I examine Ethiopian immigration into the United States to discuss issues of assimilation between Ethiopian and Western culture, and how my own identity is formed in the process. My interest in the Ethiopian community stems from an estranged relationship with my father, who emigrated from Ethiopia to the Midwest. By interacting with this community I have begun to relate the experience of people that I have met, to the experience my own father went through. I am experiencing different customs that I never did growing up.

However, my own vision of this process is obscured, as I have never been to Ethiopia and everything that I have learned has been through outside interpretation. By attempting to learn about Ethiopia from the United States I have distanced myself from the ‘source’ of the culture. This however is what I am interested in, for the fact that so many things today are globalized; I wish to question the validity of what this different way of learning can actually offer.

The photographs speak about an experience derived from a specific group people, specific cultural objects, and how the experience and understanding changes within a different environment. Traditions experience change, the daily coffee ceremony in Ethiopian households is not as frequently practiced in the United States, but the ceremonial object remains to serve as a reminder of a past culture. I mean to explore these differences between the cultures, how certain ideas and customs are kept, but others are not. Exploring these aspects speaks to greater ideas about a global sense of cultural blending.