Teddy Afro impress fans in London

Artist Tewedros Kashun , also known as Teddy Afro, one of Ethiopia’s most popular and talented artist, gave a spectacular concert in London last Saturday.

In his last stop on his 2009 European tour, Teddy Afro expressed gratitude and respect for his fans, who stood beside him while he was in prison. He received a warm welcome from his fans who showed their love and admiration by queuing up for more than 4 hrs amidst London’s chilly weather.

Fans who read reports on Teddy’s performance in some European cities were doubting whether Teddy will be singing his famous and controversial song such as ‘Jah Yasteserial’ and ‘Dahlak Layye Neww Bette’ in their entirety. But Teddy didn’t disappoint his London fans, he sang the full version of all his loved songs. As per his usual, his message were about love, peace and Ethiopiawinet.

Teddy is expected to travel to North America on Tuesday.

Read the full report in
Amharicby Abate Melaku

Gelila Assefa among the best dressed celebrities of 2009

The popular fashion magazine Bazaar selects Ethiopian fashion designer and philanthropist Gelila Assefa Puck (gelilastyle.com) as among the best dressed celebrities of 2009.

Click here to see all of Bazaars "Best Dressed Celebrities of 2009″

Last November, Gelila announced a partnership with the Orphaned Starfish Foundation to fund a new computer lab for a school run by the Ethiopian Children's Fund (ECF) in rural Aleltu, Ethiopia.

Gelila Assefa Puck is an internationally known designer of fine couture gowns and handbags, and philanthropist who was born and schooled in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Gelila's couture fashion brand, Gelila Style, is rooted in her East African heritage and today is principally focused on a distinctive handbag line, which includes simple, classic clutches and bags made from crocodile, ostrich and African springbok.

Gelila and her husband, superchef Wolfgang Puck, support numerous other charities worldwide, and were both honored in March of 2009 by the Children's Institute in Southern California with the prestigious Champion of Children Award.

"Migration of Beauty": A must-see documentary on Ethiopia

Film producer, Chris Flaherty, is screening his acclaimed documentary entitled "Migration of Beauty" in New York this weekend. The first screen was held yesterday at Columbia and generated a lively discussion, in which the producer and members of the audience exchanged views on a variety of topics, including the 2005 elections, the implications of the Red Terror of the 1970s, and the role of the Diaspora in influencing the upcoming 2010 elections.

The second screening will be held today, Sunday December 6, 2009 at the Anthology Film Archives at 32 East 2nd Ave (at 2nd Street) at 4:30 PM. All Ethiopians in the Tri-Sate Area and friends of Ethiopia should make every effort to see this historic documentary, which presents objectively and with fair balance the past few turbulent years of Ethiopian history (from the Derg Era to the Present).

Chris Flaherty should be commended for articulating the Ethiopian reality in a way that has never been done before! We must all show our support by attending the screening and engaging ourselves in the discussions.

Source : Ethiomedia

Marcus Samuelsson on Thanks Giving

(NPR) – Marcus Samuelsson was born in Ethiopia, raised in Sweden and now is a world-renowned chef in New York City. His cooking style is as international as his life story.

He sat down with NPR’s Steve Inskeep to discuss his multicultural Thanksgiving traditions.

“Like most immigrants, we roast turkey — we have turkey on the table,” said Samuelsson. “But our table is filled with people from all over the world that are Americans like us, new Americans … [So] there’s also the dishes from our [home] country.”

“I have Swedish potatoes au gratin,” said Samuelsson. “I have gravlax on the table. Then my wife makes a mean doro wat, which is this chicken stew from Ethiopia. She will always have some injera bread there.

“I think Thanksgiving is this incredible, great example where we as immigrants, we as Americans, bring in the culture or the history of where we come from,” said Samuelsson. “And then we serve it to our family, and I just think it’s a perfect marriage where you can show your identity, and you’re really proud to be an American.”

“Cooking for me is also a way of looking back,” said Samuelsson. “When I make the apple cake, I see my mother.

“So much of cooking and eating is about, ‘Where do we want to go in our memories?’ ” said Samuelsson. “We want to revisit the vacation. We want to revisit our college years. We want to revisit our childhood years.”

Growing up, he’d help his mother make her classic apple cake. “My job was always to sort of make the clock,” Samuelsson said, in describing the way the apples were arranged on top of the dessert. “My mom always cut 12 pieces.

“I always wanted to mess it up — I wanted to put apples all over,” he said. But his mother made sure the apples were adorned properly, because each person should get a slice of apple on their slice of cake.

Samuelsson feels everyone has a food story like his apple cake one.

“We all have food stories,” he said. “We all come from incredible backgrounds. And we can … share those memories … through food. And that’s the reason I love living in this country.”

Marcus Samuelsson’s Apple Cake Recipe

“I always joke about how bad my mom’s cooking was, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to realize that a lot of what I know about cooking came from her. I can’t even count how many times she made this honest, simple apple cake — it seems as if we always had one in the refrigerator and another in the freezer, just in case we had unexpected company. Even now, when we are all out of the house, she always has apples on hand, just in case she needs to whip up a quick dessert for visitors.”

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unseasoned bread crumbs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 Granny Smith apples

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature, plus more for greasing the pan

1 large egg

1-1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2/3 cup half-and-half

2 teaspoons confectioners’ sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and coat with the bread crumbs.

2. Toss together the granulated sugar and brown sugar. Set aside.

3. Peel and core the apples, then slice one apple into 16 wedges. Combine the cinnamon and 1/3 cup of the sugar mixture in a medium bowl. Add the apple wedges and toss to coat. Roughly dice the remaining apple.

4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and the remaining sugar mixture on medium speed until light, fluffy, and lemon colored, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and mix until combined. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour and baking powder. Slowly add the half-and-half, and mix until combined. Fold the diced apple into the batter.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Arrange 14 of the apple wedges fanned along the outer edge of the pan and place the 2 remaining wedges in the center. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the center is golden brown.

6. Remove from the oven to a wire rack to cool completely. Run a small offset spatula around the edges to release the cake from the pan and remove the springform. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar, then cut into 12 wedges.

Famous Ethiopian singer Manalemosh Dibo passed away

One of Ethiopia’s most popular singers, Manalemosh Dibo, passed away today from natural causes, according to news sources in Ethiopia.

Manalemosh died in South Africa where she went to receive medical treatment after suffering from intestinal cancer for over a year.

Before going to South Africa Manalemosh was receiving treatment at Tikur Anbessa (Black Lion) Hospital in Addis Ababa. When her condition deteriorated, Tikur Anbessa doctors recommended that she gets treatment abroad. Ethiopian billionaire Al Amoudi covered her expenses to travel to South Africa.

Manalemosh was a young singer who's popularity grew with each song she released. She is particularly well-known for her traditional songs such as Asabelew, Awdamet, and Minjar.

Liya Kebede on challenges facing mothers in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, 94 percent of women deliver their babies at home, without the aid of a trained birth attendant.

Follow Liya Kebede, the World Health Organization’s Global Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health and a native of Ethiopia, as she learns firsthand the challenges facing mothers and newborns and how new U.S.-funded programs are helping to shift the odds in their favor. Watch the video below:

Fashion designer Gelila Assefa to build computer lab in Ethiopia

Ethiopian-born international fashion designer and philanthropist Gelila Assefa Puck (gelilastyle.com) has announced a partnership with the Orphaned Starfish Foundation to fund a new computer lab for a school run by the Ethiopian Children's Fund (ECF) in rural Aleltu, Ethiopia.

The Orphaned Starfish Foundation grant will support the Gelila Assefa Puck Skill Training Center, the newest addition to the celebrated ECF children's village in Aleltu. The grant will provide hardware, software, materials and trainers for ECF's first computer skills training lab. ECF plans to offer other vocational skills as additional funds are raised and the new Center expands.

More than a decade ago, Ms. Puck, who was born and raised in Addis Ababa, joined the board of ECF. There were then only 21 children in the program but today this pioneering set of children's boarding schools serves more than 400 orphaned and disadvantaged children in Ethiopia.

Said Ms. Puck: "The partnership with ECF is the first entry of the Orphaned Starfish Foundation into Africa and it will provide disadvantaged Ethiopian children with critically-needed skills. This vocational training is absolutely vital to preparing the children for the jobs they will need to support themselves and to raise healthy, independent families – which has always been the ultimate goal of the Ethiopian Children's Fund."

Added Ms. Puck: "I am delighted at this new development and will be excited to watch how the new computers and this new program will transform the lives of these incredible children."

Gelila Assefa Puck is an internationally known designer of fine couture gowns and handbags, and philanthropist who was born and schooled in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Gelila's couture fashion brand, Gelila Style, is rooted in her East African heritage and today is principally focused on a distinctive handbag line, which includes simple, classic clutches and bags made from crocodile, ostrich and African springbok.

Gelila and her husband, superchef Wolfgang Puck, support numerous other charities worldwide, and were both honored in March of 2009 by the Children's Institute in Southern California with the prestigious Champion of Children Award.

Teddy Donates $87,107 to Elshadai Relief & Development Association

Addis Ababa (November 2, 2009) – Ethiopian singer/songwriter Tewodros Kassahun, a.k.a Teddy Afro, donated 1.1 million Br ($87,107) to a local NGO, Elshadai Relief & Development Association this past Friday. The money was raised from the singer’s concert at Addis Ababa Stadium on October 11, 2009 to help people with a life of begging.

In his first performance after being released early from his two-year sentence for good behavior, the 31-year-old singer performed 25 songs for his fans who packed the stadium. The association’s Executive Director, Yemane Woldemariam, received the check at a brief press conference held at the Intercontinental Addis Hotel.

Saba Anglana, Ethiopian-Italian actress & singer

November 1, 2009 -She was raised in Italy by her Italian father and Ethiopian mother. But the actress and musician Saba Anglana, who records under the name Saba, sings in Somali.

Saba was born in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, to an Ethiopian mother (born in Somalia) and Italian father during the years of General Muhammad Siyad Barre’s corrupt and repressive regime. The perennially suspicious attitude towards Italians ,and the conflict with Ethiopia over the Ogaden region, forced her family to leave the country when she was just 5 years old. Saba recalls, ‘We were a mixed-marriage family: inconvenient, perhaps a threat. I still remember nights at Bolimog (Cape Guardafui, near Alula — the extreme east point of Africa, where my father was working) when policemen came to interrogate my father, as they thought he was a US spy. In reality, he was there because he loved Africa, and my sister and I were born there.’

Saba’s father originally went to Africa to forget the extreme suffering he experienced during World War II, when he was a colonel of the Italian Forces. As a prisoner during the colonial battles in Ethiopia, Saba’s grandfather had been deported to Mogadishu, and it was there that her mother was born.. When Saba’s parents married, their close friends and family considered their union as a symbol of reconciliation and peace — finally forgetting the past conflict of Ethiopia, Somalia and Italy.

At the height of the crisis for Saba and her family, the Somali government gave them forty-eight hours to leave the country, forcing them to migrate to Italy. Since that time, a deep homesickness has always been present. ‘I wanted to learn as much of the Somali language from my mother as possible, particularly the dialect of Xamar Weyne — the quarter were she was born with my uncles and aunts.’

After doing much of her growing up in Italy, Saba studied to become a mosaicist, completing a degree in Art History at the University of Rome La Sapienza, and also became known throughout Italy for her acting roles in some well—known television programmes (La Squadra in particular, in which she played a half-Italian, half-Somali policewoman). However, music was by far her greatest and most constant passion. She recalls, ‘at the age of 8, in Addis Ababa — where we went sometimes to visit my grandmother — I remember my sister and I performing songs and dances to entertain the neighbours’. Growing up, music became her main expression and African music allowed her to mend the broken thread with her homeland.

Her Album – Jidka (The Line)

On Jidka (The Line), her musical debut, she explores the divide between Somalia and Italy with a rare sensitivity and gentle humour; mixing acoustic guitars and koras with traditional African beats and contemporary percussion. The result reflects both one woman’s search for her identity and what it means to be alive in the 21 st century, when so many people live in more than one culture.

Jidka is Saba’s way of telling her story. The word ‘Jidka’, which is the title track, means line – the line that runs on her belly and divides it into two parts – a darker side and a lighter one. This for her represents the union of diversities and the harmony that her parents found when they fell in love. Her story focuses on her identity as multilayered and with many different influences. She sings in her mother tongue – a type of Somali that is spoken in Reer Xamar, a quarter of Mogadishu, and has real expression and rhythm in itself. The result is an album which is a real mix of contemporary and traditional.

Many of the songs on the album describe the struggles of life in Somalia. ‘I Sogni’ is the story of a woman who leaves her village for the big city in search of a better life; ‘Melissa’, sung partly in English, is about the plight of many women who escaped the civil war and crossed the desert in search of freedom. ‘Je Suis Petite’ is dedicated to Africa – a continent full of suffering (’The world is cruel, and I am so little’). Other songs are more romantic, describing love and the importance of living in the moment (’Manta’). ‘Hanfarkaan’ describes how the wind is linked to the spirit – when it blows strongly it brings us into contact with the spirit of someone we have lost.

Saba is joined on djembe, guitar and percussion by long-term friend and collaborator, Taté Nsongan, from Cameroon, on kora Senegalese Lao Kouyate and on vocals Felix Moungara. The album is produced by well-known musician/composer Fabio Barovero, founder of Mau Mau and the Banda Ionica project. As Saba says, ‘we worked to realise a sound which combines past and present, tradition and modernity, with our minds open to a future of increasing cultural mixes.’

Michael Jackson film premiers in Ethiopian capital

APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Hundreds of Ethiopian film fans on Wednesday joined the world to see Michael Jackson’s documentary film titled “This is it”.

The film offers Jackson’s fans a rare behind-the-scene look at the performer as he developed, created and rehearsed for his London sold-out concerts.

The film is being screened in Addis Ababa at “Ed Namol” cinema complex as part of the world wide launching of Jackson’s film.

APA observed on Wednesday that over 500 people gathered to see the film here in Addis Ababa.

However, a good number were unable to see it due to limited seats. All tickets were sold earlier than the expected time.

Fans that were able to get the ticket paid US$8 per person.

“I am not lucky to see Jackson’s new film. I will just go home,” said Metaferia Lakew who was among many film fans unable to see the film.

“I didn’t expect such a huge crowd for the film. It is unbelievable,” he added.

The cinema promises to continue showing the film in the coming days as it expectes a large number of people.

It could be recalled that the African-American King of POP died on 25 June at age 50.

Beyonces Ethiopian New Year Concert Fails Following Row over Broadcasting Copyright

Beyoncé Knowles, the 28-year old world famous R&B singer and Hollywood actress, will not be coming to perform in Addis Abeba as it was announced by promoters here, reliable sources disclosed.

The sensational performer, honoured as Billboard Woman of the Year on August 25, 2009, had agreed to come to Addis for her second performance scheduled for October 31, 2009. It was meant to be part of her third world tour, including to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), where she was scheduled to come from.

The deal to bring her to Addis was negotiated between the singer’s management company, run by her father, Matthew Knowles and New Way Inc., a Virginia based company owned by Dereje Yesuwork (Jambi) and his partner Endalkachew Tekeste.

Dereje is one of the closest associates of Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al-Amoudi who would have paid one million dollars for her performance in Addis Abeba, and an additional 150,000 dollars to charter an aircraft for close to 90 members of her team, reliable sources disclosed.

The concert was planned to be held inside the Millennium Hall on African Avenue (Bole Road), and organized locally by Addis Parks Management Plc, a subsidiary of MIDROC Ethiopia. Addis Park promotes such events and sells tickets to the public.

However, negotiations have fallen apart following a disagreement over live broadcasting rights of the concert, said these sources. Beyonce’s manager has agreed to let live broadcastings of only five songs from two-hour performance, according to sources. Compared to the one song broadcasted live during her dazzling first performance in Addis in October 2007, where she was paid 1.75 million dollars, this may sound an improvement..

The Sheikh was not happy, nevertheless.

“Mohammed has agreed to bring her back to Addis only if the entire concert is transmitted live by ETV to the Ethiopian public,” .

It is a statement reinforced by Jean-Pierre Manigoff, general manager of Sheraton Addis, the hotel owned by Sheikh Al-Amoudi, and subcontracted by Addis Park to provide hospitality services.

“Sheikh Mohammed loves and respects the Ethiopian people,” Manigoff said. “He would want the show to be accessible for all through broadcasting.”

Live transmissions of concerts by internationally acclaimed bands such as Black Eyed Peas, and Kool and the Gang, as well as performers like Wyclef Jean and Papa Wemba were made after organizers enter into a separate deal with the performers, disclosed these sources. However, Sony Music Entertainment has reserved copy rights over broadcastings of Beyoncé’s shows.

Gelila Assefa Puck: Fashion with African inspiration

by CNN
The Ethiopian born designer has an eye for style. She launched a line of high-end handbags in 2006 and a year later married celebrated chef Wolfgang Puck. Together the couple live in LA and have made Forbes magazine’s list of “Married celebrity entrepreneurs”. While loving the California lifestyle, she still has strong connections to Ethiopia, putting much of her energy into her charity work there. Click More for Video.

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Ethiopian-born Model Plays Waris Dirie in The Movie “Desert Flower”

New York (Tadias) - Ethiopian-born Liya Kebede stars in the new movie Desert Flower, based on the true story of a former African supermodel who rose from a nomadic life to the top of the international modeling business.

The movie is an adaptation of the autobiography of Waris Dirie, who was born in Somalia and moved to London at age of 13 primarily to break loose from an arranged-marriage to a much older man, and a culture that subjected her to female genital mutilation (FGM) when she was only 5-years old. While in London she struggled to make ends meet working at McDonald’s and other odd jobs until she was discovered by photographer Terence Donovan, whose portraits of her would propel her into international stardom. She eventually graced the catwalks of New York, London, Milan and Paris, and was featured on the covers of Vogue, Glamour and Elle magazines. She was depicted in the 1995 BBC documentary entitled A Nomad in New York. In 1997, she ended her modeling work to become a full-time advocate against female circumcision, and subsequently was named a UN ambassador for the abolition of FGM by former Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Liya Kebede, a supermodel herself, appears to be making a smooth transition into the world of acting. Her previous movie stints includes a role in the epic drama The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert De Niro, and the movie Lord of War featuring Nicolas Cage and Bridget Moynahan.

The independent film is scheduled to appear at the Venice Film Festival this month and will be released in Germany on 24 September.

'Desert Flower' starring Liya Kebede opens on September 24

Source: Waris Dirie Foundation

Having gained wide success in the world of fashion and modeling, Liya Kebede of Ethiopia, has transitioned successfully into the world of acting, with the starring role in the independent film, Desert Flower. An adaptation of Waris Dirie’s bestselling autobiography, the story recounts Dirie’s rise from childhood in the Somali desert to the catwalks of the international fashion business.

In 2004, Kebede captured Hollywood’s attention and has since appeared in films including The Good Shepherd with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, directed by Robert De Niro, and Andrew Niccols’ Lord of War with Nicolas Cage and Bridget Moynahan. A native of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Kebede has graced the covers of dozens of magazines including Vogue (American, Italian, Japanese & Spanish), V, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and Time’s Style & Design issue.

In 2003 Liya became the first woman of color to represent the Estée Lauder brand. Off screen, Kebede is a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador with the World Health Organization, working to raise awareness of the difficulties women and children face in the developing world. In her efforts to make a difference, she founded The Liya Kebede Foundation which aims to improve the health and well-being of mothers and children around the world.

In July 2007, Kebede launched Lemlem, a children’s clothing line hand woven in Ethiopia and sold online as well as in select boutiques in New York, Los Angeles, and Europe. She is currently working on the second collection. Lemlem, which means “to bloom” or “to flourish” in Amharic, embodies African traditions and culture with the hopes to positively impact its economy. Liya resides in New York with her husband, Kassy and their children, Suhul & Raee.




Click here to watch the Trailer from IMDB

Ethiopia’s Pop Star Out of Jail, to Stage Big Concert

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia , Aug 19 (IPS) - He has not yet decided where and when it will be, but Ethiopia’s sensational musician Tewodros Kassahun a.k.a. Teddy-Afro, will stage a major concert for the first time after his release from controversial imprisonment.

Tewodros is famous and sensational for his strong lyrics; including some that depict the ruling party as no different from its dictatorial predecessor.

The 32-year-old singer was first arrested by investigators of the Addis Ababa Police Commission in November 2006. He was accused of killing Degu Yibeltal, a homeless teenage boy in a hit-and-run motor vehicle accident.

However, Tewodros has always claimed that he was out of the country on the date of the accident and there has been view in the public that the government incriminated Teddy to punish him for his too critical lyrics.

But his stay in prison hasn’t put him off singing and Tewodros is to start performing again with a big concert. "Possibly it is with a big concert that I will meet Ethiopian people," Tewodros told IPS the day after his release on parole after 16 months in prison.

He said he learnt a lot in prison and he considers the "trying time" as a part of his life that made him stronger. He added he managed to write some poems during his incarceration but he could not compose lyrics because he could not access musical instruments.

"I need a long break now," he said.

On the day of Tewodros’s release, August 13, he was brought to the deserted compound of the Federal High and First Instance courts.

The court yard was deserted because during Ethiopia’s main rainy season, courts are in recess for two months.

Quite contrary to experiences in the past year, during which time Teddy was brought to this court more than 20 times for trial, there were no fans: none knew that he would be brought to court.

Rather, as many expected his release the previous day, they had been waiting more than 10kms away, in front of the prison centre on both days.

Tewodros’s application for parole was made last Thursday afternoon. It was supported by the recommendation by Kality Prison Centre – the largest and highly secured detention facility in Addis Ababa. It is where politicians like Bertukan Mideksa, a prominent female opposition politician and former judge, are also kept.

Ethiopia’s law entitles a convict for release on parole after serving a third of their sentence if the prison administration recommends the release to court stating he has been on good behaviour during his term. The recommendation is initiated upon the prisoner’s application for parole stating that he understands the supremacy of the law and regrets his acts.

Judge Leul Gebremariam, who originally sentenced Tewodros to six years imprisonment and a fine of 18,000 Birr (about $1,500) in December, was the man who granted Tewodros his freedom.

Leul told the singer that the court accepted his application for parole and the prison’s recommendation. The judge wished Tewodros "good luck" but also reminded him that if he commits any crime in the next two years the parole will be revoked.

Though many expected his release this time around, his homecoming at dusk that Thursday came as a surprise to his mother, Tilaye Arage.

"When he got into the compound, I was (so) shocked that I could not even stand straight," his mother told IPS the next day as she was hosting flocking relatives and friends, as well as fans of her son.

Many of Teddy Afro’s fans have resolutely stood by him during his trial and incarceration. His popular 2005 album was released during the country’s elections and many of the songs called for change. It is because of this that many believe there is political conspiracy behind his imprisonment.

"I don’t accept that Teddy committed the crime," Eskendir Abel, owner of Ebaw Promotion and a devoted fan of Tewodros said.

Eskendir’s company – host of the annual Miss Virgin Beauty Contest, a beauty pageant for virgin girls – is going to devote part of this year’s contest as a welcome event to the singer.

An excited Eskendir described Teddy’s release as one of the most wonderful moments in his life.

"I think he was imprisoned mainly for his strong lyrics that are too critical of the government," said a young fan requesting anonymity.

Nonetheless, Tewodros appears to be timid of the issue of his guilt. "I would rather not comment on that," Teddy said. He is rather cautious in his comments to media.

But the evidence of his trial is there for all to see. When the Federal High Court heard the trial, four witnesses testified against Tewodros – all police constables brought by the prosecutor.

But earlier in the trial Teddy said he was out of Ethiopia the night Degu was killed. He argued that the date of his arrival into the country, as indicated on his passport, was November 3. Degu was found dead on the night of November 2, 2006.

But the High Court found him guilty of killing Degu while driving a private blue-black BMW.

According to Ethiopia’s penal code, the penalty for the death of a hit-and-run victim ranges from five to 15 years of imprisonment and fine up to maximum of 15,000Br ($1,250).

The pop-star was sentenced last December by the High Court to six years imprisonment and fine of 18,000Br ($1,500) after he was found guilty on two counts: homicide, including driving without license; and hit-and-run manslaughter.

Immediately after sentencing, his lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court. The court reduced the sentence by four years, and the fine to 11,000Br ($916) in February.

Tewodros’s two-year prison sentence was calculated inclusive of the time he already served and in February he was 13 months away from freedom.

But with eight months of his prison term still remaining, the judge who sentenced him changed his mind and decided that Tewodros should be released earlier.

"We accept the court’s decision," Shimeles Kemal, a government spokesperson told IPS.

But he ferociously reacted to the view that Teddy’s imprisonment is politically motivated saying "it is highly flawed accusation". "The final arbiter that determines guilt is the court and that institution found him guilty of the crime," Shimeles said. "This is an ordinary crime with no relation to politics and the convict was sentenced accordingly."

Despite the government’s persistent argument that "no one would be imprisoned for holding an opinion", critics of government say Teddy’s case clearly represents how government reacts to political dissent.

Yet, for others his release represents a milestone change in the ruling party’s long established iron-feast attitude. "This is quite a change from the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front’s ‘only my way’ of handling things that we have seen for the past 18 years," an independent media expert told IPS on condition of anonymity.

Teddy plans come-back tour around the world

By Groum Abate and
Muluken Yewondwossen

The young, talented and recently free from prison, Tewodros Kassahun alias Teddy Afro is planning a tour around the world to thank his fans for their support during his imprisonment.
Teddy told Capital that he will take the next two months off, preparing in Ethiopia, and will then launch a worldwide come back tour. He said that he has no plans of releasing a new album yet.
Teddy Afro was freed from the Kaliti prison on Thursday August 13, after serving 16 months of a two-year sentence for hit-and-run manslaughter.
He thanked the public, who he said supported him morally during his prison term.
The performer, who was at his mother’s home after being released from the prison on probation for his good behavior, has no plan of engaging in any kind of performance for the next two months.
Teddy was found guilty of killing Degu Yibeltal, an 18-year-old homeless while driving his BMW through Menilik Avenue in 2007.
He was first sentenced to six years in prison and a fine of 18,000 birr by the Federal High Court. This was later reversed by the Supreme Court after he appealed. The Supreme Court lowered the sentence to two years and 11,000 birr in February after his lawyer argued that the victim had been drunk and was lying unconscious on the road when he was hit by the car.
Furious by this, the prosecutor’s office appealed and the fine was increased back to 18,000 birr.
On Facebook, a social networking site, the performer thanked fans who had been following his trial diligently for the last two years. He concluded his message to his fans saying: “Love as always wins”.
In 2001, Teddy released his second album, ‘Abugida’, named after the Abugida syllables of the Ge’ez language. Several tracks quickly caught the ear of many listeners in Ethiopia, including ‘Haile Selassie’, a tribute to the late Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie I; and ‘Haile’, in honor of the Olympic long distance champion Haile Gebrselassie.
His third album and which was a hit in Ethiopia, ‘Yasteseryal’, was released in 2005. The release of this album coincided with elevated political tension in Ethiopia surrounding the general elections in May 2005.
His politically and socially inspired songs vibrated a call for unity and peace yet stirred controversy, originating mostly from the song “Yasteseryal”, which was banned from government radio and television stations.
On November 3rd, 2006, investigators from the Addis Ababa Police Commission arrested Teddy Afro suspecting him of leaving a scene of a car accident that they alleged caused the death of an 18-year old Degu Yibeltal.
Degu, who lived on the streets in Addis, came from Gojjam originally to live with his uncle, before he became homeless. He was killed on the night of November 2nd, 2006, after he was hit by a car. Police was told the plate number of a BMW by a taxi driver who remained anonymous.
After he was put under custody for a day, Teddy was released on a 50,000 Birr bail. In April 2008, he was arrested and charged with murder.

Lula Gezu wins Miss World Ethiopia 2009

Addis Ababa, August 18, 2009 -- The “Miss World Ethiopia” contest was held on August 15th, 2009, at the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa. The beauty pageant and gala dinner started around 7:00pm local time. The contest was organized by Artaele Enterprise, and it was the seventh of its kind and the third for Artaele Enterprise. The pageant was conducted with the motto of “Beauty with purpose”.

Twenty Five contestants participated in this event. At the beginning of the competition the contestants came out in swimming suits, followed with traditional and evening dresses. They were judged on catwalk, self expression, and their knowledge of their country and its resources, as well as on things like the environment and globalization.




The four judges who were selected for the competition were not informed about their responsibilities a priori, but were simply invited for the event. As per the organizers, this arrangement makes the competition fair and objective. The four judges of the “Miss word Ethiopia 2009” came from different backgrounds and experience, and among them were beauty expert, traditional cloth designer, culture and tourism public relations officer, and an investor.

Among the contestants, six of them came from Harar, Dire Dawa, Bahir Dar, and Mekele. Out of the 25 contestants, 12 of them passed to the next stage based on interview results and their confidence. Then, from the 12 contestants, six were selected as finalists for the top five positions, as two contestants got the same points and were tied.

The final competition among the six contestants was a little tough because each of them were required to promote themselves, their country, and explain why they should be “Miss world Ethiopia 2009” in only one minute. After the judges passed their decisions, the last three finalists were announced by program host, around 11:50pm (local time).

After all was said and done, Lensa Tilahun, the 1.93m tall, elegant girl from Oromiya, became the 2nd runner up, and Hiwot Assefa, the 1.78m tall girl with a slim body and charming face from Addis Ababa, became the 1st runner up. The crown of “Miss World Ethiopia 2009” was awarded to Lula Gezu (1.77m tall, 56 kg), a sophomore psychology student at Mekele University from Addis Ababa, a chocolate color and charming girl with high confidence. She received the crown for “Miss World Ethiopia 2009”.

Lula Gezu was awarded a Diamond ring worth 60,000 ETB from Zoskales Dimond. The award was handed over by Ato Neway GebreAb, Senior Economic Advisor to Prime Minster Meles Zenawi. Both the 1st and 2nd runner ups were also awarded a Diamond ring worth about ETB 50,000.

It is to be recalled that the organizers invited contestants for the competition only a few weeks back through various media outlets. The twenty five contestants got training on choreography and catwalk for only two weeks. This lack of sufficient training and experience was evident by the contestants’ shyness, lack of confidence, less than optimal presentation, and lack of general knowledge. Some of them were very shy to the point of giving inaudible answers, and inability to understand or answer questions properly.

In an exclusive interview with Ezega.com, the winner of Miss World Ethiopia 2009, Lula Gezu, said that she is very happy with the competition. She believes that she prevailed over the other contestants by her confidence and the way she answered the questions, in addition to her external beauty.

Ezega News asked Lula if she is satisfied with the training she received in the last fifteen days. Lula answered, “this is my second competition as I have been the 1st runner up of “Miss World Ethiopia 2007”. So, it was not that hard for me. But, for many new comers to the competition, it could have been very difficult indeed with such a short training.”

Luna Gezu will go to London, as well as contest in South Africa in December 2009, representing Ethiopia against contestants from 120 other countries.

The 1st runner up, Hiwot Assefa, will contest for the title of “Miss Intercontinental” in Belarus in September 2009. Hiwot told Ezega News that she is happy with the competition and the final results. Though she is inclined more towards modeling, she enjoyed the completion very much.

The upcoming Miss World contest will be televised live worldwide in more that 190 countries and with expected viewers of more than 3 billion. According to Artaele Enterprise Managing Director, Ato Tesfazghi Aberra, who talked to Ezega News, this competition will have a big impact by projecting a positive image of Ethiopia to the world. In addition, it will create a great opportunity for us by promoting the Ethiopian culture, tourism, values and customs, and present the country of Lucy, Queen of Sheba, and the cradle of mankind.

Gigi resurfaces in Germany

The celebrated Ethiopian singer Ejigayehu (Gigi) Shibabaw has been away from the limelight for a couple of years. But recently, she has resurfaced in festival in Germany.
A web report has it that Gigi and her producer and bassist husband Bill Laswell have performed at Krems festival on July 27 in Germany.
Looking at the picture posted on the German web, Gigi had a slightly different look with relaxed dress, tight and unfasten shirt and a little extra weight.
Musically speaking, it has been a successful come-back. The web has a positive review of her and her husbands’ performance.
The New York based couple’s music has been a blend of dub, reggae, funk and traditional Ethiopian music, reported the web.
Gigi has been hugely popular at home and abroad for her hits like ‘Gud Fela’ and ‘Balewashintu’.
Der Standard

Pop Star Teddy Afro Freed From Jail in Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia's most popular singer, Teddy Afro, was freed early from prison on Thursday after serving 18 months of a two-year sentence for hit-and-run manslaughter.

The performer, whose real name is Tewodros Kassahun, was found guilty of killing an 18-year-old homeless man while driving his BMW in the capital Addis Ababa in 2007.

Lawyers said he was freed early because of good behavior.

"I would like to express my respect and gratitude to all the people of our country," Afro told state TV after his release.

"I was able to meet many good people in prison, from the lowest-ranking policemen to the highest administrator. I had a nice time. My relations with other prisoners were also good."


Afro, who is well known for criticizing the government in his fiery lyrics, is hugely popular among young Ethiopians and sings mostly in the local Amharic language.

Hundreds protested outside the court during his trial -- an unusual event in a nation where dissent is rare.

His sentence had been cut from six years in February after his lawyer argued that the victim had been drunk and was lying unconscious on the road when he was hit by the singer's car.

Afro has always denied being in the vehicle.

(Reporting by Barry Malone and Tsegaye Tadesse; editing by Daniel Wallis)

LET US BE LIKE THE MARKET

By Eleni Zaude Gabre-Madhin, PhD

Much has recently been made of my ethnic identity although this is a matter of no relevance whatsoever to a reasoned discourse on the existence of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange. However, when the unnecessary gets in the way of the important, however unpleasant it may be, it must be faced. I am Ethiopian, as truly and wonderfully as that is, and no one has the right to define, reduce, or otherwise dismiss my identity. I do not apologize for or defend who I am, as each one of us, whoever we are, has a God-given set of circumstances that uniquely defines us.

My reality is that, born in Addis Ababa, I first left Ethiopia with my family at the age of four to live in New York city, accompanying my father, Zaude Gabre-Madhin, who was a senior United Nations official, prior to which he served in the Imperial government. Upon returning a few years later, my family then left Ethiopia again, escaping the chaos of the new Dergue regime, this time to Rwanda and later Togo, Malawi, and Kenya. I thus grew up in six different countries, going to school in French as well as English, and learning Swahili along the way. Throughout this time, my parents, to whom I owe everything, instilled in me and my sisters the deepest love and pride for our country Ethiopia. As I grew up in different cultures, grappling to understand my adolescent identity, I drew on the stories my parents told me of my heritage and of those who came before me. My mother, Bizuwork Bekele, who never missed a chance to boast about her beloved Harar, shared stories of my incredible great-grandmother, Imahoy Saba Yifat, from Menz and Gondar by origin, who lived in rural Hararghe as a widow after the Italian invasion and was one of the few women fighters of her time standing up to the invaders to defend the land and her six children. I heard about her son, my grandfather, Ato Bekele Haile, a respected magistrate serving as a judge in Harar town, himself of Gurage and Amhara ancestry, and of my mother’s birth in the historical site today known as the House of Rimbaud. As a young child, I loved to sit for hours with my maternal grandmother, Imahoy Beletshachew Habte-Giorgis, a witty, intelligent,and extremely strong-willed woman who would often exclaim in Afan Oromo which she and her children, including my mother, spoke fluently, as she laughed recalling how she managed her coffee farms in the areas around Jijiga, Fedis, and Deder, where many of my relatives still live today.

My father, for his part, mostly to amuse his daughters, named the water tank in our UN provided house in Kigali, Rwanda, “Bulga Springs” to recall his father’s birthplace in northern Shewa. He would proudly speak of my grandfather, Fitawrari Gebremedhin, a noble and highly disciplined official in Emperor Menelik’s time, who later settled in Wolaita Soddo in the late nineteenth century, marrying my grandmother, Woizero Ayalech Alaye, niece of the great Wolaita King Tona. At the age of seven, I remember visiting Soddo where my father was born and where many of my relatives still live, to spend time in his last years with my grandfather who was then nearly a century old. A tall, dignified, and handsome man, deeply religious, my grandfather showed me and my sister his coffee farm and I remember him speaking of my much loved late grandmother, and of his childhood and the family still in Bulga, and his laughing politely, not understanding, as I chattered to him in English with children’s jokes I had learned in New York.

Thus I grew, within and outside Ethiopia, celebrating all the different identities and cultures that are woven beautifully into the tapestry of my identity as an Ethiopian. To my parents, always , we were Ethiopian and that was something to be deeply proud of, recognizing and cherishing all of our different ethnic strands. I never knew until much later, nor did it matter, which particular ethnic group I should claim. In my extended family, my aunt married a man from Wollega and my uncle married a woman from Asmara, my great aunt married into the Abba Jifar clan in Jimma, and the list goes on. So the Ethiopia I knew growing up with my cousins was a kaleidoscope of identities bound together in one Ethiopia.

This is my Ethiopian story, and it is unique to me, as each Ethiopian would similarly have. It is the story of my Ethiopia, the Ethiopia for which I have enduring love and to which I have returned after thirty years to contribute in the best way I know how. This is my Ethiopia to which I bring all the global experiences which have shaped me, as I have lived my adult years in Mali, Switzerland, and the United States, trained and worked in some of the best institutions, and traveled and explored dozens of countries around the world. This is my Ethiopia that represents all of my heritage, the strong and courageous women and men in my family through the ages whose blood flows in me. This is my Ethiopia for which I am willing to work, fight, and believe all things are possible. This is my Ethiopia to which I have brought my US-born sons, to instill in them the pride and love of all that we are as Ethiopians. I would like to teach them that in our increasingly inter-connected world, they are Ethiopians but also global citizens.

Ethiopia is ours, to claim, to build and to restore. Rather than engage in destructive ethnic bigotry, far better to embrace all of what we are and to build together a better future for our children. My personal identity is irrelevant to my choice or ability to lead an initiative to bring a better marketing system for all Ethiopians, regardless of their ethnic roots or which corner of the country they claim. A market is above all a connection between humans, an exchange of goods and money that links two sides. The market is neutral as to who is on either side, it is the connection that counts. I have always
found traders to be the most pragmatic people in the world. Let us too live by this market principle: we are far richer and far stronger if we build on our connectivity to each other in meaningful ways, and that much weaker if we seek isolation and succumb to narrow divisiveness. Let us be like the market. I believe it is our only hope.

Miss Ethiopia gets a kiss

Melat Yante, Miss Ethiopia 2009, gets a kiss from Cassie the Sea Lion while in Dolphin Cay at ATLANTIS, Paradise Island, Bahamas, August 6, 2009.
Melat is representing Ethiopia at the 58th annual Miss Universe competition being held in the Bahamas.Can she be the successor to the Venezuelan Dayana Mendoza?
The 2009 Miss Universe competition which will be presented on August 23, 2009.
(Xinhua/Reuters Photo

Melat poses with other beauty contestants.

Guzo: The Award-Winning Ethiopian Film to Screen in New York

New York (Tadias) - Guzo, an award-winning Ethiopian film, is scheduled to screen at Helen Mills Theatre in New York City on Saturday, August 8, 2009.

Guzo, which won best picture at the 2009 Addis International Film Festival, disperses humor among more sober points of the film to delicately highlight the social, cultural and economical differences between Ethiopian urban elite and the larger rural-based majority who struggle for their daily survival. Staged as part documentary and part reality show with no real actors or script, Guzo chronicles the interaction between two young residents of Addis Ababa and their peers in the Ethiopian countryside over the course of 20 days as the characters confront stereotypes about each other and grapple with matters of gender and privilege, among other issues.

“Basically, we transplanted two urban Addis young adults and gave them a taste of rural Ethiopia,” says Aida Ashenafi, the film’s director.

“I have always loved the art of storytelling and engaging behind the lens of the camera. Guzo was a project that both inspired and intrigued me from the beginning. As my filmmaking background is mostly fiction films, not documentary, I feel that Guzo is more entertaining. One can relate tremendously whether you come from the city, the countryside, Ethiopia, America, Europe etc. It crosses many boundaries while touching on human issues that bond us all.”

The film has also earned the distinction of becoming the very first Ethiopian film selected to be shown on all current Ethiopian Airlines international flights.

If you Go:
Guzo is scheduled to screen at Helen Mills Theatre (39 west 26th street between 6th & 7th ave) in New York City on Saturday, August 8, 2009 at 1:30 and 3:30 PM. Click here to purchase your ticket. For more information, please call: 917.512.5416.

The 9 Hottest Ethiopian Women

After a year’s worth of Worldwide Wednesday, we’ve finally done it, folks. The big one. The country with the longest history of human development in all of Africa. The place that spawned a dozen ’80s charity pop songs and twice as many tasteless jokes that used “a grain of rice” as a punchline. Yes, welcome our newest guest, Ethiopia!
The 9 Hottest Ethiopian Women

Kidan Tesfahun Wins Best Female Model Contest

New York (Tadias) - 24-year-old Kidan Tesfahun, Ethiopia’s Miss Millennium Queen, has been named Best Female Model of the World 2009 at a fashion modeling contest organized by Sukier Models International in Alicante, Spain, on 24th July 2009, her representatives announced.

According to the competition’s director and founder Sukier Vallejo Marte: “The contest was created with the idea of attracting new faces and talent for future projects both domestically (in Spain) and internationally…”

Tesfahun, who had previously represented Ethiopia at the Miss International 2007 and Miss Earth 2008, says her newly gained title adds confidence to her future prospects in the modeling industry.

“From here on I guess the sky is the limit for me,” the aspiring model said. “I have gained the professional acceptance I always knew I should have, and I am indeed grateful to the Almighty Lord for guiding me and making my dreams come true.”

She is the second Ethiopian model this year from the Ethiopian Millennium pageant to win an international beauty competition. Bewunetwa Abebe, 19, was crowned Model of Africa at the 2009 International Beauty and Model festival in China.


24-year-old Kidan Tesfahun - Best Female Model of the World 2009.


Kidan Tesfahun pictured here at the Miss Earth 2008 contest

Immigrant Filmmaker Shmuel Beru pushes Israeli audiences

Thirty years - officially - after the first Ethiopian Jews set foot on Israeli soil, the first Israeli film about the Ethiopian community of the Holy Land is being released in theaters on Thursday.

Filmmaker Shmuel Beru, who made aliya from Ethiopia at the age of eight, hopes to show Israeli audiences the richness of his community with Zrubavel, his first full-length feature film.

Even after three decades, all that most Israelis know about this population of more than 110,000 is what they read in newspaper reports: problems of integration, juvenile delinquency, domestic violence - or, more rarely, one successful Ethiopian immigrant who becomes a doctor, a pilot or a famous singer or actor. But what do we really know about the Ethiopian Jews of Israel - their values, their traditions, their language, their music, their food, their dreams, their problems and how they deal with them, their feelings?

These are the questions that Beru, 33, who started as an actor, wanted to answer by getting behind the camera.

In Tel-Aviv's Kerem Hateimanim neighborhood, a two-minute walk from Rehov Zrubavel, where he lives, Beru agreed to talk to The Jerusalem Post about this original project.

The idea came to him two years ago, he says. "I thought that in my community, there were a lot of stories to tell that others are not exposed to. So I decided to make a movie to relate them, thinking that if I don't do it, nobody will do it for me."
BERU PRESENTS a picture, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, of a group of residents in an entirely Ethiopian neighborhood. All the generations are represented, from the patriarch of the Zrubavel family - a colonel in Ethiopia, now a street sweeper in Israel - to his eight-year-old, Israeli-born grandson Yitzhak - alias "Spike Lee" - whose dream is to make movies.

Through the eyes of the latter, Beru - who arrived from Ethiopia via Sudan one year before Operation Moses in 1984 - tells the story of Yitzhak's aunt, Almaz, the "most beautiful girl in the neighborhood." A talented singer, Almaz wants to marry a distant cousin, despite her father's injunction to respect the traditional rule of not marrying a relative within seven generations. Meanwhile, Almaz's brother Gili, pushed by his father, tries despite racism to enter a selective school to become an IAF pilot, as Yitzhak's parents fight over whether their son will enter a yeshiva or become a soccer player.

"My goal was to show that behind color and culture, there are human beings," says Beru. "I wanted to create an opportunity to see us [Israeli Ethiopians] in a different way than people are used to, to go further than what the news released about us, to make people realize that we are not different from others.

"'It doesn't matter where you come from, you are just a person' - this is the main point of my movie, and it is not only true for Ethiopians. Zrubavel tries to talk about integration in general, and its message can be applied to every other community."

Although he had never directed before, Beru was undeterred.

"My theory is, if you want to do it, just do it. I need a script? So I wrote a script. I need actors? So I found actors. I need money? Okay, I don't have money. I need to raise it. I presented my project to a few producers. I got only negative answers. So I invest my own money to direct a pilot. And I win the support of the Israel Film Fund and the Gesher Foundation. And I started."

DESPITE LIVING in Israel for 25 years, Beru says he still feels "different."

"I still feel I am not judged just as a person, but regarding my origins, my color," he explains. "People like to divide other people into groups. I don't know why, maybe it's easier for them to say, 'You, you are from outside, you are a foreigner, you just came to visit.' And this is what is exposed in the movie. This neighborhood [in the film] is like a ghetto, not connected to the other groups of society, to the rest of the world, and it affects its residents."

One of the issues Beru addresses in the movie is the gap between the older and younger generations in the community.

"For the youth, it's hard because they feel half-half - on the one hand, they want to be like Israelis, and on the other, they want to be like Ethiopians. And it is difficult for them to find a good balance, to mix. Especially when they have to face the reaction of their parents, themselves in a struggle to deal with a new culture and lifestyle very different from their old one," he says.

Beru also shows "a typical Israeli family" trying to contribute to their country.

"The father is very Zionist. [He] wants his son, Gili, to defend his country, even though he already lost another son in the army. He wants him to be a pilot and to be recognized as a part of society," he says.

Beru admits that the character of Yitzhak, the young filmmaker, could be a reflection of himself, although he hadn't planned it that way.

"Yitzhak is just a naïve little boy who wants to do a movie, very simple, with his handmade camera," he explains, adding, "In this business, everyone wants to be Spike Lee and wants to be a voice for their own community."

Beru's next film project is a personal account of his own experiences coming to Israel.

"It will talk about my life, about my journey from Ethiopia to Israel via Sudan. I already have a script," he says. "Now I look for funds to start; it will be huge production."

Former Miss Ethiopia makes Pr. Girma documentary film

The 2006 Miss Ethiopia Amleset Muchie currently studying filmmaking at New York Film Academy is making a documentary on the life of President Girma Wolde-Giorgis.
The one-hour long documentary which is a school project for the actress, model and director would chronicle a day in the life of the president as told by himself, close associates and her own commentary. The documentary would bring an intimate look behind the Jubilee Palace showing as the president attending staff conference, meeting with dignitaries and ceremonial events.
The 84-year-old president who holds a symbolic office with little power has authorized Amleset to come and document him. Amleset is hoping to start shooting soon and have it ready in months’ time.
The doc would be premiered at the Film Academy and other festivals.
Amleset has already written and produced a romantic comedy, Si Le Fikir (About love) and has also starred in another Amharic film “Ye Felegal.”

Washington-based nonprofit supports excellent Ethiopian adventure

Washington-based Girls Gotta Run is already supporting Ethiopian girls training to be professional runners.

Now, the Chevy Chase volunteer-run nonprofit is supporting the work of an Occidental College student named Kayla Nolan who is spending the summer in Ethiopia researching the benefits Ethiopian girls and women can reap from running. Like those involved with Girls Gotta Run, Nolan believes involvement in the sport can empower Ethiopian girls and women, offering them paths out of poverty and teenage childbirth to education and independence. Girls Gotta Run helped Nolan write a proposal that netted her a research fellowship from Occidental College, which is fully funding the trip.

As part of her research, Nolan is visiting and getting to know members of the four teams Girls Gotta Run provides support for. Best of all, she's blogging about her experience here.

Girls Gotta Run has raised more than $24,000 in the past two years to buy shoes, training clothes, food and other training essentials for Ethiopian girls training to become professional runners. Among its fund-raising events is an immensely popular art exhibit in the Washington area for which local artists design and sell artwork related to shoes, running and motion.

For more info: Visit Girls Gotta Run online.

Adwa: An African Victory (1999)

The story of the 1896 battle of Adwa is being told by Ethiopian-born director Haile Gerima. He explores European colonialism from an African perspective and the significance of the legendary battle that defeated the Italian expansionist movement and kept Ethiopia the one and only African country that was not occupied by a European colonial power in the last 200 years.

His argument is quite ambitious and perhaps not entirely justified throughout the movie: the battle of Adwa is a symbol of African liberation for Africans of all nations. It is a source of motivation that has inspired other African liberators in their quest of freeing Africa from colonialism. On one hand, it is true that the fact that Ethiopia has been the only internationally recognized sovereign African could have been a reason for admiration and hope on behalf of various African elites. But actually making the argument that the victory from Adwa was an African victory, profoundly embedded in the political culture of the African people can be fairly misleading: most African liberation fighters were driven by the local specificities and the local hardships. If they found hope and faith in a successful independence story, that might have been Ghana, the first Sub-Saharan country that became independent in 1957, and not Ethiopia. That being said, the documentary is worth watching because it presents how a historical event has been filtrated through the public consciousness of the Ethiopian people. Haile Gerima brings together Ethiopians from very different backgrounds and allows them to tell the story of the battle from their own perspective.

It is obvious that the astounding victory of Emperor Menelik and Empress Taitu to defend their nation against the far better-equipped invading Italian army has served as a source of inspiration for millions of Ethiopians along the years. Grandfathers, fathers, teachers, brothers have instilled in the new generations the passion and the national pride that was sourced in this amazing victory. In fact, the director confesses early on that he came back to Ethiopia to understand, discover and see with his own eyes whether the Battle from Adwa was indeed an amazing victory or simply a myth. He achieves his goal by talking to Ethiopian historians, teachers, professors, singers, artists, old people, children, and random people he meets along the way. He also looks at documents, paintings, engravings, and testimonies that are also shown and explored in this documentary.

The battle of Adwa occurred in 1896, at a time when European powers were advancing in all directions on the African continent, taking over the land and the people either peacefully or by force. As one historian mentions in the documentary, Italians saw Ethiopia as their birthright and consequently desired to take over it. Emperor Menelik II was able to unify all the local factions and bring together an impressive army of about 150,000 soldiers outnumbering the Italians 10 to 1 or even 15 to one. He did that while astutely deceiving European powers by convincing them that he was simply following their directions. After the Italians lost the fights, they left thousands of riffles and means of transportation behind and fled the country.

Why watch the movie?

The documentary is an interesting sociological exercise that is focused on the politics of experience. It shows how very different people think of a particular historical event, what meaning they gain out of that, and how that experience is translated into their every day life. Needless to say, the victory, while significant, has had hardly any consequence on people’s lives. The documentary is worth watching if you have an interest in Ethiopian history or African history in general. It is also an interesting documentary from a visual point of view as it creates a very appealing product by using very limited historical data.

This documentary is rated 8 / 10

Ethiopian supermodel redefines what it is to be a renaissance woman.

BY CRISTINA GREEVEN CUOMO AND SAMANTHA YANKS | Hamptons Magazine

NEW YORK — At the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute Gala last month, Ethiopian model Liya Kebede fit the “Model As Muse” theme perfectly — a stunning, slender and shining muse in a Derek Lam dress. But there is so much more beneath this supermodel's beautiful facade. With two kids (an eight-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter), a husband of 10 years, a sustainable children's clothing line called Lemlem and a design partnership with J.Crew's Crewcuts, it's a wonder she?s able to juggle so much and still look so lovely. And her recent Vogue cover depicts to a tee the manner in which she does so — gracefully and elegantly.

Kebede quickly emerged as one of the world?s top models, landing campaigns like Yves Saint Laurent and evolving far past the girl Tom Ford discovered years ago. As the World Health Organization's Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and head of her own eponymous foundation supporting women in need worldwide, she understands the value of giving back and passing that important message along to her children
.

HAMPTONS: What was the inspiration behind Lemlem?

LIYA KEBEDE: If I weren't a model I wouldn't have done it. As a model, I learned so much about clothes and the making of a garment. I'm from Ethiopia, and on one of our trips we visited local weavers working in poor conditions who didn't have a market for their products anymore. I was in a position to try to give them jobs, keep their art alive and also bring the sensibility of a unique garment to the West. That's the whole picture of how Lemlem was created. I started with children clothes because I love shopping for my children. It also gives kids here something beautiful that was made in Africa.

H: And how did the J.Crew Crewcuts initiative evolve?

LK: I met Mickey Drexler professionally as a model, and I suggested showing them the line, knowing they would love it. And they did. It evolved from me being a model for J.Crew to this bigger collaboration with them supporting this great endeavor.

H: What are some of your fashion must-haves this summer?

LK: I was in Paris for the shows and I bought beautiful K.Jacques sandals. I also love Proenza Schouler, Marc Jacobs, Derek Lam and Lanvin.

H: How did your modeling career begin?

LK: I modeled when I was in Ethiopia, doing little fashion shows for school. I fell in love with it and thought I would model to pay off my college tuition. I went to Paris and had a rough time, then moved to America and pursued it. I was in Chicago for two years before I made the big move to New York. I was here for about a season before I booked my first Tom Ford show. I feel like Tom discovered me.

H: This year you're starring in a film that chronicles another model's career. Tell us more.

LK: It's the story of Waris Dirie, a Somalian model in the '90s. She ran away from home as a young girl to flee an arranged marriage. She was discovered by Terence Donovan while working in London and became a renowned model. At the height of her career she became a goodwill ambassador and spoke for the first time about how she was circumcised as a little girl. She had an incredible life, and she wrote an autobiography called Desert Flower. We made the movie from that book.

H: You?re also a goodwill ambassador. Do you travel often for the UN?

LK: I was in Senegal before Christmas for an AIDS conference. It's always nice to go on the ground because you get such a better understanding of what is going on there.

H: And when you're in the Hamptons, what are your favorite things to do?

LK: We play tennis a lot. And we love the quiet. To be able to open your door and go out in the garden and have that still moment while the kids can be in the backyard — I find that beautiful and very relaxing. The kids are in the pool the whole day. We go grocery shopping, and they have cute toy stores. We also love going to the cinema in East Hampton.

H: What are your goals for your foundation?

LK: We try to help mothers get basic health care during pregnancy and delivery. Every minute a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth, often from things that are completely treatable or preventable. In five years I want the whole world to know about this issue. We want maternal health to be a priority. I would love for Mother's Day to become a celebration of mothers around the world — a day not just for your mom, but to remember others and to help save a mother in another part of the world.

H: You managed to make your business "sustainable." How does that work?

LK: The challenge is to help these women be independent by giving someone a job so they can earn money, support their families and send their kids to school.

H: And how do you think President Obama is doing?

LK: Fantastic. It's such a moment for us to have him as president. The way everybody sees America has completely transformed since he's been in office, and everybody is looking up to him. For me and my kids, living in America, it's so great to see a black president. I'm not sure I thought I would ever see it in my lifetime. And now for my kids it?s something normal, which is priceless.

Long Distance: A film about an Ethiopian athlete in the Bronx

Events News
Source: Brooklyn International Film Festival
Category: Documentary
Director: Moritz Siebert
(a freelance journalist, a medical doctor and a filmmaker)
Showtime: 2:00 pm | Saturday June 13 | Brooklyn Heights Cinema

Synopsis
Abiyot is one of several African long distance runners, trying to make a living and career in the US. Once he was a promising member of the Ethiopian national team, but two years ago he left his country to start a new life. Weekend after weekend, he races with fellow African athletes in road races, competing over a few hundred dollars of prize money. The film follows Abiyot as he prepares for an important race. Every morning at break of dawn he tirelessly trains in the empty streets of his Bronx neighborhood. With every aspect of his daily routine centered on his training, his footsteps not only dictate the rhythm of his life, but also become the pervasive rhythm of the film. In phone calls with his family back home, Abiyot tries to convince them and himself, that the running will pay off in the long term… A film about endurance, migration and the American Dream.

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These dynamic duos give new meaning to "power couple."

Beauty, fame, entrepreneurial success--that's more than most of us can hope for.

Now imagine marrying someone who also brought those qualities to the altar. Such rare, dynamic duos exist. Each on his or her own is a force--in entertainment, fashion, food, you name it--but together, these couples give new meaning to the expression "power couple."

Take Beyonce Knowles, 27, and husband Shawn Corey Carter, aka Jay-Z, 39. The former lead singer of girl group Destiny's Child, Knowles has rocked a Grammy-winning multi-platinum R&B solo career since 2003. She's also appeared in movies like Dreamgirls and The Pink Panther, and has racked up millions in endorsement fees from the likes Pepsi, L'Oreal and Armani.

Hip-hop hubby Jay-Z, meanwhile, is no slouch as an entrepreneur. Former chief of the Def Jam record company, he also founded clothing line Rocawear in 1995, which he sold to Iconix Brand Group in 2007 for $204 million. Concert promoter Live Nation recently signed Jay-Z to an exclusive 10-year, $150 million deal covering all merchandising, promotion and touring. Beyond the music and fashion realms, Jay-Z owns 40/40, a chain of upscale sports bars, and has a $4.5 million stake in the New Jersey Nets basketball squad. Real estate holdings include a mid-block parcel on the West Side of Manhattan, purchased for $66 million in late 2007, on which he plans to build a hotel.

Makes you tired just thinking about it all. It begs the question too: When do these busy lovebirds ever get a chance to share a relaxing cup of coffee?

Then again, when you're hardwired for accomplishment, down time doesn't take top priority. "Could you imagine if I didn't work and just sat and home and waited for him once my kids went to bed?" asks Gelila Assafa Puck, second wife of celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. Ethiopian-born Assefa Puck owned her own Los Angeles couture store from 1998 through 2001. In 2006, she launched a line of high-end handbags, manufactured in South Africa, that sell for $7,000 to $30,000. (She says she hopes to return to fashion design when her 2- and 4-year-old sons are old enough for school.) If that weren't enough, she also operates a non-profit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that sponsors secondary schooling for about 400 children.

Supermodel turned furniture- and cosmetics-marketer Cindy Crawford admits that finding enough quality time with club-owner husband Rande Gerber and their two kids can be a struggle. Get it right, though, and there's a hidden upside, she says: "If you love your job and you're passionate about it, it's good for the kids because they see me doing work that I like."

As for Gerber, he knows the power couple has to stay vigilant to maintain the right balance. "We make our own schedules, and we go over them often to make sure we're together enough each month and with our kids," he says.

Another benefit to tying up with a celebrity entrepreneur: synergy. Gerber's international portfolio of bars, hotels and nightclubs--including the Stone Rose Lounge in New York, L.A. and Scottsdale, Ariz.; Midnight Rose in Madrid, Spain; and the Rose Bar in Cancun, Mexico--syncs well with Crawford's living billboard persona. "In some cases, one plus one is more than two," says Crawford. "Rande gives me a cool factor. He's New York and a nightclub guy. I probably give him the glitz and glamour factor."

Yet a third dimension to celebrity unions: "A relationship or marriage gets the public to see a celebrity in a different light as a wife, husband, mother or father versus a movie star or a TV star," says Chalcea Park, managing director of talent and licensing for Davie Brown Entertainment, a branding consultancy. That connection can endear customers to an enterprise in a way that a two-dimensional magazine page or a movie screen can't.

Last but not least, there's the good, old-fashioned empathy and support that come from being married to someone who truly understands your plight--and who can offer a welcome fresh perspective. "If there's a big decision, [Rande and I] talk to each other," says Crawford. "We do very different work, and it's good, because he can give me a totally different perspective on business decisions."

(Maureen Farrell, forbes.com)

Matt Damon Visits Ethiopia — One By One

ONEXONE Foundation Ambassador Matt Damon brings awareness to Africa’s water crisis, visiting a hand-dug well just outside Mekele, Ethiopia on Tuesday (April 20).

In his right hand, the 38-year-old actor holds a bottle of regular water, in his left is a bottle of dirty water local children in Mekele drink everyday.

You can view more pictures and video from Matt’s trip at OneXOne.com.

Matt also made a trip to Rwanda, where he met President Paul Rigame and visited a Millennium Village, hospitals and clinics.

Ethiopian Supermodel Liya Kebede honors Shaft

Gotham Hall in Manhattan on Tuesday night was all about glam and diversity as model Liya Kebede, Russell Simmons, Isabel Toledo, and Bruce Weber accepted awards from The Gordon Parks Foundation. “Gordon Parks was my man! He was my hero!” said Russell Simmons before sitting down to join an audience that included Anna Wintour (dressed in shimmering gold), Ralph Lauren (with wife Ricky and son David in tow), and designer Zac Posen. “Gordon Parks comes from the tradition of photographers who look so carefully at the people who wander the streets,” said rocker Patti Smith. “He made me see the human being a little differently. You’re in the subway and all of a sudden you see people’s ruminations, sorrows, and the whole tableau of human emotions.” Smith recounted how when she first came to New York, her first stop was Café Reggio’s because she recognized it from the soundtrack to Parks’ seminal blaxploitation film “Shaft”. “’Shaft’ was mind-blowing,” said Kebede, who saw the film as a kid growing up in Ethiopia.


The evening was more sneakers and suits than Shaft-like cool, except for the striking emcee, Andre Leon Talley. The Vogue editor-at-large was dressed in a massive black Isabel Toledo caftan coupled with an oversized gold Roger Vivier necklace and diamente buckle shoes (talk about bringing on the bling). Manhattan awards galas are notorious for being of epic length, but last night’s ceremony galloped along at a perfect pace, with Bruce Weber’s funky documentary “Liberty City Is Like Paris To Me” — which portrayed joyous Floridian street scenes during this past January’s inauguration — the meandering exception. Best that Bruce, swaying backstage to the music of his documentary, stick to photographing labs and naked young men.

Parks (a renaissance man who was a photographer, cinematographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist, and film director) was lauded throughout the evening for his ground-breaking role as an African-American artiste and for his non-Avedon-esque, un-staged fashion photography. “He’s an inspiration to me,” said hot young fashion designer Chris Benz, “because there’s a nice electricity showing that things aren’t so perfect.” But perhaps the most touching moment in an otherwise serious evening was when artist Ruben Toledo toasted his wife, designer Isabel Toledo. After praising Parks for his “soulful glamour,” Toledo couldn’t help but note “and my wife makes the best Cuban black beans in the world.”

Ethiopia's Mulatu Astatke goes to England

Mulatu Astatke/The Heliocentrics
Strut Records (www.strut-records.com)

You can hear the creative sparks flying on this self-titled collaboration between renowned Ethiopian instrumentalist and bandleader Mulatu Astatke and The Heliocentrics, an innovative musical collective from the UK. The Heliocentrics backed Astatke on a rare live appearance in London in 2008 and joined him a few months later to capture in the studio some of what had worked so well on stage. It’s a good thing that everyone involved (including some other London-based Ethiopian players and singers) had time and energy to spare, because the resulting CD melds Ethiopian tradition and freewheeling fusion as perfectly as Dub Colossus linked Jamaica and Ethiopia on last year’s In a Town Called Addis. If you’ve heard any of the discs from the Ethiopiques series on Buda Musique, several of which feature Astatke’s work, some of these pentatonic scale arrangements and jagged rhythms will be familiar. But that’s only part of the story. There’s strains of Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, Latin grooves, vintage analog effects, mysterious melodies, intros that go from kitschy to way cool and Far Eastern riffs, all wound around ear-grabbing piano, percussion, vibraphone, horns, strings, guitar, standup bass and rustic Ethiopian harp and flute. Most of the tracks are instrumentals carried along on currents of pure inspiration and musical ideas seemingly coming together on the spot but too perfectly realized to be arbitrary. It’s as though everyone involved knew something special would happen and just let it flow. This disc is not really a combination of old and new; it’s more an instance of the old being brilliantly expanded. -Tom Orr

Listen

Final Teddy verdict in 15 days

Late last Friday afternoon, the Appeal Court of Cassation at the Federal Supreme Court adjourned the case of Tewodros Kassahun, popularly known as Teddy Afro, to June 11, 2009, for a final verdict.

Teddy was jailed on April 16, 2008, for a charge of killing a homeless boy in a car accident and fleeing the scene. When the verdict was reached he was sentenced to six years in prison and fined 18,000 birr by the Federal High Court 8th Criminal Bench in December, 2008.

The appeal judge, Justice Dagne Melaku, at the Federal Supreme Court announced the court sustained the guilty verdict, but reduced the sentence, adjudicating that the deceased had a role in the accident that cost him his life. Because of this, the court cut the original sentence to two years and the fine to 11,000 birr in February this year.

The decision was based on the finding that the deceased was unconscious due to alcohol consumption and was sleeping in the middle of the road when the accident occurred. Due to a lack of lighting, the court reasoned it would be almost impossible for a driver to spot a person at night.

But Million Assefa, Teddy’s lawyer, opposed the court’s decision and he went to appeal at the Cassation Bench of the Federal Supreme Court.

Teddy has already served almost 13 months in jail and with a probable probation for good behavior he should be free in less than a year. If probation is given it is four months per year in jail, so the singer gets eight months of probation which slashes his stay in jail to six months from now.

However, the length of his imprisonment is dependent on the final verdict.
Teddy Afro entered the Ethiopian music scene in 2001, and has made three albums since and a number of singles. He was well accepted by the audience for his varied style and his powerful lyrics that he wrote himself.

His die-hard fans, however, still refuse to accept he could be guilty, continuing to maintain that he is the victim of a political vendetta because Teddy Afro’s music was identified with the opposition’s cause at the time of the controversial 2005 elections.

Teen Ethiopian Beauty Crowned “Model of Africa 2009″

Miss Millennium Teen Intercontinental;Bewunetwa Abebe representing Ethiopia at the recently concluded International Beauty and Model Festival 2009 in Kunming China, has won the title of Model





United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland (Press Release) May 19, 2009 –

Miss Millennium Teen Intercontinental;Bewunetwa Abebe who was representing Ethiopia at the recently concluded International Beauty and Model festival 2009 in Kunming China, has won the title of Model of Africa,

19year old Bewunetwa Abebe was participating in her first event international event having been crowned Miss Teen Millennium Intercontinental as part of the Ethiopian Millennium Festival of Beauty, and did not only her nation proud but her family as well. Bewunetwa Abebe comes from a long line of Beauty Queens in her family as her two older sisters have also successfully represented Ethiopia in several National and International beauty contests over the years.

Current Washington DC based Model: Ferehiyewot Abebe her older sister was the first Ethiopian girl ever to participate at Miss Universe in 2004, she went on to participate in Miss Teen Model of the World, Miss Earth and World Miss University, eldest Sibling Tizita Abebe also took part in Miss Model of the World and Miss Bikini Universe.

The 2009 International Beauty and Model festival was organized by the World Beauty Congress and held in Beijing and Kunming from the 25th April until the 7th May 2009. Beauties of Africa Inc and the Ethiopian life foundation coordinated Ethiopia participation 43 International models took part in this event.

source: FPR

Ethiopian Jazz on Display in London: Mulatu the Magnificent

Tadias Magazine
Tadias Staff

New York (Tadias) - One of the most anticipated music shows in London next week is Ethio-jazz inventor Mulatu Astatke’s collaboration with the Heliocentrics collective. “Even if the evening doesn’t live up to expectations, the Ethiopian bandleader’s new album is sure to make it onto my end-of-year-list of the best releases,” writes culture commentator Clive Davis on his Spectator blog.

Mulatu collaborates with Heliocentrics collective (VIDEO)


On his blog, Mr Davis also points out the amazing soundtrack of Jim
Jarmusch’s 2005 movie “Broken Flowers”, which featured Mulatu’s
music. Here is the video:

Each month, we highlight a celebrity’s work on behalf of a specific cause. This month we speak with supermodel, actress, WHO ambassador and mother, Liya Kebede, about her work on health issues related to childbirth. You may recognize Kebede as the former face of Estee Lauder or from the cover of magazines including Vogue’s May 2009 issue. Kebede, who is Ethiopian, founded her own organization to reduce mortality among mothers, newborns and young children and well as to help mothers and children stay healthy. The Liya Kebede Foundation promotes the use of low-cost technology and accessible medical care to help save lives during and after childbearing. The foundation also educates health-care workers and community members on children's health. Kebede also is a World Heath Organization ambassador, a position given to celebrities who advocate for health causes. In 2005, Kebede was named “Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.” Kebede also has a clothing line for children and women called “Lemlem,” which means to bloom or flourish in Amharic, the language of the Amhara people of Ethiopia. She hopes that the handwoven clothing from Ethiopia will continue native traditions as well as support local businesses and economies.

Q: Can you tell us about the Liya Kebede Foundation and its purpose?

Kebede: Right now, we have about one woman every minute of the day dying from childbirth and pregnancy complications in the world, and this is sort of very unheard of in the West. This happens a lot in the developing world. The reason is because women don’t really have access to very basic medical care, so most of these women are dying from very preventable or treatable conditions — simple things like an infection during childbirth will just kill the mother.

What we do in the foundation is we try to raise awareness of this issue because a lot of people don’t really realize that the number one killer of women in the world, in the developing world, is childbirth. You know, childbirth is something that is supposed to be this really beautiful and joyous moment in your life. For a lot women in the developing world, instead being this joyous moment that we experience here, it's filled with pain and it's filled with fear that they might actually lose their lives giving birth. So, that is why we created this foundation. We really want to raise awareness and help programs that support these causes.

Q: What made you become interested in the topic of children’s health and mortality rates among mothers and children?

Kebede: I am a mom I have two wonderful children and I am also from Ethiopia. Growing up there, it was really very normal to see and to hear about women dying in childbirth. It was very, very common. At the time, I actually thought it was a normal thing. Later, I came here and I was lucky enough to have my children in New York and I had the best medical care. The gap is ridiculous. Here, you’re not only in the best care, you get to have sonograms and you get to see if the baby is a boy or a girl. In a developing country, women deliver in a hut by themselves, a lot of times with nobody around. They might not even have clean water by them so any little thing might jeopardize their life or the baby’s life. This is something that I thought any mom, any woman who would hear this story, would feel the importance of it. So, that’s kind of how I got involved.

Q: Please describe your role as the Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Heath.

Kebede: I’ve been with the WHO since 2005. I’ve been their Goodwill Ambassador and we’ve been working a lot on raising awareness of this issue so that more and more people can actually hear about it and put pressure on governments to put a lot of budget earmarks on maternal health, because one of the other problems that we have is this one area is completely underfunded. One of the other problems that we have is this one area is completely underfunded and mothers dying is not something that can be put on the backburner. It's something that’s completely important not just for her life but her children’s life, for her family's life, for the community, for the whole country.

With the WHO we try to get international communities — the West, for instance — to really allocate more funding specifically for maternal health and also the local governments to allocate more funding for maternal health. That’s the kind of work that we want to do and help promote programs that are already existing that help women and children around the world.

Q: How does your clothing line, “Lemlem,” relate to your work with health and mortality?

Kebede: Lemlem is a different kind of aid. It's kind of a social entrepreneurship. The reason why Lemlem was created is I really wanted to help our local artisans, give them economic empowerment, give them jobs, give them money they can earn for themselves so they take care of themselves, instead of just handing out money. This is something that they’re actually earning so its makes it more sustainable. The Lemlem is made from handwoven materials. It's kind of an incredible art. I saw that that art was dying and all these artisans were sitting around not having a market for their beautiful work.

At the same time I think it's kind of beautiful to infuse the West with these beautiful hand-crafted garments. It's kind of a new thing for the West to get used to and also to give trust to the West as well that they can eventually go to places like Ethiopia and all these other different African countries and start manufacturing there so that we can really then boost the economy of the country. I’ve been lucky enough because in a way Lemlem becomes this perfect balance that brings the level of fashion that I have as a model [and] at the same time this possibility to improve the lives of other people. It's kind of a great bridge for me.

Q: What was your most memorable experience working with either your foundation, as an ambassador, or with your clothing line?

Kebede: There is this one story that I think says it all in a way. I was in Ethiopia visiting this town in Bahir Dar. We went to visit this woman who lives in her little hut with her five kids. She also had a granddaughter. She was about 30 years old but she looked like she was about 50. She was carrying her granddaughter with her and her daughter was away working. She had all these little kids at home who were hers. Her village was under a program that the Ministry of Health had started [where] they have two young girls who have graduated from high school and who had two years of intensive study and basic medical care take care of the village.

They come to the houses and talk to the women. They help them with prenatal and postnatal care. They make sure that if there’s a pregnancy at risk, they refer them to a hospital. So they’ve been doing this program with this woman and she’s not literate. She’s never gone to school. I was sitting and talking to her and I asked her what was happening with her daughters and if they were attending school. She said yes, absolutely, they’re going to school.

The daughters were about 11 or 12 years old. There’s a lot of early marriage issues in some of those areas. She said to me, "Absolutely not. I’m not going to have my daughter marry anybody. I want her to finish school and if she wants to marry then it's her choice to marry." I was stunned to hear this coming from her, this woman who in her life was married early and had her children young. She really had no choice. It was the most unbelievable moment.

Then I asked her, "Are you going to have any more children?" She said, "Absolutely not." So I said, "Well, how are you going about not having children anymore?" She said, "I’m going to take my pill." She said to me, "All my life, you know, I thought I was there to give birth and now all of the sudden I have this choice and this power to not have a child if I don’t want to because I can't afford to." For her it was an incredible thing. I was just sitting there and thinking, "Oh my God, this is amazing." I always think about that story.

Q: How can people become involved?

Kebede: The biggest thing that people can do is let their governments know that saving mothers' lives should be a priority. Governments aren't going to invest unless we let them know that we care about this issue. There is a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives right now, H.R. 1410, that would make saving mothers' and children's lives a priority for U.S. foreign aid. Call or write your representative and tell them that you expect them to support this bill. If politicians know their constituents care about this issue, they will care too. Or people can visit the Web site of the Mothers Day Every Day campaign and see how they can take action in their communities.