The legacy

In July 2002, I founded Zethiopia — the first Ethiopian diaspora newspaper in the United States — as a bilingual English–Amharic publication serving the Ethiopian American community of the Washington, D.C. area. It grew into the D.C. area’s largest Ethiopian newspaper, covering news, business, culture, and community affairs with a foot in both Ethiopia and America. The publication extended to the airwaves with Zethiopia Radio on WZHF AM 1390, where I hosted and produced the “ZEthiopia” show — one hour of weekly programming (2007–2008).

Zethiopia was never just a newspaper. Its anniversary galas brought together leaders from government, science, business, and culture — among them former Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend; Congressman Elijah E. Cummings; His Imperial Highness Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie, President of the Crown Council of Ethiopia; NASA astrophysicist Dr. Brooke Lakew; and Dr. Lemma W. Senbet of the University of Maryland — celebrating high-achieving members of the Ethiopian diaspora and fostering dialogue across communities.

The rebirth

Zethiopia moved online in 2017, when I relaunched it as executive editor of the digital edition. Today it is being reborn at zethiopia.com as a digital-first, source-linked news intelligence magazine. Its signature product, the Zethiopia Briefing, delivers curated, fact-verified coverage of Ethiopia’s development, business, technology, health, and culture — drawing on both English- and Amharic-language sources, with every story linked to where it came from.

The Briefing is edited with the same journalistic rigor I brought to co-founding Eletawi Addis, Ethiopia’s first private daily newspaper, and editing The Reporter — and produced with the human-led AI methods of Amharic Intelligence.

Read the Zethiopia Briefing →  Visit zethiopia.com →  Gala highlights →