Around forty artists showcased their artistic work at Hilton Addis Ababa to back humanity while the Ethiopian Red Cross society celebrated Red Cross and Red Crescent Day.
The Exhibition was opened by President Shalework Zewdie.
A total of 50 artistic work were presented for sale. All of the money went to support internally displaced people.
It was organized jointly with the Ethiopian Visual Art Association and the Ethiopian Red Cross Society.
Famous young artists contributed their work for free to support the idea. The exhibition will continue to be displayed at Alliance Ethio-Française.
Last week prime minister Abiy Ahmed had a discussion with over 3,000 medical professionals (health service providers as per WHO) drawn from all over the country. This was a good opportunity for the health service providers (doctors, nurses, midwives, health extension workers, pharmacists…) to voice their grievances to the PM. I can sense the burden the prime minister is shouldering these days. He should deserve appreciation for taking time to involve himself in the discussion.
The event reminded me of a similar discussion that was conducted between instructors of higher learning institutions and the late prime minister, Meles Zenawi. That discussion held some 17 years back was the kind of unforgettable one. Some questions and opinions forwarded to the late prime minister by participants drawn from various local universities and colleges were worth listening… We don’t forget in particular the challenging opinions and comments forwarded by two young instructors named Animaw (Dr) and Mulugeta.
Animaw, an English language instructor at Addis Ababa University, bombarded the premier with timely and significant opinions. That time many people including the forum participants, were alarmed by the boldness of the young instructor. Such thing was unthinkable then. Many of the participants were taken aback by the courage the young enquirer has shown to confront the stern look premier. At that time, it was startling to see such a daredevil guy. Yes, it was very terrifying to take a look at the face of the premier let alone confront him with challenging comments and opinions. Anyways, the opinions forwarded by Animaw were about the fate of this country which has deliberately been made to be decimated by ethnic divisions.
Animaw reflected the common issue of the entire nation. He said that the fate of the country was in the hands of the then premier and he ‘is the one’ who should work for the deliverance of it. “…I don’t want to drift back in to the past and say that ethnic politics annihilates us. Because it is too late… What must we do now? The ball is under your control… It is beneath your feet. What I suggest, like a tiny helpless creature, is that there need to be good heartedness from your side. I want you to be well-meaning! I wish you to lead us with kind-heartedness … So long as you are there [in power], there will never be a multi-party system that realizes valuable changes in this country. I assure you… you make sure that it doesn’t exist. You have been successful [In this regard] so far and so will you be for the next 20 years…” Animaw has thus told the premier till he was seen turning red in the face. We can say now that the daredevil instructor was a fortune teller. As he was too smart to be deceived by political perfidy, he said he didn’t want the PM to tell him that he was wrong. “…I don’t want you to tell me that I am wrong. I know what you are going to tell me. Don’t tell me anything!” This was followed by long laughter of the participants.
The other college lecturer, Mulugeta (?), took the microphone and blurted out that the issue of ethnicity has been harped on across the country more than enough. He said that the young people radicalized the ethnic politics unprecedentedly. Mulugeta indeed expressed concern about the dangerous track the country has been made to embark on… In this way the intellectuals tried to unveil the hidden political agenda of the ruling party. Every citizen was taken away by the subtle way of the intellectuals to urge the government to take immediate corrective measures. In general, that discussion was impressive…
I expected to hear such challenging comments, questions and suggestions from the health service providers during the recently held discussion with the premier. I don’t know, probably it can be my ignorance to think of this. But it is my thought that the medical practitioners should have expressed concern regarding the current status of this country. As concerned citizens, they should have done this. Excuse my ignorance… But I thought that apart from raising personal issues, they could have put forward advisory words in connection to the political uncertainty of this poor country of ours. I expected that they would challenge the premier by posing questions regarding the political unrest, civil conflicts, mass displacements and insecurity being sparked across the country. I thought that they would enquire the premier regarding the local extremist media outlets and hostile elements that are creating problems. I had expected there would have been a discussion as to how the government would ensure the prevalence of rule of law in this country… Why there is no strong national leadership? Why regional states do not obey orders of the federal government? Why the incumbent government has kept mum? Why has it not taken decisive steps against these things? To whom has it abandoned the nation? If I am mistaken, excuse my ignorance. But I tell you I expected robust debates and discussions on issues like these ones. This day the entire people are in the state of confusion. Innocent people are being shot dead. Citizens are deprived of their right to live wherever they want… Of course, one may say that as these people are mere medical professionals, they have nothing to do with politics. No way! National issues should also be their concern.
Did I hear the premier admonishing the health service providers not to add fuel to the problems being witnessed in the country? Did I quote him right? He said that the medical practitioners should not be a cause for other problems. “We need a big support from you. As you can realize the situations of the world and the country, we need your support… In time of such situation in which total chaos are created, don’t inject a single drop of fuel backing it. Support us by flushing a drop of water extinguisher… When the problems occur, when legs are amputated, when people are injured… the problem will crawl back to you. You will shoulder the burden…” See? In such a way the premier nudged the health service providers in to discussion of national issues…
We had seen that the university instructors and staff members were not limited to personal demands. They did not dwell much on the issues of salary and other benefits. I don’t mean putting forward demands of personal benefits is wrong. Not at all! I just want to say that it would have been much better to seize the opportunity to share views on some bigger and common issues. Security is our common agenda. Displacement has long been our common problem. This is the time the issue of ethnic politics should be brought to the table for discussion. I just want to say that common burning issues like these should have been raised (of course, along with other personal ones) as discussion points. Dears, we are being gnawed at by civil conflicts, disagreements, racism, hate, xenophobia… We are being cut in to pieces with the blood-stained ethnic saw. Should we not talk over these?
It was very heart-wrenching opportunity to witness that educated sections of the society looking very reluctant to bring the very important national issues on the table for discussion… The other thing is… Why did I not hear the medical professionals proposing possible means or support that enable relevant medical teams to intervene for emergency services in time of civil conflicts? …possible means that help to raise awareness among the community to respect and tolerate medical services undertaken, escorted by ambulances, to save lives in time of conflicts, displacements, resettlements… Why did they not raise about provisions of appropriate equipment to be used by health workforce in such occasions? Displaced people need shelters, nutritious food, permanent resettlement, medical supply… I would be more than happy if I heard the health service providers asking for the supply of such things in time of civil conflicts and displacements. Who is there to speak of all these social as well as political ills of this country other than those educated health service providers? To whom is the nation abandoned? … to say it in the words of the premier…
You can reach the writer through gizaw.haile@yahoo.com
One of the popular coverage that BBC covered so far in Ethiopia is the Wollo Famine that presented horrible picture of people who died with hunger and loose there weight. Though it is a past history some westerner still picture Ethiopia in the film that they saw back 46 years ago. The man behind the story and whose name is very popular in the BBC as well in the global media is Jonathan Dimbleby. The journalist agreed that the famine was a horrible and shocking situation in the history of Ethiopia but he said that Empereor Haileselassie was not aware of the situation and did not concealed to the global world. Last Mondy Jonathan Dimbleby came to Addis for his TV show and host a debate program. Before the show Capital’s Reporter Tesfaye Getnet talked to him about the film he made about Wollo famine and the global media challenge and achievements. Excerpts.
Capital: When was the first time you came to Ethiopia? Jonathan Dimbleby: I first came here in 1973. I exposed to the world the famine in Wollo because the famine was not known around the world or indeed very much in Ethiopia. There was a cover up when was it revealed. These terrible and serious horrors made a vibrant impact all over the world and a great deal of money was raised to help the victims. Politically as a result of that, Haileselassie fell from power because of the famine and the Derge as it came to power. The Derge took my film and cut it. They ran the picture of the Emperor having a good life and enjoying himself as if to say he did not care about the famine. In my own view that was very unfair because he did not know what was happening in Wollo. The famine was concealed from him as well as from the world. Anyway as result of that I was not able to come to Ethiopia a great deal during the early days of the Derg. I became critical when the Red Terror campaign started and I was then banned for ten years and came back in 1987 I was critical again and banned again but since 1991 after the arrival of Meles Zenawi I have been able to come freely like any other foreign correspondent who works here. So I followed the Ethiopian story closely for 45 years and Ethiopia is both professionally and personally very important for my life.
(Photo: Anteneh Aklilu)
Capital: Do you think Haileselassie hid the famine in Wollo to create a positive spin to world? Dimbleby: No! It think Haileselassie was unware of the famine. He was surrounded by powerful figures in the regions as well as in Addis who made it their business to conceal from him unpleasant facts and they did not want to acknowledge the truth about what was happening in Wollo because to do so would have shown them to be failing from power rather than succeeding in their position and I think that was what was happening and I do not personally believe Haileselassie was saying: “There is a famine in Wollo, no problem”. Of course not.
Capital: What feedback did you get from that story? Dimbleby: The film was shown in the United Kingdom on the ITV network and on the BBC network and it then went to around the world and was shown in many countries and people were shocked and horrified and I think it was the first time in television such scenes or suffering had been presented. I just reported the fact the Ethiopian government at that time made up the images which were not true which was very silly. I just confirmed that they are hiding or trying to hide what was self-evident that people were hungry, that people were starving including many children that were dying and the film had the corpses on the screen.
Capital: Who told you about the famine in Wollo? Dimbleby: I had actually a friend who was from Sri Lanka at my university who got in touch with me. She was studying in Holland and she met a group of Ethiopian students who said there is a big problem in Ethiopia and she knew I was by then a journalist and said to me “You have to follow this!” and I came to Addis. We saw the drought when my team arrived and we filmed what we saw.
Capital: Did you get permission to cover the Wollo story from the Ethiopian government? Dimbleby: We had permission to come to the county. We had a visa and we had also a minder and he was so shocked at what he saw and said to us film what you want. When I went back to Addis the Minister of Information who was an army officer tried to intimidate me by saying; “you just are showing a bad thing and lying about our country’’ and I said “I just filmed what I saw,” I thought maybe I might not have been allowed to take the film out and in fact I was and the film was shown in October 1973.
Capital: How did Haileselassie respond to the famine broadcast? Dimbleby: I had never met Haileselassie but after the film he went up to Wollo and the region and expressed his sympathy and I presumed that he was shocked by what he saw but it was too late for his rule because there was other agitations like the taxi drivers strike, students were protesting and the combination of that unrest that lead the radical young army officer effectively taking power.
Capital: How did filming the Wollo famine affect you emotionally? Dimbleby: I was horrified, I had been in Africa especially in Sahel region before I came to Ethiopia and I had seen that hunger was endemic in many parts of Africa amongst the poor people. when I arrived in Wollo I was shocked by the amount of hunger and the scale of suffering and nothing was done to help the victims and there was one health worker in Dessie and a priest who tried to help the victims. I asked what I could do to help people? On one hand there was horror and shock and on the other hand there was a coup. So finally I told the fact to the world and responses helped the victims.
Capital: What makes a journalist a good reporter? Dimbleby: I think curiosity, wanting to learn, wanting to understand to explore, being accurate in so far as much as possible, be honest, be fair, don’t be freighted to tell the truth about how you see it. If you are living in a country like UK, it is easy to say despite the pressure but in some parts of the world it is very difficult.
Capital: What are your thoughts about the development of professional journalism globally? Dimbleby: I have been involved in an organization that has actively sought to help process development by mentoring and by advising and I think there is much greater professionalism now in journalism around the world but there are lots of problems. Having opinion is important and the journalists have the right to have an opinion but the opinion must be quite carefully related to the evidence to have validity, particularly in the parts of the world which are prone to unrest, conflict and division.
Capital: What can be done to make media more neutral and less beholden to parties, groups and investors? Dimbleby: Instead of using the word ‘Neutral’ I would use the word ‘Impartial ‘. It is not right to be neutral about apartheid, it is not sensible to be neutral about climate change that is silly. You have to be more accurate. The BBC is impartial in assessing evidence and in presenting it to its audience of the 80 million people around the world.
(Photo: Anteneh Aklilu)
Capital: Have you ever been threatened by someone who didn’t like your work? Dimbleby: I have been treated mostly quite well by people. In some countries I have been treated quite aggressively and found myself in prison and even before I started to film or report, in some other places, I have been intimidated. But you have to learn that you have to live in that world and not to be intimidated. I learned to never get angry and if you get angry it is a problem and this is very calculated.
Capital: What would you say to inspire young journalists who face danger for doing their job? Dimbleby: It is very difficult to give advice to the people who are living lives that I have not had to live. If I have a family and I am feeling threatened I completely understand when someone says I don’t want to bang my head against this brick wall, I don’t want to live with uncertainty and with the fear that I am going to be punished and put in prison and am going to be killed because journalists around the world are killed for trying to report. Journalists are very important in revealing the truth and that is why they are being killed. I don’t want to say to any particular journalist you should do this and you should do that and I don’t have to the authority to give advice about this issue because I understand that some journalists face a huge challenge.
Capital: How can mainstream media adapt to the challenges of social media? Dimbleby: This is a huge challenge that all countries of the world face. Social media in general is a good thing because it allows people to communicate with one another, it allows people to know what is happening in their life, it allows people to give opinions, however; it also allows people to agitate and to disseminate fake news and to run their own agenda. This is very disturbing. It is not easy to know what the the solution is. We have to examine our principles to come up with a solution.
“ we are using art to enhance Ghana’s position on the global stage and to increase tourism.” Ghana’s First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo
The spring has brought new bloom for African art currently being featured in Europe and the USA, with more to come in the summer months. For instance, Contemporary 1:54 art fair, one of the leading fairs for contemporary African art, had another successful run in the West Village of New York City. Leading galleries, including Cohan, joined other dealers at 1:54 who share a commitment to contemporary art out of Africa. Cohan presented works by artists Nigerian Yinka Shonibare MBE and our own Ethiopian Elias Sime, rising fast over the past five years. He was named “…two of the bigger current art stars with roots in Africa”, according to James Cohan. Elias is well known here at home for his “elaborate works made with materials like intertwined electrical wire and disembodied keyboard parts bearing random letters looked on from the walls …whose prices at 1-54 range from $100,000 to $150,000…” according to artnews.com. Cohan goes on to say, “We’ve since sold works to over 20 museums, and he’s got an exhibition touring the U.S. and Canada that starts in the fall.”
At the Venice Biennale, national pavilions from the continent are also attracting attention for those who wish to experience art from Egypt, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa and Zimbabwe. But it is Ghana, my ancestral home, that ones are watching as the West African nation and land of Pan African Kwame Nkrumah tosses its hat in the ring to become a “global art destination” according to artnet.com. Julia Halperin writes, “The West African country has made a splashy debut in the international art exhibition, which opened for previews yesterday (May 9). Its pavilion—a series of curved, interlocking chambers designed by architect David Adjaye—houses an all-star lineup, including new works by sculptor El Anatsui, video artist John Akomfrah, and painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Nearly all of the art was commissioned especially for the occasion. At the inauguration yesterday—which was attended by Ghana’s First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo—officials were unusually direct about their objective for the project: to enhance Ghana’s position on the global stage and to increase tourism. This is art as a tool for soft power—a diplomatic tactic that many countries across the globe have stepped away from as governments continue to slash arts funding.”
However it is Chicago or more specifically Bronzeville that will also be blessed, this summer, with art from Ethiopia. According to Illinois Institute of Technology, “Bronzeville, also known as the “Black Metropolis” and the “Black Belt,” is the center of African-American history on Chicago’s South Side, 10 minutes south of downtown. 1916 began the Great Migration when African Americans left the American South for Chicago with the promise of better jobs and reduced oppression. The reality, however, fell far short of this promise. African Americans were restricted to live in the Black Belt in white-owned housing that was largely dilapidated and densely populated yet more expensive than housing in white areas. Bronzeville’s residents toiled hard and cooperatively to establish a full-fledged community with business, culture, and community institutions that did not have the racial restrictions enforced in most parts of the city. Bronzeville’s institutions grew to have national influence rivaling and even exceeding those of New York’s Harlem.”
Bronzeville will welcome Merid Tafesse, the colorful and soft-spoken Ethiopian art prodigy, known as the King of Charcoal, realizing his vision of intriguing the world with his art, opening Stream of Consciousness II at Gallery Guichard on June 6th. The proud 6th gen direct descendant of King Sahle Selassie of the Imperial House of Solomon was born in Ethiopia in 1974 and raised in Addis Abeba by his well-travelled banker father, Tafese Damtew. Merid’s intellect and artistic trajectory were fed by his father’s extensive international book collection, a saving grace for the youth growing up under the Dergue. However it was his mother, Leilt Yilma that was Merid’s first entry into art, as the royal daughter would often draw with her first-born son for pleasure.
By 1994 the gifted but budding painter was accepted into the Addis Ababa University Alle School of Fine Art and Design (ASFAD) where his skill thrived alongside his social consciousness. Fueled by his blood ties to H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie I, the music of reggae icon Bob Marley and the prose of Kahlil Gibran and Oscar Wilde, Merid graduated in ‘98 and was immediately selected for a ’99 residency in Jerusalem. Since then the steadily rising humble painter has exhibited internationally and accepted special commissions such as the huge paintings displayed at the Red Terror Martyr’s Museum and urban wall mural at Coke Factory in Addis. His provocative charcoal on paper works are in the distinguished MOMA archives, submitted by anthropologist and curator, Mesekerem Assegued, who also helped launch Merid’s career in 2002 with Three Generations exhibition featuring founder of ASFAD, Allefelage Selam and Bahilu Bezabu at Sheraton Addis.
After Chicago, Merid is off to Kingston Jamaica, where he will be received by the Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Barbara “Babsy” Grange and will participate in LET’s TALKE ABOUT LOCKS Colloquium and Art exhibition at the Bob Marley Museum, based on his exceptional illustrations in the children’s book I LOVE LOCKS authored by yours truly.
Dr. Desta Meghoo is a Jamaican born Creative Consultant, Curator and cultural promoter based in Ethiopia since 2005. She also serves as Liaison to the AU for the Ghana based, Diaspora African Forum.
