https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909620926536 Journal of Asian and African Studies 1–25 © The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0021909620926536 journals.sagepub.com/home/jas J A A S Street and Property Identification and the Challenge of Urban Management in Mekelle City, Ethiopia Ambe J Njoh University of South Florida, USA Samrawit H Fisseha Adisu Goa Dawit Gebremichael Mekelle University, Ethiopia Abstract The study employs in-situ primary data supplemented with secondary information from conventional archival sources to examine the toponymic experience of Ethiopia, one of only two African countries without a colonial history. The focus is on Mekelle, the country’s third largest city. The city’s spatial structure is nondescript. The streets are identified with a string of numbers, which are placed at irregular intervals. Most landmarks are unnamed whereas buildings are unnumbered. This paper shows that the absence of a precise and unambiguous street, place and property identification system in the city stifles its performance in the urban management, economic, and social milieus. Keywords Addressing systems, house and property numbering, Mekelle in Ethiopia, street identification systems, toponymic inscription, urban management Introduction Urban management is one of the most urgent challenges facing municipal authorities in Africa today. This challenge is rendered more intractable by the absence of precise and unambiguous street and property identification systems (Bigon and Njoh, 2015; Njoh, 2017; Wanjiru and Matsubara, 2017). Yet, the need for such systems is heightened today, more than ever before. The reason for this is apparent; there is an increased dependence on navigation-facilitating, land, and natural resource data storage and processing devices whose functioning requires carefully designed Corresponding author: Ambe J Njoh, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Ave, NES 107, Tampa, FL 33620, USA. Email: njoh@usf.edu 926536JAS 0 0 10.1177/0021909620926536Journal of Asian and African StudiesNjoh et al. research-article 2020 Original Article