It is a great pleasure for me to be here with you today for the inauguration of the
photographic exhibition "African Train" designed and conceived by Hughes Fontaine.
The “African Train” exhibition has for ‘pretext’ a book of the same name by Hugues
Fontaine, now available to the Ethiopian public, as it is already in France, by means of a
partnership between Shama Books, the French Centre for Ethiopian Studies, and the
author.
This book would not have been possible without the generous support of many private
sponsors and institutions and I would like to acknowledge and thank them all here. In
addition to the support of the embassies of France in Ethiopia and in Djibouti and of the
Ethio-French Alliance cultural centers
in Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa, the project
received enthusiastic support from the EU delegation to Ethiopia, and also from the
embassy of Switzerland, from La Francophonie and from the Djibouti-Ethiopia Railway
Company. Private companies such as Marill, Logfret, Total, Vergnet, BGI and ETDE
were forthcoming with both financial and logistic support. I wish to extend thanks to all
of these partners without whom the book – and this exhibition – would not have seen
the light of day.
The exhibition you are about to discover is truly a photographic "documentary" of
exceptional quality. It is a tribute to the railway workers. It is also a work of memory. I
would like to commend Hugues Fontaine for the very moving and beautiful pictures but
equally for the meticulous historical work. This exhibition on the first Franco-Ethiopia
railway adventure, the oldest railway on the African continent, is as well a testimony of
the longstanding cooperation between France and Ethiopia.
Beyond their aesthetic and patrimonial importance, this exhibition and this book also
reveal the early French and European industrial commitment in Djibouti and Ethiopia,
and the lasting impact of the involvement of France, which actively contributed to the
development of this part of African.
We must reach beyond the nostalgia caused by the antiquated character of the sites
and materials that no longer fit today's needs, to remember that at the time, this railroad
gave Ethiopia access to both the sea and to the outside world.
This commitment of France to Ethiopia's development continues and is at the heart of
our presence in this country and in the region. It takes on new forms with the
involvement of companies as diverse and as technologically advanced as those
developing wind mills near Mekele, supplying turbines of the Renaissance Dam or
involved in the transformation of the Telecom company. The recent visit of a delegation
of some of the most advanced French industries, especially in the fields of energy,
transport and logistics, testifies to the renewed and growing interest of French
companies in accompanying the development of Ethiopia.
French institutions also support the capacity strengthening of Ethiopia and its
universities, notably in the fields of development and of technology, such as railway
engineering at Dire Dawa’s University.
Franco-Ethiopian cooperation is all the more fruitful as it can rely on the Francophonie,
an important aspect of the adventure of the railway in Ethiopia. Because the FrancoDjibouti-Ethiopie railway did not only carry passengers and goods. it also allowed for a
robust presence of the French language, in particular in Dire Dawa, where the language
is still alive amongst the railway workers. Remarkably, a few of these workers have
even retrained to become French teachers. The strength of this common language and
culture can also be felt with emotion and joy when playing boules at the railway workers’
pétanque clubs in Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa.
In this way, the past brings us back to the present, yesterday’s adventures to
tomorrow’s, and nostalgia to dreams of a shared future.
I hope you will enjoy the exhibition.
Thank you for your kind attention.