Through a Facebook page he runs, he has not only preserved Ethiopia’s past but also connected a new generation with its ancestry. As he describes it, the page is about “bringing the past into the present, and connecting the generation with its ancestry.”
His work is more than a hobby. It is a labor of love, research, and cultural stewardship. Every image on his page tells a story of royalty and revolution, markets and military parades, rural life and urban streets, ordinary people and extraordinary events.
What makes this uncommon is that this Ethiopian, who has quietly devoted over a decade to capturing something far more enduring—his nation’s visual history—is not a photographer, a filmmaker, a historian, or someone one might imagine. He is a lawyer by training, and that is what he does for a living. His page, ‘Historic Ethiopia Through the Camera Lens: 1860s–1990s,’ has amassed an extraordinary collection of more than 30,000 photographs and 800 videos spanning from the 1860s to the 1990s.
RELATED POSTS
Sisay Tefera, a senior attorney with nearly twenty-five years of practice, happens to be one of the busiest people in the city, according to the experience of The Reporter Magazine during its request to feature him. “I have a number of permanent clients who need my service,” he said. In addition, Sisay has family responsibilities as a married man with two children.
Even with such a busy schedule, he says he dedicates three hours a day to his Facebook page. He says he balances the demands of a busy legal career with his passion for historical preservation. “I consider managing the page as part of my job and assign a few hours every day for it unless I am extraordinarily held up at the courts,” he told The Reporter Magazine.
The Genesis of a Collection
Sisay’s journey into photographic preservation began about ten years ago, though his fascination with history stretches back to his childhood. Sisay was born in Jimma in June 1974 into a family rich with diverse ethnic and religious heritage. Growing up, he listened to his father’s patriotic stories and examined the old photographs his father had preserved. His father, who had fought in the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936 and later served in the Free Ethiopian Army, brought history alive through personal experience. “He was the first man who connected me with Ethiopia in depth,” Sisay recalls.
Before creating his own page, he contributed to another Facebook page called Historical Photographs from the Horn of Africa, which showcased images from across the region. After a year or two, he decided to create a page focused solely on Ethiopia, narrowing the lens to his homeland.
“My goal was to give Ethiopians, particularly the youth, a window into the country’s past, to counter misinformation, and to provide tangible evidence of the nation’s cultural and historical narrative,” he said. “I believed this could at least serve as one form of evidence to ensure the reliability of some historical, cultural and political narratives,” he told The Reporter magazine.
A Global Hunt for Ethiopia’s Visual History
Sisay’s archive now draws from a vast network of global sources. He explained that his research spans foreign universities, national libraries, and museums, as well as private, community, and alumni collections. Missionary groups, returned Peace Corps members, military personnel, and diplomats have all contributed digitized records of Ethiopia. “Foreign tourists, travelers, scientific expedition team members, and people associated with diplomatic and military missions to Ethiopia have also preserved a large number of Ethiopian visual resources,” he said.
He uses a meticulous search technique. Working through digitized media archives, he enters keywords in multiple languages, including English, French, German, Russian, and Greek, to uncover hidden materials. “For instance, I use ‘Ethiopie’ to search French archives, ‘Äthiopien‘ for German, ЭФИОПИЯ for Russian, and ΑΙΘΙΟΠΙΑ for Greek archives,” he said. The process, he admitted, can be painstaking. “I sometimes spend hours going through foreign archives to locate just a single photograph or video, but the effort is worth it,” he told The Reporter magazine.
Verification and Integrity
Managing such a vast archive comes with significant challenges, including verifying authenticity and avoiding misinformation. Sisay is rigorous in this regard. He always provides source links, either in the description or in the comments section, directing viewers to the original archive or institution. When discrepancies arise, such as a photograph mislabeled with the wrong location or subject, he corrects the record while still crediting the original source. “Occasional mistakes occur, but they are rare, making up less than two percent of the total posts on my page,” he said.
Copyright and intellectual property are also central concerns. Sisay said he acknowledges the creators of each photograph or video, and in their absence the institution or individual holding the archive. He discourages unauthorized use and guides researchers on proper acknowledgment.
“I strongly believe we should not infringe others’ intellectual property rights,” he said, emphasizing that giving credit to creators and institutions is both a moral obligation and a legal necessity.
Why This Work Matters
Beyond technical rigor, Sisay’s motivation is deeply personal and patriotic. Growing up with stories of Ethiopia’s struggles and triumphs made him sensitive to how propaganda and misinformation affect national unity, especially among the youth, who make up more than half of the country’s population. He fears that Ethiopia could fall into what Thomas Hobbes called the “state of nature,” a society in which every man is a wolf to every other man, unless young people are educated about their shared heritage. “We should build bridges, not walls, for the new generation,” he said.
He explained that through visual documentation, he hopes to counter divisive narratives and foster understanding. Images of traders, farmers, soldiers, and families reveal the multi-ethnic, multi-religious fabric of historical Ethiopia, challenging assumptions that the past was homogeneous or segregated. “Visual resources have offered new insights,” he said, “and some doubts lead our youth to engage in inquiries and substantiate their beliefs with evidence,” he told The Reporter magazine.
The Golden Era
Sisay highlights the period from 1867 to 1935 as particularly significant. The British Mekdela Campaign of 1867–1868 was the first large-scale use of photography in Ethiopia, producing over 115 photographs and sketches now preserved at the UK National Archives. Technological advances in cameras and printing during this period made images more widely reproducible, while increased foreign interest in Ethiopia spurred scientific and military expeditions to document the country.
“Photographs began to be reproduced with greater accuracy, making images of Ethiopia available to the wider world,” Sisay explains. Collectors like Richard Pankhurst later helped preserve and publish these images, further embedding visual documentation into the historical record.
Stories of Connection
Sisay’s Facebook page, now with more than 219,000 followers, has generated remarkable engagement. Many followers, he said, are “addicted” to the page, drawn to the portraits of ancestors and snapshots of bygone Ethiopian life. Some are so emotionally connected that they feel as though their grandparents or great-grandparents have been brought back to life.
He shared several touching stories of rediscovery. Emeritus Professor Herbert Lewis of Wisconsin University, who photographed Ethiopia in the late 1950s, was surprised to find his work acknowledged decades later on Sisay’s page. “Nice man, nice family. Remember them well,” Lewis commented on a photograph from 1965. The late Ambassador Imru Zelleke also recognized his father Bejirond Zelleke Agdew in diplomatic mission photographs from 1932 and 1935. These encounters, Sisay said, demonstrate the power of visual history to reconnect families and preserve memory.
At the same time, the page exposes some of the misconceptions and biases held by younger generations. Followers often question the authenticity of older photographs, doubting the existence of electric poles, asphalt roads, or diverse communities in earlier decades. Sisay treats these moments as educational opportunities, encouraging critical engagement with historical evidence.
A Non-Commercial Mission
Despite the scale and popularity of the page, Sisay maintains a strict non-commercial approach. “I have not earned a penny from my page so far. Instead, I have invested few millions by dedicating my expensive time on the page, and for telecom and related services in the past nine and half years,” he said. He has also turned down numerous advertising offers and has no business plan for monetization. “My primary purpose is to render free service, hoping that I could make some change by connecting the generation with its ancestors,” he added.
Looking Ahead: A Permanent Ethiopian Audiovisual Archive
Sisay’s long-term vision is to establish a permanent Ethiopian Audiovisual Archive with galleries on cities, rural life, markets, daily routines, military, royalty, religion, and culture. “If I succeed in accomplishing my vision, it could enable the current and coming generation to explore how life and Ethiopia looked at least from the end of the 19th century,” he said. He acknowledged the challenge, noting that in most countries such work is done by government institutions or national libraries, but remains open to collaboration: “I will appreciate anyone’s help in this regard,” he added.
Through tireless dedication, Sisay Tefera Mekonnen has transformed his passion into a resource that preserves Ethiopia’s visual heritage for all generations. “If we forget where we came from, we will not know where we are going,” he said, reflecting on his mission to connect Ethiopians with their roots. “The photographs and videos are not just about the past; they are lessons for the future.” For Sisay, each time someone recognizes a family member or a familiar place, it reaffirms the purpose of his work and his belief that history, when seen and remembered, becomes a bridge to unity and understanding.
