BOSTON: A diverse Ethiopan gathering

By Jennifer Schwartz, Boston Globe

American parents with adopted Ethiopian children who attended last Saturday’s Ethiopian New Year celebration in Cambridge’s Central Square forgot to adjust to “African time.”

Though the printed program slated the welcome ceremony to begin at 6 p.m., the Ethiopians knew it wouldn’t get underway until “at least 8,” said Binyam Tamene, the event organizer and director of the Ethiopian Community Mutual Assistance Alliance.

“You could clearly see the huge change in our community because half the crowd showed up according to the schedule, which Africans never do,” Tamene joked in his office last week.

The “Enkutatash” celebration – which drew more than 500 people for traditional food, dance, music, and ceremonies in celebration of the Julian calendar year 2001, which is used in Ethiopia – showcased a mixed crowd, signaling that the Ethiopian community in New England is expanding from a tight-knit core of refugees who fled war and political persecution in the 1980s to a more diverse and younger demographic, including adopted children.

“Adoption today is different,” said Tamene, explaining the growth. “Parents think it’s important to involve the kids in their homeland culture, and the parents want to learn, too. On the other side, Ethiopians want to feel like they fit in this new society. Hopefully, we can give each other a mutual sense of belonging.”

At the St. Paul AME Christian Life Center on Bishop Allen Drive, the crowd seemed to interact effortlessly amid the red, yellow, and green streamers – the colors of the Ethiopian flag – and the festive theme of renewal and revival.

Many of the American families found out about the event through Wide Horizons for Children, a Watertown-based adoption agency. Beth Gallagher and her husband, Brian, drove down from New Hampshire with their Ethiopian daughters – who are biological sisters – to attend the event.

Gallagher said she was trying to form closer ties with the Ethiopian community here since “there isn’t much in the way of diversity where we live.”

“We say that our family is half-American, half-Ethiopian,” she said, dressed in a traditional outfit that was given to her by the girls’ biological grandmother.

Years ago, the Gallaghers traveled to Ethiopia and fell in love with the country. For a people that have so little materially, she said, Ethiopians are overwhelmingly hospitable. At first, the Gallaghers adopted one child, in 2005. But when the grandmother could no longer care for the younger sibling, they adopted her, as well.

“We’re not religious,” said Gallagher, “but we knew our children were already out there in the world.”

Amy Zipf, a 30-year-old mother of three from Hartford, held her infant daughter, Tariku, while mingling. Her older girls are biological children.

“Since I was 18, I knew I wanted to adopt and retain the culture,” she said. “But I had no clue there were so many people who were in the same situation.”

Tamene explained that Cambridge is a hub for Ethiopians because of its diversity, intellectual climate, affordable housing, and school system, which makes it both large enough for opportunity but small enough to be manageable. As a result, it is home to the highest concentration of Ethiopians in Massachusetts – 4,000 out of an estimated 15,000 statewide, Tamene said.

“People tend to go where the settlers before them went,” he said. “We feel comfortable here.”

Tamene himself spent three years as a political prisoner before studying in Romania and moving to the United States in the early 1980s. He started the Ethiopian Community Mutual Assistance Alliance in 1991 to provide services to Ethiopians now living in the Boston area.

“There is a large adjustment for these families,” he said. “They sacrifice so much for the children; they give up professions and take on new roles. Sometimes I wonder how they came to understand the importance of education if they didn’t go through it themselves.”

Samuel Gebru, a 16-year-old student at Cambridge Rindge & Latin School and an advocate for the Ethiopian community, echoed the importance of education and youth empowerment.

Born in Sudan to Ethiopian parents, Gebru stressed the dominance of politics in Ethiopia, where democracy is still “in its infantile stages.”

“That youth are playing a bigger role and having a voice is somewhat revolutionary,” he said during the New Year event. “Ethiopians are very elder-centered, and they often see issues as ‘you’re either with me or against me.’ Youth see shades of gray, and tend to listen better and be open-minded.”

Tamene agreed.

“I see some kind of shift just beginning,” he said. “The older Ethiopians here can sometimes be too attached to traumatic events in the past. The youth care no less about their culture, but their discussions seem to be based on more democratic principles – and that’s the influence of American values.”

The New Year celebration sparked an “interesting idea” in the minds of some Ethiopian adults who are without children, said Tamene.

“They saw all these American parents with adopted children and thought, ‘Maybe we should be adopting, too.’ They are realizing that this culture of individualism allows people to do that. They don’t need to wait for the government to step in. And that sort of thing gives us hope.”