Tadias Magazine

ABC News

August 16, 2008

Michael Phelps wins 8th gold medal in a single Olympics, breaking tie with Mark Spitz

Michael Phelps won his record eighth gold medal Sunday at the Beijing Olympics as a member of the victorious U.S. 400-meter medley relay team, breaking a tie with Mark Spitz for most golds in a single games.

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Phelps and Jason Lezak won in a world-record of 3 minutes, 29.34 seconds, lowering the old mark of 3:30.68 set four years ago in Athens. Read More.

The Lompoc Record
Photo by Ricki Rosen (The Jewish Journal)

By ARON HELLER

GONDAR, Ethiopia — Sitting in a leaky, flyblown hut, a few dozen Ethiopian villagers are anxiously waiting to be transported to another world.

They have just been given word that their years of waiting are over, and that soon they will make a 2,000-mile journey by land and air with what is probably the last wave of Ethiopian immigrants to Israel.

In doing so, they join generations of Jews who have immigrated to the Promised Land. But they are flying into the teeth of a dilemma that touches the heart of Israel’s founding philosophy.

For people like 48-year-old Abe Damamo, his wife and eight children, wrenching change awaits.

Like most Ethiopians with Jewish roots, they have come from the Gondar region of northern Ethiopia. Their remote village uses donkeys for transportation and has no bathrooms. Damamo has no formal education and speaks no language but his own.

He is moving to an industrialized democracy where he will have to learn Hebrew, master a cell phone, commute to work and find his place in a nation of immigrants from dozens of countries ranging from Argentina to Yemen, Australia to the United States. Read More.

Above photo: Ethiopian monks on the roof of Christianity’s
holiest shrine in Jerusalem (Creative Commons Attribution).

Publisher’s Note:

Updated: August 16th, 2008

New York (Tadias) – The following piece first appeared in the context of the July 2002 brawl that erupted on the roof of Christianity’s most holy place between Ethiopian and Egyptian monks.

“Eleven monks were treated in hospital after a fight broke out for control of the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the traditional site of Jesus’s crucifixion, burial and resurrection”, wrote Alan Philps, a Jerusalem based reporter for the Daily Telegraph.

“The fracas involved monks from the Ethiopian Orthodox church and the Coptic church of Egypt, who have been vying for control of the rooftop for centuries.”

As part of our Ethiopian Millennium series on the relationship between Ethiopia and the African Diaspora, we have selected part of the original article from our archives with a hope that it may generate a healthy discussion on the subject.

Deir Sultan, Ethiopia and the Black World
By Negussay Ayele for Tadias Magazine

Above: Main entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (27/03/2005),
Easter Sunday. This image is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution.

Unknown by much of the world, monks and nuns of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, have for centuries quietly maintained the only presence by black people in one of Christianity’s holiest sites—the Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem.

Through the vagaries and vicissitudes of millennial history and landlord changes in Jerusalem and the Middle East region, Ethiopian monks have retained their monastic convent in what has come to be known as Deir Sultan or the Monastery of the Sultan for more than a thousand years.

Likewise, others that have their respective presences in the area at different periods include Armenian, Russian, Syrian, Egyptian and Greek Orthodox/Coptic Churches as well as the Holy See.

As one writer put it recently, “For more than 1500 years, the Church of Ethiopia survived in Jerusalem. Its survival has not, in the last resort, been dependent on politics, but on the faith of individual monks that we should look for the vindication of the Church’s presence in Jerusalem…. They are attracted in Jerusalem not by a hope for material gain or comfort, but by faith.”

It is hoped that public discussion on this all-important subject will be joined by individuals and groups from all over the world. We hope that others with more detailed and/or first hand knowledge about the subject will join in the discussion.

Above: Painting on the wall of the Ethiopian part of the church of the Holy
Sepulcher. Photo by Iweze Davidson.

Accounts of Ethiopian presence in Jerusalem invoke the Bible to establish the origin of Ethiopian presence in Jerusalem.

Accordingly, some Ethiopians refer to the story of the encounter in Jerusalem between Queen of Sheba–believed to have been a ruler in Ethiopia and environs–and King Solomon, cited, for instance, in I Kings 10: 1-13.

According to this version, Ethiopia’s presence in the region was already established about 1000 B.C. possibly through land grant to the visiting Queen, and that later transformation into Ethiopian Orthodox Christian monastery is an extension of that same property.

Others refer to the New Testament account of Acts 8: 26-40 which relates the conversion to Christianity of the envoy of Ethiopia’s Queen Candace (Hendeke) to Jerusalem in the first century A.D., thereby signaling the early phase of Ethiopia’s adoption of Christianity. This event may have led to the probable establishment of a center of worship in Jerusalem for Ethiopian pilgrims, priests, monks and nuns.

Keeping these renditions as a backdrop, what can be said for certain is the following: Ethiopian monastic activities in Jerusalem were observed and reported by contemporary residents and sojourners during the early years of the Christian era.

By the time of the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem and the region (634-644 A.D.) khalif Omar is said to have confirmed Ethiopian physical presence in Jerusalem’s Christian holy places, including the Church of St. Helena, which encompasses the Holy Sepulchre of the Lord Jesus Christ.

His firman or directive of 636 declared “the Iberian and Abyssinian communities remain there” while also recognizing the rights of other Christian communities to make pilgrimages in the Christian holy places of Jerusalem.

Because Jerusalem and the region around it, has been subjected to frequent invasions and changing landlords, stakes in the holy places were often part of the political whims of respective powers that be.

Subsequently, upon their conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, the Crusaders had kicked out Orthodox/Coptic monks from the monasteries and installed Augustine monks instead. However, when in 1187 Salaheddin wrested Jerusalem from the Crusaders, he restored the presence of the Ethiopian and other Orthodox/Coptic monks in the holy places.

When political powers were not playing havoc with their claims to the holy places, the different Christian sects would often carry on their own internecine conflicts among themselves, at times with violent results.

Contemporary records and reports indicate that the Ethiopian presence in the holy places in Jerusalem was rather much more substantial throughout much of the period up to the 18th and 19th centuries.

For example, an Italian pilgrim, Barbore Morsini, is cited as having written in 1614 that “the Chapels of St. Mary of Golgotha and of St. Paul…the grotto of David on Mount Sion and an altar at Bethlehem…” among others were in the possession of the Ethiopians.

From the 16th to the middle of the 19th centuries, virtually the whole of the Middle East was under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. When one of the Zagwe kings in Ethiopia, King Lalibela (1190-1225), had trouble maintaining unhampered contacts with the monks in Jerusalem, he decided to build a new Jerusalem in his land. In the process he left behind one of the true architectural wonders known as the Rock-hewn Churches of Lalibela.

Above: Lalibela. This image is licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution.

Above: Lalibela. This image is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution.

Above: Lalibela. This image is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution.

The Ottomans also controlled Egypt and much of the Red Sea littoral and thereby circumscribed Christian Ethiopia’s communication with the outside world, including Jerusalem.

Besides, they had also tried but failed to subdue Ethiopia altogether. Though Ethiopia’s independent existence was continuously under duress not only from the Ottomans but also their colonial surrogate, Egypt as well as from the dervishes in the Sudan, the Ethiopian monastery somehow survived during this period. Whenever they could, Ethiopian rulers and other personages as well as church establishments sent subsidies and even bought plots of land where in time churches and residential buildings for Ethiopian pilgrims were built in and around Jerusalem. Church leaders in Jerusalem often represented the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in ecumenical councils and meetings in Florence and other fora.

During the 16th and 17th centuries the Ottoman rulers of the region including Palestine and, of course, Jerusalem, tried to stabilize the continuing clamor and bickering among the Christian sects claiming sites in the Christian holy places. To that effect, Ottoman rulers including Sultan Selim I (1512-1520) and Suleiman “the Magnificent” (1520-1566) as well as later ones in the 19th century, issued edicts or firmans regulating and detailing by name which group of monks would be housed where and the protocol governing their respective religious ceremonies. These edicts are called firmans of the Status Quo for all Christian claimants in Jerusalem’s holy places including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which came to be called Deir Sultan or the monastery (place) of the Sultan.

Ethiopians referred to it endearingly as Debre Sultan. Most observers of the scene in the latter part of the 19th Century as well as honest spokesmen for some of the sects attest to the fact that from time immemorial the Ethiopian monks had pride of place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Deir Sultan). Despite their meager existence and pressures from fellow monks from other countries, the Ethiopian monks survived through the difficult periods their country was going through such as the period of feudal autarchy (1769-1855).

Still, in every document or reference since the opening of the Christian era, Ethiopia and Ethiopian monks have been mentioned in connection with Christian holy places in Jerusalem, by all alternating landlords and powers that be in the region.

As surrogates of the weakening Ottomans, the Egyptians were temporarily in control of Jerusalem (1831-1840). It was at this time, in 1838, that a plague is said to have occurred in the holy places, which in some mysterious ways of Byzantine proportions, claimed the lives of all Ethiopian monks.

The Ethiopians at this time were ensconced in a chapel of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Deir Sultan) as well as in other locales nearby. Immediately thereafter, the Egyptian authorities gave the keys of the Church to the Egyptian Coptic monks.

The Egyptian ruler, Ibrahim Pasha, then ordered that all thousands of very precious Ethiopian holy books and documents, including historical and ecclesiastical materials related to property deeds and rights, be burned—alleging conveniently that the plague was spawned by the Ethiopian parchments.

Monasteries are traditionally important hubs of learning and, given its location and its opportunity for interaction with the wider family of Christendom, the Ethiopian monastery in Jerusalem was even more so than others. That is how Ethiopians lost their choice possession in Deir Sultan.

By the time other monks arrived in Jerusalem, the Copts claimed their squatter’s rights, the new Ethiopian arrivals were eventually pushed off onto the open rooftop of the church, thanks largely to the machinations of the Egyptian Coptic church.

Above: The roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem, where Ethiopians maintain the only presence
by black people in Christianity’s holiest shrine. This image
is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution.

Although efforts on behalf of Ethiopian monks in Jerusalem started in mid-19th Century with Ras Ali and Dejach Wube, it was the rise of Emperor Tewodros in 1855 in Ethiopia that put the Jerusalem monastery issue back onto international focus.

When Ethiopian monks numbering a hundred or so congregated in Jerusalem at the time, the Armenians had assumed superiority in the holy places. The Anglican bishop in Jerusalem then, Bishop Samuel Gobat witnessed the unholy attitude and behavior of the Armenians and the Copts towards their fellow Christian Ethiopians who were trying to reclaim their rights to the holy places in Jerusalem.

He wrote that the Ethiopian monks, nuns and pilgrims “were both intelligent and respectable, yet they were treated like slaves, or rather like beasts by the Copts and the Armenians combined…(the Ethiopians) could never enter their own chapel but when it pleased the Armenians to open it. …On one occasion, they could not get their chapel opened to perform funeral service for one of their members. The key to their convent being in the hands of their oppressors, they were locked up in their convent in the evening until it pleased their Coptic jailer to open it in the morning, so that in any severe attacks of illness, which are frequent there, they had no means of going out to call a physician.’’

It was awareness of such indignities suffered by Ethiopian monks in Jerusalem that is said to have impelled Emperor Tewodros to have visions of clearing the path between his domain and Jerusalem from Turkish/Egyptian control, and establishing something more than monastic presence there. In the event, one of the issues that contributed to the clash with British colonialists that consumed his life 1868, was the quest for adequate protection of the Ethiopian monks and their monastery in Jerusalem.

Emperor Yohannes IV (1872-1889), the priestly warrior king, used his relatively cordial relations with the British who were holding sway in the region then, to make representations on behalf of the Ethiopian monastery in Jerusalem.

He carried on regular pen-pal communications with the monks even before he became Emperor. He sent them money, he counseled them and he always asked them to pray for him and the country, saying, “For the prayers of the righteous help and serve in all matters. By the prayers of the righteous a country is saved.”

He used some war booty from his battles with Ottomans and their Egyptian surrogates, to buy land and started to build a church in Jerusalem. As he died fighting Sudanese/Dervish expansionists in 1889, his successor, Emperor Menelik completed the construction of the Church named Debre Gennet located on what was called “Ethiopian Street.”

During this period more monasteries, churches and residences were also built by Empresses Tayitu, Zewditu, Menen as well as by several other personages including Afe Negus Nessibu, Dejazmach Balcha, Woizeros Amarech Walelu, Beyenech Gebru, Altayeworq.

As of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th Century the numbers of Ethiopian monks and nuns increased and so did overall Ethiopian pilgrimage and presence in Jerusalem.

In 1903, Emperor Menelik put $200, 000 thalers in a (Credileone) Bank in the region and ordained that interests from that savings be used exclusively as subsidy for the sustenance of the Ethiopian monks and nuns and the upkeep of Deir Sultan. Emperor Menelik’s 6-point edict also ordained that no one be allowed to draw from the capital in whole or in part.

Land was also purchased at various localities and a number of personalities including Empress Tayitu, and later Empress Menen, built churches there. British authorities supported a study on the history of the issue since at least the time of kalifa (Calif) Omar ((636) and correspondences and firmans and reaffirmations of Ethiopian rights in 1852, in an effort to resolve the chronic problems of conflicting claims to the holy sites in Jerusalem.

The 1925 study concluded that ”the Abyssinian (Ethiopian ) community in Palestine ought to be considered the only possessor of the convent Deir Es Sultan at Jerusalem with the Chapels which are there and the free and exclusive use of the doors which give entrance to the convent, the free use of the keys being understood.”

Until the Fascist invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930’s when Mussolini confiscated Ethiopian accounts and possessions everywhere, including in Jerusalem, the Ethiopian presence in Jerusalem had shown some semblance of stability and security, despite continuing intrigues by Copts, Armenians and their overlords in the region.

This was a most difficult and trying time for the Ethiopian monks in Jerusalem who were confronted with a situation never experienced in the country’s history, namely its occupation by a foreign power. And, just like some of their compatriots including Church leaders at home, some paid allegiance to the Fascist rulers albeit for the brief (1936-1941) interregnum.

Emperor Haile Sellassie was also a notable patron of the monastery cause, and the only monarch to have made several trips to Jerusalem, including en route to his self-exile to London in May, 1936.

Since at least the 1950s there was an Ethiopian Association for Jerusalem in Addis Ababa that coordinated annual Easter pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Hundreds of Ethiopians and other persons from Ethiopia and the Diaspora took advantage of its good offices to go there for absolution, supplication or felicitation, and the practice continues today.

Against all odds, historical, ecclesiastical and cultural bonding between Ethiopia and Jerusalem waxed over the years. The Ethiopian presence expanded beyond Deir Sultan including also numerous Ethiopian Churches, chapels, convents and properties. This condition required that the Patriarchate of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church designate Jerusalem as a major diocese to be administered under its own Archbishop.

Above: Timket (epiphany) celebration by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo
Church on the Jordan River, considered to be the place where Jesus was
baptized. Jan. 1999. Photo by Iweze Davidson.

Ethiopia and Black Heritage In Jerusalem

For hundreds of years, the name or concept of Ethiopia has been a beacon for black/African identity liberty and dignity throughout the diaspora. The Biblical (Psalm 68:31) verse , “…Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her hands unto God” has been universally taken to mean African people, black people at large, stretch out their hands to God (and only to God) in supplication, in felicitation or in absolution.

As Daniel Thwaite put it, for the Black man Ethiopia was always “…an incarnation of African independence.”

And today, Ethiopian monastic presence in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or Deir Sultan in Jerusalem, is the only Black presence in the holiest place on earth for Christians. For much of its history, Ethiopian Christianity was largely hemmed in by alternating powers in the region. Likewise, Ethiopia used its own indigenous Ethiopic languages for liturgical and other purposes within its own territorial confines, instead of colonial or other lingua franca used in extended geographical spaces of the globe.

For these and other reasons, Ethiopia was not able to communicate effectively with the wider Black world in the past. Given the fact that until recently, most of the Black world within Africa and in the diaspora was also under colonial tutelage or under slavery, it was not easy to appreciate the significance of Ethiopian presence in Jerusalem. Consequently, even though Ethiopian/Black presence in Jerusalem has been maintained through untold sacrifices for centuries, the rest of the Black world outside of Ethiopia has not taken part in its blessings through pilgrimages to the holy sites and thereby develop concomitant bonding with the Ethiopian monastery in Jerusalem.

For nearly two millennia now, the Ethiopian Church and its adherent monks and priests have miraculously maintained custodianship of Deir Sultan, suffering through and surviving all the struggles we have glanced at in these pages. In fact, the survival of Ethiopian/Black presence in Christianity’s holy places in Jerusalem is matched only by the “Survival Ethiopian Independence” itself.

Indeed, Ethiopian presence in Deir Sultan represents not just Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity but all African/black Christians of all denominations who value the sacred legacy that the holy places of Jerusalem represent for Christians everywhere. It represents also the affirmation of the fact that Jerusalem is the birthplace of Christianity, just as adherents of Judaism and Islam claim it also.

The Ethiopian foothold at the rooftop of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the only form of Black presence in Christianity’s holy places of Jerusalem. It ought to be secure, hallowed and sanctified ground by and for all Black folks everywhere who value it. The saga of Deir Sultan also represents part of Ethiopian history and culture. And that too is part of African/black history and culture regardless of religious orientation.

When a few years ago, an Ethiopian monk was asked by a writer why he had come to Jerusalem to face all the daily vicissitudes and indignities, he answered, “because it is Jerusalem.”

—
About the Author:
Dr. Negussay Ayele is a noted Ethiopian scholar. He is the author of the book Ethiopia and the United States, Volume I, the Season of Courtship, among many other publications. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

From The Addis Connexion

If you have been getting a headache trying to figure out when and where you can catch your Ethiopian athletes going for the gold in Beijing, you’re not alone. Between the time differences in the U.S., and NBC’s delayed coverage of most events and their confusing non-specific schedule listings, we’ve had the same problem.

But now that we’ve got it figured out, we thought we would share it with you. And happily, it appears that U.S. viewers will get to see at least the medal rounds for all of the events Ethiopian athletes are participating in. Read more.

Ethiopia’s Golden Girl: Dibaba Wins Women’s 10000m

From the Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

(BEIJING, August 15) — Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia has won gold and set a new Olympic record in the Women’s 10000m at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 15.

Dibaba’s time of 29:54.66 was enough to break the old record of 30:17.49 set by fellow Ethiopian Derartu Tulu and hold off silver medalist Elvan Abeylegess of Turkey (also born in Ethiopia) who ran a time of 29:56.34. Bronze went to Shalane Flanagan of the United States in a time of 30:22:22.

The world record of 29:31.78 seconds in this event is held by China’s Wang Junxia China, set in 1993. Read More.

The Golden Girl

Tirunesh Dibaba Kenene celebrates after crossing the line.
(Photo credit: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)

Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey (born in Ethiopia) and Tirunesh Dibaba Kenene.
(Photo credit: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)

Tirunesh Dibaba Kenene celebrates. (Photo credit: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)

Dibaba planning long-distance double
Reuters

By Sabrina Yohannes

Thursday, August 14, 2008

BEIJING (Reuters) – World 10,000-metre champion Tirunesh Dibaba says she expects to run both the 10,000 and 5,000m events in Beijing, hoping to become the first woman to scoop the Olympic distance double.

In 2005 Dibaba became the first woman to win both races at a world championships when she led an Ethiopian podium sweep in both events in Helsinki.

She retained the 10,000 title in Osaka last year after suffering from abdominal pain mid-race but skipped the 5,000 days later.

“My expectation is that I will run both,” she told Reuters after arriving in Beijing. “It’s being said that it’s a little hot here, so the final decision will be made after the 10,000.” Read more at Guardian.

The Dallas Morning News

By ERIK HEINRICH
Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
Photo: A woman weaves baskets near Axum’s Park of the Stelae in Ethiopia.
(Mark Sissons/Special Contributor)
Thursday, August 14, 2008

LOWER OMO VALLEY, Ethiopia – “Remember, take only what you need,” says Johnny, our driver from Addis Ababa whose real name is Yohanes Tsegaye.

As soon as I step out of the Toyota Land Cruiser, parked in the shade of flat-topped acacia, all hell breaks lose. A crowd of Mursi – a tribe best known for the giant lip plates worn by its women – comes charging at me from the village compound.

The Mursi are in a frenzy, not because they want to welcome me to their homes. Instead, they are after lucrative photo fees demanded of picture-taking tourists who have trekked to the village of Hail Wuha, on the edge of an escarpment in one of the most isolated and inaccessible regions of Africa.

“You! You! You!” they yell at me. I am surrounded by Mursi who appear as a blur of floppy lip plates, painted faces, naked breasts and animal skins. Read More.

Above: Members of the Jamaican community in Shashemene,
Ethiopia.

The Scotsman

By Tim Albone

Published Date: 14 August 2008

Shashemene, Ethiopia – WITH their flowing dreadlocks and blaring reggae music the Rastafarians in Shashemene look slightly out of place.

The beaches and rum bars of the Caribbean are just a distant memory, swapped for the dusty, landlocked streets of southern Ethiopia. Despite the town being crippled by a massive famine, the Rastas, as they are commonly known, insist they are home and happy.

Teddy Dan, 54, who is originally from Oxford and father to 16 children, told The Scotsman: “We are African. It’s eight years now, going on nine, since I returned home.”

Mr Dan is typical of many of the Rastas who call Shashemene home. A former reggae singer, he became disillusioned with life on the road and the materialistic lifestyle.

He said: “I went to school in England in the Seventies, we were taught all about the slave ships, but I thought there had to be more to this history than they taught in school.

“Coming home (to Shashemene] you see good people stay silent. We need good people to agitate for Africa, in Africa people are suffering more than all.”

Another Rasta, Papa Rocky, who has lived in Ethiopia for 30 years, holds a similar view.

He said: “I speak for the oppressed. I’ve been oppressed all my life, I’ve been beaten across my loins … I want to be what I am, an African.”

In 1947, in reward for their worship, Emperor Selassie gave the Rastas 500 hectares of prime land , 250km south of the capital Addis Ababa.

The first 12 families arrived in 1963, but after the overthrow of the emperor by Mengistu Haile Mariam, a Marxist military leader, the land was whittled down to 11 hectares.

However, the number of families has increased and today there are about 500 families, mainly migrants from the Caribbean, who all call Shashemene home.

The majority of Rastas live a holistic lifestyle, eating only vegetarian food and eschewing alcohol. Controversially, they also believe that marijuana is a gift from God. And their substantial intake of the drug has led to some suspicion from locals in Shashemene, many of whom believe that they have introduced it to their young. Read More.

The Zombie Chronicles

So after 24 hours of non-stop travel and almost 48 hours from a bed, I made it back to the land of safe vegetables and Diet Coke on Saturday afternoon. It was a long trip, but let’s recap the fun we had in Ethiopia.

One of things I like about travel is the unexpected things that you have to deal with in your new daily routine. Some are good, some are not so good.

The Good
An awesome alarm clock, probably the best in all of Ethiopia, that not only was a breeze to set each night, but also woke me up to “rousing” Ethiopian music each morning and I was able to hook my mp3 player up to it to use it as a stereo!

The best alarm clock in Ethiopia

Each night I got free treats in my room that rotated on a three night basis. One night was fruit, one was the dreaded veggies, and the other was dessert night! Some nights these desserts were so good that I would almost forget I was in the 3rd world.

Free dessert

A third thing, which is often common on these trips, is the lack of quality tv channels in my room, thus being forced to watch and enjoy stuff I might never take the time to watch. One such jewel was Black Adder! I had seen snippets of this show on BBC America or something every now and then, but since one of the four channels I watched was BBC Prime, I got to watch this show almost every night at 8:30. As a fan of most British tv shows, I must say this is one of the best. Plus, it stars the guy who would later go on to invent Mr. Bean, but talks a lot in this!

The Bad
Not everything at the Hilton was in “The Good” category. For instance, check out this nightmare inducing Children’s Menu! Is it just me or does this dog seem slightly sinister?!?!

Evil-childrens-menu

And then there was this in the bathroom… Is it a blow dryer or vacuum? Care to make any wagers?

Suck or blow

All in all, the trip was alright. If you or I ever end up in Ethiopia again, I’d highly recommend taking many trips outside of the capital Addis Ababa. The day I spent in the countryside was definitely one of my favorites and the stories and pictures from friends that took flights out to the regions made me jealous.

Above: Senator Obama chats with his sister Maya
(Photo: Hawaii for Obama)

Financial Times

By Edward Luce in Washington

Published: August 13 2008

Barack Obama yesterday netted the endorsement of three prominent Republicans, including Jim Leach and Lincoln Chafee, both of whom lost their congressional seats to Democratic opponents in the 2006 mid-term elections.

Jim Leach and Lincoln Chafee

The announcement boosts the ranks of so-called “Obamacans” and is likely to fuel speculation about the possibility of bigger names – such as Colin Powell, former secretary of state, and Chuck Hagel, the Republican senator for Nebraska – also endorsing the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Colin Powell and Chuck Hagel

Describing Mr Obama’s call for change as “more renewal than departure” and thus in line with traditional conservative principles, Mr Leach said: “This is simply not a time for politics as usual . . . I have no doubt that a lot of Republicans will be attracted to Obama in spite of the flaws in this year’s primary process.” Read More.

Real World Records

The first taste of an extraordinary collaboration between contemporary Ethiopian artists and Dubulah (aka Nick Page), bringing hidden gems from Addis Ababa back to England. Dub meets dreamy blues, hypnotic grooves, jazz piano and driving funk brass. Flavours of traditional Azmari singing, 70s reggae and Ethio-pop infuse one of the most alluring and soulful genres of African music.

This project brings together an extraordinary but little known African musical heritage, a labour of love recording in a makeshift studio in down-town Addis Ababa and then a journey back to Real World to capture for the first time ever in the UK some of Ethiopia’s finest performers.

This project is the vision of Dub Colossus – Dubulah – aka Nick Page. Composer, guitarist, bass player and programmer Nick started his music career with Michael Riley (Steel Pulse) and in 1990 formed Transglobal Underground with Tim and Hammi, produced-wrote-played six albums before leaving in 1997 to form Temple of Sound with Neil Sparkes.

Ethiopian music is the hidden gem of Africa. At the end of the Sixties and the early Seventies, Ethiopia was in the dying years of the imperial decline of Haile Selassie and the early years of a brutally repressive junta led by Mengistu. Within the confines of this stifling and constrictive environment there flowered some astonishing music. At times showing Fela Kuti’s influences, in the big band sax flavour and other times a different take on regional music, this is a music that is accessible to all and has been championed by the likes of Robert Plant, Brian Eno and Elvis Costello. The style of contemporary Ethiopia music captured by Dub Colossus ranges from dreamy blues, hypnotic grooves, jazz piano and driving funk brass.

“A Town Called Addis” was inspired by meeting , writing and working with singers and musicians in Addis Ababa in August 2006,and is a collaboration between Dub Colossus (Nick Page) and these amazing musicians covering Azmari and traditional styles as well as the popular singing styles of the 60s and 70s. It seeks to combine the golden years of ethiopique beats (popular again thanks to the release of the critically acclaimed ‘Ethiopique’ compliation ) and ethiojazz with the dub reggae styles of early 70s reggae groups like the Abyssinians, Mighty Diamonds and so on. along with a hint of Sun Ra…” (Dub Colossus/aka Nick Page)

The first sessions took place in a breeze block hut under corrugated iron roof bombarded by the sounds of the rainy season high up on the mountain plateau where Addis is built. “…the sound of children playing, dogs barking and women washing all permeate the sessions and help the flavour of the record, albeit as ambient smoke…..Although a howling cat chasing a rat under the roof destroyed one vocal take completely…!”

We brought these unique urban field recordings home to Real World to complete the picture. In March 2008 we invited a group of outstanding performers from Addis to travel to the UK. Some of these artists are unknown talents who have never traveled outside of their country before now, while others such as singer Sintayehu ‘Mimi’ Zenebe (Addis Ababa night club owner and know as the Ethiopian Edith Piaf ) and master saxophonist Feleke Hailu (a classical composer, lecturer and head of music at the Yared Music School and part of a dynastic tradition that stretches back far beyond the classic hits his father arranged for Mahmoud Ahmad in the late 1960s) have a huge reputation. They are joined by Teremag Weretow who, with his plaintive voice, playing his messenqo ( one-string fiddle) is a youthful carrier of an ancient tradition; extraordinary pianist Samuel Yirga is an exciting new discovery – a young prodigy of classical and Ethiojazz and finally the glamourous star Tsedenia Gebremarkos, winner of a Kora award as the best female singer in East Africa in 2004,

From the most primitive recording context to one of the best in the world, this project is an audio journey – and discovery of one of the most alluring, funky and seductive genres of African music.

Guelph Mercury

By Brianne Bovell

August 11, 2008

I have just returned from my first visit to continental Africa — to Ethiopia to be exact — and I have been trying to collect my thoughts, experiences, observations and reflections.

Although Ethiopia is quite different from Canada, it is not on another planet. The response of people when I announced that I was going to Ethiopia to visit my boyfriend (who is there on a law internship) revealed the impression, nonetheless, that I was leaving the galaxy.

These discussions exposed less about Ethiopia and more about the ways in which we learn about “other” countries — namely, through news clips.

But similar to the way in which one CBC headline cannot accurately capture Canada, no news headline could ever capture the incredible nation I just visited.

Ethiopia is one of the world’s oldest countries. The traditional dynastic reign began with King Menelik in 1000 B.C although the vicinity of Addis Ababa is where scientists believed humans first migrated from.

“Lucy,” as the fossils are named, represents the oldest remains of humans ever found, estimated to be 3.4 million years old. These fossils were found in the Ethiopia’s Rift Valley.

I cannot begin to describe the awe-inspiring sensations I felt as I toured Ethiopia’s National Museum and Addis Ababa Museum. I saw “ancient” as I had never seen it before. In the West, history is often taught as if the world “really” began with the Enlightenment — as if the “world that matters” is only 400 years old. Ethiopia was like historical kryptonite to this false notion.

The strength and the beauty of the African countryside really gripped me. Rolling mountains. Picturesque trees. Beautiful flowers. Patches of farmland between vast fields.

In between the rural cities and towns were small little collections of homes. Some straw. Some clay. Some stone. Most were small and circular in shape. Most of the people seemed to be involved in farming. It was all manual.

Donkeys were being used to till the fields. People were on their hands and knees picking crops. Everywhere, children were playing and working.

Like the capital Addis Ababa, the rural towns also had a heartbeat.

Road lanes were shared by minivans, mopeds, donkeys, street vendors, and kids playing soccer. A lot of the towns were largely dominated by open air markets, selling everything from gold to leather goods to clothes to freshly killed meat strung upside down.

And in true Ethiopian fashion there were coffee shops and caf?s everywhere. Coffee is so integrated into the culture and socializing that you cannot help but desire to stop at all of these places. And so I did.

Macchiato after macchiato. Coffee after coffee. In almost every restaurant or caf? there was a woman who roasted the coffee freshly over coals, straight from the raw green beans.

She would bring the coffee over to the table to allow the aroma to be sensed first. I relished the way incense would be placed on the table as part of the coffee ceremony as a way to enhance the sensory experience. One thing I noticed was there was no “take away” option anywhere. Coffee was meant to be enjoyed. Savoured. Shared with friends and family.

The poverty in Ethiopia was not the way it is often represented on television, where Africa is presented as some sort of never-ending desperation. Instead, it seemed to be woven into the society like a bright cloth, that never disappears, but isn’t always central.

Not everyone is poor.

The difference between here and there, however, is that there, poverty is never more than a few minutes away. You are never more than five-minutes walk away from a child who wants to wash shoes for any spare change you can give him. You are never more than five minutes away from a bone-thin pregnant woman who is begging for change for food. You are never more than five minutes away from a reminder of the inequality that cuts through this world.

But there is more to Ethiopia that its struggle with poverty. We think when we go to poorer nations we are “giving” to them in terms of aid money, medical donations, and aid workers. But this short-sightedness places us on a self-congratulatory pedestal that we do not need to be on.

Those in the non-Western world have just as much to give.

I know I left Ethiopia richer than when I arrived.

Ethiopians shared their culture, their history, their politics and their geography with me in ways that money cannot begin to measure. To reduce these nations to mere regions of poverty strips the people of their dignity and their equality to us.

We must celebrate this world, rather than divide it. We must learn about this world, rather than make assumptions about it.

And most importantly, we must keep an open mind and be willing to listen.

Everybody has a story to tell.

—
Brianne Bovell is a member of the Mercury’s Community Editorial Board.

Spotlight on Artist Fikru G/Mariam

Born in 1973, Fikru G/Mariam has been practicing art ever since his parents enrolled him at the Addis Ababa School of Fine Arts children’s program at the age of eleven.

In 1986, he takes part in the children’s competition organized by the International Children’s Painting Exhibition in Beijing, wins a reward and what was at the beginning just a hobby became a real passion.

In 1995, he graduates from the School of Fine Arts and decides to dedicate his life to full-time painting. At that time, most of his works were concentrated on religious and traditional african themes.

Fikru in his Paris Studio – 2005

After traveling in the Harrar region and in Northern Ethiopia, Fikru finds new sources of inspiration, especially in Harari women. According to him, those women are “highly decorative in the way they dress and do their craft” (The Reporter, 03/10/1999).

The Dream – 120×120 cm – Oil on canvas – 2004. Upcoming shows – 2007: solo exhibition National Museum, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 2007: May 1-30: solo exhibition, Galerie François 1er, Aubigny sur Nère (18700), France. Opening on May 5th at 5pm. 2008: summer: Galerie Alternance Guy Lignier, Hardelot, France.

Blue dream 100×81 cm Oil on canvas 2004. Painting by Fikru G/Mariam (Addis Ababa & Paris).

Over time, his style has diversified: some depict stylized, elongated African masks, richly decorated.

Between 1995 and 2003, he has exhibited 13 times in Addis Abeba, the last one was at the National Museum of Addis Abeba in February 2003. Fikru also showed his works abroad. In 1999, he exhibited for one month in Dublin (Ireland) and between 2002 and 2005 he exhibited 9 times in Paris and in different parts of France. In 2003, he participated in a group exhibition in Maryland (USA) and in November 2004 he will exhibit in Washington DC. In 2005, he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in Paris.

Now, Fikru shares his time between Addis Abeba and Paris. His works are displayed in many private collections in Ethiopia, France, Ireland, Spain, Germany, England, United States, Canada, Cap Verde, South Africa, Italy, and the Netherlands. Leran More about Fikru .

Related Stories:

London – In pictures: Ethiopia’s forgotten archive (BBC)

An exhibition of previously unseen photographs from Ethiopia between 1963 and 1982 is opening in London as the country marks its millennium celebrations. They were taken by Shemelis Desta who was the official court photographer for Emperor Haile Selassie. See More Photos, Click Here

By Liben Eabisa
Photos by Jeffrey Phipps

Updated: August 11th, 2008

New York (Tadias) – This past spring, I ventured to Gansevoort Street, the heart of the Meatpacking District in Manhattan, to interview Marcus Samuelsson at Merkato 55, his new restaurant venture named after the largest open-air market in Africa. Samuelsson’s dishes, a sundry assortment of appetizers and entrees hailing from all four corners of the African continent are paving the way for Pan-African fusion to be the next big thing for New York foodies.

Certainly, traditional African cuisine has long been around in this city, teeming with immigrants, and we have had our share of authentic Senegalese, Moroccan, or Ethiopian dishes, but what Samuelsson’s Merkato 55 aspires to provide to our palates is a distinct culinary adventure. It is as much a subtle re-introduction of traditional African flavors to the western taste as it is an advertisement for the continent’s food contribution to the world.

Simulating the architectural hues, warm brown colors and landscapes across the African continent, Merkato 55′s interior, designed by Dutch architect Menno Schmitz, is a two-story restaurant and bar, capable of holding approximately 150 people. It is the largest African restaurant in New York. It’s menu is equally daunting in its extensive offerings.

Above: Upstairs dining area . Photo by Jeffrey Phipps for Tadias.

Above: The bar downstairs. Photo by Jeffrey Phipps for Tadias.

Samuelsson, who was born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, is best known as the co-owner of New York’s finest Scandinavian restaurant, Aquavit. After having excelled at the Swedish side of his culinary heritage, Samuelson travelled extensively throughout the African continent, culminating his trips by sharing with us some of the most profound lessons that he learned about food and the sharing of food within African cultures, in his award-winning book aptly entitled The Soul of a New Cuisine.

Merkato 55 offers this new cuisine – a fusion of the old and new tastes, flavors, colors, and even sights of the scintillating diverse heritage of Africans.

“This is about adding something new to the New York landscape of restaurants”, Samuelsson says to me. “It’s an ambitious and grand New York African restaurant”.

It is indeed daring to launch the largest African restaurant in New York, bound not to one region or ethnic food, but rather infusing Africa’s indigenous foods with Samuelsson’s own chef-inspired artistic experiments.

Above: Marcus Samuelsson sat down for an interview with Tadias
on Monday, April 14, 2008 at Merkato 55. Photo by Jeffrey Phipps for Tadias.

Samuelsson is unpretentious about the fact that his African-inspired dishes might not have the same authentic taste as those dishes that he watched being prepared, and which he tasted on his travels. He points out that what most New Yorkers consider as African restaurants mainly consist of Ethiopian, Moroccan and Senegalese ethnic eats. He mentions to me some of the great ones such as Ghenet, Queen of Sheba, and uptown Senegalese eateries.

Merkato 55, however, is very much an effort to introduce the flavors of various African cultures not only to Westerners but also to each other as Africans. Samuelsson points out, “We are very proud of our own food, but we know very little about each other’s food. We know pan-African music, but we don’t know pan-African cuisine. An Ethiopian might know music from Mali, but not food from Mozambique”.

I can recall, in my case, not hesitating to mix an occasional meal of Mexican black beans and rice alongside Caribbean-inspired deep fried plantains, all in one sitting. But when it comes to Ethiopian food, I usually wouldn’t venture to use our kibe (spiced butter) or the fiery mitmita pepper on anything more than my favorite kitfo (beef tartar) or our traditional stews.

In true fashion, I had carried this same cautious tradition when I dined at Merkato 55 with Tseday Alehegn, editor of Tadias, and our friend Assefa, an Ethiopian New Yorker from Brooklyn. After scouring through the menu for something ‘Ethiopian’, and hence familiar, we settled on a main entree of Dorot Wot (chicken stew) and Dulet (spiced tripe) preceded by an appetizer of Plantain Chips and Spicy Shrimp Chili. The Doro Wot was familiar enough with the traditional injera bread and cottage cheese in the pot, but the Dulet took us all by surprise. It tasted nothing like the tripe we grew up eating in our parents’ and grandparents’ homes so we spent a few minutes debating whether it was really Dulet or not. Yet, it was the dish that we unanimously voted was the best tasting one. Needless to say, the only thing that mattered is that it was simply delicious. Now, of course, we know that we can eat Dulet in more ways than one.

This is the genius of Marcus Samuelsson’s fusion of African cuisine that brings creative “unity and harmony through food.” Samuelsson’s Merkato menu plainly asks us to be more assertive in our choices: How about a Berbere rack of Lamb with Grains of Paradise and Spring Garlic instead of the traditional Berbere with Injera? Perhaps even Grilled Shrimp Piri Piri as a side dish?

Beyond the borders that we place on what is or is not authentically African, there is a space, where Africa’s culinary gifts are not left relegated to basement ‘mom & pop’ stores – segregated into national and ethnic enclaves.

Samuelsson puts it more succinctly, “We are trying to show Africa in a different light, without the masks.”

How many of us know, for example, that the peanut butter that we fondly call ‘All-American’ was introduced to us straight from West African traditional cuisine? Rice, now a necessary global staple, has been part of the traditional West African diet since the 1500s and was successfully cultivated in the New World by the first Africans in the Carolinas. Spices such as coriander, grains of paradise and tamarind, and vegetables such as cucumbers and okra originated in Africa. Grains such as millet, quinoa, sorghum and teff, now popularly re-introduced in natural food stores as alternatives to wheat, have a long tradition of being served alongside spicy currys, breads or beans in East and West African cuisines. Even the beans for our daily fix of coffee are said to have originated in the Ethiopian highlands.

When we pause to reflect, we are already familiar with many of the ingredients commonly found in African-inspired menus. But Merkato 55 is bold – not only for mixing East and West, North and South, but also for unveiling the depth of African variety, the richness of the flavors, both those which are indigenous and those brought over to the continent through historical and colonial trade routes.

“I do know food and I have deep knowledge and love for African food” Samuelsson says.

And indeed it’s time for a true connoisseur of food to give Pan-African cuisine its limelight and to break down our self-imposed restrictions of how to savor African cuisine.

I have learned my lesson. After my interview, Samuelsson prepared for us Grilled Shrimp Piri Piri Baby Romaine, inspired by a dish from Mozambique. I also had a taste of North African Hummus and Baba Ghanoush, Spicy Shrimp Chili and Apricot Blatjang with Mint from the Kidogo Sample, which includes an assortment of African Breads.

Above: The Kidogo Sample. Photo by Jeffrey Phipps.

Above: Marcus Samuelsson prepared for us this Grilled Shrimp Piri Piri.
Monday, April 14, 2008. Photo by Jeffrey Phipps for Tadias.

Next time I am in the Meatpacking District, I may just as well try the Steak Dakar with Coriander Butter and Merkato Fries, and a glass of South African Wine.

——
Liben Eabisa is Founder and Publisher of Tadias Magazine.
Additional reporting by Tseday Alehegn

By Tadias Staff

Published: Sunday, August 10, 2008

New York (Tadias) – According to the Los Angeles Times, flyweight Molla Getachew Ambaw of Ethiopia has been dropped from the competition for failing to make weight.

Two other boxers, American bantamweight medal contender Gary Russell Jr and 2007 lightweight world champion Frankie Gavin of Great Britain were also disqualified.

Above: Legendary Abebe Bikila returns home with Africa’s first
Olympic Gold Medal. Bikila returned to Ethiopia as a hero.
Emperor Haile Selassie promoted him to the rank of corporal
position in the Imperial Bodyguard, where he served, and
awarded him the Star of Ethiopia. (tessemas.net)

Abebe Bikila: Barefoot in Rome (Time)

FOOT SOLDIER: Running without shoes, Bikila, an
Imperial Guardsman in Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie’s court,
pulls ahead in the 1960 Rome marathon (Popperfoto/Getty)

By SIMON ROBINSON

Wednesday, Aug. 06, 2008

A few of the other runners sniggered when they saw Abebe Bikila turn up at the start of the Olympic marathon with no shoes. As a television camera scanned the scrum of athletes readying themselves for the starter’s gun, a commentator asked: “And what’s this Ethiopian called?” It was 1960, Rome. Africa was just shrugging off the weight of colonial rule and some sporting officials still doubted Africans were ready for the big time. A little over 2 hr. 15 min. later that myth lay shattered by the slight man wearing number 11, a member of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie’s Imperial Guard and a proud African whose gliding, barefoot run through Rome’s cobblestone streets announced his continent’s emergence as a running powerhouse. Read More.

By Henok Semaegzer Fente

06 August 2008

Washington, D.C. (VOA) – In Ethiopia, the trial of a controversial pop star is raising questions about the independence of the judiciary and of the press. The government has arrested a journalist covering the court hearings and a defense attorney. Both men are expected to appear in court today (Wednesday).

Teddy Afro

Ethiopia’s rising pop and reggae singer Teddy Afro has been in jail since April. He was charged with a hit and run road accident and remains in jail after being denied bail. Teddy has pleaded non-guilty, and his attorney argues that prosecutors have not presented enough evidence to detain his client.

But as of Monday, the defense attorney, as well as a journalist covering the trial joined the pop singer behind bars.

Mesfin Negash, the editor of a weekly newspaper in the Ethiopian capital could be sentenced to up to six months in prison, if found guilty of contempt of court. Facing the same charges and also in police custody is Teddy Afro’s defense attorney Million Assefa, who was quoted in an article published by the paper. Listen to the Report at VOA News.

Related: Jailed Singer Teddy Afro: ‘A Political Symbol’ (LA Times)

Above: M.anifest will perform at the festival

“There are singers and musicians that include Wegegta, with their fusion of Ethiopian pop and jazz”

By Justin Schell ,
TC Daily Planet

August 05, 2008

The Twin Cities’ inaugural Pan-African Festival, which runs from August 6-11, will highlight the Twin Cities’ prominent place as home to thousands of immigrants from all parts of Africa. Bringing together artists from Minneapolis to Mogadishu, Nairobi to Kingston, Monrovia to Madison, and many other places throughout the African diaspora, the Festival will celebrate not only the artistic expression of the African diaspora, but also the possibilities for collaboration and alliance in the land of 10,000 lakes.

Organized by the Diverse Emerging Music Organization (DEMO), a Twin Cities non-profit organization dedicated to fostering new musical talent, as well as the Twin Cities music community as a whole, this year’s Festival builds on last year’s AfriFest, held in August 2007 at Currie Park. Organized by a number of the same people organizing the Pan African Festival, AfriFest brought together not only a number of Twin Cities-based musicians from throughout the African diaspora, but also the late reggae superstar Lucky Dube.

“We really wanted to build on AfriFest, but it was important for us that we keep it community-based and non-profit,” says Rachel Joyce, one of the main organizers of the Festival. Unlike AfriFest, which was a for-profit venture, Joyce believes that “we have the freedom to deal with our aesthetic and philosophical goals when you take money out of it.”

In addition to Joyce, the core organizational group of the Festival—all volunteer—consists of long-time First Avenue manager Steve McClellan (who in the past booked both Fela Kuti and Sunny Ade to the Mainroom), George Ndege, originally from Kenya and owner of Kilimanjaro Entertainment, and Neo Rowan, who’s originally from Lesotho.

The Festival is not just about bringing peoples of the African diaspora together, though. As the organizers began planning the festival last year, numerous Twin Cities arts organizations, venues, and institutions, including the Parkway Theater, Sound Unseen, the Cedar Cultural Center (where DEMO held its Pan African Showcase last year) and many others, were eager to join in the Festival’s organization.

“It just all came together,” Joyce says with a smile.

The festival opens at the Cedar Cultural Center, at the heart of the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, home to many of the immigrants from all over Africa who have made the Twin Cities their home. Renowned Malian singer and guitarist Habib Koité, with his band, Bamada, will take the Cedar’s stage for a night of musical fusion of Malian folk and popular musics. On Thursday night, The Rake is organizing an exhibition at the Altered Esthetics Gallery in conjunction with the opening of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” exhibit, featuring music by the Wallace Hill Art & Drum Ensemble, as well as featuring art by Rabi Sanfo, who hails from Burkina Faso.

On Friday night, Mezesha Entertainment, which recently brought Kenyan singer and rapper Nonini to the Twin Cities, will be organizing “Safari: An Afro-Caribbean Experience,” as well as a reggae dance night on Sunday night. The riddims of Sunday night will follow the screening of three documentaries at the Parkway Theater: Hip-Hop Colony, which chronicles the rise of hip-hop in Kenya; Africa Unite, which follows the musical and familial progeny of Bob Marley in a celebration of what would have been his 60th birthday; and Music is A Weapon, the outstanding portrait of Fela Kuti, with rare interviews with the Afro-Beat pioneer and musical legend, as well as concert footage from inside his political and musical headquarters the Shrine and the Kalakuta Republic.

The majority of the music, however, will take place on Saturday. A slew of artists from across the artistic and geographic map will perform both inside and outside the Nomad World Pub. In addition to two dance groups, Diaspora and KUT Dance, there are singers and musicians that include Wegegta, with their fusion of Ethiopian pop and jazz, the Liberian singers F.A. and Munnah Myers, guitarist and singer Wain McFarlane, and the Liberian MC Z-Plus and headliner MC M.anifest, the dazzling wordsmith who calls both Accra, Ghana and Minneapolis home.

Just as Saturday closes with hip-hop, the festival itself will close with K’naan at First Avenue. The Somali-by-way-of-Toronto MC, who doesn’t shy away from the topics of violence and death in his native Somalia, is possessed with inventive wordplay that could stand its ground against any MC, is quickly becoming an icon of rap’s circuitous global proliferation. Black Blondie and The Usual Suspects will open. The latter group features their own Somali MC, Free One, who grew up a mere five blocks from K’naan while living in Toronto’s Dixon housing projects.

In the end, the organizers of the Festival, as well as many of the artists performing, see the as making a social statement for long after the festival’s over. Joyce says that the Festival is an attempt to use music as an agent for social change and social dialogue. “The Twin Cities are in a really interesting position globally to show how you do this right,” she said, “how you accept new neighbors and make them a meaningful part of your community.”

Similarly, McClellan, one of the founders of DEMO, sees the Festival as part of a larger motivation by the group to engaging with social issues. In his words, instead of just booking shows, he wants to DEMO “to make music a conduit to the bigger issues involved in both our local community and overall social change.

“I want people to come together and realize that other people they live next door to are NOT as scary or abnormal as they thought. I want people to come away with the realization that this community has changed and putting up fences and barriers only stalls the inevitable.”

—
Pan African Festival and AfriFest
Pan African Festival includes music, movies, dance, spoken word and hip hop and more, August 6-11. AfriFest, August 14-17, includes business expo, soccer tournament and performances
612.281.6318. Read more at: TC Daily Planet

Source: A. Lavin Communications

August 5, 2008

NEW YORK – A professor at The Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) is beginning an intensive program in Ethiopia this August to eradicate intestinal worms which affect as much as 50 percent of the population in Africa.

BGU Professor Zvi Bentwich, who heads the Center for Tropical Diseases and AIDS in Israel (CEMTA), believes there is a possible connection between the AIDS epidemic in Africa and intestinal worms, one of the many Neglected Tropical Diseases which affect nearly one quarter of the world’s population.

Prof. Bentwich believes that intestinal worms can affect the immune system in such a profound way that it has a major impact on one’s susceptibility to HIV and tuberculosis, and in coping with these diseases when they are already there. “As head of the largest AIDS center, I dealt with a large number of Ethiopian HIV and AIDS patients, and through them became aware of the magnitude of this problem in Ethiopia,” he says.

The first stage of the operation to deworm about 30,000 people from three separate locations in Ethiopia begins in August. In the fall, the research project will focus on the town of Mekele in northern Ethiopia with approximately 250,000 inhabitants.

The program combines the provision and administration of antihelminthic medications, a few pills every four to six months, with hygiene education and information on how to protect populations from exposure to the parasites.

“NTDs are one of the most evident hallmark signs of poverty and neglect, significantly contributing to the persistence of this situation in a very large number of countries in Africa, Asia and South America,” Bentwich explains. “They have been largely neglected by the Western developed countries, since they are practically nonexistent there. “It costs much less than what it takes to fight the more recognized epidemics like AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.”

BGU is partnering with Global Network for the Fight against Neglected Tropical Diseases to help populations across Africa, including Ethiopia. The project is being funded by an international coalition of nonprofit organizations.

Alaskans for Obama: A Rare Democratic Push in the Last Frontier (Washington Post)

By Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 5, 2008; Page A04

ANCHORAGE — In what might be the fullest realization of Barack Obama’s pledge to run hard in parts of the country largely untouched by presidential campaigning, the Democrat’s Alaska operation is making plans for organizers to hopscotch the state’s vast and sparsely populated interior by bush plane, knocking on doors in remote outposts for their candidate.

“Go around, put up signs, shake some hands, see some of the important people in the village,” said state representative and professional pilot Woodie Salmon (D), describing his own campaign tactics in a legislative district that includes 94 villages, 70 of which can be reached only by air. “Get things stirred up and leave again.”

Conservative and quirky, Alaska last went for a Democratic presidential candidate 44 years ago. No nominee from either party has even visited since Richard Nixon’s journey to glad-hand in Anchorage on the last weekend of the 1960 campaign, a stop that some argue cost him the razor-thin election.

Obama, who often boasts of having visited the other 49 states, has yet to commit to a stop here. But his vibrant campaign operation here is stoking expectations and mounting the most prodigious presidential effort Alaska has seen. Read More.

—
Today’s Headlines:
Morgan Freeman injured in car wreck (Reuters)

Ethiopia faces a new food crisis (Los Angeles Times)

Plane crashes into Oregon house, kills 3 children (Reuters)

Pakistani Suspected of Qaeda Ties Is Held (NYT)

Obama backs some drilling, tapping oil stockpile (AP)

Above photo: undispatch.com

UN council disbands Eritrea-Ethiopia border force (Reuters)

By Louis Charbonneau

Thu 31 Jul 2008

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council voted on Wednesday to disband its peacekeeping mission to the volatile border between Eritrea and Ethiopia after Eritrea forced out most of the U.N. troops.

The mandate for the 1,700-strong force expires on Thursday. The council unanimously approved a resolution drafted by Belgium that calls for the mission to be terminated and all peacekeeping personnel to be withdrawn.

The resolution calls on the two sides “to show maximum restraint and refrain from any threat or use of force against each other, and to avoid provocative military activities.” Read More.

Above: Ethiopian-born Liya Kebede is one of the cover
models on the Vogue Italia’s first-ever “Black Issue”
(“Modern Luxe” by Steven Meisel)

Vogue Italia’s Black Issue spurred by Obama (Reuters)

By Jo Winterbottom

Wed Jul 23, 2008

MILAN (Reuters Life!) – Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani says the spur for July’s first-ever “Black Issue” of the fashion magazine came in part from Barack Obama’s progress en route to becoming Democratic presidential candidate.

And partly because she wasn’t impressed with the current crop of look alike models with no personality.

“America … is ready for a black president, so why are we not ready for a black model?,” Sozzani said in an interview with Reuters.

Model Covers: Liya Kebede, Jourdan Dunn, Naomi Campbell & Sessilee Lopez

“I was in America on ‘Super Tuesday.’ Of course it influenced me in a way … it was part of my general idea,” she said.

That general idea became an issue featuring over 20 black models ranging from Naomi Campbell to relative newcomers such as Britain’s Jourdan Dunn who takes pride of place on the cover.

Sozzani, who has been at Vogue Italia for 20 years, said she was also attracted by the strong personalities of the black models.

“At the moment, I really don’t like any girls on the runway. They are all beautiful, amazing, long legs, beautiful eyes, but they all look alike,” she said.

“No girl really impressed me. The only one was Liya Kebede, she’s so elegant, she’s so chic,” Sozzani added, referring to the Ethiopian-born model who is also a goodwill ambassador for the World Health Organization. Read More.

–
200,00 Hear Obama in Berlin
In Berlin, Obama urges fight against terror (MSNBC)

Above: The walls fall down: Obama says countries must
overcome differences (NY Daily News)

The Associated Press

Thursday, July 24th 2008

BERLIN – Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama stood before an enormous crowd in Berlin on Thursday and summoned Europeans and Americans to work together to “defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it.”

Speaking in the Tiergarten, a park not far from where the Berlin Wall once divided the city, the presumptive Democratic nominee urged Americans, Berliners, and people of the world to work together for a better world.

“A new generation, our generation, must make our mark on history,” he said.

He told the tens of thousands who had gathered in front of the Victory Column that “the walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand.” Read More.

—
Foreign tour is media bonanza for Obama (MSNBC)

Above: Senator Barack Obama in the Hall of Remembrance
at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
(Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times)

Above: Sen. Barack Obama walks with King Abdullah of Jordan
as he arrives at Beit al Urdun in Amman, Jordan, Tuesday. (AP)

The Associated Press

Tues., July. 22, 2008

AMMAN, Jordan – Jordan, Israel and Germany aren’t normally known as swing states in a presidential campaign. But Barack Obama’s off to a fast start in his attempt to change that with an election-season tour designed to show him as a potential commander in chief, equally comfortable sitting down — presidential style — with kings and other foreign leaders.

“The objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people … who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to 10 years,” he said recently, evidently looking beyond this fall’s election to a second term in the White House.

That was in one of a string of network interviews he’s lined up on his trip, a journey that arguably will net him more media exposure in the real swing states — Ohio, Colorado, Virginia and elsewhere — than he’ll get even during the week of the Democratic National Convention later this summer. Read More.

—-
Iraq appears to share Obama’s pullout hope (MSNBC)

Above: Senator Barack Obama with Gen. David H. Petraeus,
the top American military commander in Iraq, in a helicopter above
Baghdad. (Ssg. Lorie Jewell/U.S. Army, via Associated Press)

Statement on U.S. troop withdrawal by 2010 follows meeting with al-Maliki

Obama arrives in Iraq with exit plans at the fore (MSNBC)

Above: Sen. Barack Obama speaks with a U.S soldier in
Afghanistan during breakfast at Camp Eggers in Kabul Sunday.
(AP)

He’s pledging to end combat operations within 16 months of taking office

The Associated Press

Monday, July 21, 2008

BAGHDAD – Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama arrived in Iraq on Monday, a U.S. Embassy official said, to meet with commanders and troops in a war he has long opposed.

Obama was expected to meet Gen. David Petraeus as well as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, although aides provided few details, citing security concerns.

Obama arrived as part of a congressional delegation that also included Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., following stops in Kuwait and Afghanistan. The delegation met Sunday in Kuwait City with Kuwait’s emir, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, and other senior officials, the Kuwait News Agency reported. Read More.

—
Obama on Ground in Afghanistan | See Video Below.

Above: Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, talks with
Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama during a
meeting Sunday at the Presidential Palace in Kabul.
(Ho / AFP – Getty Images)

VIDEO: Obama on Ground in Afghanistan (MSNBC)

—
Obama kicks off Middle East tour with stop in Afghanistan (NY Daily News)

BY MICHAEL MCAULIFF
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Updated Saturday, July 19th 2008

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama landed in Afghanistan early Saturday morning, bringing presidential politics to the battleground and answering criticism he’s never even visited the country he calls the central front in the war on terror.

The presumptive Democratic nominee left his hometown of Chicago on Thursday under a veil of secrecy, then took off from Washington for Kabul, where he landed at just after 3 a.m. New York time Saturday.

Barack Obama (l.) poses with an
unidentified Afghan official in Nangarhar
province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan on
Saturday. (Hong/AP)

Obama declared earlier this week that Iraq was a “dangerous distraction” from hunting down Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and that neither Iraqis nor the White House was doing enough to wrap things up there to focus on Afghanistan.

But he told reporters as he left Washington that he was not planning on making any demands on his swing through the war zones.

“I’m more interested in listening than doing a lot of talking,” Obama said. “And I think it is very important to recognize that I’m going over there as a U.S. senator. We have one President at a time, so it’s the President’s job to deliver those messages.” Read More.

Obama Opens a Foreign Tour in Afghanistan (NYT)

Senator Barack Obama at Bagram air base in Afghanistan with, from left: William
B. Wood, the American ambassador to Afghanistan; Senator Chuck Hagel; Sgt. Maj.
Vincent Camacho; Senator Jack Reed; and Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser.
(U.S. Military, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

Above: Canary Wharf at twilight. (This work is licensed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)

Ethiopian sues Xerox for £8million after bullying led to suicide bid (Daily Mail)

By Daily Mail Reporter

22nd July 2008

A Canary Wharf worker is claiming £8 million in compensation at an industrial tribunal today for the racist ordeal he claims he suffered while working for giant photocopying firm Xerox.

Engineer Nardos Mulugeta, 40, from Ethiopia, told how he was driven to attempt suicide twice after being routinely abused by a colleague who openly expressed racist views about ‘foreigners’ and support for the British National Party.

The bully wrote the word ‘Go’ in signing-in and job request books against Mr Mulugeta’s name and said he was ‘lucky he’s working with us – his grandfather used to work as a servant’, it was claimed.

Mr Mulugeta said bosses refused to let him attend a counselling appointment when he was referred by his GP. Read More.

Above: 24-year-old Ethiopian boxer Molla Getachew is preparing
for the Beijing summer Olympics and faces the biggest challenge
of his career. (Photo: Euro Sport)

Ethiopia’s unlikely boxer fights for gold (NBC)

Friday, July 18, 2008

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) – Ethiopia’s runners have won at least one gold medal at almost every Olympics since 1960. The country’s other athletes have been shut out.

Now a member of the Ethiopian team for the Beijing Games intends to fight his way onto the podium, against overwhelming odds.

Molla Getachew is Ethiopia’s only Olympic boxer, an anomaly in a country known for its superstar distance runners. His opponents are the last in a long line of problems standing between him and a gold, including a lack of equipment, no professionals to train against and a disapproving mother.

But when the Beijing Games open in August, he will represent Ethiopia in the 112-lb. flyweight division, a weight class dominated by well-equipped fighters from Mexico, Thailand and Japan.

“I feel sad because I’m the only boxer representing my country at the Olympics,” said the 22-year-old, who spends four hours a day training at an airless, grimy gym in the Ethiopian capital.
Read More.

Above: Ethiopians beleive that the true Arc of the Covenant
is housed in this building at Saint Mary’s of Zion in Axum.

Tourists flock to Ethiopia to see Ark of Covenant’s home (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

By Ron Csillag
RELIGION NEWS SERVICE

July 5, 2008

AXUM, Ethiopia – “And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height.”

Such was God’s commandment to Moses in the book of Exodus after delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

Along with the Holy Grail (said to be the cup Jesus used at the Last Supper), the fabled Ark of the Covenant has become not only an icon of modern culture, thanks mainly to Indiana Jones, but the most revered religious relic of all time.
And in Ethiopia, people really believe it’s here, resting in the Chapel of the Tablet in this northern town just miles from the troubled border with Eritrea.

Ark lore runs deep in this country. Copies of a 1993 book by British journalist Graham Hancock, “The Sign and the Seal,” are displayed everywhere. And every church in Ethiopia has a set of tabots, replicas of the Ten Commandments that were once housed in the Ark.

For one of the poorest countries on Earth to lay claim to the Ark does much to boost its image, not to mention its tourism.

The Ark was the portable wooden chest, gilded inside and out, adorned with cherubs and topped with a throne, that was constructed by the Israelites to house the Ten Commandments during their 40 years of desert wanderings to the Promised Land.

But it was also a kind of supercharged electric capacitor – a telephone line directly to God, who instructed that if the device was set up just right, “There, I will meet with thee.”

Whoever possessed the Ark was invincible. “Biblical and other sources speak of the Ark blazing with fire and light . . . stopping rivers, blasting whole armies,” Hancock writes in his book.

The Bible says the Philistines had it for a while but were smitten by “swellings” for their troubles.

Taken to King Solomon’s first Jewish temple, it lay in the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies. But according to Jewish tradition, it vanished during (or after) the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple in 586 B.C., creating one of the greatest mysteries of all time.

Except in Ethiopia, where many educated people believe the real Ark rests in the Chapel of the Tablet, where it was moved from an adjacent 10th-century cathedral because divine “heat” from the relic had cracked the stones of its previous sanctum.

As the story goes, the Queen of Sheba, one of Ethiopia’s first rulers, traveled to Jerusalem to partake of King Solomon’s wisdom. On her way home, she bore the king’s son, Menelik.

After Menelik went to Jerusalem to visit his father, Solomon gave him a copy of the Ark and commanded that officials of his kingdom travel back to Ethiopia to settle there.

But the royal entourage that was traveling to Ethiopia could not bear to be away from the Ark, so they switched the copy with the original and smuggled the real thing out of the country. Menelik learned of this only on his way home and reasoned that since the Ark’s powers hadn’t destroyed his entourage, it must be God’s will that it remain in Ethiopia. Read More.

Ethiopia bans nude pics (News24, South Africa)

June 27, 2008

Addis Ababa - Ethiopia has slapped a ban on what had been billed as the Horn of Africa nation’s first exhibition of nude photography, the photographer behind the show said on Wednesday.

Biniam Mengesha, 28, told AFP he had been planning to show 45 photos at the unprecedented exhibition – titled “Black Diamonds” – in the capital Addis Ababa from Friday through to July 4.

“Authorities from the ministry of culture asked me to submit my photos before the exhibition was inaugurated. Afterwards, they said: ‘This isn’t art, it’s pornography’,” Biniam said.

“The photographs are fine art and include partial nudity aided by digital photography. Had it not been censored, it would have been the first in our country.”

Biniam said he is arranging to show his images elsewhere in Africa in two months time. Culture ministry officials declined to comment.

Ethiopia is a largely conservative society, whose 81 million people are mostly Orthodox Christians and Muslims.

Above: Morocco’s Benjalloun Abdessalam (C) fights for the
ball with Ethiopia’s Grum Siyoum (R) during their 2010 World
Cup qualifying soccer match in Casablanca May 31, 2008.
REUTERS/Rafael Marchante(MOROCCO)

Ethiopia get off the mark (FIFA)

Saturday 14 June 2008

On matchday three of Africa’s second qualifying round for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™, Ethiopia defeated Mauritania 1-0 yesterday in the battle of the bottom sides in Group 8.

The win gives the Walyas their first three points of the campaign, although they still have it all to do to catch joint leaders Morocco and Rwanda, who put their 100% record on the line when they go head-to-head on 14 June in Kigali.

The 40,000 crowd at the Olympic stadium in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott witnessed a fiercely fought game between two sides desperate to get their first points on the board. In the end, however, a late lapse in concentration by the locals allowed Ethiopia to steal all three points with a Said Salahddine strike two minutes into added time.

(AFP)

Despite moving into third place in the group, the Walyas still have a negative goal difference of -3. However, it is marginally better than that of the hapless Mauritanians (-7), who remain rooted to the foot of the table with three defeats from three games. Read More.

Related: FIFA Suspends Ethiopia With Immediate Effect

By Tadias Staff

Published: Thursday, June 19, 2008

New York (Tadias) – Continuing the celebration of the Ethiopian Millenium, BINA Foundation is hosting an interfaith panel discussion this Sunday in Harlem. Ethiopia has the unique position of being home to three of the world’s largest monotheistic traditions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Traditional legends trace their Jewish heritage to the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon and the journey of the Arc of the Covenant from Israel to the highlands of Ethiopia. Surviving copies of the holy Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees were found and preserved in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia’s ancient practice of Eastern Orthodox Christianity and the translations of the Bible into Ge’ez occurred as far back as the 5th century A.D. with the advent of Syrian monks fleeing Byzantine persecution. And before the first Hijra to Medina, the prophet Mohammad sent his family to Ethiopia and they received refuge from a Christian emperor and one of the hadith or sayings of Mohammad urge that Muslims recognize the refuge that they received and that they abstain from war on Ethiopians.

Ethiopia’s distinction as an early sanctuary for the three Abrahamic religions will be discussed by panelists including: Dr. Ephraim Isaac, Director of the Institute of Semitic Studies at Princeton University; Dr. Ayele Bekerie, Professor of Africana Studies at Cornell University, Dr. Said Samatar, Professor of African History at Rutgers University; and Dr. Yohannes Zeleke, an archaeologist, anthropologist, and historian as well as the former curator of the National Museum of Ethiopia. The panel discussion entitled “Ethiopia: The Three Faiths” will be held on Sunday at 3pm at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

—
Learn more about the panel discussion at www.binacf.org.

US to give Ethiopia $70m in food aid (RTE News)

Wednesday, 11 June 2008

The US last night pledged $70m (€45m) in food aid for Ethiopia, where 4.5m people are in need of emergency food aid.

The US Agency for International Development said some 95,000 tonnes of food is expected in the Horn of Africa nation next month.

Ethiopia will receive an additional $10m in medical supplies, water services and other non-food aid.

Britain pledged an additional £10m (€12.6m) for Ethiopia on Monday, and UK officials were due in Ethiopia yesterday to assess the situation.

High food prices and the failure of rains have cast the country into a crisis reminiscent of its devastating 1984-1985 famine, which killed more than 1m.

The government says 75,000 children are severely malnourished in the country of more than 80m, but last week UNICEF gave a higher estimate of 126,000.

The UN World Food Programme has appealed for $147m to tackle the impact of the drought in Ethiopia, while UNICEF is looking for $50m. Read More