Mereja.Forum

[Za-Ilmaknun]

Ethiopia’s capital city offers a metaphor for Abiy’s theology of prosperity. The government hails its Corridor Development Project in Addis Ababa as a symbol of modernity: gleaming roads, new parks, a museum, and neatly landscaped spaces. International media such as The Economist have noted that Abiy regards these corridors as the visual embodiment of his positive image, proof that his administration delivers prosperity.

Yet, beneath the shiny façade lies violence. Human rights organizations report mass evictions, with families expelled from historic neighborhoods like Piassa without notice or compensation. The “prosperity corridor” erases heritage, disrupts livelihoods, and destroys communities. It is development as displacement, progress as propaganda.

The contradiction could not be sharper. While Abiy showcases new roads in Addis Ababa as his legacy, Ethiopia is engulfed in multi-sector wars, famine, and social collapse. Entire regions are in ruins, millions displaced, thousands of civilians killed, women subjected to mass sexual violence, communities burned alive. In the 21st century, Ethiopia has witnessed a human being burned alive under the shadow of a regime preaching prosperity.

The corridor becomes a metaphor for Abiy’s politics: Cosmetic prosperity masking national devastation.

https://www.ethiopia-insight.com/2025/0 ... -violence/

[Za-Ilmaknun]

Prosperity Party branding and corridor projects mask destruction with cosmetic development. International networks validate authoritarian piety abroad. Together, they have produced a furnace in which Ethiopia’s fragile fabric has been consumed.

A corrective reading of Abiy’s religion must name these realities plainly. His Pentecostalism is not private piety but nationalist theology. Prosperity gospel is not hope but an ideological cover for inequality and war. The Prosperity Party and the corridor project are façades of abundance masking mass devastation. Prominent prosperity preachers are no longer spiritual leaders but regime functionaries. And Abiy’s global cultivation by the Prayer Breakfast shows how his religiosity was nurtured internationally as well as domestically.