Introduction: Stunting has long been regarded as one of the most important indicators of malnutrition, serving as a proxy for not just chronic nutritional deficiency but also long-term socioeconomic disadvantage among children and society as a whole. In 2016, stunting alone afflicted an estimated 154.8 million (22.9%) children under the age of five over the world. It is one of Ethiopia’s most serious undernutrition and health problems among school-aged children. Objective: To determine the prevalence and associated factors of stunting among school-aged children in Addis Ababa city, Ethiopia 2021. Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among primary school students in Addis Ababa city. By using a single population proportion, a formula of 627 students was recruited. From 11 sub-cities, 4 sub-cities were selected by lottery method, and 21 (30%) of the schools from the sub-city were selected. Finally, from each school, study participants were selected by using systematic random sampling, using their attendance list as a frame. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data, and anthropometric measurements were taken. In order to see the association between the dependent (stunting) and independent variables, bi-variable and multi-variable logistic regression were used. During bi-variable analysis, variables that had p-values of less than 0.2 were entered into multivariable analysis to see the effect of confounding factors. Adjusted Odds Ratios with 95% confidence intervals and a P-value of less than 0.05 were used to see the level of significance. Result: The prevalence of stunting was 108/607 (18.0%) with a 95% CI of 14.5–20.9). Being a male child (AOR = 0.616, 95% CI, 0.34–0.96), type of water source (AOR = 3.4, 95% CI, 1.12–10.37), not feeding breast milk (AOR = 3.411, 95% CI, 1.09–10.07), educational status, and ability to read and write (AOR = 2.11, 95% CI, 1.15–3.88) were predictors of stunting. Conclusion: The study showed that the prevalence of stunting was high, and it explored that stunting remains a noticeable attribute of urban school-age children. The higher educational status of the mother, exclusive breast feeding, using ground water, and being a female child were negatively associated with the prevalence of stunting. The risk of stunting was higher among male than female school-aged children. Findings from the study suggest the need to strengthen the strategies that lead to Sustainable Development Goal 4 to ensure all girls and boys complete primary and secondary schooling by 2030.

Dance practices in Ethiopia remained vibrant, albeit transformed, as thecountry transitioned from feudalism to socialism (1974), and then to neoliberalcapitalism (1991). For centuries, a vast array of movement traditions has beenessential to religious and communal rituals in Ethiopia. Today, traditionalEthiopian dance is most visible in tourist restaurants or YouTube videos. Thetrajectory of dance from ritualised practices to commercialised performancespresents a seeming paradox: traditional Ethiopian dance as we know it today is,in fact, a modernised performance genre serving multiple functions: memorytransmission, ideological dissemination, and profit generation, among others.In the 1980s, the socialist state harvested dances from around the country toproduce “modernised” performances on the stages of government theatres,propagating the ideology of national unity amidst border wars and internaloppression. In the 1990s, as Ethiopia opened to the West, these dances continuedto be performed on restaurant stages, not so much to propagandise for thestate as to generate profit for the industry. The modernisation of traditionaldance continues in Ethiopia, under the auspices of neoliberal privatisation,which has also led to the westernisation of youth culture. Since the late 1990s,a group of young Ethiopians have devoted themselves to contemporarydance by adopting Western aesthetics and distinguishing their practice fromtraditional dance. Recently, they have grappled with the imperative to infuseEthiopian dance traditions in their work in order to be recognised in the globaldance field. Through dance ethnography, oral histories, and video archives,this paper illuminates both traditionality and contemporariness as historicalconstructs – categories of differential powers used to organise the currentdance field in Ethiopia. Keywords: Ethiopian dance, contemporary dance, traditional dance, multiple modernities, decolonizing dance

This paper offers a decolonial reading of Filega, an annual grassroots street performance organized by Ethiopian dance artist Melaku Belay in the context of an Orthodox Christian religious festival Timket. Our contextualized reading illuminates Ethiopian artists’ capacity to create beauty, joy and community; they do so by disrupting the dichotomies between discipline and freedom, the sacred and the profane. Filega’s decolonial significance also lies in its potential to transform public spaces and collective memories in service of community. In constructing this paper, we seek to decolonize our writing practice by unsettling the theory/practice dichotomy, and by experimenting with modes of co-authorship. Along with Filega participants and witnesses, we search for decolonized understandings of self, community, and discipline.

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