A recent 'The Conversation' article by a foreign scholar lauds Ethiopia’s new dam and National Dialogue as signs of national unity. Yet beneath its polished tone lies a troubling detachment from Ethiopia’s lived realities. When foreign scholars echo autocratic narratives, they lend legitimacy to repression. Academic distance must not become moral distance — especially in a land scarred by stormy landscapes and rifted terrains of conflict, exclusion, and historical injustice.