ABSTRACT
In 2007, the Ethiopian government placed a bronze rectangular plaque in the center of an unimpressive traffic circle on the southwest leg of Addis Ababa’s ring road, thereby creating the capital city’s first “Volunteers Circle.” The circle is miles away from the monumental and historical squares located in Addis Ababa’s city center. There are no big buildings around, and much of the immediate surroundings consist of dirt lots littered with trash. Yet on a sunny Saturday morning in May 2008, the second annual Ethiopian Volunteers Day, Volunteers Circle became a ceremonial space packed with people and temporary canopies colored red, green, and yellow-the colors of Ethiopia’s f lag. Police were positioned to keep the unusual quantity of pedestrians safe from the minibuses, dump trucks, and SUVs that made their way through the roundabout. A few state and private news reporters were also on the scene, cameras in hand. Though Addis Ababa’s landfill was nearby, it was downwind that morning, and the pleasant highland air competed only with truck fumes to fill the noses and lungs of the people who assembled.
