By Vusi Moloi
I had never been to the AMC theatre on Yong and Dundas. The movie Teza was slotted for 5:30PM on Wednesday September 10 in the great City of downtown Toronto. I arrived here early and perched myself comfortably on the top row seat. Shortly thereafter, a sharp looking African descendent with a touch of sophistication took to the stage. He introduced himself as Mr. Cameron Bailey the Co-Director of the Toronto International Film Festival or TIFF for short.
TIFF is the biggest film festival in North America and ranks only second to Cannes Film Festival in the entire world. It’s truly a great honour to be counted among those attending TIFF. Mr. Bailey thanked everyone that had come and spoke enthusiastically about the award winning movie Teza. The audience became infected with Mr. Bailey’s fervour as he introduced the internationally celebrated Ethiopian film maker of Teza Mr. Haile Gerima.
It was a special privilege to have Mr. Gerima in front of us. He thanked the audience and spoke briefly about Teza. He considered himself an outsider telling stories from the point of view of the outsiders. He expressed a powerful concept that, through the film medium, he had created a territorial space of freedom where he could express himself freely along with his people without interference from the outside. As a corollary, he was able to accept the outcome of such a freedom because any imperfections were his and not somebody else’s to attribute to. As Mr. Gerima was leaving the stage, Mr. Bailey quickly brought him back to say that even though Mr. Gerima was making reference to imperfections in his film, in fact Teza had won five awards at the Venice Film Festival to which the audience responded with a strong round of applause.
The philosophical idea of creating his own space that allowed him the unfettered autonomy or license to fashion his own destiny unimpeded resonated with me. As a published author of A Goodbye To My Little Troubles I have tasted this kind metaphorical freedom and I have since embraced it without letting go.
The highly regarded Mr. Gerima is a Professor of Film Directing and Scripting at the prestigious Howard University of the USA in Washington DC yet his humility is refreshing and only tends to increase his stature.
The lights dimmed and the glorious appearing of Teza on the silver screen arrested our attention. It was a powerful and moving movie. I will not go into details here so that you can go out there and watch Teza. More people need to go out to support African films. In brief this is about a German trained Dr. Anberber who returns to his homeland of Ethiopia in order to serve his people. He finds a different world from the one he had left long ago. This irreconcilable contradiction of his childhood idealism and the harsh realities of modernity under the iron fisted and communist President Mengistu and the war that ravaged a beautiful country came as a stunning shocker. Abeye Tedla who plays Dr. Anberber renders a poignantly brilliant performance along with exceptional performances of other credible actors like Evelyn Arthur Johnson, Veronika Avraham and Aaron Arefe among others. The film underscores the relevant issues of identity crisis and the great struggle for African freedom.
At the end of the film, the director came to the front to join the audience. He was treated to a long standing ovation and most enthusiastic applause I have ever witnessed. It was such a heartfelt moment and a well deserved tribute to Mr. Gerima who has become a legend in his own right. Moreover Mr. Gerima was seemingly humbled by such outpouring of love as he repeatedly bowed solemnly to acknowledge his enamoured audience. He allowed the audience to pose questions and this writer asked about the part of the movie where a mixed heritage boy whose mother (played by Veronika Avraham) is German and his doctor father (played by Aaron Arefe) is Ethiopian. The boy struggles with his harsh experiences of racism while his father is in Ethiopia. The boy wishes for his father to come to Germany to rescue him from the clutches of a Eurocentric society that he finds racially inhospitable. I pointed out that this was a powerful story that resonates with many of us whose children are born in Canada but are not accepted as well as other children of an Anglo Saxon background.
Often these children, from time to time, come home with tears on account of the manner in which they were unfairly treated by some teacher or affronted by their peers at school by reason of their African heritage. I asked him as to what motivated him to include this story.
Mr. Gerima replied that he had met a girl who was crying and she said to him “speak for me” and this motivated him to add this part of the movie story. We met the director outside the theatre to thank him one more time. He was quick to shake my hand and I shall forever cherish this honourable moment with an internationally celebrated Film Director Mr. Haile Gerima and a proud son of the African soil.
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Vusi Moloi is a published author of A Goodbye To My Little Troubles and is also working on a documentary The Eyes of an Exile. A Goodbye To My Little Troubles is previewable online via Google Books.
ADDIS ABABA (IRIN) – Fewer Ethiopian parents are subjecting their daughters to female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM), according to an NGO campaigning to eradicate the practice.
“The knowledge [that FGM is harmful] is increasing,” said Abate Gudunfa, head of the Ethiopian National Committee on Traditional Practices (commonly referred to as EGLDAM – its name in Amharic]. “Children born more recently are safer.”
A network of 40 NGOs, including EGLDAM, the government and international organisations, are involved in anti-FGM campaigns in Ethiopia. Policies have also been reviewed to ensure participants are punished.
“Prevalence, especially among newly born children is decreasing – meaning that more families have sufficient awareness and do not support this practice anymore,” Abate added.
A 2007 survey conducted by EGLDAM found that prevalence across the country had dropped from 61 percent in 1997 to 46 percent.
Nine regions including Tigray, the Southern and Oromiya as well as two city administrations namely the capital Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa, showed the highest improvement.
Other regions recorded minimal change. “There is almost no decrease in Afar and Somali [regions] – the strongholds of infibulation,” the survey noted.
Assessing prevalence among various ethnic groups, EGLDAM found a decrease in almost all. Some 29 groups reflected a 20 percent decline, of which 18 were located in the Southern Region.
“Those ethnic groups …should be considered real success areas and given due attention as possible learning sites,” EGLDAM said. “Six ethnic groups show about or less than 10 percent decrease and should be considered as groups of probable major resistance to change.”
These included the Harari, Shinasha, Alaba and Hadia ethnic groups.
Old tradition
Female circumcision is one of the 140 harmful traditions still commonly practised in Ethiopia. Often female circumcision involves the removal of part of the clitoris or the clitoris and all or some of the labia.
In some cases, genitalia are sewn up, leaving a small hole for urine and blood to pass. When combined with excision, this is the most severe form of FGM, according to experts.
In some communities, the girls are secluded for a month with their legs bound together to immobilise them, as they wait for the bleeding to stop and scar tissue to form.
FGM is carried out on girls as young as 80 days old, particularly in the predominately Christian highlands, and up to 14 years of age in the lowland Muslim regions. Some excisors use the same knife or razor blade on all their victims, regardless of the danger of spreading infections.
Globally, an estimated two million girls are still at risk of undergoing FGM each year. Activists say FGM is deeply entrenched in society despite various efforts to stop it.
According to the Inter-African Committee, the practice is a serious health issue affecting women, helping to spread HIV/AIDS and responsible for high female mortality rates in Africa.
Double Olympic gold medallist Kenenisa Bekele will top the bill at the Bupa Great North Miles on the Newcastle and Gateshead Quaysides in North East England next month.
The 26-year-old Ethiopian, who in Beijing became the first athlete for 28 years to win both the Olympic 5,000metres and 10,000m titles, has confirmed he will compete at the event on October 4.
There are high hopes he can run under eight minutes, with back-to-back sub-four minute one-mile splits.
Eliud Kipchoge, who was runner-up to Bekele over 5,000m at the Bird’s Nest Stadium last month, is also entered, along with Australian Craig Mottram.
Bekele’s appearance however is a major coup for the organisers, and the event’s elite athletes manager Andy Caine said: “The Quayside race has in the past been held over 3,000m but we felt to add a little excitement, we would switch to two miles and hope Bekele can produce something extra special for fans to remember him by even after his tremendous Olympic successes.
“It’s a big ‘if’, but maybe if conditions are perfect he can cover the distance in under eight minutes which would equate to two sub-four minute miles.
“Yes, that will be tough but it isn’t a pie-in-the-sky theory.
“If anyone can pull it off, Bekele can, and I just hope there is a fast enough start to the race to see that a dream time can be achieved.”
MANILA — The Dominican Province of the Philippines is set to open the first Catholic university in Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, eastern African country.
The Order of Preachers Master General Fr. Carlos Azpiroz Costa, OP has appointed a Filipino Dominican, Fr. Virgilio Aderiano Ojoy, OP, to head the Ethiopia Catholic University of St. Thomas Aquinas (ECUSTA) in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
The initiative of establishing an educational institution in Africa came from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia (CBCE), which sought help from the Order of Preachers, one of the leading religious orders of the Church also known for its missionary and educational work. The Dominican Master agreed to send friars to put up the university, according to the Varsitarian, the student paper of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), Manila.
Under the memorandum of agreement between the Dominicans and CBCE, the Catholic university in Ethiopia will be owned by the Catholic Bishops of Ethiopia, but administered by the Dominicans.
“There was this world-wide search among Dominicans but the qualifications were quite stringent,” said Ojoy, who will be the founding rector of ECUSTA.
Among the key requirements to qualify for the position were the attainment of a doctorate degree in any field and an administrative experience of at least 15 years, which became Ojoy’s edge over other candidates.
“There are quite a number of Dominican priests with doctorate degrees in the Order,” Ojoy said. “But only few have 15 years experience in administration. For those who were qualified, their provinces were not willing to give them up.”
Azpiroz then asked the Philippine Dominican Province to provide personnel for the school, which will open this year in Addis Ababa.
The foundation of ECUSTA was highlighted in the Acts of the General Chapter of the Order in Bogota, Colombia last year, which noted that Filipino Dominicans have put up a community in Addis Ababa, the House of St. Augustine of Hippo, and that the opening of the new university, with five faculties temporarily at Nazareth High School, was “imminent.”
The chapter also cited the fact that the university would be an undertaking of the entire Dominican family, noting that the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, which runs Siena College in Manila, has been invited to join.
Meanwhile, the CBCE appointed last December priests Abba Tsegaye Keneni as project director and Abba Ketema Asfaw Weldeyes as vice-president of ECUSTA.
The university is expected to open this September.
“ECUSTA could operate starting September if the government would grant the permit to begin the school operations,” said Ojoy, formerly the vice-rector of UST.
Ojoy, who will formally assume the new post in January 2009, plans to focus on three areas—a strong skeletal force, a fundraising office, and adequate facilities.
“I will have a careful recruitment of qualified, competent and committed skeletal force, both from the Philippines and in Ethiopia,” Ojoy said, referring to professors, administrators, and a support staff.
Even though the university has been assured of a one-million euro subsidy from Italy, Ethiopia’s former colonizer for the first five years of operation, Ojoy still wants to have an office for fundraising.
Some of the proceeds from fundraising will be used to provide equipment needed inside classrooms.
The university will initially operate with five courses—Education Management, Literature, Philosophy, Arts, and Sciences.
According to Ojoy, the new staff and faculty of ECUSTA would be trained in UST and seek experts from UST to help in Ethiopia in the operations of the university.
Ethiopia is a progressive African country with a population of 83.1 million, 61 percent of whom are Christians.
The Orthodox Church has dominated education in Ethiopia for many centuries until secular education was adopted in the early 1900s. The elites, mostly Christians and central ethnic Amhara population, had the most privilege until 1974, when the government tried to reach the rural areas. In fact, until right now, it is only the elite Christians who have better chance to higher education. Languages other than Amharic are suppressed.
The current system follows very similar school expansion schemes to the rural areas as the previous 1980s system with an addition of deeper regionalization giving rural education in their own languages starting at the elementary level and with more budget allocated to the Education Sector. The sequence of general education in Ethiopia is six years of primary school, four years of lower secondary school and two years of higher secondary school.
Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent country. Apart from a five-year occupation by Mussolini’s Italy, it has never been colonized.
But the nation is better known for its periodic droughts and famines, its long civil conflict and a border war with Eritrea.
Ethiopia has an economic growth rate of seven percent. It has seven universities, the largest of which is the state-run Addis Ababa University.
Ethiopia is also one of Africa’s poorest states. Almost two-thirds of its people are illiterate. The economy revolves around agriculture, which in turn relies on rainfall. The country is one of Africa’s leading coffee producers.
Ojoy graduated cum laude in 1978 from the Dominican House of Studies. He then received a meritissimus in UST after finishing his Masters in Higher Religious Theology.
Ojoy finished his licentiate in Higher Religious Studies in UST and later earned his doctorate in Higher Religious Studies and another doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.
Among the academic positions which he had held in UST were acting dean and regent of the Faculty of Arts and Letters (1990-1991), secretary general (1991-1992), and vice rector (1992-1995).
At the Angelicum School of Iloilo, he was high school moderator (1983-1984). Ojoy also became a rector and president of Aquinas University in Legazpi City, Albay (1995 -1999).
Source: Santosh Digal, CBCP News
Witnesses in the southwestern Somali city of Baidoa say a gunman has shot and killed a member of parliament.
The witnesses say Mohammed Osman Maye was killed late Tuesday as he was leaving a mosque in Baidoa, where the Somali parliament meets.
In a statement posted Wednesday on its Web site, the Islamist militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the killing. It said Maye was one of the staunchest supporters of Ethiopian Woyanne troops in Somalia.
The group says the killing should be a warning to other members of parliament.
Heavy fighting broke out today between Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian Woyanne-backed government troops in parts of the capital, Mogadishu. Deaths and injuries were reported, although casualty figures are not available.
Sources: AP and Reuters.
