Similar to others who lived in Ethiopia in the 80s, I have been nomadic since. This has led to many interesting things in my life: four academic degrees in journalism, international studies, anthropology and media and cultural studies. I have filmed street dogs in India, gate-crashed climate change conferences and worked on community art projects in places that I do not belong to. I have worked on experimental films in holy cities and struggled to take photography in faraway places just for the pleasure of seeing something beautiful. 

It all confuses me very much too. 

But despite all this, I still keep on coming back to my memories of Ethiopia. Consider the following story: In 1984, one of the worst famines in human history took place. An estimated four million people died of hunger. A tidal wave of compassion emerged as emotional images were streamed live across the world on television screens, and as Live Aid provided the soundtrack to the human tragedy: "We are the world, we are the children ..." Living in Ethiopia at the time, I also vaguely remember this time. I was 8 or 9 years old then.  In one of these memories, I am in the dusty heartlands of this famine in Northern Ethiopia. I remember a scene where we walk past a bridge with stick figure people. Our local guide tells us: “These people will not be here in the morning … the hyenas will get them.” 

In the morning the streets were empty. 

There are many more memories like this. Yet these memories have been coloured by time and my over-active imagination. Memories have become stories and, after many years, I am not always sure what happened and what I have supplemented to fill in the dots of this surreal narrative. Now I have a daughter. How do I tell such stories to her when she grows up? How does one best explain the sometimes cruel beauty of human existence? How does one explain growing up in extraordinary circumstances that, nonetheless, seemed so ordinary to anybody who lived through them? 

Injera Westerns is how.

Injera Westerns** is an art project based on memories of people who grew up in Ethiopia in the 1980s. Yes, this was a time of great famine, civil war, Red Terror, and a Stalinist dictatorship and other not-so-nice things. But, as importantly, this was also a time of growing up, lasting friendship, first kisses, heartbreaks, wild parties and other such life-changing events. Time to put down our soul roots as one participant put it.  Based on these memories, I want to produce an experimental art book that combines fictionalised coming-of-age stories of children and young people with the more sinister political backdrop of this turbulent period in Ethiopian history. 

Why do I want to do this?

I think the untold truth of our lives is simply stranger, more poetic and more surreal than any fiction I have read or any movie I have seen. These stories need to be now heard as widely as possible. Moreover, these stories are not about Ethiopia only but touch on universal themes everybody can relate to in their humane laughter and sorrow.

The book revolves around the core question of  how does one explain the less pleasant side of life - such as human suffering - to my daughter when she grows up? In an effort to do this impossible task, the book creates the mythical world of Injera Westerns that freely combines different visual and textual styles from old propaganda posters, Italian spaghetti western movies, popular culture, critical media theory, existential philosophy, Ethiopian church paintings, comics, children's books, oral history, surrealism, political theory and much much more. These elements are then pulled together with my original design work, photography, watercolour, ink sketches, paintings and writing.

Does this all sound a bit complex?  Well it is.  But I sincerely believe that this is the only honest way I am able to tell the story I want to tell. At least in this book - my sincere hope is - I will be able to shatter some of the simplistic cliches and stereotypes that still plague Western representations of countries such as Ethiopia.  

Below are a few illustrative examples that provide an idea about I am talking about (though the final book will be quite different in form and content):

** The title Injera Western, by the way, is an homage to Italian Spaghetti Westerns movies. Injera is to Ethiopia as what spaghetti is to Italy.

How does Injera Westerns work?

The first phase consisted of a digital storytelling experiment that took place on an invite-only Facebook group. Over 6 months almost 500 people who had lived in Ethiopia in the 1980s discussed and shared their warm, funny and sometimes painful memories of growing up in Ethiopia.

The second phase now aims to use these stories, and many others I have, to produce a beautiful art book. But in order to get all the necessary visual and textual material for the book I need to travel back to Ethiopia. Moreover, what I want to do now is carry out a mythical journey in the high mountains of Ethiopia where I will reminisce over these stories, a kind of pilgrimage during which I meditate on who I have become and what these stories mean for me. During this pilgrimage I will then capture the material needed to make this book what it deserves to be: photography, sketches, paintings, and all other visual material that is still needed.  

I will follow the following route over 20 days:

If you wonder why I need to go all the way to the Ethiopian mountains for this, I hope the following picture will explain why the book simply cannot be done without this majestic landscape forming the existential backdrop for the Injera Westerns stories.

To make this possible, however, I need to fundraise a bit.  This is where I need your help and why I have come to Indiegogo hat in hand for the first time. I need to raise enough funds to cover my costs of traveling to Ethiopia, to organise this pilgrimage in the mountains, as well as for the costs of producing the book professionally.  In particular, I hope to fundraise the following amounts:

My initial fundraising target is thus 7,500 EUR.  Without this nothing will happen.  In other words, the book cannot be done without this amount. Any additional money that is then raised will be then used for the following additional purposes:

1. 7500-12500: to organise a touring art exhibition based on the visual-textual material of the book;

2. 12500-17500: to continue research on this project and write a more classical oral history book based on these stories hopefully published by a publisher; 

3. 17500 - ?: Money above this will be used to launch an Injera Westerns foundation to support organisations in Ethiopia that combine artistic and social work in innovative ways.  We have identified one project we would love to help out.

The good thing about all this is that you can also benefit from my crazy idea!  In order to help you support this project, I have created a wide selections of perks aimed at giving you something nice in return. These range from postcards, posters, electronic versions and  signed copies of my book to original photography, sketches and paintings produced during this trip.

My aim here is not to get rich; simply to get this important book done. These perks are intended to give you different kinds of incentives and pathways that can potentially make this book possible with your help. I will naturally offer additional perks over the duration of the fundraising project - and before Christmas - so please do also come back here often and see how this experiment continues.

Please check the list on the right for the different perks that I am offering as well as the visual breakdown of the perks below. Select whatever feels good to you as any small bit will help (the images are for illustration purposes only).

I am a researcher, writer and visual artist working at the intersection of media anthropology, philosophy and emerging digital cultures. Somewhere along the way I found out that the best way to learn about things is to just do them. So I started Injera Westerns as a way to learn about myself, about my artistic practice, and about how to tell interesting bedtime stories to my daughter when she grows up.  My website can be seen HERE. 

This was me in Ethiopia:

If you cannot give money for the project but think I am onto something unique here, there are all kind of other ways you can give us a helping hand. Spread the noise, tell friends and family about this project and how they can help.  Get your uncle journalist to write about me.  Shout it out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram!  Thank you!

Here's our shortlink again: Injerawesterns

Here's our website: Injerawesterns

Here is our Facebook group (public): Facebook

You can also use the links below the image/video to share!