KEYIR NEWS — More than a dozen independent bookstores along Gambia Street, tucked behind the National Theatre, have been instructed to prepare for evacuation following a Wereda-level meeting held on 18 October 2025.
For over two decades, these container bookshops—built from recycled metal stalls and shaded by the old acacia trees near Churchill Avenue—have been an informal sanctuary for readers, students, and writers. Now, uncertainty looms as authorities move to clear the area for what is rumoured to be part of a new redevelopment project in the city centre.
“We were told to get ready to vacate but were given no written notice or timeline,” said Alemu Tadesse, a bookseller who has worked on Gambia Street since 2002. “This shop is my life. I raised my children by selling books here. If they remove us, I have nowhere to go.”
Several vendors echoed Alemu’s concern, describing how their daily sales fluctuate wildly—sometimes selling a handful of textbooks to passing students, and other days earning nothing at all. For them, the modest book trade represents both a livelihood and a calling.
“The people who come here are not just customers,” said Mekdes Bekele, owner of a small shop specialising in used fiction and Amharic classics. “They come to talk about ideas, to browse, to escape. You don’t find that spirit in malls or supermarkets.”
City officials, however, argue that the bookstores occupy public land and are part of a wider plan to “reorganise informal structures” in central Addis Ababa. A Wereda official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the government is “assessing the area for urban renewal” and will “consult affected businesses in due course.”
Yet booksellers remain sceptical, noting that similar promises have been made before—with little follow-through on alternative spaces or compensation. Many recall the closure of informal markets around Piassa and Arat Kilo, where vendors were displaced with minimal support.
Local writers and academics have voiced concern over what they see as a gradual erasure of literary spaces. “Gambia Street is more than a row of shops—it’s a cultural institution,” said Dr. Hiwot Gebremariam, a lecturer in literature at Addis Ababa University. “If it disappears, we lose a vital part of the city’s intellectual life.”
For now, the booksellers continue to open their shutters each morning, hoping for customers—and clarity. “We are not against progress,” Alemu added quietly, stacking a pile of worn dictionaries. “But we want development that does not erase our story.”
