Former Ethiopian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to UN, Geneva 1977-83 and Ambassador to Federal Republic of Germany 1983- 89 and Minister of Education 1974-1975 and Minister of Labor and Social Affairs from 1975-77 talks about his life, career, politics and diplomacy, accounts of several individuals who worked in the diplomatic arena.
Date and place of the interview: 11th July 2016, Hill Bottom, Ayat, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Language used: Amharic
May we start by introducing yourself?
My father Terefe Tiruneh hailed from Gojam. My mother Laketch Goshu was from Bulga. I was born in Addis Ababa in 1929. As you know, the Italian war broke out in 1936. I was about seven years old at the time. The occupation lasted until 1941. During those years, I was assisting my father in his trade of threads, warp and woofs, direna mag. My father was jailed for eight days and suffered hardship and suffering. I attended a church school for a while. After the departure of the Italians, I enrolled at the Akaki Mission School, one of the first European style school at the time. Then I joined Kotebe Kedamwi Haile Selassie Secondary school, which was located on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. I studied there from 1945-48.
Were you among the first group of students at Kotebe?
No, there was another batch before us. For example, Girmame Niway (An intellectual with a master degree in political science from Columbia University who had role in the attempted coup of 1960) was our senior.
Who were some your school mates at Kotebe?
Minasse Haile, Ketema Yifru, Ayele Moltotatal, Mengistu Lemma, Yakob Wolde Mariam, Afewerk Tekele, and there were many others. Many of them became distinguished citizens.
Were you all males? How many were you?
Yes, it was an all men’s school. I don’t recall how many we were. But I think not more than 150. It was boarding school. Later the Swedish came and they brought medical personnel. Dormitories were built, named after provinces, for example Wellega dormitory, Illubabor Dormitory. The biggest position at that time was to be prefect, to keep order. I was never elected for the position.
They say Mengistu Lemma used to read poems and preach religious sermons for his classmates?
Yes. It was true. Protestant education came with the Ferenjes. There was competition between Mengistu Lemma (son of an orthodox clergy) and the missionaries. Mengistu preached on Sundays and his fervent sermons was inspired in competition with the protestant education. There was many intrigues. But anyway, we were going only in weekends. On weekdays, we kept ourselves busy with our studies.
After finishing high school, you went abroad to study?
Yes. I was among the first batch of students sent to the US.

(Among the first batch of students sent to the US. Taye Haile, Teffara Degfe, Tadesse Terefe, Minasie Haile, Hailemariam Kebede, and Yohannes Mekonen)
In 1945 when we went to the US for further education, we were all at sea. The person who helped us to get school for each of us was David Talbot, who was later to become a pioneer newspaper man and editor of the Ethiopian Herald. I was assigned to a small school called Iowa Wesley College in Mt. Pleasant, close to Chicago. We went all the way from Ethiopia by air. We travelled Via Cairo, Tunis, Algiers, New York and Chicago. We visited the pyramids in Cairo on the back of camels. (laughing). We were in the local newspaper of the town.

(An Article entitled “Youth From Ethiopia IS IWC student” Iowa’s Illinois Notes newspaper, the photo showing the camel expedition of Tadesse and his friends over an Egyptian desert.)
Later we were able to establish Association of Ethiopian students in North America, bringing together students of several universities in the continent. I served as the secretary general of the Society for some time. The Society had forty members in the States and nineteen students in Canada. We had organized lectures, tours, relaxing sports, and rousing discussions. I did not stay long in the position. Ato Teffara Degfe, who was then in Vancouver Canada, was in charge of the Society for a number of years.
Every months the Ministry of Education used to send a stipend for students studying in the United States to enable us cover our expenses. It was channelled through our respective advisers. My advisor was surprised that I was not coming to collect the money. One day, he urged me to come and collect it. I told him that I was there to learn and I didn’t have much need of the money. Wide-eyed, he wondered if I was not interested to go to the cinema, I told him I wasn’t. How about money to have your hair cut? He asked. That I had to admit and I took the money.
But I was soon to learn that the simple act of going to the barber’s shop was way more complicated than I initially thought. I went for a barber, little knowing that it catered only for whites. All of them closed the door on me, except one barber of mixed race who agreed on condition that I would visit him on Sunday afternoon through the back door of the shop. The barber duly started cutting, but, removing the hair in a circle at the very top of my head, cut the surrounding hair in the normal fashion. It was so ridiculously cut that I was scared of seeing people. And then an African-American friend brought me to another barber to redo the bad cut.
Anyway, I studied for three years and half. I majored in mathematics.
Then?
Then I headed to University of Chicago. One of my souvenirs there was my meeting with Donald Levine. In fact, it was us who brought him to Ethiopia. We introduced him to a grand old man (whose name I forgot) told them that this person wanted to study Amharic and he said he would send him to Menz. Indeed, Levine left for Menz. It was a rainy season. While there, he caught all sorts of diseases. He was stranded for a number of days on his way back to Addis because of the rain overflow. Yet he started speaking Amharic fluently. We remained close friends until his death. (Donald Levine later authored two seminal books on Ethiopia, The Greater Ethiopia and Wax and Gold. Greater Ethiopia was translated into Amharic by Million Neqniq, the then Director-General of Ministry of Education and Tadesse’s boss at the Ministry.)
A few years later I did my MA in University of Pittsburg on educational planning. In 1964 I went to Washington DC to work in World Bank’s education department. I worked there for four years. The World Bank post helped me to understand the outside world better. I travelled to Jordan and Iraq. There, I helped them in making small contribution such as establishing teacher’s training institute.
There were some other Ethiopians working there, right?
Not at the start. But later Bulcha Demekisa and Dr. Aklilu Habte came to join us. The Eritrean Bereket Habte Selassie also worked as a legal consultant.
You had come back to Addis Ababa to take a new duties?
While I was in Washington DC, I was persuaded by Lij Endalkachew Mekonnen to return to Ethiopia to serve in his new his cabinet. I was appointed as Minister for Education. (The short-lived administration of Endalkachew Makonnen promised to embark on a large scale land and education reform proposal, after replacing of Prime Minister Aklillu Habtewold.)
While in my bureau at Arat Kilo, I glanced out of my window and I saw a student of the Arat Kilo campus running after another student and eventually shooting and killing him. I had a shock of my life and I called Michael Imru (Endalkachew was dismissed in the third week of July 1974 and Michael Imru replaced him as Prime Minister.) and I told him that I had given up my post at World Bank to serve my country but not to see killings. He told me be to be careful of what I said because the soldiers wouldn’t pardon me if they heard. But if I wanted he could give me another position that might be fulfilling to me.
(Tadesse attending Geneva international conference on education in the early 70’s.)
Then, after four months stay at the Ministry of education, I was transferred to the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and I served there as Minister from 1975-77. However, verbal barrages were launched at the seven of us who had allegedly link with the imperial government, even though these were decent and principled ministers. A militant cadre wrote on the Amharic daily calling for «punitive measures” against us like it was taken against the 60 higher officials of the imperial government.
(To be continued)

(Middle East Monitor)-A Saudi military base is set to open in Djibouti “very soon” according to an announcement by Djibouti’s Foreign Minister yesterday.
“I took Saudi military leaders to some of Djibouti areas for Saudi Arabia’s military bases,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Mahamoud Ali Youssouf told Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.
He explained that “the security, military and strategic draft of the accord is ready and the coastal areas that could host the base, be it military or naval, have been identified after Saudi military officers and officials explored some of the Djibouti areas.”
The deal was initially discussed in March, yet has shown no signs of materialising.
Youssouf stressed that “there are no hesitations on the deal and the delay is purely technical as such matters do take some time, and there are no political reasons behind it.”
On Iran, Youssouf insisted that Djibouti has cut all ties with the Islamic Republic ever since it undermined the “legitimate government of Yemen” and after it supported the Houthi’s cross border attacks onto Saudi soil.
Both Djibouti and Saudi Arabia have a vested interest in securing the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa. Recent reports have shown that Iran has been smuggling weapons to the Houthi rebels from Somalia via the waterways surrounding Yemen and the Horn of Africa.

The U.S. Department of State renewed its Travel Warning to Ethiopia, showing little improvement in the country’s security situation since the previous warning three months ago.
The new warning, which was issued Tuesday and replaces one from October 21, 2016.
The State Department “continues to warn U.S. citizens of the risks of travel to Ethiopia due to the potential for civil unrest related to sporadic and unpredictable anti-government protests that began in November 2015,” the statement reads.
The Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency on Oct. 8 and issued a decree on Oct. 15 that permitted the arrest of individuals without court order for some routine activities like attending gatherings and engaging with foreign organizations, the State Department said.
This would spell disappointing news for Ethiopia’s tourism industry as the country already lost millions of dollars in tourism revenue this year.The Ethiopian government had blamed this on travel advice from several western governments. When Germany announced last month it had lifted a travel warning, Ethiopian authorities were hoping that the US, the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Israel and France would follow suit.

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has selected Zadig Abraha, the director of Ethiopian Justice & Legal System Research Institute (JLSRI) and a Tigray People’s Liberation Front Member, to run the government communication affairs office as deputy minister, a month after he was made to resign his JLSRI post to give way to the dismissed minister of the communication affairs, Getachew Reda.
Zadig would work under a man without a previous political career, Negeri Lencho, a former journalism lecturer and member of the ruling coalition’s Oromo party, the OPDO, signalling that the Tigrayan Zadig would probably wield more influence than his boss. A deputy general director of the renaissance hydropower project coordination office since 2012, Zadig had been chosen by the former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to pull off his major project. No sooner had his tenure came to an end, Meles’s successor found another project for him: managing the JLSRI, that conducts studies and research to toughen the justice and legal system of the country. In an interview with Addis Fortune, Zadig had expressed his admiration for the former Prime Minister. “Meles inspires me, and his folks. You know, when he was 17 he quit his medical education and went to the bushes to liberate the people. He made a contribution to the cause for 17 years, and then came here and made a contribution to the making of the nation, dying in the service of the cause. His consistency, determination, non-stop courage really inspires me. I wonder and I ask myself if I can do that; if I can continue to do what he and his senior colleagues did nonstop for more than three decades,” he was quoted as saying.

Saudi plans to open a military base in the tiny Rea Sea state of Djibouti have raised concerns among Egyptian officials, as strained relations between Cairo and Riyadh show little sign of improving.
The base, which will reportedly be built “very soon”, would threaten national security, and the Egyptian government is “deeply suspicious”, according to a diplomatic source.
Djibouti is strategically located in the Horn of Africa across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, where the Saudis have been waging war against Houthi rebels. A recent UK report suggested that Iran has been smuggling weapons to the rebels via the waterways surrounding Yemen. Read the rest at the New Arab.

Tesfaye Dinka, a former foreign minister and prime minster of Ethiopia for a short period and considered among the top figures in Mengistu Hailemarim’s Marxist-Leninist ruling hierarchy died on Monday at his home in Fairfax, Virginia. He was 77. He was foreign minister from 1989 to 1991, and was appointed prime minister by the country’s longtime authoritarian ruler on April 26, 1991. He retained office until the government collapsed and surrendered to rebel leaders on May 27, 1991. He then began a life of exile in London and finally settling in the United States.
After Mengistu had seen Soviet bloc military support dry up, it was Tesfaye Dinka, who had developed a good relationship with officials in the Bush Administration, who was sent an envoy to show good cooperation and good will to the United States. When US sought a Security Council Resolution that would authorize the use of force against Iraq in 1990, the foreign minister Tesfaye enthusutically supported and voted for the resolution. Herman J. Cohen, the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and Tesfaye Dinka started to grow close. As Cohen later wrote in his book, “Intervening in Africa: Superpower Peacemaking in a Troubled Continent”, Tesfaye was accompanied by his UN permanent representative Tesfaye Tadesse. Dinka pledged full Ethiopian support. He told James A. Baker (the US Secretary of States) that Tadesse was an expert on international law and would help draft the resolution.”
Tesfaye Dinka was later instrumental in advising Mengistu to negotiate with the insurgencies in Eritrea and Tigray, enlisting US’s help. In the last days of Mengistu’s rule, he was the head of the regime’s negotiation team in the US-hosted London conference convened on 27 May 1991, which was intended to formalize a cease-fire with the two major anti-government insurgencies. However, Mengistu already fled to Zimbabwe on 21 May, after which the regime started rapidly disintegrating and the conference principal function became to arrange the handover of power to the Eritrean Liberation Front and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Prime Minister Tesfaye and his delegation walked out of the meeting and he accused the US of duplicity.
Tesfaye was born on 1939, to a peasant family in the town of Ambo. He did his elementary education in Ambo and attended a General Wingate Secondary School in Addis Ababa. He joined the American University of Beirut and graduated with a degree before taking a second degree in industrial engineering from Syracuse University in New York.
During the early years of the Derg period, Tesfaye served in various ministerial posts, as Acting Minister of National Resources Development, Minister of Industry, Finance, and Foreign Affairs; he also served as Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Foreign Affairs. He was alternate member of the Politburo of the Workers Party of Ethiopia.
During his exile years in the US, he worked for the World Bank and other agencies. He was senior advisor to the Global Coalition for Africa, an organization dedicated to the economic development of Africa.
Tesfaye was a younger brother of Argaw Dinka, one of early Oromo activists and OLF fighters, and the uncle of Bekele Argaw, a former army colonel, who was shot dead at his home in Ambo in September 1994 by the current regime.
Tesfaye reportedly wrote a book titled “Ethiopia during the Derg Years: An Inside Account” but he died before the work could be published. The Publisher, Tsehai, told ESAT that the book will be released next month.
Tesfaye is survived by his wife and four children and four grandchildren.

After many years in the political spotlight, the former powerful official Tefera Walwa has disappeared from the centre stage. Undoubtedly, one of the many significant figures of the regime at the beginning, he rose from an ordinary member of the armed struggle with astonishing speed, advancing within a decade to the number-three leadership position. An erstwhile member of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party also referred to as Ihapa or the EPRP, he advanced as the protégé of Meles Zenawi throughout the armed struggle years and the ruling party’s reign.
Stick thin, cerebral and quietly spoken, Tefera was given the mayor ship of Addis Ababa during the early days of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Fronts (EPRDF) rule, when various elements with the society and the working class were voicing their opposition to the ruling party. Afterwards, the responsibility for dealing with the issue passed over to Tefera. Yet the way Tefera handled the matter while serving as a mayor was such that many residents of the city don’t cherish a fond memory to this day. As numerous business establishment protested an edict passed by the government closing their businesses, Tefera’s city administration and the government’s response was ruthless. Properties were confiscated, a decision that ruined the livelihoods of many families and Tefera became one of the most loathed mayors of the city.
Raised in an Amhara peasant family in Sidamo region, Tefera decided, as young man, to fight the Derg regime by becoming an EPRP member, getting involved for a number of years in its armed wing. When the Derg’s military pushed EPRP fighters to the north, Tefera joined others strugglers who later formed the part the Amhara National Democratic Movement (EPDM). When the ruling party, EPRDF sized power, Tefera was routinely referred to as among the prominent figures of the EPDM party, after his party was restructured from being a national to ethnic movement. The late Prime Minister Meles was known to put high trust in this party. And, none was more influential among the party leadership than Tefera Walwa. He was rewarded as the post of mayor of Addis Ababa in 1993, taking over from Mulualem Abebe of the EPDM. After leaving the post as mayor, within a few days he had been picked to be defence minister in October 1996 after the dismissal and imprisonment in March of former Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Tamrat Layne. Tamrat who was thrown into jail for the alleged charge of corruption was said to have blamed many of his former colleagues within the party for plotting his downfall, but never put a finger of blame at Tefera, according to one early colleague. This was something that came as surprise for many observers of the officialdom. But what is even more remarkable is that though Tefera was an influential figure within the EPRDF, his voice was not often heard of. His appointment as defence minister came as surprise to many. Even though Meles was known for appointing people unexpectedly, the appointment of Tefera to this top military post was all the same astonishing. Even holding this powerful post, Tefera chose to keep a low profile.
In the meantime, the 2005 election arrived, bringing in its wake an unprecedented threat to the regime’s survival. Tefera run as candidate for Addis Ababa’s woreda 18, in competition with Shaleka Admasu Melaku of the main opposition group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and Commissioner Shimels Aduagna of the former president of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society. Tefera painfully lost the election, managing to garner only a few votes. (The opposition won almost all the seats on the Addis Ababa city council and throughout the country, but the ruling party refused to transfer power and subsequently its security forces opened fire on civilians protesting the vote rigging. Hundreds were killed, and over thousands injured. Tens of thousands of opposition leaders and supporters were jailed.)
Holding the Capacity Building Ministry post, Tefera all the same joined the parliament, because of the void created after the CUD leaders thrown to jail. Yet this did not mean the stretching of his position. His fortunes were taking a turn for worse. It was becoming clear that he was losing favour before the party. First, he was stripped of his power as membership of executive committee in 2008, replaced with another Meles-confidant and the Eritrean Bereket Simon. Afterwards, his role began to diminish significantly. Compounding to all this was, the unexpected news of his wife’s and father-in-law being jailed on charges connected with terrorism. (The ruling party’s usual excuse to imprison dissenters and critics). This was a heavy blow to the man was on a downward spiral. The Tigraian-led security intelligence apparatus claimed Tefera’s wife was receiving money sent from an outlawed movement Ginbot 7, led by her brother Andargachew Tsige. She was later released after serving time for some months.
It was during Tefera Walwa’s years of decline that EPRDF started its new policy of succession of senior leaders by new blood and the first causality of this measure was none other than Tefera. He was gradually relieved of his power and responsibility position and nobody chose to remember his role in the time of his military battle and the prominent position he once assumed. When Addisu Legesse took leave of his post as result of succession, Meles spoke glowingly of his accomplishments but chose to keep mum about Tefera. As party known for vindictiveness, EPRDF is not merciful even toward its members. Though Tefera has not been thrown into jail on some trumped-up charges, he has been reduced to an insignificant position. He is only a board member of the Ethiopian Space Science Society, traveling from time to time to Lalibela area and Abune Yospeh Mountain, where the International Astronomical Observatory was installed. Otherwise, the former colleague who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Tefera is extraordinarily fragile and is prohibited from leaving the country. “Leading a solitary life, looking wistfully to good old days, and being made to swallow bitter pill of being stripped of all his power and influence,” he says. Unlike ancient comrades and leaders of EPDM, Bereket Simon and Addisu Legesse who amassed huge fortune in office and live a life of unimaginable luxury and splendour, Tefera leads a simple, frugal life. The former colleague says Tefera keeps a lingering anger with those colleagues with whom he blames for having been responsible for his forced resignation from the office.

Dr. Merera Gudina, leader of the Oromo People’s Congress and one of Ethiopia’s opposition leaders imprisoned earlier this month is denied access to a lawyer, according to the Amharic Service of the Voice of the America (VOA).
VOA said Merera is suffering from poor health and he is not eating all the food supplied by his relatives. His lawyers have been refused all contact in the two weeks since he was suddenly arrested after returning home following his testimony to the European Union parliament on the current political crisis in the country.
The lawyers Wondimu Ibsa and Dr. Yacob Hailemariam went to the prison to see Dr. Merera last Friday afternoon, after promise was granted to them. After going through complicated formality, they were told by the prison officials that the inmate was being investigated and he couldn’t be visited, one of the lawyers, Dr. Yacob told VOA.
Dr. Merera has also been denied proper medical care for his sore throats and tonsillitis, the lawyer said.
Merera has a long academic career in political science and he was an associate professor at the Addis Ababa University before he was forced to retire few years ago.
Political prisoners in Ethiopia are singled out for particularly harsh treatment, which often includes denial of medical care.

In southern Africa, Fidel Castro is almost universally seen as a hero. After all it is the Cuban leader who sent his forces to Angola to halt apartheid South Africa. What southern Africans would easily forget is that Cuban troops were sent to many other African conflicts with mixed results.
Professor Piero Gleijeses, who chronicled Cuba’s relations with Africa, noted:

The dispatch of 36,000 Cuban soldiers to Angola from November 1975 to April 1976 stunned the world and ushered in a period of large-scale operations, including 16,000 Cuban soldiers in Ethiopia in late 1977; Cuban military missions in Congo Brazzaville, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and Benin; and, above all, the continuing presence in Angola that peaked in 1988 with 52,000 soldiers.

In Somalia and Ethiopia Castro’s record gets a distinctly mixed reception. The headline on one popular website said it all:

Ethiopians celebrate Castro, Somalis fume at him over 1977 Ogaden war.
Read the full article here.

The imprisoned Swedish-Ethiopian cardiologist cardiologist Fikru Maru underwent surgery for damage from spontaneous pneumothorax that he developed in custody and was to be returned to his prison to recuperate, it was reported.
The Swedish media reported that Dr. Fikru, the owner of Addis Cardiac Medical Center, was operated last week by a Swedish medical team that flew to the Ethiopian capital.
The prison was mum on the outcome of Dr. Fikru’s surgery but Martin Silver Borne, one of the doctors who performed the surgery, was quoted as saying that, “the operation went well, there was nothing irregular. It was normally a simple operation, but with the minimal equipment found in Ethiopia, we were worried about the outcome. Luckily, it went smoothly,”
Dr. Fikru Maru’s daughter Emy also told the same media that the operation went well, although the procedure contained significant risks.
The prison officials had no information to provide about the medical procedure carried out at the Black Lion hospital. The Swedish doctors arrived in tourist visa as they had no other alternative to come here.
Dr. Fikru, the owner of Addis Cardiac Medical Center was sentenced to 4 years and eight months first for what authorities said was “corruption” and later “terrorism,” nature of the charge left room for doubt. Even while in prison, Dr. Fikru was accused with 37 other inmates for starting the deadly fire that broke out in the Qilinto prison on September 3.
Dr. Fikru spent the last forty years of his life in Sweden, where he went to medical school and built a career as an interventional cardiologist. And it was with the support from Swedish investors and colleagues that he founded the Addis Cardiac Hospital ten years ago. Dr Fikru implanted pacemakers and performed PCIs for patients who would otherwise have had to go abroad for treatment.

Up-and-coming Ethiopian actress Ruta Mengisteab is rolling off a breakthrough year with roles in Zemen, a television soap opera that began transmitting on the Ethiopian Broadcasting Service (EBS) a month ago. The film includes almost all of the cast members from the previous series Sew Le Sew, running twice a week.
For Ruta, this would be the first series TV drama and the Zemen filming came at a particularly busy time for her, few months after she gave birth to her second child. “It was at times exhausting and challenging. I had to leave my child with my mother. I was tested trying to play up my personality,” said Ruta, who was particularly excited about her experience working with Solomon Bogale and Aebebe Balcha.
Speaking about the scope of the project, Ruta noted: “This is the film that addresses social issues such illegal immigration, corruption and many other socio-economic issues.”
Over the course of her rise in the local film industry, Ruta has proved to be a talented actress by virtue of a list of credits that includes memorable performance in Rebuni that she played three years ago. In the film, she paired with another rising actor Amanuel Habtamu to play the role of a granddaughter of a traditional medicine man who tries to save his land from unkind investors. She’s hilarious on the film—and her character believable and relatable. The film had huge success and it was selected as best movie of the year and Ruta walked away with the best actress award for her role in the film by the Ethiopian International Film Festival 2014 and Leza Award 2014, an award organized by the FM radio Sheger 102.1. Ruta was also selected as best actress in the same film for the Guma Award in 2015.

(Ruta Mengistab at a charity event, Photo Sisay Guzay)
Born and grown in Kera area of Addis Ababa, Ruta grew up in family who insisted on her educational performance.For Ruta, there was truly no other option of a career than acting.Speaking to Ethiopia Observer, Ruta said: “I was born with a clear idea of what I wanted to do. It has not always been easy for me because of it.”
During high school years, she seized her good looks and large eyes through modelling. Ruta was featured in various commercials, and a plethora of music clips, which sparked the interest of numerous talent film directors. Movie opportunities came, played a relatively quiet role on some of them. She was paired with Mesay Girma in ‘Fikir ena Genzeb’ (Love and Money), and she played alongside Girum Ermias in 400 Fikir. (She gloated Girum’s performance in this film). With Girum, they won the Nollywood and African People’s Choice Award for Favourite Actor and Actress, which was held for the six time.

(Ruta and Girum after receiving the People’s Choice Award. photo from Ruta’s Facebook page.)
For the last three years, Ruta has been an ambassador for the Mesert Humanitarian organisation, which raises money to benefit vulnerable women and children. Ruta is also active on social media, Instagram and Facebook, platforms in which she often posts selfies with co-stars and her two kids.
She is now the most coveted actress in the local film scene but getting used to the fame will take some getting adjustment. “Suddenly there’s this spotlight on you. It’s wonderful, but it doesn’t feel real,” she says.

Ethiopian authorities should immediately disclose the location of Temesgen Desalegn, who was jailed on spurious charges two years ago, and give him access to medical care, said the Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia (AHRE) and DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project) today.

Temesgen Desalegn is serving a three-year sentence in Ziway prison on charges of defamation, incitement, and false publication. However, relatives have attempted to visit him for seven consecutive days, and been told by Ziway prison administration officials that his location is unknown. His relatives reported that they had not seen him since 7 November 2016.

On 12 December, a Ziway prison official speaking on the condition of anonymity told a journalist from Deutsche Welle’s Amharic service that Temesgen was at the prison. However, one relative who attempted to visit him today was told by prison officials that he was not there, and that they do not know is whereabouts.
Read the whole article here.

The Ethio-Finnish band, “Ääniä Le-Alem” renders Getachew Kassa’s classic “Yekereme Fikir” in a concert in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The band combines traditional Ethiopian and Finnish music with influences from alternative, jazz and reggae and Scandinavian acoustic rock.
Mikimac (Jurry): Lead Vocals and Percussion;
Kidus Tamiru: Acoustic Guitar;
Tariku Arega: Violin, mazinko;
Henrica Fagerlund: Double bass;
Veronica Solje: Backing vocals, violin, kantele;
Filippa Salo: Backing vocals, jouhikko

Dr. Merera Gudina, leader of the Oromo People’s Congress and one of Ethiopia’s opposition leaders, was able to see his lawyer, yesterday for the first time since his arrest on 1 December, in Maekelawi federal prison in Addis Ababa. Until yesterday, the authorities had refused to allow any visit by his lawyer.
“He was brought handcuffed,” Dr. Yacob Hailemariam, who along with another lawyer, Wondimu Ibisa, visited Merera at the prison yesterday told the Amharic Service of the Voice of America. “We couldn’t talk to him freely because a police officer was monitoring our meetings. This is normally against the law because the lawyer has a right to interview his client in private without any interference.”
The scholar and human rights activist has been in solitary confinement at the prison for the past two weeks, the lawyers said.
“His physical health do not seem to have suffered a great deal,” Dr. Yakob told VOA last night. “But he was brought food only once a day and medication when necessary, the lawyer said.
The lawyers said they did not get information about the legal proceedings under way against Dr. Merera. He will be brought back to the courthouse in the fifteen days.
Dr. Merera was arrested two weeks ago after returning home following his testimony to the European Union parliament on the current political crisis in the country.

A heartbreaking story of a Kenyan engineer on Thursday moved many to tears when it was widely shared on social media.
Businessman and Nailab co-founder Sam Gichuru was the first to post the story of one Zak Muriuki – a techie who moved to Ethiopia on January 9, 2015, after his company, Intersat, assigned him to a client but on Thursday came back to Kenya in a coffin.
According to the sad narrative, Zak was arrested alongside his workmate Jedrick Mugo a day after their arrival to Ethiopia. The duo was accused of telecommunication fraud even before they were able to start working.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, Zak’s associate divulged that “Zak was arrested with another Kenyan engineer called Jedrick Mugo who is still in custody as the government there says it’s still looking for evidence against him.”
“The two had gone to Ethiopia to install VSAT equipment for a customer. This was a normal routine assignment and they had been there before and came back home safely. However, this time around, the customer’s site was raided by Ethiopian police and the 2 arrested and booked by the police,” our source disclosed. Read the whole story at the Kenyans.co.ke.

Five Ethiopian female photographers are displaying their work reflecting on distance at an exhibit in Venice, Italy.
The show, “Tales-on Ethiopia,” runs through 15th 2016 to January 8th 2017, in the Scoletta Battioro, in the busy campo Santo exhibition.
The exhibition is the result of a project, launched with the aim of supporting and promoting the intellectual resources of coffee-producing areas. It was organized in partnership with award-winning photographer Aida Muluneh, founder and director of the Addis Foto Fest, the first international photography festival in Ethiopia, whose fourth edition being held in Addis Ababa from 15 to 20 December 2016.
The young photographers, Luna Solomon (23), Haymanot Honelgn (23), Hilina Mekonen (28), Netsanet Fekadu (28) and Maheder Haile Selassie (26) have been asked to contemplate the topic of “Distance” and “then each produce a structured project with 30 pictures that have been specifically selected to be shown in order in a video presentation,” according to organizers.

(photo from Haymanot Honelgne’s Facebook page)
“There were both intimate and public depictions in the variety of outlooks put forth by the young talents. While they have strong local cultural roots, the projects also reveal that the idea that our ways of life differ enormously is largely built on insubstantial, preconceived foundations,” the curators wrote. “There were both intimate and public depictions in the variety of outlooks put forth by the young talents. While they have strong local cultural roots, the projects also reveal that the idea that our ways of life differ enormously is largely built on insubstantial, preconceived foundations,” according to the curators.
For more information about the exhibit, visit Tales-On Ethiopia.

I finally caught Getachew Kassa for an interview. Other than listening to his greatest hits on radio and watching him on television, I was able to see him once or twice in person playing at the Jazzamba Lounge in Piazza few years ago, yet when I tried to contact him for an interview, I found out it was not an easy to thing to do. He was elusive. First he wanted to know which media I worked for; radio, or TV. I explained it was a website. He then asked me to call him after two or three weeks. When I did, he would find an excuse to say No this time around. He would say ‘he has a cold, you know the pollution in Addis?’ Finally, with the help of music producer Amaha Eshete, I was able to interview Getachew.
Despite a wall of formality he builds around himself, there’s a warmth and playfulness that seeps out of him. He recounted his recollections and stories, with deep, low-pitched voice, and punctuated with infectious laugh.
Getachew, 67, occupies a unique space in the Ethiopian music sphere, his singular voice and stage act straddling generations. Since he started playing one of his hits “Emegnalehu” with a band called Fetan Band – or Speed Band – at the Patrice Lumumba Bar in Wube Berha in the 70’s, Getachew established himself as one of the most accomplished Ethiopian musicians of the period. His career as recording artist includes tunes such as “Addis Ababa”, “Tiz Balegn Gize”, “Yekereme Fikir”, “Bertucan nesh lomi” “Bichayan Tekze” “Agere Tizitash”. The “Tezeta slow & fast” that he created and popularized when he was playing for various groups, the Sehebelles band, the Venus band, and later with the Walias band, was subsequently recorded by Amha Records. Those records were reissued by the French producer Francis Falceto in the Éthiopiques 1 (Golden Years of Modern Music), collections that he put together to recapture the lost music of pre-Revolutionary Ethiopia. “This Tezeta remains one of the best-selling records ever in Ethiopia, totalling around 5,000 copies, while most hits level-off at 2-3,000 and a few hundred is considered a moderate success. Very people owned record players, but the entire country heard that Tezeta, the first, jangling by an Ethiopia set in motion,” Falceto wrote in the cover. The CD reissue brought wider recognition at home and abroad, generating attention and praise even from Bob Dylan who included it in his anthology CD of favorites for Starbucks coffee chain in 2008, in a series called Artist’s Choice. In the selections of “music that matters to him” Dylan talked about the song “Tezeta” from the compilation album in the Ethiopiques series. Dylan writes, “When I first heard this record I knew nothing about it. There’s this guy named Harold who usually shows up when I play Forth Worth, and he always gives me a bag of CDs. He never writes down what’s on them. I had to wait till the next time I was in Fort Worth to ask him what this track was. I found out it’s an Ethiopian record from this series of records made during that short window of time when popular music was allowed in Ethiopia. But when I heard it I didn’t know any of that. I thought it was some kind of Cajun record played backwards. There’s something great about hearing music that’s so obviously passionate and so obviously good, and not being able to understand the words. I like to imagine this is what my records might sound like to someone in a country that doesn’t speak English.”
Getachew says it was a great honour to receive an admiration from this word-class musician. He was not even aware of his inclusion in the CD until a friend told him about it and gave him as present. “This friend of mine Mike Alazar, who used to sing in English at Wabi Shebele hotel one day happened to hear my music while he was at Starbucks. He asked the personnel at the chain and came to know that it was compiled with other English songs. He hurriedly bought it and brought it to me. I treasure it a lot” Getachew says.
Born and raised in Addis Ababa’s Mercato area from a relatively well-off family, Getachew found his love and dedication for music in his early years. “As early as eight, music was something that just grabbed me. I sang an Italian song called asmarina, asmarina, which was popular then. My parents were separated and I lived with my father. I used to frequent this café in my neighbourhood called California where I used to listen to records of Little Richards, Elvis Presley, Harry Belafonte, among others. I started imitating those singers,” he says.
He also started to play drums with a certain Yemen national, Mockbile, who bought a drum and asked him to try it. He played it good. But those years were difficult for him because he never received a blessing on his passion from his father. There were fights at home every single day because of it. “My father even hid the record player that was in our house,” he recalls.
Eventually, in his teenage years, he run away to Dire Dawa, hoping to get a job doing music. One night he happened to pass by a bar where there was this person playing accordion solo. “There was drum machine on the corner and no one was playing it. I went to him and I proposed playing the drum and he was okay. I became a good drummer there,” Getachew says. “I met this guy, Solomon, who was in the police army, who was playing saxophone. We went to Harar and I joined Segon Orchestra. With the permission of army officials, he bought equipment and we started playing for different occasions. After a year, I came back to Addis because they wanted to put me in the army,”
While in Harar, he took Kassa as his father’s name than the real one Tsegaye, because his father said he did not want him to carry on his name. “At the time I was in love with this girl Assgedetch Kassa, who was a singer herself. I told her about it and she said why I don’t take her father’s name. I became Getachew Kassa to this day,” he laughs.
In Addis Ababa, Getachew started playing with a band called Fetan Band, at the Patrice Lumumba Bar, which was owned by Woizero Asegedech Alamrew. That was the most important regular gig for him, playing along with Teshome Mitiku, Mekonen Mersha. “Emegnalehu” became very popular and brought him to prominence. “It put me in a whole different place. It was the start of me making a living as a singer.” Tilahun Gessesse used to show up often and do the twist for the music, he says. Getachew was then paid five birr per day. For the following year, he played at Sombrero in Senga Tera, a club where Alemayehu Eshete used to play. He was offered 15 birr by the patron the Seyoum and another of his hits, Sayish Esasalehu was born there. Upon his discharge from the club, he briefly joined Axum Adarash in Gulele as vocalist where he joined Tekle Adhanom, a guitarist who came from Asmara, Tesfamriam “Huket” Kidane, a saxophonist also form Asmara, Hailu Zihon, who played base, former member of the Police Force. Then Abubakar Ashakih, a composer and former singer for the Imperial Music Department, and owner of Venus nightclub beckoned them to play at his club which was first located in Piazza, and later in Ambassador Cinema. The band’s reputation spread rapidly, also getting regular invitation to perform at high school graduation parties. Getachew’s slow and fast Tezeta became more popular here. After six months again another offer from Wabishebele Hotel, they became the Wabishebele Band in 1969. It was then that Getachew met Amaha Eshete and the two tunes were recorded in in LP.
As Francis Falceto describes it, ”the double version of Tezeta, thanks to its success and the polemic it fuelled incensed conservatives and pop’s young guard, stand as symbol of pre-revolutionary Ethiopia- in the light music vein. Getachew Kassa delivers a version totally contrary to tradition, but so well adapted by non-conformist Ethiopian youth in 1972.”

(Getachew Kassa, Girma Beyene with Manu Dibango, Hailu Meregia behind at the Hilton Hotel. photo courtesy of Getachew)
Around that time, Getachew joined the famed Walias ensemble, that eventually landed a residency at the Hilton hotel, performing for tourists, diplomats and middle class locals. After soundtracking Addis Ababa’s night life for more than a decade, in 1981 Getachew Kassa and the Walais band went to the US, in their first American exposure at a time Ethiopian’s military regime was strongly condemning American imperialism. The group’s first performance was at Washington DC’s famous Warner Theatre.
Getachew decided to stay in Washington DC, where the band had originally landed upon their arrival–and there he remained. His stay in the United States, he admits, wasn’t a fertile working environment. He said he was “well received at the start by the Ethiopian community there and quickly making fans across US cities who showered me with gifts”. However, as years went by, he found it difficult to work with the band there, “The trouble with most musicians there is that they don’t rehearse enough. Since they are busy with other things, making money, they want to show up and join me to perform. I myself don’t come to the stage without practising my own materials. I make it a point to pay attention to the smallest details. I don’t find that with many of them. I couldn’t even find anybody to play with,” he says. All the same, he worked in the Ethiopian restaurants found in different states, including Blue Nile, Addis Ababa restaurant, Dukem, Etete, Queen Sheba. “I used to perform three times per week. I liked being on stage. When I put on my hands on the piano, I forgot all other things.”
Getachew, who lived in the United States for twenty seven years, is now back in Ethiopia, trying to rekindle his music career. “I felt a pool from home. Ethiopia is a deep part of my life. The time came that I had to come back,” he says. His songs are often about loss, solitude, and for a lot of his life he has been a loner. “I got married once and my marriage did not work out,” he says. He has a daughter from this marriage, who is currently living in Saudi Arabia that he has not seen or spoken for many years. In many ways he has been consumed by his songs, by touring. Probably, this drive has been the reason for the break-up of his marriage.
After his return to Ethiopia four years ago, he started performing at Jazzamba with a band comprising young musicians, Vibes Band. However, his old demons have not been entirely exorcized. One member of the band then described the frustrations of dealing with the singer’s mood swings, though he respected his singing so much.
After fire destroyed the Jazzamba club, Getachew shifted playing to Mama’s Kitchen, a bar on the shopping mall near Bole airport with Express band. It worked for a while but these days he is not playing there anymore.
On April 3, 2016 Getachew went to Berlin to perform at concert (his first in Germany), as part of the “Stay Strong” project, a music project dedicated to the renowned Ethiopian singer and songwriter Alemayehu Eshete & to musicians of his generation. Band Manager and Booking Agent at The Stay Strong Orchestra, Clemens Grün told Ethiopia Observer that they did one recording workshop with Alemyahu Eshete and another with Getachew Kassa and Selam Seyoum Woldemariam. “The recordings, we did, especially with Getachew, are not comparable with anything he or anybody else ever did with his songs,” he says. They did eight songs with Getachew, one is linked here.
The project’s trailer, which was described as “a kind of Ethiopian Buena Vista Social Club” could be seen on You Tube. Getachew presented his first performance UFA-Fabrik, factory to wide acclaim.

(Getachew Kassa and Selam Seyoum Woldemariam in Berlin, photo courtesy of the Strong Project)
It was a proof that that his music and energy is as alive as ever and he is a determined as he was in his youthful prime.
(Special thanks to John Wilson for sending me Bob Dylan’s notes on Getachew, which i quoted in its entirety in the article.)

(The Monitor)– President Museveni and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi yesterday agreed on the plan to make River Nile a transportation highway to the Mediterranean Sea to reduce import-export costs.
President Museveni said at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two countries that the alternative route on River Nile, which has its source in Uganda, would go up to Egypt’s northern Alexandria seaport city.The port handles about 80 per cent of Egypt’s imports and exports.
“We are, however, looking at the security problems in South Sudan and Sudan and see how they can be solved,” Mr Museveni said, referring to a meltdown in Uganda’s northern neighbour triggered by political stalemate between President Salva Kiir and his former Vice-turned-rebel leader Riek Machar.
Find the whole story here.

Ethiopian journalist jailed for a month in connection with an interview he gave to Voice of America’s Amharic-language service on 31 October has been released.
Befekadu Hailu was among thousands of people who were arrested by security agents during the ongoing state of emergency. Colleagues confirmed that he was released yesterday, along with thousands protesters. The government said the protesters were freed after receiving “training.”
Befekadu was previously arrested in April 2014, together with nine other bloggers and journalists, accused of “working with foreign organizations claiming to defend human rights” and “receiving funding in order to incite the public to violence via social media.” They were subsequently charged with violating the terrorism law. Though they were freed in October 2015 after 18 months behind bars, Befekadu was rearrested last month.

Reports of his death came some months ago, including the Ethiopian Television that pronounced him dead but proven false.But this time the distance running legend, Miruts Yifter, had finally succumbed. The athlete mostly known for the 10,000 and 5,000 metres Olympic gold medals win with his amazing finishing sprint at Moscow Games in 1980, was marked by pitfalls, and some well-kept secrets. In 1972, at the Olympic Games in Munich, Miruts won the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres. But, upon returning to his country, instead of receiving plaudits for his bronze, he was accused by the government, of failing at the Games and betraying his homeland. He was put in prison. What exactly happened?
In his book, Dreams Fulfilled, the incredible inspirational comeback stories of six determined athletes, American author Tom Kloske recounted this hidden history.
While representing the Ethiopian Air Force, Miruts ran so well that he eventually made the Ethiopian Olympic team in 1972. He would make his Olympic debut in Munich, Germany. In his first Olympic games he received a 3rd place bronze medal in the 10,000 metre race. However, his best was the 5,000 metre race. He was confident and determined to win the gold medal in the race, but something terrible had happened. Due to circumstances not completely understood, he arrived too late, and he was disqualified. David Miller wrote, “His failure to appear for the 5,000m, following his following his 10,000m bronze in Munich still remained clouded in contradictory explanations.”
The late Jim McKay, host of ABC’s Wide World of Sports and thirteen time Emmy Award winner reported: Miruts Yifter of Ethiopia, one of the favorites in the in the 5,000 (Steve Prefontaine told me the other night that he feared Yifter the most of all), reported to the wrong gate of the stadium. The guard steadfastly refused to let him in, and eventually the race went off without him. When he realized what happened, that he was out of the Olympics, Yifter collapsed, crying, in his coach’s arms.
Sports writer Jeff Hollobaugh echoes, “He went to the wrong stadium gate and was not allowed in. As the race started, he cried alone in the tunnel.” Can you see him in the shadows weeping as the gun sounds? No one in the stadium saw his tears or heard his cries. One can only imagine how frustrating this was for Yifter. This was actually a qualifying 5,000meter race, but it may as well have been the final because obviously if one does not qualify, one is not allowed to run in the final race. To train, literally for years, to be a contender to win the gold medal, and then because of a mishap, not being allowed to run must have been unbearable.
To make matters worse, when Yifter returned to Ethiopia after the Games he was dubbed a traitor and was thrown straight to prison. “They said that I had deliberately failed to compete and threw me in jail,” a tearful Yifter recalls. “They thought that they had taken my love for running, but they were wrong.
Miruts’ determination knew no bounds. He continued his training in prison with the prison guards’ help. He would win gold in the 10,000 metres and silver in the 5,000 metres a year later at the All-Africa Games in Lagos, Nigeria.