces, streetlights and a riverside development. Critics fault the project for forced eviction of the urban poor, the erasure of cultural heritage and a lack of transparency, and they say resources have been misallocated.
Ethiopia faces ongoing civil wars and areas outside government control. Millions of people are displaced, many citizens need humanitarian aid and large numbers of school-age children are out of school. In this context, images of urban renewal carry political weight beyond simple development messages.
Difficult words
- motorcade — a group of vehicles for an important person
- boulevard — a wide city street often with trees
- infrastructure — basic public systems like roads and lights
- eviction — the act of forcing people to leave homes
- cultural heritage — important traditions, buildings and history of a group
- transparency — openness and clear public information
- displace — to force people to leave their homesdisplaced
- humanitarian aid — help like food or medicine in crises
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- How do viral videos of city projects affect what people think about a government? Give two reasons.
- What are possible benefits and harms of building new walkways, bike lanes and green spaces in a city?
- If you lived in a city with forced evictions, what solutions would you suggest to protect residents’ rights?
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