Thinking of the parents who lost their loved ones to Legesse Zenawi ordered crackdown

Freedom loving Palestinians in the past & Syrians recently bury victims of crackdown with flag draped coffins and turnout in mass to bid farewell to their fallen heroes. The world have also seen in the 1970s & 80s how black South Africans & ANC activists chant liberation songs & dance carrying the coffins of their fallen comrades to burial place. For parents or family members of the fallen, nothing would wash away the sense of loss and deep grief when their loved ones are no longer with them. However, the fact that their children or family member were given such heroic farewell and the respect they have as mother or father of a martyr is consolation to these Palestinian, South African or recently to Syrian parents.
Victims of crackdowns in Ethiopia were not privileged to have such heroic farewells & their family members have not been accorded such kind of societal status. Ethiopians may turnout for burials but would show support to parents of victims rather tacitly in some cases openly but rarely in defiant manner. The way it is in Ethiopian society it is relatively harder for Ethiopian mothers or fathers of crackdown victims. I am not talking about the hardship they face from the cadres or officials of the repressive regime who killed their loved ones. I am talking about the sorrow coming from the realization that the larger community seem to forget about their sacrifice and moved on with their life while they had to endure the sense of loss, void and the hardship that often follow of losing loved ones. Let alone the massive crackdown of the mid-to-late 1970s, Ethiopians seem to forget victims of the 2005 crackdown. What makes more heart-breaking to mothers & fathers of the 2005 crackdown is unlike freedom loving Palestinians or South Africans, Ethiopians seem to like their oppressor and turnout in big number for the burial of the man who ordered his troops to shoot on their children. What a pathetic time we live in.

Unlike my friends in the opposition, I did not wish or pray for the death our late tyrant. Expecting this kind of reaction from our society I did not want him to go while he is in his prime. I wanted to see his demise and his day in Ethiopian or international court with mothers & fathers of his crackdown victims facing him. Now he is escaping such destiny, my sadness is for the mothers & fathers of his crackdown victims who have to endure troubling scenes in the coming days. I pray one day, Ethiopians would be free from yokes of tyranny, live without fear and pay due respect to those young martyrs who were shot on the streets of Addis Ababa or other cities by covering their coffins with flags to rebury them in a ceremony which gives their parents consolation & pride. Who knows, same people who are seen mourning publicly for Legesse Zenawi would dare to show up again that time. In a time we live in, some people have no shame flipping with the wind.

Remembering Ethiopia's Poet Laureate Tsegaye Gabre Medhin on his birthday

Blogger's Note:  Ethiopia’s greatest playwright, poet, producer, art director and essayist was born on this day August 17, 1936 (Nehassie 11, 1928 E.C.) This is a reprint of his biographical sketch which I published last year in my annual publication 'Biographical storybook with calendar: 2003 E.C. edition'. Enjoy the read and listen to the voice of this great HAGERWEDAD (patriotic) Ethiopian reading selection of his new & old poems which was recorded in 2003. ABREN ZIM INBEL (3:12); ABA GEDA ILMA(10:35); PETROS YACHIN SEAT(17:25); Aesop(29:15); AWASH(43:08);AY MERKATO(55:52)

Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin 1928 – 1998 E.C.(1936-2006)

Tsegaye was born on August 17, 1936 in the highland village of Boda, near the hot springs town of Ambo, west of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. His father Gabre Medhin Roba was engaged in farming and cattle-herding, before he got recruited as a soldier in the war to fight the Fascist Italian invasion of Ethiopia. As a 13 year old, Tsegaye wrote a play called King Dionysus and the Two Brothers and saw it staged in the presence, among others, of Emperor Haile Selassie. Tsegaye later attended the prestigious General Wingate secondary school in Addis Ababa. His interest was to study drama and since there was no school for ―theatre arts‖ then, Tsegaye asked his school director to be transferred to Addis Ababa's Commercial school, where the budding playwright thought would be prepared for administrative career in theatres. Upon graduating from Commercial school in 1956, he wrote and produced couple of Amharic plays including Belg (Autumn, 1957); Yeshoh Aklil,Crown of Thorns,(1958) which were staged at the prestigious Haile Selassie I Theatre, later National Theatre. In the mean time, Tsegaye studied law and received LL.B. Degree from Blackstone School of law in Chicago.
In 1959 Tsegaye won a scholarship from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that enabled him to travel abroad for study at two famed venues, the Royal Court Theatre in London and France's Comèdie Française. On returning to Ethiopia in 1960, he devoted himself unreservedly to the development of the country's National Theatre. Prior to and during the time he was nurturing a nascent Ethiopian National Theatre, Tsegaye continued to write and produce several Amharic plays. Besides his own writings, Tsegaye adapted some of Shakespeare‘s plays including King Lear (which was banned), Othello and Macbeth; as well as Moliere‘s Tartuffe and Doctor In Spite of Himself.
Tsegaye also wrote plays and essays in English which include a prize winning essay for Fulbright Fellowship competition on What Does World Brotherhood Mean to Me, in 1959 as well as scores of short poems, some of which are reproduced in Ethiopia Observer Magazine in 1965. Among the two plays he wrote in English, Oda Oak Oracle (1965) and Collision of Altars (1977). Oda Oak Oracle was staged not only in Addis Ababa but also in Britain, Denmark, Italy, Rumania, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, the United States in 1964 and recently in 2007 at Stanford Summer Theatre, Palo Alto California.

The prodigious Poet continued his productivity unabated in the turbulent revolutionary period of the 1970‘s and churn out plays that depicted the onset of the 1974 Ethiopian Revolution. Of the five Amharic plays produced by Poet Tsegaye between 1974 and 1979, three of them — Ha Hu Besedst Wer(ABC in Six Months, Inat Alem Tenu (adapted from Bertold Brecht‘s Mother Courage) and Melekte Wez Ader (Message of the Worker)were banned.
A selection of his Amharic poems were published in 1973 under the title: Issat wey Abeba(Fire or Flower) and were widely read. Tsegaye‘s creative power continued blossoming in the 1980‘s. He produced historical plays based on the lives of Menelik (banned), and on Zeray Deres as well as Gammo, a play on the Ethiopian Revolution which was also banned. As an ardent patriot, Tsegaye was proud of Ethiopia's long history of independence, and of her unique cultural heritage. He insisted emphatically that his country needed heroes, and used the theatre deliberately to teach his compatriots to respect the Ethiopian heroes of their past. One of the most widely acclaimed of his plays, Tewodros, commemorates the life of the charismatic Ethiopian emperor of that name. The Emperor, a pioneer reformer and modernizer, committed suicide in 1868 rather than fall into the hands of a British expeditionary force which had been dispatched against him. Another of Tsegaye‘s plays, Petros Y‘achin Se‘at (Petros at the Hour), tells the story of Abuna Petros, an Ethiopian bishop, who accompanied Ethiopia's freedom-fighters in their struggle to resist the Italian fascist occupation, and who ultimately was captured and hanged by the Italian forces. Even if advancing age, health problems and the toll of the decades past were weighing on him, Tsegaye continued to write, research, travel, lecture and produce dramas for the stage in the 1990‘s. In 1993, Tsegaye‘s Play with an accent on peace titled Ha Hu Weym Pe Pu (ABC or XYZ)—to create life or to snuff out life—was banned. In 1994, a reproduction of one of his earlier plays, Petros at the hour, depicting the Ethiopian Patriarch butchered by the Italian Fascists, was banned. Of thirty-three plays Tsegaye has produced between 1951 and 1997 more than half of them (eighteen) have been banned. All in all, Tsegaye noted in one interview that thirty-six of his forty-nine literary works have been censored in whole or in part since he began his career in the 1950‘s. In 1976 he was arrested right onstage as he was directing his play on the Ethiopian Revolution, Abugida Qeyiso. He notes that all the regimes he has survived in have been equal opportunity hackers as far as his works were concerned. Tsegaye always believed in the unity of the Ethiopian people and felt that this by far transcended purely political matters of the day.
Throughout his life as a prolific poet and playwright, Tsegaye has won a variety of awards including: Emperor Haile-Selassie I International Prize for Amharic Literature in 1966; the Gold Mercury Ad Personam Award in 1982, Fulbright Senior Scholar Resident Fellowship Award at New York‘s Columbia University in 1985; Human Rights Watch Free Expression Award in New York in 1994; Honorable Poets Golden Laurel Award given by the Congress of World Poets and United Poets Laureate International in Buckinghamshire in 1997. More recently, the Norwegian Author‘s Union, together with the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Cultural Affairs conferred its coveted prize, the Annual Freedom of Expression Prize on Tsegaye.
Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, died in Manhattan on 26 February 2006, at the age of 69.
This biographical sketch was compiled from the following sources:
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsegaye_Gabre-Medhin
Negussie Ayele – Blaten Geta Tsegaye on www.ethiopians.com
Molvaer , R. (1997) Black Lions: The Creative Lives of Modern Ethiopia‘s Literary Giants and Pioneers.

Lawrenceville, NJ: Red Sea Press, 1997.

Poem inspired by Olympic Marathon victory of Tiki Gelana

Blogger's Note: This is my first attempt to write poetry in English. It was inspired by good feeling that stayed with me after waking up to live broadcast of the Women Marathon in London Olympics and seeing Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia winning the race. I don't know much about the rules of writing poems in English. This is just raw feeling flowing down. 

I started my Sunday bright
thanks to this shining light 
of Ethiopia called Tiki Gelana
I now have a heart smiling & dancing to its inner chorus
GURO WESHEBAYE 

while taking care of the usual Sunday chores
in a new homeland.
A feeling which I hope can stay
with me for the rest of the day,
and for days & weeks ahead.

It is good to be born Ethiopian,
among these sisters & brothers

whose gifts keeps on giving
especially to those of us
who woke-up on Sunday morning
to a sky in a far land
and toll hard
to make a living.
To all Olympic marathon champions
since the great Abebe Bikila,
I want to say on behalf of fellow compatriots
living in the diaspora
thank you for giving us those Sundays
and make at least some of our days
filled with pride to our Ethiopianness.

August 5, 2012 

Maryland (HAGERE MARYAM)

The Abune who baptized Bob Marley

79 years ago on this day Hamle 27, 1926E.C (Aug.3, 1933)  Laeke Mariam Mandefro who later became Abuna Yesehaq, Archbishop of Western Hemisphere Diocese of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church was born. His father Grazmach Mandefro and his mother Woizero Welete Mesqel were faithful followers of Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC). His father wanted to enroll Laike Mariam in a secular public school where he could receive modern education. His mother, concerned that her son would be considered a Catholic if he attended a modern school, insisted that he receive the traditional church education. As a result, he began his theological studies at the age of seven at the famous Abune Gerima Monastry. He was first ordained as a deacon and later received the rite of a monk, and then was or-dained a priest by the Archbishop of Mekele.

Then known as Abba Laeke Mariam, he continued his studies by enrolling at the Holy Trinity Theological College in Addis Ababa where he re-ceived his diploma. Upon graduation he was hired by Ministry of Education as a teacher and taught religion and Amharic in Gamo Goffa and Debre Zeit.
Later, Abba Laike Mariam returned to Holy Trinity Theological College, this time as Dean of Students and served for two years. In 1962, he and others were chosen for higher studies at the University of Buffalo In the United States. The scholarship money which had been allocated for the entire program at Buffalo was finished in just a few semesters because of the high cost of tuition and living expenses. Unable to get mor money, they had to discontinue their studies. But thanks to the New York-based Saint Vladimir Russian Orthodox Theological College, Abba Laike Mariam was able to study at Russian Orthodox Theology and receive B.A. in Divinity in 1966.
Upon his graduation, he was appointed as Administrator of the newly-established Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the Western Hemisphere including USA, Canada and the Caribbean Islands. In the meantime, Abba Laike Mariam enrolled at the New York Theological Seminary, while fulfilling his duty as ad-ministrator, and earned a Master‘s Degree in Religious Education in 1968.
Then he was recalled to Ethiopia and was appointed as Secretary to the Assistant Patriarch Abune Tewoflos. After two years of service in this capacity, he was reassigned to his former duty as Administrator of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the Western Hemisphere By Abune Baslios, the first Ethiopian Patri-arch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewhado Church.

When Emperor Haile Selassie visited Jamaica in 1968, he was given an arousing welcome because of the symbolic significance of Ethiopia to the black diaspora and was also thronged by Rastafarians who considered him as the modern-day Messiah. Haile Selassie denied that he was a deity. After the trip, the emperor instructed church officials including Abba Laeke Mariam to bring Rastafarians to the fold of the church.

In 1970 Abba Laeke Mariam began to minister specifically to the Rastafarian community. At the time there were tensions between the Rastafarians and the
larger Jamaican population that made his work very difficult. In 1979 he was recalled again to Ethiopia. Upon his arrival, he was ordained a bishop by the Pa-triarch Abune Teklehaimanot and was named Abune Yishaq. He was then appointed Archbish-op of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church in the Western Hemisphere, a position he held until the time of his death.
Abune Yesehaq built lasting bridges and a wide network not only within his own Church Community, but also among various religions across the world. Through his wise leadership, Ethio-pian Orthodox churches have spread to a number of countries in the Western Hemisphere in-cluding United States, Canada, and many Caribbean nations, notably Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Under his leadership, churches have also been built in Guyana, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Today the number of parish churches in the Western Hemisphere has reached over seventy.
Abune Yesehaq, who understood the need for well-educated clergy in large numbers, provided adequate training in English, Geez and Amharic, and ordained at least 200 of the new converts as deacons and priests. These deacons and priests are now successfully serving throughout the Archdiocese. In addition to providing religious education, he also organized programs for the new converts to learn about Ethiopian history, culture and language. He wrote ‗The Ethiopian Tewahedo Church an Integrally African Church‖ and several other books on church matters.
Abune Yesehaq proudly claimed that he had baptized around forty-five thousand non Ethiopi-ans into the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Faithout of which 35,000 are in the Western world and around 10000 in South Africa. Among those baptized by Abune Yesehaq is the world fa-mous Jamaican born Regae star Bob Marley alongside his wife and their children. Marley was given the baptism name of Berhane Selassie (Light of Trinity). Abune Yesehaq also performed Tselote Fithat (rite of funeral) upon Bob Marley‘s death.
Abune Yesehaq fell sick for a short while and died peacefully at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey on Thursday, 29 December 2005. Elaborate funeral mass and memorial services for Abune Yesehaq were held in New York, Washington, DC, Dallas and finally in Kingston, Jamai-ca where he was buried in the presence of high level church and government officials. On the occasion, Dr. Peter Phillips, Member of Parliament and National Security Minister of Jamaica remarked: "It is a tribute to his love for us...his love for the people of Jamaica and the people of the western hemisphere, but it is a special tribute that he does for us when he wished that out of all the countries in the western hemisphere which he served, he wished for his remains to be here in Jamaica,"
Sources—This biographical sketch is compiled from:
http://www.stmichaeleoc.org/HG_Abune_Yesehaq.htm
http://wn.com/Interview_with_Abuna_Yesehaq
Past Interview with Abune Yesehaq in Amharic. In publication prepared for the Annual Celebration of Beata Le- Mariam. De-bre Sahel Baeta Le-Mariam Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, 2008.