I didn’t visit you for I was sick

“One long ailing man who wished to be visited by his friends and relatives spent the time of his sickness alone without any visitor until he recovered. Then after, he went to every of his friends and relatives with a gift of vegetables satirically saying, ‘I didn’t visit you for I was sick’”

Limenih Taddese remarked in such a way when asked of his message to his fans.

It is to be remembered that Limenih has been sick when he was in America and that there were some concerted efforts to help him. ADDIS TIBEB had also covered these efforts.

Despite the fact that he was brought home to his families in Ethiopia, his conditions couldn’t improve. According to a report by the weekly Amharic Addis Admas, he is found sympathetic in a stressful and bizarre state of mind. Clad in shabby clothes, he usually sketches drawings on papers and wants people to buy him.

He is mesmerized and perplexed in his conversations. Responding to the question whether he needs help he said, “I would be happy if I get some money to change my clothes and drink coffee.” However, he doesn’t want to feel as one expecting alms and receive money freely. He wants people to buy him his drawings.

Given his pioneering role being a significant artist who laid the foundation for today’s Ethiopian comedy and who contributed his best during his time, he shouldn’t be bothered as to how he makes a living, according to Abraham Wolde. Nevertheless, nobody is observed taking the initiative to help him except few.

“When I came to Ethiopia, I expected a number of people gathered at the airport to welcome me. But there was no one except my family members,” he laments.

Frenchs’ guarding language from all ills

Most political leaders struggle to speak fluently in a foreign tongue. Only the exceptional manage to mangle their own. Step forward France’s president Nickolas Sarkozy. Last year in a written parliamentary question, Francois Loncle, an opposition deputy, said the president “mistreated” the French language with his endless grammatical slips and “vulgar expressions”. He urged the government “to take all the necessary step to put an end to the president’s attack on culture of our country and its reputation in the world”.

When he was first elected in 2007 Mr. Sarkozy’s fondness for verbs over abstract nouns, and colloquial phrases over official waffle, felt refreshing. He may not have a literary mind, a virtue prized by Paris elite.

An article by the weekly The Economist entitled, “Sarkozy can’t speak proper” seems worth pondering over in the implication it invites for whom claiming to be guardian of their language and culture.
See full article here

Bewketu pens a new novel

Bewketu Seyoum, the renowned author and poet who achieved a wide acceptance and recognition to be a celebrated literary star of the time has released a new novel entitled “Megbatna Mewtat: Keastenagaju Mastawosha Yetekenechebe” (In and Out: Excerpts from the Waiter’s notebook.)

Set in a café called Beethoven in a German cultural instititute, the novel features the social interaction between two communities: the Germans and Ethiopian Students. The waiter playing the role of a participating character and observer narrates the story in a 1st person narrative perspective. There are different story parts in which different events, happenings and plots are told in a certain period of time in the café. Thematic and setting relation and the interrelation between the story parts serve as a gluing link between the parts in the formation of a uniform novel. Generally, the novel could be viewed as a big picture made of small mosaics on which parts of the big picture are painted on. Besides, the Germany and Ethiopian parodies like Nitzche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra add another glitz and glamour to the novel.

The story is dominated by round characters that do not stay long in the narration. This is what is behind the title of the novel (In and Out)-characters coming in and out of the novel.

Though some of the stories were published in newspapers, they are further extended and broadened to fit into the form of a novel by Bewketu’s literary craftsmanship. “Many don’t believe and realize that such writing pieces formerly published in newspapers would grow and develop into a novel. However, literary masterpieces like Ana Kerenina and some of Hemingway’s share the same story,” Bewketu remarks.

In addition to his previous publications: Nuari alba Gojowoch, Enkilfina Edme, Yesat Dar Hasaboch and his various newspaper and magazine articles, his recent audio CDs of witty and humorous narration could achieve him a wider public acceptance and applause. Simply speaking Bewketu Seyoum has become a household name in the current Ethiopian literary scene.

Ethiopia in Whitman’s pen

It was fascinating to me to learn the great American literary heavy weight Walt Whitman has poetry on Ethiopia. I couldn’t wait to post and share it.

Ethiopia Saluting the Colors

                                                  (Walt Whitman)

WHO are you, dusky woman, so ancient, hardly human,
With your woolly-white and turban’d head, and bare bony feet?
Why, rising by the roadside here, do you the colors greet?

(’Tis while our army lines Carolina’s sand and pines,
Forth from thy hovel door, thou, Ethiopia, com’st to me,
As, under doughty Sherman, I march toward the sea.)
  
Me, master, years a hundred, since from my parents sunder’d,
A little child, they caught me as the savage beast is caught;
Then hither me, across the sea, the cruel slaver brought.

No further does she say, but lingering all the day,
Her high-borne turban’d head she wags, and rolls her darkling eye,
And curtseys to the regiments, the guidons moving by.
  
What is it, fateful woman—so blear, hardly human?
Why wag your head, with turban bound—yellow, red and green?
Are the things so strange and marvelous, you see or have seen?

Teedy’s prison term reduced

The six year sentence ruled on Teddy Afro for the alleged crime he committed is reduce to two years on appeal. In consideration of the time he already served, he could be free very shortly.

Despite holding the guilty verdict, the judge Dagne Melaku reduced the sentence from six years to two on grounds that the victim was seen lying drunk and unconscious in the road before the accident-and that the police had failed to move him to safety.

Teddy has already spent a year at Kaliti that it is supposed he would only remain with less than year to serve, with an allowance for good behavior.

According to BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt, who reported the news no sooner than the closing of the appellate court, “groups of people gathered around streets hugging and cheering each other at the news that their favorite singer would soon be free.”
The judge confirmed the guilty verdict asserting that “they found the allegation that he killed a young homeless man approved by evidences.”

“Though his lawyer refused to present mitigating circumstances that would reduce the verdict , we have found the case that the victim was lying drunk on the street before the arrival of Teddy’s car , as a mitigating circumstance. The victim played the major role in the accident,” explained the judge.

Interrupting the judge’s speech of verdict Teddy asked permission if it is possible to explain. In apprehension of Teddy’s interruption of the court, his lawyer asked pardon justifying Teddy’s mistake in lack of awareness of a court procedure. The judge’s response to Teddy’s temperament was a reprimanding back slash, “you are not right. Immaturity is observed in your behaviors”

There is an enthused anticipation among Teddy’s fans of what he would come up with coming out of prison.

We respect every religion equally impartially:HIM Hailesilassie I

Here is a speech HIM Hailesilassie I gave on October 11, 1963 during his visit of the mosque in Asmara, Eritrea following the welcoming speech by the head of the mosque Sheikh Ibrahim Oumar Muktar.

I thought it would invite further reflections on the current Islam-Christian issue.

The speech is from the 2^nd volume of the book “firekenafir Ze Kedamawi Hailesilassie Niguse Negest ZeEthiopia.” (Witty Words of Mouth from Hailesilassie I King of Kings of Ethiopia.)

 

In rescuing Limenih

In the early days of the EPRDF government, one of the few TV entertainment shows was the weekly 120. There were program hosts and artists who bought the spirit of entertainment and inspiration to the then environment in which air was congested with fear and insecurity following the government change. Among these prominent artists Alebachew Teka and Limenih Taddese were the most notable individuals.

Their short comedy plays have cracked a smile on our faces and brought a relief to the daily routine at the time when entertainment alternatives were non existent except the only Ethiopian Radio and Television.

Limenih Tadesse has character that makes him unique from his friend. To start with his dressing, his short brimmed kitchen pipe hat with short coated black suit was his signature wear. His fair complexioned face accompanied by the movement of his witty eyes witness the wealth of humor and comedy Limenih is gifted of.

One who came across his shows or plays never forgets this man of witty comedy. Though he and Alebachew were household names of comedy during their time, it wasn’t long before they disappeared from the stage. They went abroad and many years passed without hearing of them.

Their exile is excusable, since they had no additional means of making a living than the TV shows for which they weren’t even paid what they deserve. Their time wasn’t a bed of roses for a professional like them compared to the current market for comedians.

After long, Alebachew reappeared on the scene from his long stay in Israel pioneering the first talk show-Alebe Show. His homecoming raised another question of Limenih’s conditions and whereabouts. The questions incited public rumors; some claiming that he’s gone mad and some saying he became drug addict.

However, long after the rumors, news seemingly credible began to appear. And more recently his fans and friends opened a Facebook account to publicize the event prepared to fundraise the rescue of poor Limenih who is in dire conditions.

I could get no clear idea of what happened to this man of cherished personality and wit.

May God send him cure and a way out so that we can laugh with him again.

I really thank abesheet in giving us the current information on Limenih and on her previous concern of these lost celebrities in her post.

Join the facebook group in rescue of Limenih here

Even on Bloody Feet

The November 10 issue of Newsweek magazine has come up with an article by the legendary Haile Gebresilsie entitled, Even on Bloody Feet.

I couldn’t surmise whether Haile himself wrote the article or some consultant shaped Haile’s narration into a well-written magazine article. I don’t often come across an African writer on TIME.  And I think it is a great privilege for Haile to impart his thoughts and experiences as an international figure on such renowned magazines like Newsweek.

In the article Haile relates his situation in the then Ethiopia ruled by military dictators at the dawn of his professional career.

He recollects the event on which he appeared in an official competition for the first time. It was a marathon race and the 16 year old Haile Gebresilasie had decided to push on through, despite his frail figure and ordinary wears.

In his persistence through the race his ‘locally made shoes made of flimsy rubber and canvas were coming apart’ and the heat from the sun-baked pavement was beginning to burn his feet through his worn out soles. But he made it being one of the top 100 runners.

“I swore I would never run again, but a week later I was standing in front of the regional president and an Army colonel who were reminding the athletes of our patriotic obligation to persevere. Though perhaps not in the intended way, the meeting inspired me to keep running. Sometimes we persevere in spite of what we are made to suffer and sometimes because of it,” Haile Remarks

See full article on Newsweek