I grew up here in Addis Ababa, and at that time, I used to read everything that fell into my hands. However, within those pages, when I tried to look for something that resembled our identity, I never succeeded. All the characters I found in my reading had not grown from this soil, and the landscapes where the stories took place were not ours either. Even the questions that the books addressed had no connection at all with the reality that my country Ethiopia was experiencing at the time.

It was to fill this large gap and silence in the literary world that I started writing in my own way. In this process, I immediately understood that this desire was not mine alone and that I was not isolated on this journey. Due to the lack of any meaningful and reliable place to archive their writing, thousands of people were scattering their creative works on their phone notes, in their notebooks, and on WhatsApp discussion forums.

The forum called "Inkwell Ethiopia" was able to become a reality exactly because of this deep disappointment and frustration that we encountered. However, this forum is based on another foundation that has a much greater power than the resulting frustration, and that is a firm belief. I firmly believe that Ethiopian literature has its deserved and correct place of honour on the international stage. I understand that our visual artists, our musicians, and our filmmakers currently have competence equal to the best professionals anywhere in the world. What all these artists have lacked so far is not talent, but only an infrastructure and a home that organises their works.

This new forum will then replace that absent home. In establishing this forum, I have designed it to endure for a long time. I have created it to be a fitting shelter of honour for all the exceptional creative works that will be produced within it.

With ink and belief,
Bereket Tegegn — Founder, Inkwell Ethiopia