By Tim Townsend, STLtoday.com
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI — Most of the members of Debre Nazreth St. Mary and St. Gabriel Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church are part of the area’s working class. They are cab drivers, hotel maids, gas station attendants, casino workers and construction laborers.
Two years ago, the congregation lost all its savings — $128,000 — after handing it over to a man who promised to construct a church building for them in Jennings.
The building was never completed, the congregation never got its money back and many of its immigrant-members became disillusioned about life in their new country.
After collecting $140,000 over the last two years for another down payment — this one for an existing building — members of Debre Nazreth will dedicate their new church in Vinita Park today.
“We went through some terrible times,” said the church’s priest, Melakegenet (this is a title, like saying “the Rev.”) Belete D. Yirefu, through a translator. “But we had faith and look what we have achieved. We lost one church and we lost some money, but now we are happy.”
For a decade, the group rented space at other churches for $150 to $800 per month. But some of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s rituals — the use of incense, for instance — make it difficult for the congregation to use other church’s space. In some churches, Debre Nazreth, which has 300 members, was asked to hold its service in the basement.
And yet, members are grateful to those churches for taking them in when they had nowhere else to go. “Without those people allowing us to use their churches, we would not be here today,” said Gedlu Metaferia, a member of Debre Nazreth and executive director of the African Mutual Assistance Association of Missouri.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church traces its roots to the middle of the fourth century, when “a bishop from the Kingdom of Axum was consecrated in Alexandria and began the conversion of Ethiopia,” according to the HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism. The church split from the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Chalcedon in the fifth century over a theological disagreement about the true nature of Christ. The rituals and traditions of the church are ancient, and Sunday services can last five or six hours.
In 2004, the Debre Nazreth board began looking for a permanent home. It found a half-built church in Jennings and made a deal with the man who owned it, the Rev. Charles Roberson, pastor of Emmanuel Watertower Christian Ministries church in St. Louis.
Roberson had bought the property in 1996 for $45,000, records show, and began building a church a few years later. But in 2000, after a number of problems with the building, including a collapsed wall due to a faulty foundation, the city issued a stop work order. In 2004, the city told Roberson — who was acting as his own contractor — that he would have to begin the permit process from the beginning to resume building.
That’s when Roberson found the Debre Nazreth board.
The two sides negotiated a price of $305,000 and the board put down $3,000 in earnest money, then cut Roberson a check for another $125,000 in January 2005. The agreement, the board believed, was that Roberson would finish the construction of the church in two months, then he would be paid the remaining $177,000.
Months went by, and no work was done. The city’s stop work order had never been lifted.
Roberson did not respond to an interview request this week, but in 2006, he told the Post-Dispatch that he had done nothing wrong, and that the Debre Nazreth board had pressured him to complete the project without permits and out of sight of the city’s building inspectors.
“We did what they wanted, and when it went sour, they wanted their money back,” Roberson said then.
Debre Nazreth eventually filed a lawsuit, and in July 2006, the city of Jennings condemned the church building. It was demolished in December.
That same month, a St. Louis County judge ordered Roberson to pay Debre Nazreth $15,000, then $2,000 per month until he reaches $143,000 ($125,000 plus interest). The congregation’s attorney, Richard Abrams, said Roberson has paid only $500.
When church members realized they had lost everything, tension grew between the congregation and the board. Some members accused board members of being duped.
But, Yirefu eventually rallied the congregation, and over the last two years, they surpassed their previous down payment collection. “I have a very good congregation and a beautiful church,” he said. “I cannot measure our happiness, joy and blessings.”
At the end of April, the Debre Nazreth community worshipped for the first time in its new building. The members bought it for $540,000, and have, in the last three months, made it their own.
Twenty-six wooden, red-cushioned pews — thirteen on one side for the men, and thirteen on the other side for the women — fill the nave. In the chancel, Ethiopian Christian paintings rest against a lectern.
Church leaders expect 400 to 500 guests and church members for its celebration. A feast of Ethiopian cuisine — spicy vegetables, lamb, meatballs, chicken, lentils and rice — will be served.
In the church’s Fellowship Hall earlier this week, seven women — members of the choir — met to practice. They chanted songs and pounded the table where they sat to mimic the rhythm of the Ethiopian drums.
“You are the almighty,” they sang in Amharic, “for the people who believe in you.”
By JIM BRONSKILL, THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — Stymied for months in their attempts to gain access to imprisoned Canadian Bashir Makhtal, diplomats were forced to rely on information from “a trusted intermediary,” newly obtained documents show.
At one point last September, Ottawa looked into whether Makhtal would be freed by Ethiopian authorities as part of the African country’s milliennium celebrations — a notion that quickly fizzled.
Hundreds of pages of records released to The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act chronicle a trail of frustrated efforts by foreign affairs officials to assist the former Toronto man languishing behind bars in Addis Ababa for a year and a half.
A candid departmental assessment of recent upheaval in Ethiopia underscores the challenges: “Post-electoral violence, judicial processes that did not fully respect due process, and regional or ethnic exclusion in the political system have not been good for Ethiopian politics,” say “talking points” prepared for Makhtal’s case.
Consular officials recently met with him in prison for the first time. He has not been allowed to see a lawyer and there is continuing confusion over why he is being detained.
Makhtal, a Canadian citizen born in Ethiopia, settled in Canada as a refugee and later moved to Kenya, opening a used-clothing business. He was working in Somalia when Ethiopian troops invaded in late 2006. Makhtal fled back to Kenya, but was detained along with several others at the Kenya-Somalia border.
There have been suggestions Makhtal is of interest to the Ethiopian government due to his grandfather’s involvement in a separatist group in the country’s Ogaden region.
New York-based organization Human Rights Watch says Makhtal was among 34 people deported to Somalia from Kenya in 2007. He was then shipped to Ethiopia.
Officially, the foreign affairs department says Ethiopia has not advised it of any charges against Makhtal.
“Through a trusted intermediary, we have been able to verify Mr. Makhtal’s well-being on several occasions,” a briefing note said last November.
(African Press Agency) — A big bridge which collapsed in northern Ethiopia, about 600 kilometers from Addis Ababa, disconnected land transport with the capital, leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded. The Ethiopian Transport ministry said on Friday evening that the bridge collapsed due to heavy rain in the area.
According to the ministry, the Garlo Bridge, near the town of Gonder collapsed on Thursday evening, disconnecting the area and the rest of the country.
Gonder is one of Ethiopia’s big towns which is regularly visited by tourists to see the area’s various historical sites and castles. The town has an estimated population of over 500,000 people.
“When the bridge collapsed on Thursday evening, there was at least one vehicle on it, and the fate of its passengers is not yet known,” the ministry said.
The ministry also indicated that hundreds of other transports and public buses were stranded around the bridge.
However, the ministry said that it is working to construct an alternative road to allow the hundreds of vehicles stranded in the area to continue their journey.
Garlo Bridge is one of the main and biggest bridges in Ethiopia, built over 50 years ago. The bridge also connects various small towns in the area.
The rainy season in Ethiopia often results in heavy floods in various parts of the country, sometimes resulting in heavy property damage in various regions of the country.
During the 2006 rainy season, for instance, over 600 people died due to heavy floods in various parts of the country while hundreds of thousands people were displaced from their villages and homes.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is just one example that if Ethiopians are left alone, we can do miracles. Unfortunately, and ironically, we are unable to develop our own country because of the repressive conditions created by U.S.-backed fascist regime.
By Amanda Abrams, DC North
Is it possible to be a victim of your own success—not just once, but twice in a row? The answer could be yes for Washington’s Ethiopian community. In their search for a neighborhood that feels like home, the area’s Ethiopians have been pioneers of economic growth in two formerly down-and-out neighborhoods—first Adams Morgan’s 18th Street, and then the block of 9th Street just south of U Street. But the phenomenon of rising property values that finally pushed the community out of Adams Morgan could repeat itself on 9th Street, if that neighborhood’s growth continues.
Back in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, Washington’s Ethiopians opened businesses on 18th street, at a time when Adams Morgan was a dangerous, no-go zone and rents were cheap. “You couldn’t go there in the daytime, let alone the nighttime,” said Hagos Seyoum, who opened the first Ethiopian restaurant in the United States in 1979. “There was only one other restaurant on 18th Street at the time. My investors didn’t want to put any money into it, so I did it myself.”
Nine years later, he left Adams Morgan, but by that time business on the street was booming. The neighborhood was home to a number of Ethiopian restaurants, as well as many bars and other entertainment spots, and it continued to swell. Within a few more years, however, rents became prohibitively expensive, and the community sought out a new neighborhood—to buy buildings this time, rather than rent.
In search of cheap prices and easy parking, they wound up on the 1900 block of 9th Street, just south of U. The block had once been part of the African American arts and entertainment district that comprised the greater U Street corridor. During the first half of the 20th century, Addison Scurlock, Washington’s best-known photographer of black society, had his studio in a brick building at the corner of 9th and U streets. The Washington Conservatory of Music, containing the largest collection of compositions by black composers, was a block away in a massive turreted home on the corner of 9th and T streets.
But gradually the area had fallen into disrepair. In 1978, Mr. Seyoum bought two houses near the corner of 9th and T streets for $13,000 each. One of the only Ethiopians in the neighborhood for many years, he remained there through some of its worst times.
“Ninth Street, you couldn’t walk on it, it was so dangerous—there was shooting at night,” he said. Standing in front of one of his properties, he pointed out all of the houses nearby—a majority—that were vacant when he first came. “They were very, very shabby. They were all boarded up.”
For years, there was no appreciation of property in the area. It was only in the 1990’s, as Ethiopians began to arrive in the neighborhood, that things gradually changed.
Axum Restaurant was the first Ethiopian-owned restaurant on 9th Street. Gebre Kahassai, the restaurant’s current owner, was the manager in the early ‘90s. “Back then, it was kind of hard to do business here,” he said, sitting in Axum during a break one afternoon. “There used to be trash, illegal things going on in the street, and it was dark, hard to walk. But the city paid attention.”
Little by little, the neighborhood transformed. More Ethiopian businessmen—and women—set up shop on the block, as Ethiopian cabdrivers and other service workers gravitated towards the new hub. Gradually, some savvy Ethiopian entrepreneurs shifted their business models to appeal to a wider audience; meanwhile, a few non-Ethiopian businesses moved in, seeking cheaper rents and proximity to U Street.
Today, the neighborhood is thriving. “This area is born again, like a baby, a good baby,” said Mr. Seyoum with a broad smile.
Alex Padro, executive director of Shaw Main Streets, a nonprofit organization that encourages economic development in the area, agreed. “There were plenty of boarded up buildings here. It’s through the Ethiopians’ hard work that the neighborhood is productive,” he said.
Wandering down one side of 9th and up the other, it’s easy to feel that the block is on the cusp of something exciting. On a given weekend evening, passersby might be Ethiopian, African-American, or white, visiting any number of establishments.
Maybe they’re heading into Haregewine Messert’s bakery, Chez Hareg, located halfway down the block, for cookies and cappuccino. The café’s door sports Obama posters, and Ms. Hareg, who opened the bakery last year, glows with optimism and inclusiveness. One of the business owners on the block who tries to market to a wider audience, she says, “I’m trying to offer something different. I have seven kinds of vegetarian cookies, with no animal products. I want anybody to come and feel like they belong here.”
Other passersby might be coming from the Velvet Lounge, a bar and alternative music venue on U Street just west of 9th that’s under new ownership. Owners Abdul Kayoumy, a Californian of Afghan descent, and Haile Berhane, an Ethiopian, are excited about the changes they’re making. “It’s gonna be really great,” said Mr. Berhane, showing off the club’s new bathrooms and newly expanded space for socializing. The two recently bought a building next door that they plan to make into a separate nightspot.
Despite some gripes about increased parking hassles, business owners’ optimism about the neighborhood is palpable. Weekend foot traffic is growing, and new restaurants and services are opening every month. But the pace of change may increase spectacularly in the near future.
Big Changes on the Horizon
Geographically, 9th Street is somewhat isolated from the rest of U Street. As a result, the development that transformed U Street in the past few years—the condos, cafes and upscale chain restaurants—largely passed it by. Finally, however, a number of major, large developments are slated to be built in the vicinity. Within five years, the landscape around the Ethiopian neighborhood could be massively transformed.
Phil Spalding, the Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for an area that includes the west side of 9th Street, listed some of the projects currently on the drawing board. “Metro owns a section of Florida Avenue east of 9th Street [to 7th Street] and is planning to develop it; that could take out a couple of buildings on 9th, as well as the area now used as the flea market [at 9th and Florida]. In the next month or two, it’ll be clear who won the contract, so that development is a couple years down the line.”
He continued, “Then there’s the Broadway Atlantic project, being done by a huge developer from Manhattan. It’s big—900 units—and all approvals are in place.” That will be a couple of blocks north of the Ethiopian neighborhood, and should be built in the next two years.
Those are the ones with the biggest impact. But there are also plans for another building in that area with 350 units and retail at ground level. Meanwhile, Howard University is planning the Howard Town Center, a mixed-use development on Georgia between V and W streets, two blocks east, and another mixed-use development that will house the headquarters of DC’s Radio One is scheduled to be built to the south, at 7th and S streets. And scattered around the neighborhood are many smaller projects: a building renovation here, a school reuse there.
There’s even a small development planned for the very heart of the 1900 block of 9th Street. A parking lot next to Axum Restaurant has been sold to a local developer, who will be putting in a four- or five-story live/work space for artists. Although it may mean trouble for the restaurants that currently use the parking lot for street access, Mr. Spalding is excited about the project and describes it as “just right for that area.”
About the rest, though—the condos, the retail, the changes—he worries about the pressure it will put on Ethiopian business owners. “With all that development, I’m not sure this area can sustain these businesses,” he mused, pointing out that owning the buildings—rather than renting, like in Adams Morgan—is no insurance against change. “The value of these buildings will go up and up, and the current owners will start getting offers. When they understand that the value is going from $300,000 to $1.3 million, they will have an incentive to move on,” he said.
At the very least, he said, the nature of the businesses will have to change. Places like Axum that serve as an “internal social club,” as Mr. Spalding put it, with a largely Ethiopian clientele who come to speak their native language and feel at home with friends, will face pressure to widen their customer base or leave.
Mr. Spalding’s observations are difficult to argue with. Ninth Street may once have been a remote hinterland, but it’s becoming increasingly central in a DC that keeps reinventing itself.
The Ethiopians who work and hang out on the block are also watching developments closely. In Axum one Saturday night, reactions to the neighborhood’s current and planned growth are mixed, but few people speak negatively—on the record, at least—about its prospects.
“The future? It’s going to be more crowded, bring more business,” said Axum’s owner, Mr. Kahassai. “A lot of things might change, but I’m not going to worry.”
Haile Gebro, a former contractor who was nursing a bottle of beer, said, “So far, the changes are for good. But it’s very hard to talk about the future because it’s changing so fast.”
His friend, Negasi Teklu, a former correctional officer who has lived the area for 25 years, was more specific. “The neighborhood has definitely changed. It’s like 18th Street—I saw how it changed. The Ethiopians come here, open businesses and open eyes. Now the changes might drive us out of here.”
But his response sounded a rare negative note. At this shining time when the neighborhood is flourishing and seems to hold enormous promise, most Ethiopians are overwhelmingly optimistic about the future.
“I think it’s going to be good,” said Danny Kebede, the manager of Chez Hareg’s bakery. “To see this area cleaner and safer means more business to the strip—I don’t see the negative at all. Starbucks is absolutely welcome to this block. More business is better.”
