How Press Freedom Is Muzzled in Ethiopia

by Melaku Tegegne

Freedom of Speech is probably the phrase with the longest tradition. Freedom of speech addresses the ability of individuals to communicate ideas and information without interference with the state. When we talk about interference by the state as a legal notion, we are referring to the imposition of prior restraint.

Freedom of speech has typically meant the freedom to publish – publish being used here in its widest possible meaning, as writing, speaking, printing, or broadcasting ideas and information – without prior restraint imposed by the state.

In 1832, McKenzie King, a former Primer Minister of Canada, wrote: “Remember that wherever the press is not free, the people are poor, abject, degraded, slaves, that the press is the life, the safeguard, the very heart’s blood of a free country.”

Article 29 of the Ethiopian Constitution provides:

1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without any interference.
2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression without interference. This right shall include freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, or in print, in the form of art, or through other media of his choice.”

Unfortunately, this well-intentioned constitutional right has been muzzled and effectively gagged since the National Election for Parliament in 2005 and the turbulent period that followed as a result of the popular demonstration of the people of Addis Ababa against the regime. The muzzling of the Ethiopian press by the Meles regime has been well illustrated by the symbolic handcuffed presentation made by Kifle Mulat, my former colleague and president of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association. About Kifle Mulat’s has played a prominent role in the struggle for the restoration of press freedom in Ethiopia.

Twists and Turns in the Press Freedom

When I was a high school student in Addis Ababa, during the last years of Emperor Haile Selassie, there was a relative period of freedom of the press. Although there was a strict censorship by the government officials on the press, and sometimes rebuke and suspension of some vocal journalists against the government, there was not a single journalist who was imprisoned or killed as is a common phenomenon now. The late veteran journalist author, Berhanu Zerihun, the other veteran editor in chief and playwright Negash Gebre Mariam and the other prolific writer and head of the Press Department, Mulugeta Lule, had told the people of Ethiopia on several occasions that there was no severe repression by the government of the Emperor.

Also in that relative period of press freedom, many books, dime novels, some magazines, and private newspapers were published. The majority of the authors of these works were the journalists themselves. Berhanu Zerihun was one of them. The other rising star was journalist author Bealu Girma, who was later murdered by the security agents of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, because of his critical writing against both the officials of the regime and the totalitarian system prevalent in the country then. Bealu, in his last book “Oromai”, predicted the separation of Eritrea. This angered the dictator Mengistu and his spin doctors and led them to a paranoid decision to execute the beloved author.

In short, the period of Emperor Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia, can be characterized as a period of relative freedom of the press and people were much happier than now.

The Derg Era

I can write many pages, if readers don’t get bored, about the press freedom during the Derg (the military government) of 1974-1991. I worked in two departments, the Ethiopian Television and the Ethiopian Press, as an assistant cameraman and a journalist for 12 years. It is quite a long time. The veteran journalist, prolific writer, and Head of the Ethiopian Press Department, Mulugeta Lule; my roommate, the vibrant sports writer and editor, Abraha Belai, now the Ethiomedia.com webmaster, were among the journalists with whom I worked.

Coming to the main point, press freedom during the Derg military regime was not only highly controlled but was also framed along socialist ideology and politics. There was not an iota of freedom of conscience for the journalists. We had no right to freely express our opinion, sentiments, or ideas. When I used to write feature articles, most often I was told by the editor in chief or by one of the senior editors to include certain points in the article that would reflect the ideology and policy of the government. Hence, the press was guided and controlled so much so as not to open any conduit for contrary ideas.

On the other hand, the period of the military government was characterized as a favourable period for translation works and some original works. Many young translators and writers had cropped up in that period. In this regard, the censorship was loose. Even many works of Sydney Sheldon, a well known author for romantic books, were let loose and sold in tens of thousands in the capital city and in some major urban areas of the country.

Contrary to this happy development, however, all the rank and file journalists were not allowed to read international magazines and newspapers such as Time, Newsweek, International Herald Tribune, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. All these magazines were always meant for the “eyes” of the high officials of the regime and department heads at the Ministry of Information. It seems that they had a fear that bad news would leak out to the public if the magazines or newspapers were allowed to be read by ordinary journalists.

To sum up, the period during the military regime was not good for press freedom or the media (there were no private newspapers, radio, or TV stations) but was good for fictional and non-fictional works, mainly imported books. As it was also a war period, we journalists had a strong fear for our lives and for our daily livelihoods. I, for one, spent 12 years of my young adulthood as a journalist in that particular period. However, when I look back on that period, sometimes I tend to think that the job I had done was not only dangerous but thankless as well. There was no freedom of expression and the whole exercise was a futile one for it has not satisfied the interests of anybody and the writer himself.

The Last Seventeen Years

In the last 17 years (1991-2008), I was away from journalism. I joined the Foreign Ministry in May 1991, twenty days ahead of the overthrow of the military regime by the rebel forces. I wanted to join the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was considered to be a place of rare opportunity in a poor country like ours, mainly because I was a graduate of political science and international relations. Coupled with my journalistic training and work for a considerable number of years, my candidacy for a job at the Foreign Ministry received a quick response.

Hence, my first hand experience in journalism had shifted to foreign policy and diplomacy. I often focused on foreign policy matters, mainly the policy on neighbouring countries. The first years of the transition period were highly taxing. Everything had to start from scratch.

Coming back to the press issue, at the beginning of the transition period, the first years after 1991, the propaganda made by the journalists of the new regime was heavily laden with strong hatred against officials of the fallen regime and their cadres. This was not surprising. The surprising thing, however, was that the government controlled-press, radio, and TV stations often broadcast a hammered and systematized propaganda, tinged with race, against the Amharas. It was a subtle move by the leaders of the new regime, mainly crafted by the then President, now the Prime Minister. The catchwords were nefetegna, timkihitegna, that is to say “oppressors and chauvinists” – aimed at the Amharas, whose ancestors ruled the country for the previous 100 years.

The ideologists of this poisonous propaganda do not want to or cannot remember the 1000 year span of rule by the Sabeans and the Axumites, the ancestors of the PM and his ethnic group. Be that as it may, among some of the encouraging achievements made by the current regime before 2005, a heyday of the press freedom, was the annulment or the cancellation of censorship and permit for the establishment of private newspapers and magazines. After the transition period, newspapers and magazines mushroomed in the capital city due to the loose control by the government. However, practical problems cropped up regarding the functioning of the Ethiopian press. When many of the private newspapers and magazines became highly critical of the current regime and its political system, which is revolutionary democracy in name and tribal politics in action, the officials, including the Prime Minister, effectively began to deny information to the private press. This was unconstitutional. However, they ignored the articles in the Constitution and continued to practice restraint in a subtle way. In effect, it was back to square one, like the period in the military regime. Like dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, the new dictator, Meles Zenawi, began giving press interviews to very few selected journalists to avoid controversial or tough questions. This is a common practice today.

In addition, the regime turned more focus on the government and the few party-controlled newspapers and their radio station, Radio Fana. The government had also established a parallel news agency of its own, namely Walta Information Centre, to compete with the Ethiopian news agency, the oldest agency which had a strong public trust.

Frustrated by such systematic blockade of information by the government officials of the regime, the private press journalists shifted their attention to focussing on stories based on hearsay, secondary sources of information, and the foreign media. They became more critical and the government came to loggerheads with the private press, and finally resorted to military solutions giving it a cover as legal measures. As is to be recalled, in the wake of the 2005 National Election and the public demonstration that followed, more than a dozen journalists were incarcerated along with the leaders of the main opposition party. Not only this, but also their computers, cameras and other equipment were illegally confiscated after their offices were broken into and ransacked.

Between 2005-2007, for nearly two years, no less than 20 journalists were incarcerated, many fled the country and still more lost their jobs thereby leading a hard life in the country. Kifle Mulat, my former colleague and President of the Ethiopian private press, is still outside the country leaving behind his family in Addis Ababa. This is a dark period for the press freedom in Ethiopia. As long as the current anti-press freedom, anti-democracy, racist regime stays in power with its outdated socialist political system, press freedom in Ethiopia won’t become a reality. Hence, the people of Ethiopia inside and outside the country should continue their peaceful struggle for the prevalence of press freedom which was nipped in the bud by Meles Zenawi and his “revolutionary democrats”, anti-press freedom thugs.

About the Author:

Melaku Tegegne is a former Ethiopian journalist and diplomat, now a peace and democracy activist and can be reached at melaku_tegegne@hotmail.com. Please visit his blog, Issues in Focus, at http://issues-in-focus.blogspot.com/

Professor Asrat: a Martyr for Democracy in Ethiopia

Death of Prof. Asrat Called “Liquidation”

Professor Asrat Woldeyes, Ethiopia’s most famous victim of the current Addis Ababa administration and onetime leader of the All-Amhara People’s Organization (AAPO), Professor Asrat Woldeyes, passed away on May 14, 1999, at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, USA. He died from complications from a heart ailment which had been exacerbated by the effects of his long and internationally-con- demned imprisonment and ill-treatment at the hands of the Meles administration.

The Crown Council immediately said that Dr Asrat’s untimely death was “virtual state liquidation”, and was directly attributable to the Meles administration.

Prof. Asrat, a medical doctor and one of Ethiopia’s leading scientists and humanitarians, had been suffering from a variety of ailments, mostly centering around a heart disorder, when Meles administration officials — faced with daily protests around the world and mounting hostility from major governments — released him to seek medical treatment abroad just before Western Christmas 1998. He has been hospitalized ever since.

He had been personal physician to the late Emperor Haile Selassie I for a quarter century. He had been dismissed from his post at the Black Lion Hospital, in Addis Ababa, when the TPLF administration of Meles Zenawi seized power in 1991.

Prof. Asrat’s family, including his two sons, had gathered to be with him at the hospital at the end. As well, the President of the Crown Council, Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie and Princess Gelila Fesseha, a niece of the Professor, were with him. Le’ult Gelila helped spearhead the campaign to have Dr Asrat released from his illegal imprisonment.

The Professor, who was in his seventies when he died, was preparing his legacy manifesto before his condition worsened in early May.

“Professor Asrat has already created his greatest legacy,” Crown Council President Prince Ermias said. “His legacy is that he has reaffirmed Ethiopia can only survive as a united, democratic country, and that this prize is worth sacrifice to achieve. Professor Asrat has always been a man of peace, dignity and intelligent reason. His imprisonment on trumped-up charges only serves to highlight the nobility of his non-violent protest and the bankruptcy of policies which are imposed by those who fear the will of the people. We cannot allow his sacrifice to be in vain. We cannot forget that his life has been shortened by what amounts to State murder, because he should have been able to complete his medical and teaching career in peace, and he should have been able to look forward to a long and happy retirement. All of this was denied to him, as such freedom is being denied to so many Ethiopians under illegal detainment by the Meles administration.”

The Meles administration released Dr Asrat when it became clear that his condition was deteriorating rapidly in prison. He had already become one of the focal points of protest against the administration, and officials feared that he would become a martyr if he died in prison.

“There is no doubt that Dr Asrat, who never saw himself as a martyr but rather as someone who needed to uphold principles of integrity and Ethiopianness, is now an even greater symbol of Ethiopia’s need for unity and for an end to the kind of repression which has characterized the totalitarianism of the Meles administration,” said one foreign diplomat in Addis Ababa, contacted by Negarit following Dr Asrat’s death. “His death, even released from custody, reflects on Meles.”

Source: Negarit Online, the Crown Council of Ethiopia

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Melaku says:

I have never met the Professor personally, what I know is from the media. I came to know that he was the private physician of the Emperor Haile Selassie I. Furthermore, I know that he was a leading surgeon in Ethiopia of his time. When I heard of his imprisonment in one of the dungeons in Addis Ababa while I was in Khartoum serving the current brutal regime as Second Secretary in Charge of the Consular Section, I felt unhappy to be associated with this government.

Upon my coming to the Foreign Ministry in Addis Ababa, and especially during the burial ceremony of Professor Asrat, I expressed my grief by shedding tears in my private room. It was that particular day, the day of the funeral of Professor Asrat, which became the cause of my desertion of the current government.

Melaku Receiving a Journalism Certificate

Melaku receiving a journalism certificate from the former Editor-in-Chief of Addis Zemen, a daily Amharic newspaper in Addis Ababa in the early 1980s. The man behind was the Minister of the then National Guidance and Information Ministry, Dr. Feleke Gedle Ghiorgs.

Paying Homage to Our Greatest Emperor After More than a Century

Menelik II of Ethiopia

Emperor Menelik II (August 17, 1844 – December 12, 1913) was baptized as Sahle Maryam, was Meridazmach of Shewa ("Graceful Leader" of the province Shewa, now called Addis Ababa Administrative Region) from the period 1866-1889, then "King of Kings" of Ethiopia from 1889 to his death.

Meridazmach ("Graceful Leader") of Shewa Province

The son of Negus Haile Melekot of Shewa, prince Sahle Maryam was born in Ankober, Shewa. In 1855, at the age of 11, he was named as his successor as king of Shewa by his father. Upon the death of his father, he was taken prisoner by Emperor Tewodros II, a former minor nobleman originally named Kassa of Qwara, who had usurped the Imperial throne from the last Emperor of the elder Gondar branch of the Solomonic dynasty (either Emperor Yohannes III or Emperor Sahle Dengel; the historical record is uncertain here). Following Tewodros' conquest of Shewa, young Sahle Maryam of Shewa was imprisoned on the Emperor's mountain stronghold of Magdala, but was treated well by the Emperor, even marrying Tewodros' daughter, Alitash.

Upon Sahle Maryam's imprisonment, his uncle, Haile Mikael had been made ruler of Shewa by Emperor Tewodros II with the title of Meridazmach. However, Meridazmach Haile Mikael rebelled against Tewodros, resulting in his being replaced by the non-royal Ato Bezabih as governor of Shewa. However, Ato Bezabih promptly rebelled against the Emperor and proclaimed himself King of Shewa. Although the Shewan royals imprisoned at Magdala had been largely complacent as long as a member of their family ruled over Shewa, this usurpation by a commoner was not palatable to them. They plotted the escape of Sahle Maryam from Magdala; with the help of Queen Worqitu of Wollo, he escaped from Magdala the night of 1 July 1865, abandoning his wife, and returned to Shewa. Enraged, Emperor Tewodros slaughtered 29 Oromo hostages then had 12 Amhara notables beaten to death with bamboo rods.

Bezabih's attempt to raise an army against Sahle Maryam failed miserably; thousands of Shewans rallied to the flag of the son of Haile Melekot and even Bezabih's own soldiers deserted him for the returning prince. Sahle Maryam entered Ankober and proclaimed himself Negus (King) with the name of Menelik.

While Menelik reclaimed his ancestral crown, he also made a claim on the Imperial throne, as a direct descendant male line of Emperor Lebna Dengel. However, he made no overt attempt to assert this claim during this time; Marcus interprets his lack of decisive action not only to Menelik's lack of confience and experience, but that "he was emotionally incapable of helping to destroy the man who had treated him as a son."

By failing to take part in the 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia, he allowed his rival Kassa to benefit with gifts of modern weapons and supplies from the British. Afterwards other challenges -- a revolt amongst the Wollo to the north, the intrigues of his next wife, Baffana, to replace him with her choice of ruler, military failures against the Arsi Oromo to the south east -- kept Menelik from directly confronting Kassa until after his rival had brought an Abuna (bishop) from Egypt who crowned him Emperor Yohannes IV.

Eventually Menelik acquiesed to Yohannes' superior position, and on 20 March 1878, "approached Yohannes on foot, carrying a rock on his neck, his face down in the traditional form of submission." However, very aware of how precarious his own position was, Yohannes recognized Menelik as Negus of Shewa and gave him numerous presents which included four cannons, several hundred modern Remington rifles, and ammunition for both.

In 1883, Negus Menelik married Taytu Betul, a noblewoman of Imperial blood, and a member of one of the leading families of the regions of Semien, Yejju in modern Wollo, and Begemder. Her paternal uncle, Dejazmatch Wube Haile Maryam of Semien, had been the ruler of Tigray and much of northern Ethiopia. She had been married four times previously and exercised considerable influence. Menelik and Taytu would have no children.

Menelik had, previous to this marriage, sired not only Zauditu (eventually Empress of Ethiopia), but also another daughter, Shoaregga (who married Ras Mikael of Wollo), and a son, Prince Wossen Seged, who died in childhood. In 1886 Menelik married Zewditu to Emperor Yohannes’ son, Ras Araya Selassie. Ras Araya Selassie died in May 1888 without any issue by her, and the Emperor Yohannes was killed in a war against the dervishes (Sudanese of that time) at the Battle of Gallabat (Matemma) in present-day Eastern Sudan on May 10, 1889.

The succession now lay between the late emperor’s natural son, Ras Mengesha, and Menelik of Shewa, but the latter was able to obtain the allegiance of a large majority of the nobility. Menelek was consecrated and crowned as Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia shortly afterwards. Menelek argued that while the family of Yohannes IV claimed descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba through females of the dynasty, his own claim was based on uninterrupted direct male lineage which made the claims of the House of Shewa equal to those of the elder Gondar line of the dynasty.

Menelik, and later his daughter, Zewditu, would be the last Ethiopian monarchs who could claim uninterrupted direct male descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (both Lij Eyasu and Emperor Haile Selassie were in the female line, Iyasu through his mother Shewarega Menelik, and Haile Selassie through his paternal grandmother, Tenagnework Sahle Selassie).

His Reign as Emperor

In 1889, while claiming the throne against Mengesha, Menelik signed at Wuchale in Wollo province (Uccialli in Italian), a treaty with Italy acknowledging the establishment of the new Italian Colony of Eritrea with its seat at Asmara. This colony had previously been part of the northern Tigrayan territories from which Ras Mangasha and his allies such as Ras Alula generated support, and the establishment of the Italian colony weakened the northern Rases.

However, it was soon found that the Italian version of one of the articles of the treaty placed the Ethiopian Empire under an Italian protectorate, while the Amharic version did not. Emperor Menelik denounced it and demanded that the Italian version be changed.

Negotiations failed, so Menelik renounced the treaty, leading Italy to declare war and invade from Eritrea. After defeating the Italians at Amba Alagi and Mekele, Menelik inflicted an even greater defeat on them, at the Battle of Adowa on March 1, 1896, forcing them to capitulate. A treaty was signed at Addis Ababa recognizing the absolute sovereign independence of Ethiopia.

Menelik II's French sympathies were shown in a reported official offer of treasure towards payment of the indemnity at the close of the Franco-Prussian War, and in February 1897, he concluded a commercial treaty with France on very favorable terms. He also gave assistance to French officers who sought to reach the upper Nile from Ethiopia, there to join forces with the Marchand Mission. Ethiopian armies were sent towards the Nile, but withdrew when the Fashoda Crisis between France and the United Kingdom cooled off. A British mission under Sir Rennell Rodd in May 1897, however, was cordially received, and Menelik agreed to a settlement of the Somali boundaries, to keep open to British commerce the caravan route between Zaila and Harrar, and to prevent the transit of munitions of war to the Mahdists, whom he proclaimed enemies of Ethiopia.

In the following year, the Sudan was reconquered by an Anglo-Egyptian army and thereafter cordial relations between Menelik and the British authorities were established. In 1889 and subsequent years, Menelik sent forces to co-operate with the British troops engaged against a Somali leader, Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan.

In 1898, Menelik had crushed a rebellion by Ras Mangasha, who died in 1906. He directed his efforts henceforth to the consolidation of his authority, and in a certain degree, to the opening up of his country to western civilization. Menelik’s clemency to Ras Mangasha, whom he compelled to submit and then made hereditary Prince of his native Tigray, was ill repaid by a long series of revolts by that prince.

Menelek focused much of his energy on development and modernization of his country after this threat to his throne was firmly ended. In 1894, he had granted a concession for the building of a railway to his capital from the French port of Djibouti, but, alarmed by a claim made by France in 1902 to the control of the line in Ethiopian territory, he stopped for four years the extension of the railway beyond Dire Dawa. When France, the United Kingdom and Italy came to an agreement on the subject in 1906, granting control to a joint venture corporation, Menelek officially reiterated his full sovereign rights over the whole of his empire. He successfully played Italians, French, and British against each other.

In May 1909, the emperor’s grandson Lij Iyasu (later Iyasu V) by his late daughter Shoaregga, then a lad of thirteen, was married to Romanework Mengesha (b. 1902), granddaughter of the Emperor Yohannes IV by his natural son Ras Mengesha, and was also the niece of Empress Taytu. Two days later Iyasu was publicly proclaimed at Addis Ababa as Menelik’s successor. At that time the emperor was seriously ill and as his ill-health continued, a council of regency -— from which the empress was excluded —- was formed in March 1910.

Lij Iyasu's marriage to Romanework Mengesha was dissolved, and he married Seble Wongel Hailu, daughter of Ras Hailu, and granddaughter of Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam. On December 12, 1913, Emperor Menelek II died of a stroke and was buried secretly at the Se'el Bet Kidane Meheret Church on the grounds of the Imperial Palace. Official news of his death was kept from the public for several years by order of Lij Iyasu, although it was soon widely known.

Following the deposing of Lij Iyasu in 1916, and the crowning of Menelik's daughter Zewditu as Empress of Ethiopia, Menelik II was reburied in the specially built church at Ba'eta Le Mariam Monastery of Addis Ababa.

Other Significant Developments During his Reign as Emperor

Menelik II was fascinated by modernity, and like Tewodros II before him, had a keen ambition to introduce the technological and administrative advances of the west into Ethiopia. Following the rush by the major powers to establish diplomatic relations following the Ethiopian victory at Adowa, more and more westerners began to travel to Ethiopia looking for trade, farming, hunting and mineral exploration concessions.

Menelik II founded the first modern bank in Ethiopia, the Bank of Abyssinia; introduced the first modern postal system; signed the agreement and initiated work that established the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway with the French; introduced electricity to Addis Ababa; and also introduced the telephone, telegraph, the motor car, and modern plumbing.

During a particularly devastating famine caused by the decimation of plowing and burden cattle by Rinderpest (an infectious viral disease of cattle, including buffalo) early in his reign, Menelik II personally went out with a hand-held hoe to furrow the fields to show that there was no shame in plowing fields by hand without oxen, something Ethiopian highlanders had been too proud to consider previously. He also forgave taxes during this particularly severe famine.

Later in his reign, he established the first Cabinet of Ministers to help in the administration of the Empire, appointing trusted and widely respected nobles and retainers to the first Ministries. These ministers would remain in place long after his death, serving in their posts through the brief reign of Lij Iyasu and into the reign of Empress Zewditu. They would, in fact, play a key role in the deposing of Lij Iyasu.

Miscellaneous

• Rumored natural children of the Emperor include Ras Birru Wolde Gabriel and Dejazmach Kebede Tessema. The latter, in turn, was rumored to be the natural grandfather of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, the communist leader of the Derg, who eventually deposed the monarchy and assumed power in Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991. However, the only children that Menelek II acknowledged publicly were Zauditu, Shoaregga, and Wossen Seged. Of these three, only Shoaregga has present day descendants.

• During the 1890s, Menelik heard about the modern method of executing criminals using electric chairs, and he ordered 3 for his kingdom. When the chairs arrived, Menelik learned they would not work, as Ethiopia did not yet have an electrical power industry. Rather than waste his investment, Menelik used one of the chairs as his throne, sending another to Lique Mequas Abate (high priest).

• Menelek was known for saying "We must resist the powers, to keep our independence."

source: Wikipedia

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Melaku says:

Let's all of us who are inside and outside Ethiopia pay the greatest homage to Emperor Menelik II, the Father of the Nation, on March 1, 2008, the 112th Adowas Victory Day. Needless to state in detail what the greatest Emperor, our equivalent of Alexander the Great, Napolean the Great and Peter the Great, has done for our beloved country in terms of modernization and material and spiritual progress.

Many Ethiopian historians and foreigners alike have documented well the life and work history of the Emperor. Among the books I read about the Emperor, the one that was written by the late, renowned veteran journalist, Gashe (a form of respect for elderly men in Ethiopia) Paulos Ngongo comes freshly to my mind. Menelik was indeed a great statesman of the 19th and 20th centuries. Because he was a beloved Emperor, he had earned the nickname Emeye (mother). He was indeed the father and mother of the country.

In recognition of his feats in the process of building blocks to present-day Ethiopia, the government in power and the people of Ethiopia at large had celebrated the 100 years anniversary of the great victory of Adowa some years ago with pomp and colour. Indeed, it was a good measure, rather a decision to celebrate the victory of Adowa, the shining victory of the black man against colonial encoachment. However, in my opinion, both the government and the people of Ethiopia need to make more to pay tribute to the Emperor. Let me suggest some of them as follows:

• straighten up the smear campaign or lop-sided development with regard to Menelik's fame and personal contribution, by way of depicting the true history of the founding father of the nation in the mainstream media and the free press;

• allow all teachers and students of higher educational institutions, secondary and elementary schools, to make free discussions, debates, on the role played by the Emperor;

• send the President of the country (not a low-ranking official) to lay wreaths on Menelik's Monument in the centre of Addis Ababa;

• prevent or contol any damage to his monument that can happen by mob action, as has been tried before by some Nihilist groups;

• renew History of the Emperor who has alleged to have committed brutality against the Oromo women by ordering off their breasts; this allegation was aimed at inciting one ethnic group against another;

• keep the monument as part of our heritage; the Minister of Culture and Sports should give priority to the protection, and whenever necessary, the renovation or repair of this monument.

Liya Kebede: Ethiopian Super-Model

Liya Kebede (born January 3, 1978 in Addis Ababa) is an Ethiopian supermodel who has appeared on the cover of US Vogue twice. According to Forbes, Kebede was eleventh-highest-paid top model in 2007.

Biography

Liya was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A film director spotted Liya while she was attending Lycee Guebre Mariam (a French high school in Addis Ababa) and introduced her to a French modeling agent. After completing her studies, she moved to France to pursue work through a Parisian agency. Liya later relocated to New York City. She has remarked that the modeling industry in Ethiopia is quite different from the catwalks on which she is now ubiquitous. In contrast, in Ethiopia she had to provide her own shoes for each runway show.

Liya was a contestant in the 1998 Face of Africa, however she didn't even place in the Top 5. Oluchi won the 1998 competition.

Personal Life

Kebede married Ethiopian hedge fund manager Kassy Kebede in 2000 and they have two children together; son Suhul (b. 2001) and daughter Raee (b. August 2005). As of 2007, the family resides in New York City.

Modeling Career

Liya's big break came when Tom Ford asked her for an exclusive contract for his Gucci Fall/Winter 2000 fashion show. Liya established a place in fashion's elite by modeling on the New York, Milan and Paris runway circuit. Liya's popularity in the fashion industry sky-rocketed when she appeared on the cover the May 2002 edition of Paris Vogue which dedicated the entire issue to her.

Liya has been seen on the covers of Italian, Japanese, American, French and Spanish Vogue, V, Flair, i-D and Time's Style & Design. Liya has been featured in ad campaigns including those for Gap, Yves Saint-Laurent, Victoria's Secret, Emanuel Ungaro, Tommy Hilfiger, Revlon, Dolce & Gabbana, Escada and Louis Vuitton. In 2003, Liya was named the newest face of Estée Lauder cosmetics, the first person of color to serve as their representative in the company's 57-year history. Her contract was rumoured to be for $3 million dollars.

Liya is one of a very few ethnically African models featured in major fashion photo shoots and runway shows. According to Conor Kennedy, in 2003 a booker at Elite Model Management, "It's like there's only room for one very successful black model at a time. For the past year, it's been Liya Kebede".

In 2005, Liya was appointed as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health. She also appeared in a group montage on a rare (well, rare as of recent years) group montage of up and coming supermodels.

In summer of 2006 she was also one of the very few black models to have been given a cover of American Vogue, the issue highlighted her humanitarian work.

In July 2007, earning at an estimated total of $2.5 million in the past 12 months, Forbes named her eleventh in the list of the World's 15 Top-Earning Supermodels.

Liya has also had minor roles in two films: The Good Shepherd, and Lord of War.

Quotes

• "Every day we hear about the dangers of cancer, heart disease and AIDS. But how many of us realize that, in much of the world, the act of giving life to a child is still the biggest killer of women of child-bearing age? That over half a million die every year? Or that 3 million babies are stillborn? Or that another 4 million die during the first days and weeks of life?" – during her acceptance of the 2005 UN Day Award.

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Melaku says:

I found Liya's life history quite interesting. She is a pioneer in her field who should be emulated by other Ethiopian youngsters.

source: Wikipedia