VIDEO: Message from Tegbar
Author: Elias Kifle
Ethiopian church musician honored in Washington DC
Ethiopian Community Finds Home In His Song
Church Musician’s Work Honored With NEA Fellowship
By Sandhya Somashekhar, Washington Post
Moges Seyoum
For more than 80 hours a week, Moges Seyoum works in the parking garage at the Kennedy Center and Lisner Auditorium. But that, he says, is only his job.
His profession is something more special: an ancient religious practice that has brought him the gratitude and respect of thousands of Ethiopians in the Washington area and in May earned him one of the most prestigious awards handed out by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Called the National Heritage Fellowship, it honors traditional and folk artists who make important contributions to the country’s cultural fabric. Among the other winners this year were a saddlemaker from Idaho, a Korean dancer from New York and the leader of a jazz band from New Orleans.
“It is an honor,” said Seyoum, 59, of Alexandria, taking a break between his two full-time jobs one afternoon. “I know that the people appreciate me a lot.”
Seyoum is a church musician, a highly respected position in the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church.
He is one of the world’s foremost experts in a complex style of song and chant in the Ethiopian church. He has memorized hundreds of hours of songs, is an authority on the church’s method of musical notation and has a rare level of mastery in a style of sacred dance.
The service is unlike most Christian services, involving the use of massive hand-struck drums and wooden prayer staffs with ornate bronze handles. The service can last several hours, during which Seyoum sings almost continuously.
On a recent Sunday at Debre Selam Kidist Mariam Church in Northwest Washington, Seyoum led a group of singers — all of whom he taught — in a six-hour ceremony commemorating the day they believe Jesus ascended to heaven after being resurrected.
The ceremony began at 1 a.m., although most of the more than 1,000 worshipers in diaphanous white wraps who came to watch did not begin trickling in until about 5 a.m.
Incense clouded the air of the main hall as Seyoum and about a dozen white-robed men sang in Ge’ez, the holy language of the Ethiopian church. They danced intermittently, moving their staffs with slow, swaying movements. Seyoum’s voice rang out above the rest, his eyes rolling heavenward as he shifted from high, clear notes to low, growling ones.
The services bring the community many of the sights, sounds and smells of home, some congregants said.
“There are so many things we miss from Ethiopia,” said Bililign Mandefro, 62, one of Seyoum’s students. When Seyoum sings, he said, “it is a reminder. This is a moment when you are really taken back to your roots.”
Seyoum is credited with helping to popularize the Ethiopian church in the Washington area, home to a substantial Ethiopian population. The church, which had a handful of members when it was founded in 1987, sees as many as 2,000 visitors during special ceremonies.
The growth is fueled in part by a steady stream of immigrants who numbered more than 30,000 last year, according to the Census, a number some say is low. But church leaders say the increase in attendance is also because of Seyoum’s accomplishments.
In addition to his jobs and religious studies, he teaches classes every Saturday, passing on to a new generation of Ethiopian Americans what he began learning from his father at age 8.
“This is no simple thing he does,” said Kay Shelemay, a Harvard University professor and ethnomusicologist who nominated Seyoum for the award.
“He is an immigrant, and he is struggling to have a home and to keep body and soul together in a new country. And then he has really established a wonderful musical liturgical program at his church.”
Seyoum is the first Ethiopian American to be given the fellowship, which includes a $20,000 award, since its inception in 1982. Seyoum said he hopes to use the money for living expenses while he writes a book of church music.
He and this year’s other 10 winners will be honored at a ceremony and banquet in Washington in September.
Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.
Donors give $847 million to cut poverty in Ethiopia
EDITOR’S NOTE: The World Bank and U.K. are well aware that the money doesn’t go to ‘cut poverty’. It goes to subjugate and terrorize the people of Ethiopia and Somalia.
ADDIS ABABA ( Reuters) — Donors funding Ethiopia’s programmes to cut poverty said on Friday they would provide $847 million in 2008/09 for projects such as free education and distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets.
The World Bank and the UK Department of International Development (DFID) jointly gave the money to Ethiopia’s Protection of Basic Services (PBS) programme. Last year, they gave $573 million.
“After reviewing the results of PBS implementation since 2006, both the government and development partners are of the view that the programme has been successful and will be crucial in supporting Ethiopia’s plan towards poverty alleviation,” said Paul Ackroyd, head of DFID in Ethiopia.
Keniche Ohashi, the World Bank head said the PBS was the largest single development assistance in Ethiopia and that it would help the poor country achieve universal goals to halve poverty by 2015.
Under the PBS programme, an extra three million children and 65,000 teachers were now in school since 2006, Ackroyd said.
A total of 24,000 insecticide-treated bed nets have been distributed so far in 2008 compared with 2,700 in 2006 and as a result, new malaria cases have dramatically dropped to 370,315 in 2007 from 780,019 in 2006, he said.
Donors had also raised an extra $200 million out of the $420 million that the government says it requires for humanitarian needs. Efforts were also underway to raise a further $150 million, Ackroyd added.
The fund will distributed to the U.N. World Food Programme and other agencies and will be used to purchase food, fertilizers and for other humanitarian purposes, he said.
World Bank’s Ohashi said his organisation was considering helping Ethiopia with additional resources to mitigate against the external shocks of rising oil prices.
VIDEO: Ethiopian soccer tournament fails to score with fans
By Alysia Patterson, Medill Reports
WASHINGTON–The teams at this year’s African soccer tournament in Washington are playing to a nearly empty stadium. Ethiopian community groups have been boycotting the annual event until today to protest the tournament’s funder, a member of the party in power in Ethiopia. Watch the video below:
ESFNA takes steps to correct its mistakes
The Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) has taken a positive step on Thursday to correct its blunder by accepting $300,000 in donation from Woyanne businessman Ato Al Amoudi, a drunkard womanizer and a thief who calls himself “sheik.” (DLA Piper, take that to the court.)
ESFNA president Dawit Agonafer and public relation officer Fassil Abebe had called a press conference at the RFK Stadium in Washington DC on Thursday afternoon to answer questions about the controversy surrounding the donation from Al Amoudi.
Over 20 representatives of the media, including EthiopianReview.com associates, went to the press conference. The two top ESFNA officials have admitted that it was a mistake to receive the donation and that in the future they will be careful NOT to make such a mistake.
Both Ato Dawit and Ato Fassil have presented themselves in a professional and humble manner, and answered all questions with apparent sincerity. Their professional approach and admitting mistake from the outset disarmed all members of the media who went to the press conference to strongly challenge and confront them. Our arrogant, stupid, self-destructive politicians should learn from these two ESFNA officials how to handle crisis and address concerns of the public.
Al Amoudi’s photo was also removed from the stadium on Thursday after disgracing the annual event since Sunday.
The ESFNA officials explained that the money was received without the knowledge of the majority of the Federation’s executives. They said that an interview with one of the Federation’s officials on the VOA Radio broadcast to Ethiopia where he thanked Al Amoudi was uncalled.
Regarding questions about financial corruption, Ato Dawit said from now on the Federation’s financial books will be open to the public for inspection.
ER congratulates the Federation for taking these first positives steps, even though they are a little too late to save this week’s event since only two days (Friday and Saturday) left before it’s concluded.
The Federation needs to take further step and expel from the Federation the culprits, vice president Eyaya Arega, Secretary Samuel Abate, and board member Sebsibe Assefa, who have brought shame to the organization by trying to associate it with a criminal who is helping the Meles dictatorship to brutalize and terrorize the people of Ethiopia and Somalia.
The Federation needs to also keep its promise that it will root out corruption from its midst by instituting a transparent financial accounting system that is open for public inspection.
This is a victory for patriotic Ethiopians in the Diaspora, and a defeat for Woyanne and its hodam servants like Eyaya, Sebsibe and gang.
Questions for Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam
Ethiopian Review will ask the following questions at the July 6 (Sunday) public meeting in Washington DC with UDJ representatives Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam and Ato Asrate Tase.
We encourage the UDJ representatives to study these questions in advance and give us honest answers. We look forward to the discussion the respected human rights activist and his colleague.
1. Is UDJ the old Kinjit with a different name or is it a new organization?
2. If the answer is that it is the old Kinjit
a) what is the status of the Kinjit 8-point proposal?
b) Kinjit does not recognize the Woyanne-dominated election board’s legitimacy. One of the main demands of the Kinjit 8-point proposal is that the election board should be free from Woyanne control. So why are you currently seeking the approval of the illegitimate election board?
c) Why didn’t you keep Kinjit’s name?
If the answer is UDJ is is a new organization, under what authority are you using the funds that were collected for Kinijit to help it carry out its program, including the 8-point proposal which you seem to have abandoned?
3) In more than one occasion you have claimed that ‘peaceful struggle has not started in Ethiopia.’ Following the 2005 elections, 26,000,000 Ethiopians have come out and voted for change, thousands of unarmed pro-democracy protesters have paid the ultimate sacrifice, many more have been detained in Nazi-type concentration camps… So on what basis are you arguing that ‘peaceful struggle has not started’ in Ethiopia?
4) In one of your recent interviews you have labeled some Ethiopians and organizations that are waging armed resistance against Woyanne as “feudal” and “neftegna.” These Ethiopians are defending themselves, protecting their villages, homes, and families. Isn’t self defense a basic human right?
NOTE:
Kinijit Washington DC Metro chapter is hosting a public meeting with Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam, UDJ council member, and Ato Asrate Tase, UDJ secretary general in Washington DC, July 6, 2008.
Place: Washington Marriott
Address: 1221 22nd Street NW, Washington DC
Date/Time: July 6, 2:00 PM
More info: 202 541 0556