The bodies of these modern citizens were annually celebrated in the Haile Selassie I Stadium – the most important sports ground – on occasions such as the track and field competition of the Ethiopian Inter-School Athletic Association or the Armed Forces Sports Day. As discussed elsewhere, the introduction of so-called modern sports such as football, boxing or gymnastics through modern school systems and the reformed armed forces from the 1920s onwards, as well as the body-related work of ‘invited’ organisations such as the Young Men’s Christian Association ( YMCA ), became an important aspect of subject formation in the Empire (Bromber, 2013a).
The creation of the modern Ethiopian citizen included ideas of intellectual as well as physical improvement and perfection. This article locates early stadium construction within the overall attempt to modernise the country which gained momentum after the end of the Italian occupation (1935-1941). 1, as cited in Rafiq & Hailemariam, 1987) only 8.5 % (or 1.9 million) people lived in Ethiopian towns in the mid-1960s, the migratory influx steadily grew.ģ As an indispensable part of the urban design, stadiums became architectural landmarks comparable to train stations. Although, according to the Central Statistical Office (1971, p. They were built at a time when started a rapid urbanisation in Ethiopia. Thus, stadiums have to be understood as an entirely urban phenomenon – in Ethiopia as elsewhere.
3).Ģ Its inauguration later in 1947 marked the beginning of stadium construction in most of the Ethiopian provincial towns over the next three decades. The Addis Ababa stadium which is in the plan stage cannot be constructed too soon to meet the ever growing number in both participants and the lovers of sports in the city (June 16, 1947, p. Hese matches would demand in future a larger and more modernly organised place for their meeting. Bezabih Wolde (department of Sport Scie (.)ġ On the occasion of the Ethiopia Football Championship Finals in 1947, the Ethiopian Herald commented that:
0 kommentar(er)
