Resolution Studio

In 1996, 15.6% of adults in Addis Ababa were living with HIV. One in six people in the capital.

Ethiopia’s first HIV case was detected in 1984. Its first AIDS case followed in 1986. What happened in the years between is one of the most important and least told chapters in the country’s modern history.

The epidemic did not spread randomly. It followed the roads.

Long-distance truck drivers, soldiers, and commercial s*x workers along Ethiopia’s major trade routes became the first communities heavily affected. Infection rates reached as high as 55% in some groups by the late 1980s.

From the highways, it moved into cities. From cities, it moved into families.

By 2003, the national infection rate had reached 4.4%.
In Addis Ababa and other urban areas, it was far higher.

AIDS had become the leading cause of death among Ethiopian adults.

Treatment existed, but for many, the fear of being known was heavier than the fear of the disease itself.

Ethiopia did not wait for the silence to lift on its own.
It created a campaign to break it.

March 8 began with a protest. In 1909, women garment workers in New York marched for fair pay and dignity.

A year later, German activist Clara Zetkin proposed a global Women’s Day, and by 1911, rallies across Europe were demanding voting rights and equality.

Decades later, in 1977, the United Nations officially recognized March 8 as International Women’s Day.

What began as a cry for justice evolved into a worldwide movement. A day to honor women and remind the world that equality is not a gift, but a right.

The sparkling water that we know and love has an interesting story behind it.

Together, we craft websites that go beyond function.
We create digital art that informs, inspires, and endures.
Explore more at www.resolution.studio

It often feels like a betrayal whenever "Addis Ababa" is used instead of "Addis Abeba".

But why?

Colonial-era transliteration norms—let’s just say, “በ” was a mouthful.

European tongues stumbled over the softness of “Abeba,” and so, in early publications, it became “Ababa.”

A small shift, but one that stuck around across maps, treaties, and time.

The Ethio-Djibouti railway- Ethiopia’s first major infrastructure collaboration with the French laid more than tracks. It laid linguistic foundations.

By 1907, the Franco-Ethiopian alliance had ushered in a wave of French cartographers, engineers, and diplomats. With them came spelling conventions that bent local names to fit European phonetics.

“Abeba” softened into “Ababa” not out of disrespect, but out of typographic convenience and colonial habit.

The Big question: is it fair to force the true pronunciation on the world?

We will leave the answer to you.