Nothing hints at the dark past of the marketplace at Dalbo, a town in southern Ethiopia. “Slave owners owned [entire] households as slaves and would sell whole families to buyers, including the children.”Zerfe Argaw at her home outside Dalbo in Ethiopia. In Addis Ababa, it is common to hear light-skinned highlanders refer to darker-skinned people from southern Ethiopia as “bariya” (slave). “Slavery in Ethiopia is not a historical phenomenon,” says an Ethiopian researcher, who did not want to be named. “Its legacy still affects people’s lives today.”A teacher in Addis Ababa, who also did not want to be named, recalls a conversation with his mother.

Source: Ethiopian News January 18, 2023 07:31 UTC