#artsnculture

[tbillimartin]

Representing #AfricanVoices @reelsistersfilmfest and had a great time celebrating #Brooklyn today with #MajorityLeader @cmlauriecumbo #ArtsNCulture #BlackGirlMagic https://www.instagram.com/p/BzJPY7PhTGN/?igshid=17zdlkc8j4hg9

[shegernetwork]

A Remarkable Rail Journey Into the Horn of Africa’s Past, and Future

A new train from the Ethiopian capital to the Djibouti coast offers a desert journey into parts of East Africa that have been off the tourist track.

We were around 30 miles shy of Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, when the train hit a cow, its impact signaled by an abrupt drop in speed and a sharp judder rippling through the couplings.

“What’s happening?” I asked the carriage attendant, as she hurried along the aisle.

“No problem,” she replied brightly, without breaking stride. “A technician is dealing with it.” It was only later that one of our Ethiopian neighbors told us we’d struck some errant livestock.

The passengers — my photographer Marcus Westberg and I among them — merely shrugged. We’d never kidded ourselves that this trip would be entirely without misadventure.

NYTimes

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He was an icon: Ethiopians pay tribute to Eritrean-American rapper Nipsey Hussle

Ethiopians held an emotional farewell, reciting poems and delivering moving speeches in honour of murdered rapper Nipsey Hussle, whose roots in neighbouring Eritrea won him admirers in both countries.

Known for his Grammy-nominated debut album, Hussle was shot dead last week in front of the clothing store he owned in the US city of Los Angeles, whose violence-plagued neighbourhoods he had tried to revitalise.

On Friday, 29-year-old Eric Holder pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder over the shooting that also wounded two other men.

Africa News

[shegernetwork]

‘Second-class Citizen’ in Israel, Ethiopian-born Screenwriter Tackles Ignorance of Her Birthplace

Alamork Davidian found out she was 40 only a month ago. She had spent four decades of her life not knowing her exact age, sailing in a cloud of rather pleasant calendrical uncertainty. For years she learned to like this blurry timing situation, the indefiniteness. But now when she’s asked about her age, she smiles. Having never been able to answer that simple, basic question, “How old are you?” she understands that from now on she will have to provide an unequivocal reply, like everyone else.

“My mother remembered my birthday but not the exact year I was born,” she says. “She showed me a picture she had found in which I was celebrating my first birthday. It says it was taken in 1971 according to the Ethiopian calendar.”

Haaretz

[shegernetwork]

Will 'bedroom producers' dominate Ethiopia’s recording industry?

Nael, born Nathnael Mekonnen, is an 18-year-old self-taught producer and founder of Plug The Afro Records, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

'Bedroom producer' Nael released his first EP last month

Growing up, he was surrounded by different forms of music and once he had made up his mind to pursue a musical career, his received support and backing from his family. Relentlessly creative and tech-savvy, Nael perfectly embodies the next generation of breakout music producers around the globe.

The young producer says the Ethiopian pop music industry could eventually become extinct, because - in his view - locally-based producers lack versatility. He says most producers lack the ability to react quickly to the developments and changing trends of the global music market.

“Electronic music is a new genre in Ethiopia and both artists and producers have barely adapted to it,” he said. “Most producers out here in Ethiopia don't really appeal to me, or stand out for me. However, there are bands such as Jano Band who are killing it. The reason they stand out is because they are musical geniuses. Keep it up, Jano!”

Music in Africa

[shegernetwork]

Fekadu Teklemariam, a prominent Ethiopian actor, dies at 62

Fekadu Teklemariam (pictured above), a prominent Ethiopian actor died in Arsema, North Wollo, where he went for spiritual healing, Ethiopian Broadcasting Service reported yesterday.

He has served his country for the last 42 years in and acted in a number of theaters. Othello, Oedipus king, Hamlet, King Armah, Eve of the Wedding, Abugida Keiso and Bale Kaba Bale Daba are some of the plays he acted in.

Tewodros, a theater telling the story of Ethiopia’s selfless and brave emperor in the 19th century who committed suicide rather than surrender to British expeditionary force, is the most popular theater that made Fekadu Teklemariam even more popular.

He has also acted in numerous television series like Gemena and Baleguday...

Borkena

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Ethiopia's exiled patriarch Bishop Merkorios returns

The exiled patriarch of Ethiopia's powerful Orthodox Church, Bishop Merkorios, has returned home to the capital, Addis Ababa, after 27 years.

Ethiopia's reformist Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, met him in the US last week and persuaded him to reconcile with a rival faction of the Church.

He was greeted by his followers, who sang and ululated in welcome.

The Church split in the early 1990s after Mengistu Haile Mariam's Communist regime was overthrown.

BBC

[shegernetwork]

“Ethiopianism,” The “Neo-Official-Nationalism,” and the “Oromia First!” Trend

This paper is in response to a request made repeatedly to give my personal accounts on and observation of the political culture and the current uncertainty looming in Ethiopia. Toward this goal, the paper aims, in the current Ethiopia’s context a) to critique the historical and contemporary factors that led to the ongoing mythologizing (myth-making) of PM Dr Abiy Ahmed as a political hero and ideologizing of his rhetoric (narrative) glorified as “medemer” (unity in diversity) and the promises he is making to reverse the recent unhappy past under the EPDRF authoritarian rule of which he has been a part for the last 27 years, to avoid the exclusionary old rule with its ethnic undertones, and to reconstruct a new Ethiopia on the basis of “Ethiopianism” (a new-official-nationalism), b) to assess the Oromo political ambiguity in spite of the mass struggle intensified over the last four years led by Qeerroo, the Oromo Youth League, to enable the Oromo determine their own future, to bring about a systemic change, not a simple reform, I argue, as the ruling party’s (EPRDF) effort has amounted so far to little more than a window dressing. The paper concludes by reconsidering the ongoing euphoric fervor of “MEDEMER” (Ethiopian-ness) more as “patriotic” sentiment than “nationalistic” stand and sketches a Roadmap for the divided Oromo political voices to rejoin the common goal (kaawoo) of the nationalistic “OROMIA FIRST!” trend, and to start to engage in an OPEN DIALOGUE at grassroots level around WHAT THE OROMO PEOPLE WANT (not just what party leaders want), and to move toward a NATIONAL CONSENSUS on Oromo political question.

Ethiopia Observer