Can Ethiopia’s ‘secret smokers’ stub out their cigarettes?

A lone dancer weaves arabesque shapes with the red tip of his cigarette to the rhythm of loud Amharic music in a dark closeted bar in Ethiopia’s capital – oblivious to a recent ban on smoking in public places.
The night-time corners of Addis Ababa have long allowed revellers in a deeply conservative society to embrace activities that might otherwise be frowned upon – including smoking cigarettes.
Cigarettes remain deeply divisive in Ethiopian culture and Addis Ababa smokers well into their 20s will not tell disapproving parents of their habit.
“It is the health implications, money, everything – they worry you will get addicted,” says 23-year-old Haile, who like other smokers interviewed did not want to give his second name.
Smoking at home is not an option – so Haile and his contemporaries tend to turn to the dive bars in the old city’s Piazza, the dark alleys off the main thoroughfare of Bole Road and the red-light district of Chechnya to light up.Read more