Ethiopians are going wild for Abiy Ahmed,Some fear the new prime minister is the subject of a personality cult

SEMAHEGN GESHAYE has peddled books near the national theatre in Addis Ababa for eight years. But business has rarely been this brisk. “Anything that’s about Abiy Ahmed is popular,” he says. A flurry of titles about Ethiopia’s new prime minister has hit the shelves since he took office in April. One best-seller, called “Moses”, compares Mr Abiy to the prophet. Another professes to be an insider account of his meteoric rise. The two most popular were written under a pseudonym by the prime minister himself. The last copies of “The Stirrup and the Throne”, his meditation on leadership, sold out in the capital weeks ago. “We badly need that book,” grumbles a bookshop owner. “People are always bothering us for it.”

More than 90% of those surveyed by WAAS International, a local research firm, have a favourable view of Mr Abiy, who has released thousands of political prisoners and apologised for police brutality. But a visitor to the capital could be forgiven for thinking the number is even higher. Songs with titles like “He Awakens Us” ring out on the airwaves. Street boys hawk stickers, posters and T-shirts featuring Mr Abiy.
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