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Emperor Yohannis IV was born Kassa Mercha, son of Dejazmatch Mercha, Shum of Tembien, and his wife Woizero Silass. Dejazmatch Mercha was the hereditary Shum Tembien, and claimed primacy over the lords of Tigrai. His mother was a decendant of the Ras Michael Sihul, who had became Enderase of the Empire during the reign of Emperor Eyoas. Ras Michael would later order the murder of that Emperor and rise to such power that some date the begining of the Zemene Mesafint to this event. Read more »

Belatengeta —Poet Laureate—Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin,
is Ethiopia’s premier versatile and prolific man of letters. For half a century now he has been continuously productive as poet, playwright, essayist, social critic, philologist, historiographer, dramatist, synthesist, peace activist, artistic director…on matters national, continental and global. Even if he has yet to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, he has often been more appreciated and duly honored abroad than in his own land. Perhaps this is in keeping with that old Ethiopian saying to the effect that ‘a prophet is often not esteemed in his own country.’ Read more »

Emperor Tewodros II was born Kassa Haile Giorgis, (often refered to as Kassa Hailu), the son of a minor nobleman of Qwara district of Dembia, a region of western Beghemider province bordering on the Sudan. His actual place of birth was in the small villiage of Dawa, located about 12 kilometers from the city of Gondar, in 1818. His father, Haile Giorgis Wolde Giorgis would die long before Kassa could possibly have remembered him. Kassa’s paternal grandfather was Dejazmatch Wolde Giorgis, a prominent nobleman of his time. Kassa’s mother was named Woizero Attitegeb Wondbewossen, and her paternal grandfather was Ras Wodajo, another powerful and prominent nobleman. Read more »

Telahun Gessese
ARTIST/Dr. Telahun Gessese: The Thunderous voice of the King of Music
By Teodros Kiros, PhD
Joy. Laughter. Dance and more dance. Pride and tradition, modernity and Classism. These were the languages of the Ethiopian youth and some of their parents on this cold winter night as they jubilantly flooded the dance floor.
The dance floor at a huge hall readied to accommodate over a thousand people bursting with the exuberance of youth, the fire of joy, the swings and twists of modern Ethiopian dance responding to the groveling multicultural band of a Caucasian trumpeter, an oriental clarinet and an Ethiopian female singer dominated this winter night in the city of Watertown, Ma, on December 9, 2006. Read more »

A CONVERSATION WITH MULATU ASTATKE: ON HELIOCENTRICS, ETHIO-JAZZ AND ELLINGTON
Wednesday, Apr. 8 2009 @ 12:12PM
By Jeff Weiss in weiss

Rivaling Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Franco, Tabu Ley Rochereau, and a handful of others, Mulatu Astatke ranks among the most influential African musicians of all-time. Read more »

Emperor Menelik II was the son of King Haile Melekot of Shewa, and Woizero Ijigayehu. King Haile Melekot was the son of the first king of Shewa, King Sahle Selassie and his wife Bezabish. Woizero Ijigayehu was a woman in the service of Zenebework, the mother of King Sahle Selassie, and grandmother of King Haile Melekot. She is said to have been from Gondar, and may have been one of the people brought to Ankober, to help structure the Shewan court in accordance to the practices of the Gondar court, training young princesses in proper etiquette and behavior. Read more »

Lij Eyasu Michael was the son of Ras (later King)Michael Ali of Wollo, and Woizero Shewaregga Menelik, and was born in 1901. Lij Eyasu’s father, Ras Michael Ali, was the ruler of the Wollo Oromo clan known as the Mammadoch. He was related to both of the rival Mammadoch Queens, Werqitu and Mestawat, who had fought each other as well as Emperor Tewodros II on behalf of their young sons for leadership of the Mammadoch and rule over Wollo. Born Mohammed Ali, son of Imam Ali Abba Dulla, a Moslem noble claiming direct decent from the Prophet Mohammed himself, Ras Michael (pronounced Mika-el)had been compeled to convert to Christianity by Emperor Yohannis IV following the Council of Boru Meda in 1878. Read more »