Africa

A world famous chef returns home to Ethiopia

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ADDIS ABABA — World renowned Ethiopian-born chef Marcus Samuelsson has opened his first Africa-based restaurant in the capital Addis Ababa to showcase fusion cuisine inspired by his unique upbringing.

The location of the eatery, which opened last month, is emblematic of the heights reached by the chef since leaving Ethiopia as a child — it’s on the 47th floor of the nation’s tallest building, the headquarters of the Ethiopian Commercial Bank.

Samuelsson is now an internationally acclaimed chef, but his early years were shaped by unrest. His life as a toddler in Ethiopia was disrupted by the 1974 Ethiopian civil war that paved the way for the communist rule of Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam.

The chef, who turns 53 later this month, lost his mother during the conflict and was separated from the rest of his family to be adopted by a Swedish couple soon after and grew up in Gothenburg, Sweden. He moved to New York at 23 to work as a sous chef and swiftly worked his way up to become one of the youngest chefs to ever earn a coveted three-star review from the New York Times.

The new restaurant, named Marcus Addis, features delicacies from all over the world but its menu is designed to retain a traditional Ethiopia flavor that brings out Samuelsson’s global culinary experience.

“I am proud of my Ethiopian roots,” Samuelsson told Semafor Africa. “I want my new restaurant in Addis Ababa to be a vehicle for job creation, capacity building, a training hub that works for — not against — traditional local Ethiopian restaurants.”

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The celebrity chef has a growing list of fine-dining restaurants in Montreal, London, New York and his signature eatery – Red Rooster – in Harlem. As for now, Samuelsson is determined to make his restaurant in Ethiopia the signature act of his homecoming.

The dishes are all influenced by his Ethiopian and Swedish background, combined with his adult life in New York. They include his favorite local dish Kitfo — a minced meat full of spices complemented by Ethiopian herb butter which he calls “the ultimate celebration dish of Ethiopia” — and fried chicken with a side of Doro Wot, Ethiopian traditional chicken stew and the cuisine of Sweden.

To Samuelsson, the opening of a modern restaurant in Addis Ababa has been in the making for almost a decade, anchored by his dream of a memorable homecoming. To pay homage to Ethiopian culture, the restaurant has teamed up with a number of Ethiopian designers, including Anna Getaneh, a former international model.

“I want my cuisine to be delicious and to be rooted in modern-day Ethiopia,” said Samuelsson.

Togo’s Palais de Lomé is hosting a posthumous solo show for Kossi Aguessy, a Togolese-Brazilian industrial designer and artist whose work was not typically in the galleries of Togolese art spaces. The palace, which sits on 26-acres of land and was the country’s first major art and culture park, was originally opened in1905. It was initially a private residence for German, English, and French governors during the colonial era. The building was then used as the seat of the Togolese state until 1970.

However, it was damaged following socio-political unrest in 1990 and 1991, after which it was abandoned for more than two decades until 2014 when President Faure Gnassingbe’s government appointed Sonia Lawson, the center’s founding director, to lead its rehabilitation. After its opening in 2019, it is now home to exhibition spaces, a library, bookstore, auditorium, botanical garden, and restaurants hosting cultural events.

Semafor’s 2024 World Economy Summit, on April 17-18, will feature conversations with global policymakers and power brokers in Washington, against the backdrop of the IMF and World Bank meetings.

Chaired by former U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, and in partnership with BCG, the summit will feature 150 speakers across two days and three different stages including the Gallup Great Hall. Join Semafor for conversations with the people shaping the global economy.

🇳🇬 Lagos seaport is grappling with rising cases of organized crime, the flow of illicit arms and its status as a route for arm smugglers transporting guns to other parts of the country, Ghana, and Togo, writes Oluwole Ojewale in the London School of Economics blog. He points out that poor urban planning is one of the enablers of arms trafficking, and proposes that “the city government should conduct a city-wide survey on firearms ownership to provide a comprehensive assessment of firearms ownership, types, usage, patterns and sources in Lagos.”

🇧🇯 The transatlantic slave trade continued up to 1873, six years after Spain declared the official end of its slave trade. Historian Hannah Durkin has unearthed evidence that two ships carrying enslaved people landed in Cuba in 1872, allegedly from the port city of Ouidah in modern day Benin. Durkin’s account is complemented by recorded historical evidence of reports by explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who had traveled to Benin and visited the port of Ouidah in 1873, where 300 people were locked in a pen, and noted two slave ships.

🇿🇦 Multinational company Coca-Cola’s success in Africa can be attributed to its active localization as well as aligning with the history, and political developments on the continent, writes Sara Byala in her new book, “Bottled: How Coca-Cola Became African.” She notes that Coca-Cola first based itself in South Africa in 1928 where it secured local bottlers for its concentrate and expanded to other countries. While it tried to skirt around apartheid rules after 1948, by the 1980s political pressure at home in the U.S. forced it to take a stance by aligning with the African National Congress and supporting Black educational empowerment.

🌍 The U.S. is planning to base military drones along the West African coast in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Benin in a bid to stop the spread of al Qaeda and Islamic State, writes Michael Phillips in the Wall Street Journal citing American and African officials. The three relatively stable countries are now threatened by Islamist militants surging south from the Sahel in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. In the ongoing negotiations, the U.S. proposes basing drones at Ghana’s Air Force Base Tamale, three Ivory Coast airfields, and in Parakou town in Benin, far enough from the Burkina Faso border to provide a buffer from militant ground attacks.

🇺🇬 Tonto, a much loved, low alcohol Ugandan drink made from ripened banana, is under threat. Folk singers have crooned about the legendary tipple and traditional ceremonies often end with tonto parties but authorities are moving to curb the production of what are considered illicit home brews, writes Rodney Muhumuza for the Associated Press. A national assembly bill, if passed, would regulate the production and sale of alcohol and criminalize the activities of homebrewers creating traditional brews, including tonto which one customer at a bar likened to a “porridge” that doesn’t give him a hangover. “Every day you should have it,” he said.

🗓️ The first session of the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) chaired by Ghana will be held on Monday, during which the political crisis in Guinea-Bissau will be assessed. (Jan. 8)

🗓️ The 2024 Africa Academy of Management conference will take place at the Stellenbosch Business School in Cape Town to discuss globalization and digitalization in Africa. (Jan. 8-10)

🗓️ Energy experts and stakeholders will gather for Africa Pipeline Day in Lagos to discuss opportunities for pipeline operators. (Jan. 10)

🗓️ The 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament will kick off in the Côte d’Ivoire cities of Abidjan, Bouake, Korhogo, San Pedro, and Yamoussoukro. Twenty-four teams comprising the top football talent from across Africa will compete in the 2023 edition, which takes place this year due to delays around the pandemic. (Jan. 13 - Feb. 11)

• Semafor Tech’s Reed Albergotti explains why hot AI startup Anthropic wanted a lower valuation.
• Meet Nikki Haley’s key strategist. The last, longshot challenger to Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, will see her style of public politics put to the test.
• The last quarter of 2023 was the worst for global climate-tech fundraising since 2020, writes Tim McDonnell.

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🇪🇹 Happy Ethiopian Christmas/Melkam Gena!!

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— Yinka, Alexis Akwagyiram, Alexander Onukwue, Martin Siele, and Muchira Gachenge