An old Ethiopian adage says that if you put many spiderwebs together, they could tie up a lion. It is, in the beginning and the end, a matter of unity. The latter can be considered part of the essence of Ethiopian filmmaker Sewmehon Yismaw’s work. In this brief essay, we adopt a business storytelling perspective to explore how Yismaw’s work has built a path of cultural brand building that was born in traditional storytelling in the heart of Africa.

Born in the ancient city of Gonder in Ethiopia, Yismaw started out as a photographer and went on to become a renowned film director in his home country. Films such as Ewir Amora Kelabi (2016) and Adey (2022) reflect his background in traditional storytelling. They are based on circular plots and use silence to present realities of Ethiopian families. Instead of focusing on landscapes and costumes, the films are more about values and everyday situations of “normal” people (How do they talk? Why is silence so important? What is the meaning of gestures?).

Sewmehon Yismaw sits in a chair behind a camera. He’s holding a binder of papers in his hands that sit on his knee and laughing.
Figure 7.1:

Sewmehon Yismaw on the set of “Fiker Eske Mekabir”

Source: Sewmehon Yismaw, personal archive.

The fame he has gathered has turned him into a brand or, perhaps better, a branded storyteller that uses the power of film to explore culture while driving change. It is common to hear that he doesn’t simply tell stories but instead reminds viewers of who they are and even could be. This takes us back to Bruner,1 who saw narrative as a reflection of thought well beyond logic. Narratives would appear as sensemaking devices that help us understand the world, something akin to what psychologists call “schemata.” The sensemaking process becomes stronger when narratives have authenticity—that is, that they appear plausible and true to those exposed to them. For Yismaw, preserving Ethiopian language is also paramount in this context. In a way, it is a form of cultural archiving where not only language but also silence appears as an important part of daily interaction.

Sewmehon Yismaw sits in a field behind a camera setup. He holds what appears to be a long stick between his eyes. Behind him stand three children—a boy who appears to be in his early teens and two girls who appear younger. Two more children are directly behind Yismaw and are harder to see. Two smaller children play on the ground in front of him.
Figure 7.2:

Sewmehon Yismaw on the set of Fiker Eske Mekabir.

Source: Sewmehon Yismaw, personal archive.

When looking into his work from the strategic perspective of storytelling advanced by Denning,2 stories—in this case, film—are a catalyst of change. He refers to his “springboard story” as a powerful short narrative that helps us imagine change. The idea is that this is eventually followed by action. Sawmehon´s films often uses this idea. A production like Love Unto Grave (Fiker Eske Mekaber), inspired by the 1968 novel with the same name, is an example of this. It is not only about drama but also about generational conflict, modernity, and a necessary conversation on social change.

Denning also argues that leaders can use storytelling to build an integrated organizational identity.3 Sawmehon has become a type of growing cultural leader who is using film to build new identities and shape the creative industries of his country. He uses his cultural knowledge as a strategic resource to build a brand anchored around a national identity.

The work of Yismaw brings together Bruner’s view of the world through a narrative lens with the strategic approach of Denning toward action.4 It does so by capturing cultural meaning through film as it inevitably builds identity through the projection of real-life stories. In them, silence in conversations is a fundamental part of human interaction, one that paradoxically can even bring people closer together than words.

Notes

  1. Jerome Bruner, “The Narrative Construction of Reality” Critical Inquiry 18, no. 1 (Autumn 1991): 1–21, https://doi.org/10.1086/448619. ⮭
  2. Stephen Denning, The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative (Jossey-Bass, 2011). ⮭
  3. Denning, The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling. ⮭
  4. Bruner, “The Narrative Construction of Reality”; Denning. ⮭

Emebet A. Worku was born in Adama, Ethiopia. She holds a degree in architecture and urban planning from Ethiopia, complemented by an MBA from Germany. She has contributed to the construction of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, a landmark project that was the country’s first high rise and the third-tallest building in East Africa at the time.

Erick Behar-Villegas is dean of business at Whitecliffe University of Applied Sciences Berlin in Germany and professor of behavioral economics at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. He is an entrepreneur in the food business and a fiction writer. https://www.erickbehar.com.