Brutalism in Ethiopia

Ethiopia, never colonized, commissioned its modern architecture on its own terms, and Addis Ababa grew into a showcase of 1960s modernism under Haile Selassie, with international and local architects building banks, ministries and cultural institutions in concrete. The National Museum of Ethiopia (1980), home of the Lucy fossil, belongs to this civic building tradition. The capital's modernist heritage, from that era through the Derg period, is increasingly recognized as one of Africa's most interesting concentrations of twentieth century architecture.