mobanmarketAddis Ababa: When Robel Wolde bought a beat-up 1967 Volkswagen Beetle from a friend for 50,000 Ethiopian birr (about 1,540 euros, $1,700), it marked the start of an extensive restoration he’d plotted for years.
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The 25-year-old Ethiopian painter quickly went to work.
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He installed new grey leather seats, applied black stripes and decals along the orange-and-blue exterior and hired a metalworker to fit oversized headlights to the front bumper.
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Two months and an additional $1,000 later, Robel’s vision was complete.
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And with that, he joined the growing number of young Ethiopian drivers giving the Beetle – which has long occupied a hallowed position in the nation’s car culture – a 21st-century upgrade.
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Some of this restoration work is inspired by shows like the old MTV hit “Pimp My Ride” – “pimped out”, American slang for customised vehicles, has been adopted in Addis Ababa.
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But love for the Beetle in Ethiopia goes back decades, and is rooted in both economics and nostalgia.
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Volkswagen is hoping to capitalise on this goodwill. In January, it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ethiopian government to set up a domestic auto industry, including an assembly plant.
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Regardless of what comes of this project, Robel says the Beetle’s popularity will endure.
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“Most of the time, Beetles are driven by old people,” he said, leaning on the bonnet of his car near one of Addis’ busier roundabouts.
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“But when they are custom and pimped like this, they are a fashion statement for young people.”
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The ‘car for everyone’
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Initially developed in Nazi Germany as an instrument of propaganda, the origins of the Volkswagen Beetle “people’s car” date back to 1938.
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Beetles became a common sight in Addis Ababa under former emperor Haile Selassie, who ruled for more than four decades beginning in 1930.
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In 1974, when the communist Derg regime removed him from power, Haile Selassie was famously forced to duck into a Beetle before being escorted away from his palace.
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Decades later, Beetles remain ubiquitous, in part because exorbitant taxes make buying new cars impossible for many.
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Yet it’s clear that the cars also have sentimental value.
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When the Ethiopian-American novelist Maaza Mengiste sees one, she says she is reminded of the pale blue Beetle her grandfather drove – the same car that took her to the airport when she left the country as a young girl not long after the Derg came to power.
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“I associate that car with Ethiopia, with growing up there and all the happy memories I have,” she told AFP.
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Last year, Mengiste started posting pictures of Beetles on Twitter, using the hashtag #BeetleEthiopia.
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Ever since, Ethiopians from a range of backgrounds have been posting photos of their own, sometimes offering equally personal memories.
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“There was something about a Volkswagen that cut through social lines,” Mengiste said.
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“It was a car for everyone. You could be looking for some form of stability, and you would manage to buy a Volkswagen and that was your step into an upwardly mobile but not extravagant social class.”
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‘I pimp all of it’
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Like Mengiste, Kaleb Teshome, a 29-year-old mechanic, has been riding in Beetles all his life.
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For decades, his family has owned a garage that specialises in fixing up the cars.
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Now Kaleb works alongside his father at the garage, where more than a dozen Beetles compete for space on a tiny dirt lot, with others lining the nearby road.
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Many of the Beetles have been brought in for standard tune-ups.
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But every few months, Kaleb is asked to do the kind of custom work worthy of “Pimp My Ride,” a show he still watches online even though it was cancelled more than a decade ago.
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“I’ve known the cars since my childhood. I know what they need,” he said.
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“It could be paint work. It could be big tyres. It could be a sound system. I pimp all of it.”
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One recent morning, he showed AFP his own “pimped-out” Beetle, a shiny green-and-black 1972 model with massive tyres that would look more at home on a truck.
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“When I drive it on the street,” he said, “even people who drive luxurious cars say ‘Wow.'”
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‘Part of history’
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Whether “pimped-out” or not, the Beetles of Addis Ababa seem destined to become collectors’ items.
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In July, Volkswagen marked the end of the Beetle’s around eight-decade run by launching a limited, 65-unit “Beetle Final Edition” at its factory in Puebla, Mexico.
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For Robel, the painter, the news was further validation of the investment he’d made in his own car.
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“If production of the Beetles has stopped, that means we have a treasure,” he said.
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“They will become part of history. That is their fate, so I think I am lucky. Even if I get a really good offer, I don’t think I will sell.”
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