Log in to hire mara

mara klein

Photographer
   
Homegame
Location: Berlin, Germany
Nationality: German
Biography: I am an artist, teacher and community-builder, born and based in Berlin. My work revolves around questions of migration, place-making and belonging. The more I explore, the more I value the power of bringing things together. People, disciplines,... MORE
Editors Only Story
Homegame
Copyright mara klein 2024
Date of Work Apr 2018 - May 2019
Updated Oct 2019
Location Berlin
Topics sport; football; world cup; ethiopia; eritrea


For 20 years, Ethiopia and Eritrea stood in a bloody conflict that erupted around the border town of Badme in 1998. Around 100,000 people were killed, and numerous Ethiopians and Eritreans fled their countries. In the two decades of conflict, Eritrea’s society has shrivelled into a poverty-stricken dictatorship, becoming one of the twelve countries with the lowest possible rating for both political rights and civil liberties. The majority of “able-bodied” adult Eritreans are on “indefinite, compulsory” active national service that will oftentimes extend over decades, amounting to what the UN refers to as mass enslavement. Thus, in a country of 4.5 million people, as many as five thousand people flee Eritrea every month, many of them to Europe.


 
A few of these young Eritreans arrived in Berlin, where they joined the football team Ze Berlin. The team was founded explicitly to accommodate both Ethiopian and Eritrean players who, despite the longstanding conflict between their home countries, train together three times a week. 


 In August 2018, Ze Berlin took part in the Ethiopian Sports and Culture Federation in Europe Football Cup in Stuttgart. Taking place for 17 years in different European cities, it is considered the most important sports and cultural event for Ethiopian and Eritrean communities in Europe. On the five days of the cup, 33 teams from Europe, Ethiopia and the US competed and celebrated, joined by an international audience of 10,000 people. Ze Berlin was one of the exceptional teams where Ethiopians and Eritreans played side by side. In this way, they exemplify the new era of freedom and cooperation between Ethiopia and Eritrea that was declared by the two nations' heads of government on 9 July 2018. Thus far, it has remained a tantalising promise of peace whose implications are yet to be played out.

LinkedIn Icon Facebook Icon Twitter Icon
8,571

Also by mara klein —

Story [Editor Exclusive]

An Instant Iran

mara klein / teheran
Story [Editor Exclusive]

The Cycle Diaries

mara klein
Story [Editor Exclusive]

Fluchtpunkt

Mara Klein
Story [Editor Exclusive]

The Butcher's Wife

Mara Klein / Berlin
Homegame by mara klein
Sign-up for
For more access