Getachew Debalke, a veteran stage personality, producer, and lyricist, has died at the age of 83 last night. He performed in several plays, including in Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin’s translation of Hamlet, playing the role of Claudius in 1985.

He has authored eight plays, including “Dehana Hughn Arada” and “Ye Rome Neshin.” He has also composed some beautiful lyrics that his generation has come to know by heart, such as “Yene Hasab”, “Minew Teleyeshign” and “Aderech Arada.”

Getachew was also an invaluable source for anyone researching in the history of Ethiopian music and he had been collecting and carting original papers and photographs from what is often-called the golden age of Ethiopian music. He has published a biography of Asnakech Worku, an actress, dancer and singer whom he has known and worked with for decades.

“A man of memory”

Francis Falceto, a specialist in the Ethiopian music and author of the celebrated book ‘Abyssinia swing’ paid his tribute: “We are losing a man of memory, a rare man, a rare memory. Very quickly after our first meetings in the early 90’s, he had decided to share it with me – a true bet then in a country/ culture that is generally over-suspicious towards ferenj. We kept constantly in touch since then,” he said in message sent to Ethiopia Observer.

Born in April 28 1936, Getachew spent his childhood in Addis Alem, 50 km west from Addis Ababa. He was one of the first boys who attended the newly established government-operated school in the town. “By the order of Girmawi Janhoy, 500 children of us were enrolled in the school,” he recalled in an interview. His formal education was more or less complete by the time he joined grade six; he did not attend high school or university, except the musical note lesson he received at the Ethiopian National Theatre.

He came to Addis Ababa when he was 13. As a teenager, while walking on Arat Kilo Street, he happened to see the marching Municipality Band, which was led by Nerses Kevork Nalbandian. He followed the musicians and was later chosen as a drummer for the band. He was only 17 when he got his first real break in a play “Dengetegna Tiri” (Accidentally Caught). Success came early to Getachew, who has drawn praise for his powerful and expressive voice, clear diction, natural acting ability, and genial personality. When Haile Selassie I Theatre (today National Theatre) was inaugurated in 1955, Getachew has had an acting role in a play “David and Orion” which was set for the grand opening. He has come to play a variety of theatre roles including as servant in Molire’s production of L’avare, as a priest in the adaptation of Tartuffe and has participated in Abune Petros, Kimegnaw Bahtawi, and Hannibal. His was a career that would last more than five decades.

Four years behind bars for composing a song

During the early period of the Derg, agents arrested Getachew for having written a song called Lomi tera tera, and brought him to jail. He was released four years later. He made the most of some not pleasant experiences. He formed a band at the prison. In what at first seemed an audacious adventure, Getachew had brought some artistic inmates, including the late Tigringa singer Kiros Alemayehu and other young people together and organized a band, by collecting musical instruments from the prison office. The impudence paid off and soon his band started entertaining prisoners and guards, even going as far as getting permission to go out of the jail compound and perform at the stadium. He would later author a book chronicling his experiences in prison, entitled Denkoro Ber (Deaf Door). 

In 2001, Getachew was given a lifetime achievement award from the Ethiopian Fine Arts and Mass Media Prize Trust. In 2010, the ninth edition of the Ethiopian Music Festival, organized by the Alliance Ethio-Francaise, was dedicated to Getachew along with Merawi Sitot, another luminary of the Ethiopian musical stage.

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