Urban Africa is a love letter to the bustling African metropolises south of the great desert—Dakar, Kigali, Lagos, Addis Ababa, and Johannesburg, to name a few—that are dynamic, diverse, and more traveler-ready than ever. Find more inspiration here.
Makdelena Desta, 17, flings out her arms like a ballet dancer as she skates around Addis Skatepark. Wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and a brand-new pair of Converse sneakers, curled hair flying behind her, she glides across the skatepark, her confident, carefree stance drawing the attention of her friends. As she reaches the ramp close to the park’s entrance, her face shifts to an expression of concentration before taking on one of three squat volcano-like structures at the center of the space. She raises her hands in triumph.
Desta is a member of Addis Girl Skateboarding (AGS), a new and relatively small collective of women skaters based in Addis Ababa. They meet every weekend, primarily at Addis Skatepark, where they have a standing reservation each week to skate together. It’s the day before Meskel, the Ethiopian and Eritrean religious holiday, so the park is relatively empty. The skaters and I take cover in the shade of two giant eucalyptus trees as an unseasonably warm sun hits the concrete. The group of girls, all between the ages of 15 and 22, are about to return to school after summer break so they’re taking advantage of their last week of freedom, skating all morning and taking breaks only to eat popsicles to beat the heat—and yell out words of encouragement to those attempting new tricks. “Jegna! Gobez!” they shout to a 16 year old in a hijab named Hanan as she masters a kickflip around the bowl that she’d been attempting for 15 minutes.
This weekly session is no ordinary gathering of friends; nor is it your average hobby club. In a city where sports—not to mention, streets—are largely male-dominated spaces, these young women aren't just developing a belief in their abilities when they nail that perfect landing, they're also challenging gender stereotypes.
Addis Skatepark is one of only two skateparks in the city. A cobblestone road stretching from Bisrate Gebriel church and past Laphto Mall, a popular retail and entertainment hub, leads to the skatepark, which is located within a youth community center. The main street, also named Bisrate Gebriel, is lined with fancy malls; just beyond lie the wealthier neighborhoods of Addis Ababa. In most areas of the city, communities aren’t typically segregated by socioeconomic class. This could well change as the Ethiopian capital undergoes a major facelift as part of part of the ongoing Corridor Development Project, but this skate group remains a diverse representation of the city itself—drawing skaters from lower-income neighborhoods further out as well as from more well-to-do families with private school upbringings.
Twenty-year-old Betelhem Desta, who attends a public high school nearby and expects to graduate soon, has been skating for just over two years. She describes the moment she fell in love with skating as the instant she fell off the board for the first time. “I fell hard—and fell in love, and I haven’t been able to leave it ever since,” she says, with a laugh. “I’m considered fat. This isn’t exactly the body type you see among typical skaters; people think you need to be thin to skate, but my body doesn't hold me back.”
Addis Girl Skateboarding isn’t the only girls’ skate group in the city: The first and longest-running collective, with over 90 members, is Ethiopian Girl Skaters (EGS) and has been active since 2020. EGS began when a small group of girls realized how difficult it was for them to carve out space to skate. Tifsihit Teferi, 24, was around for these meet-ups before EGS was formally established. “Being at the skatepark was intimidating, especially when you were learning on your own and next to boys." she says. “It felt more comfortable when we went there together as a group—there was a comfort in numbers.”
Hanna Bless, 24, one of the founders of EGS, says she and her friends would experience a lot of criticism from both family and strangers. “They had ideas of what girls should be doing or what was appropriate for girls to do.” They started inviting girls to skate with them around the Ayat and Summit neighborhoods before moving to Addis Skate Park where they began attracting other skaters like themselves. That regular session became their time to focus and practice—and claim autonomy.
EGS now offers skating lessons to girls every weekend, even intervening with parents to help them understand how skating can help their daughters grow into confident women. Their efforts have spawned other groups as more girls came to be interested in skateboarding. AGS currently has 20 members and most of them were once part of Ethiopian Girl Skaters. Bless is proud of the number of girl-only skating groups popping up. “When you’re the first to start something, you create the freedom for women to do whatever they want,” she says. “Imagine if more groups started outside of Addis in the rest of the country. That would be amazing”
While there is no membership criteria, AGS is younger, with all members still in high school. Their structure doesn’t have a hierarchy, either, but Liya Sileshi, 17, is the coordinator of the group, managing the team’s social media and liaising with Ethiopia Skate, the grassroots community that works to improve access to skateboarding among Ethiopia's youth. The nonprofit has spearheaded the development of skating in the country, most significantly crowdfunding the establishment of Addis Skatepark in 2016, and has since built three more skateparks, two of which are outside Addis Ababa. Through Ethiopia Skate’s community outreach program, girl skaters have the opportunity to learn how to skate, access free boards, and attend educational and vocational programs.
A young man in his early 20s has been trying to build enough momentum to skate around a ledge close to us. Semhal Teklay, an AGS member, dressed in cargo pants and a crop top, her long hair in loose twists, skates nearby. After several failed attempts, the young man kicks her board in frustration as she skates past him. Teklay appears unaffected and walks over to retrieve her board as he storms off without so much as a glance or an apology. Later, she tells the group that she had to cry before her mom agreed to let her out of the house that morning.
Traditionally, girls in Ethiopia, even in the capital, experience a range of gendered expectations at home. Pressures for those from less privileged backgrounds are harsher and harder to resist. But once families have been coaxed and cajoled, she says, skating offers these girls the freedom to spend their weekends as they wish. There’s also a camaraderie between the girls that is inspiring to witness. “Skating in a team has taught me to be tolerant and to understand different personalities. I also learned people think I’m stern and easy to anger but being in a team means being willing to work together and accept each other,” says Sileshi. She sports a growing afro and wears a cropped shirt and baggy jeans. Her eyes sparkle from carefully applied makeup.
“I’m so happy I made friends here. We hang out even outside of the skatepark,” says a 16-year-old called Tsion Fitwi. She wears a loose, red jersey and grey cargo pants, and her hair is cut short with faded sides. She cradles a board she’s designed herself, covered in red and black abstract drawings and stickers, and tells me she wants to skate professionally in the future. “Because we all attend different schools and live in different neighborhoods, it’s unlikely we would’ve met if it weren’t for skating,” she adds. Despite these differences, they say, they've become each other's chosen family—and the skate park, their home away from home.
Because skateparks in Addis are so few—and small—skateboarders here are forced to practice on streets. Sharing space with cars, buses, and motorcycles on the hectic streets of Addis is a dangerous pursuit—even for pedestrians. “The boys do it all the time but I was always scared to skate on the roads,” says Fitwi. Conversation turns to rumors around the demolition of the Kazanchis Skatepark as part of the larger Addis Ababa corridor development project. They try to schedule a time to skate there one last time.
The Addis corridor project has been underway for several months now, tearing down houses and buildings, displacing residents, and disrupting lives. In the heart of the city, historic buildings in neighborhoods like Piassa that date back to the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in the 1930s are being sacrificed to make way for sidewalks and bike lanes. On the flip side, the city is slowly becoming more pedestrian-friendly—and street lights have made some areas safer at night. The girls of AGS sometimes meet for sessions on Bole Road, where they cruise past glitzy high-rises, shops, and cafes, towards the stadium, Mexico Square, and the historic district of Piassa. Traveling the city this way, they’ve witnessed first-hand how quickly the face of Addis is changing. “The bike lanes are making things better,” says Fitwi.
While girl skaters of AGS—like other skating groups—rely predominantly on funding from Ethiopia Skate, they also campaign on social media to promote their team and get sponsorships. High on their wishlist is traveling to the skatepark in the city of Hawassa—the largest park in the country—and Mekelle, the capital city of the Tigray region. Mekelle doesn’t have a skatepark yet but the girls hear its streets aren’t as congested by traffic as Addis. Plus, the two-year armed conflict that impacted the Tigray region continues to affect Mekelle and its residents—and they're are eager to help. “We want to show the girls there what we know about skating—and what it does for us,” says Betelhem.
Until that happens, they continue to spread the word in Addis. Every Saturday afternoon, in the Addis Ababa stadium across the street from Mesquel Square, AGS skaters like Betelhem gather to teach girls as young as four how to skate. “It’s incredible that there are people out there that are inspired by girls like me,” she says. In turn, her own family is learning to see what she sees in skating. “I’m always asked by people why I don’t stay home and help my mom with housework instead. I know my family would also prefer that too, but I think they’re beginning to understand that it’s my passion. Nothing will hold me back.”
For more Africa travel inspiration, head to our guide to the Best Places to Go in Africa in 2025.
