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Bekoji
A small town in rural Ethiopia that has produced multiple world running champions.
The full story can be read exclusively in the desktop edition.
Words and images by Renato Amoroso
Bekoji, Ethiopia, 2016
It was a Friday night when I landed with Rafa, my producer, at the airport in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. A local fixer was waiting for us, and after dropping our bags at a modest hotel, we headed out for dinner and later to a nightclub in the city.
It was the first time I had stepped into a crowded venue where Rafa and I were the only white people. The moment was deeply reflective for me. We often try to be empathetic and say we understand what Black people go through, but that night gave me the faintest, most humbling glimpse of what it means to be singled out because of skin color. Though we didn’t experience any actual prejudice, every gaze in the room seemed to find us, as if we were glowing in the dark.
It was my first time setting foot on the African continent.
It’s common to see men around town offering sewing services.
I was there to document life in a small town in the Ethiopian countryside — Bekoji — about six hours’ drive from the capital. This unlikely place had produced dozens of world champions in athletics: long-distance runners and marathoners renowned across the globe. We were there to look for connections that might explain why they had achieved such extraordinary success.
Part of the answer lay in physiology — the length of their legs. Another factor was the type of training they followed. Diet also played a role: rich in carbohydrates from the barley grown in the region. But the most decisive reason of all was disarmingly simple — running was their only chance to escape a life of deep poverty.
In developed countries, running a marathon is seen as the culmination of months — sometimes years — of gradual training, a slow build toward the big day. In Bekoji, people run the equivalent of several marathons every week, often with little more than calloused feet between them and the rough ground — in many cases, practically barefoot.
Bekoji has earned worldwide recognition as a true cradle of athletic champions. With a population of about 20,000, this modest rural town has become a sporting powerhouse — and no account of its story is complete without mentioning the legendary coach Sentayehu Eshetu, known simply as “Coach,” arguably the greatest developer of running champions in the world.
Coach grew up in the Harar region of Ethiopia but moved to Bekoji in 1970 to teach at the town’s Primary School of Physical Education. It was there he began to notice the athletic potential of the children he taught. Before long, one of them — Derartu Tulu — would make history, becoming the first African woman to win an Olympic gold medal, taking the 10,000-meter title at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Sentayehu began holding daily training sessions for the town’s youth, a tradition that continues to this day. His practices often draw as many as 200 young athletes, all hoping to follow in Derartu’s footsteps. With running emerging as one of the most lucrative sports, many Ethiopians now see athletics as a gateway to prosperity — and some even leave school to train full-time.
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