By Irena Knehtl, Buzzle.com
Zeritu Kebede’s songs are different. I became her fan after few minutes of listening tp her songs. Young Ethiopian artist Zeritu Kebede, nicknamed ‘Baby’, first burst into public attention when she impressed every one with her fresh style of singing in ‘Esti Mela Belu’ – Lets find a way out from HIV, a group song performed by selected artists, veteran and emerging artists. The group included artists like Alemayehu Eshete, Menelik Wessenachew, Tamrat Molla, Tsegaye Eshetu, Tighist Makonnen and Tsedenia G/Markos. Zeritu performed her part brilliantly, distinguishing herself both with her powerful voice, youthful face and a fresh inspiring style.
She told Selome Kifle in an extensive interview for Capitol, and Addis based magazine, that she wants public to expect good and different songs from her. She and Elisa Melks worked hard on her first album, named “Zeritu”. It is a great album and it has won her wide audience. The album is “different” because she herself is “new”. She sings what she herself likes to hear when listening to the music. She wrote lyrics for ten songs in the album, one song was written by Abinet Agonafir, a popular Ethiopian singer, and another one jointly with Elias. She worked a year and a half on her first album, in which she raised different issues with varying song writings and composition.
Music has been a part of her since the age of nine or ten. A hideaway from books, she recalls. They would sing spiritual songs at elementary school. Her talent developed after fifth grade when her Math teacher discovered her talent. They formed a group. The Spice Girls came, she remembers, they wanted to be like them. They too believed in ‘girls power’.They begun to write songs and practice at her home. But she knew she wanted to sing and be a singer long before she heard the Spice Girls.
Zeritu creates music in terms as “rich. She says, she just sings her songs and does what she herself likes to see and listen. She fells that the present rebirth of Ethiopian music, an explosion in artistic or musical creativity and talents, is a visible improvement and one can notice that there are many positive changes. She does not think, this is the peak. She feels they can do even better.
She is not just creating new music, she is seeking to preserve her country’s musical identity. This evolving culture of dynamism is the rich resource that flows from heart and mind. She notes that there is a deep-rooted music culture in Ethiopia. This diversity comes in handy and serves as a background from which to develop. Ethiopia owes a lot of its rich musical heritage to its location and history. Zeritu believes that the potential of this heritage is poised for a big leap. New performers arrive on the scene and new ideas are being created all the time. The artist must hold on to all that is original within.
ABOUT ETHIOPIA
Few nations can boast the historic splendor of Ethiopia, evidence of whose extraordinary past is everywhere. Ethiopia is a nation of surprises, full of diversity and contrast. The oldest independent nation in Africa, is a land of stunning natural beauty. A rich diversity of culture and geography that will captivate the visitor. The welcome that comes from the mosaic of people with over 80 different languages and as many cultures is warm and spontaneous. The climate is dependent on the physical terrain and its position close to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, but for much of the year it is warm and pleasant in low-lying areas and cool and bracing in the highlands. There are two principal seasons, rainy from June to September, and dry for the rest of the year.
Ethiopia is a land of rugged mountains (some 25 are over 4,000 meters high), broad savannah, lakes and rivers. The unique Rift Valley is a remarkable region of volcanic lakes, with their famous collections of bird life, great escarpments and stunning vistas. Tissisat, the Blue Nile Falls, must rank as one of the greatest natural spectacles in Africa today. With 14 major wildlife reserves, Ethiopia provides a microcosm of the entire sub-Saharan ecosystem. Bird life abounds, and indigenous animals from the rare Walia ibex to the shy wild ass, roam free just as nature intended. Ethiopia, after the rains, is a land decked with flowers.
With a population of more than two million people, Addis Ababa is not only the political capital but also the economic and social nerve-centre of Ethiopia. Founded by Emperor Menilek in 1887, this big, sprawling, hospitable city still bears the stamp of his exuberant personality. More than 21,000 hectares in area, Adis Ababa is situated in the foothills of the 3,000 meters Entoto mountains and rambles pleasantly across many wooded hillsides and gullies cut through with fast-flowing streams.
2 thoughts on “The music of Zeritu Kebede”
“Let us find a way out from HIV” and from the Woyanne regime.
Zeritu Kebede, one of the young Ethiopian singers, says: “Let us find a way out from HIV.” She is unmistakably talking to her generation – the HIV victims and to us the old generation too, because HIV does not discriminate between young and old generation.
HIV has been one of the ruthless killers, destroying the young as well as the old Ethiopians, and no cure, with all the efforts that have been made so far to diagnose the disease, has ever been found yet anywhere in the science world.
No one knows for sure how HIV colonized the entire continent of Africa, and no one knows how Africa will get its freedom from HIV, the colonizer. We know, in the past, Africa worked hard to drive out its white colonizers and got its precious independence after a long struggle.
The colonizer of Africa has now become the worst one in all African colonial history or slavery. It has destroyed thousands of its young people and has left millions of children without parents – this worst colonizer is the HIV.
Ethiopia fought hard not to be colonized by any foreign power and had prevailed by keeping its people from being enslaved by any Italian invaders; however, this time, Ethiopia has become defenseless, powerless, leaderless, and penniless to fight against its worst enemy – the HIV.
Ethiopia, with all its border securities, moral and religious richness, does not know how its formidable enemy – the HIV – crossed its frontiers and held Ethiopia hostage for so many years.
One can defend the hungry by providing him/her food and drink; the homeless by providing him/her shelter; and the necked by clothing them, but how can one defend or help the HIV victims? Where one goes to get help to help himself/herself and to help others?
Can music help us to get out of HIV? Can poetry, drama, fasting, prayer, and the government help us to get out of HIV? All have been tried, and all have failed quite miserably to cure the disease – HIV.
Music, poetry, drama, and the government may have failed to cure the HIV patient because they are composed by human beings and approved by a government weaker than the composers themselves.
In the old days, music was able to drive out demons or evil spirits from demon-possessed people. For example, when Saul, king of Israel, was being tormented by an evil spirit, the young boy David who was serving the king at that time was a well-known harpist in Bethlehem, and as soon as the evil spirit began to torment Saul, David would quickly take his harp and play in front of Saul, and the evil spirit would leave Saul unharmed (1Samuel 16:14-23).
How many great musicians such as Tilahun Gessese, Hirut Desita, Ahimud Mohammed, Michael Jackson, Jennet Jackson, Yolanda Adam, Zeritu Kebede, and many others have played their great music to the IV victims, and many of these HIV victims have been cured from their evil disease – the HIV? As far as I know, no one of these HIV victims has been cured by hearing these melodious songs from a variety of musicians.
How come, then, the harpist boy David was able to drive out an evil spirit from King Saul by just playing his harp? Which one is easier, to drive out an evil spirit from a person or to cure an HIV victim?
Why are our musicians unable to save a single HIV victim through their lovely music? The answer to this question is simple because we cannot compare our today’s musicians with David the harpist, for David had the Spirit of God, a special spirit that drives out the evil spirits, that enabled David to kill a lion and finally to kill Goliad the giant. Our musicians don’t have this type of spirit, and no one gets the spirit of David unless one is selected by God for God’s special purpose.
As a boy and shepherd, David was chosen early by God to be the future leader of Israel and from that time on the Holy Spirit had been with him, and that is why he was very successful in all his campaigns against his enemies, the philistines.
Our music has failed to help the HIV victims, but what about our prayers and fasting? If we don’t have the spirit of David when we fast and pray to cure the HIV victims, then no matter how much we pray and how many days we fast, we will have no power to cure any HIV victims.
We have to have strong faith and the Holy Spirit in order to do a good job against the HIV and many other diseases. I’m sure there are many people somewhere who ask the question why they have failed to cure the HIV victims through their music, prayers, and fasting. Well, when some of Jesus’ disciples failed to cure an evil possessed boy, these disciples asked Jesus why they had failed to cure the boy. Jesus replied: ‘Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you’ (Matthew 17:19-20).
David had been a faithful servant of God throughout his life on this earth, so if we have faith like David we can eliminate HIV from this earth for ever, but we don’t have enough faith to do such a miracle.
If the spiritual people, the musicians, and the physicians have failed to cure HIV victims; then government has to come up with its own effective plan, and the only effective plan that a government can do to its own people is to tell the people to abstain from sex or to use condom whenever a person is sexually active.
Therefore, we may not “find a way out from HIV” at this particular time, but we may find a way out from the Woyanne regime either using an overwhelming force or using vigorous and peaceful negotiation with the Meles regime.
As an Ethiopian, my HIV is, to tell the truth, Meles Zenawi (Seitanawi); I can protect myself against the disease HIV by using abstinence or condom, but what kind of protection do I have against Meles Zenawi, my serious HIV?
My friends have extensively written comments, articles, even books, and have demonstrated in the streets of Addis Ababa, and in the streets of other foreign cities to get rid of Meles Zenawi, but he is still there, and no cure has been yet found for this type of HIV – Meles Zenawi, my HIV and the HIVs of many other Ethiopians here at home and abroad.
hi zeritu /baby
this is craze life, and through this it’s u make me sing u’re everyline ,u’re every word , u’re everything, you,re every song,and i sing along cos u’re our evrything.speshally 4 me
best regards
henok [email protected]