My Complicated Feelings Toward Traditional Ethiopian Wear
Habesha kemis is a part of my culture, but my identity should reflect all of my diasporic self
Whenever I have any special event, I normally consult my personal fashion police, the Ethiopian diaspora women in my life, about what to wear. But this time, anticipating the formal and informal events that I will attend to promote my debut novel, Daughters of Silence, I don’t consult with them just yet. My dilemma is a lot more specific.
As an immigrant Ethiopian author who’s written a novel set primarily in Ethiopia and featuring an Ethiopian family, I’m actually trying to shake off the feeling that I should wear one specific dress to an author event: habesha kemis. It’s a loose, white cotton dress with colorful embroidery and cross motifs around the neckline, hem, wrists, and down the front. Over the years, I’ve seen enough diaspora Ethiopian and Eritrean women authors wearing this dress to major events — even Tiffany Haddish wore one to the Oscars most recently and visibly — that I feel I should also represent.
Should — the bane of many a hyphenated person’s existence when it comes to negotiating their relationship to their origin culture. Although I have become better at resisting the “should” over 27 years living in Europe and North…
