Category: Obituaries
By Andrew DeCort I am heartbroken to learn of the murder of Haacaaluu Hundeessaa in Addis Ababa today. I interviewed Haacaaluu on April 19, 2019, and I was touched by his incredible warmth and kindness toward me. He showed me…
Charles Sutton was a Peace Corps Volunteer and the sole American member of the Orchestra Ethiopia, a music and folk dance group which was active in Addis Ababa in the sixties and seventies. Besides playing the one-stringed masenko for the…
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…
One of the foremost Ethiopian washint players, Yohannes Afework, who helped to ensure the indigenous end-blown flute playing be heard and regarded as an esteemed melody instrument in the national music scene passed away at 72 in his home in…
Girma Wolde-Giorgis, whose long and successful life has been marked by an active development in civic venture and government service, including serving as president of Ethiopia from 2001 to2013, has died at age 94. He has had his share of…
It was a story set in the feudal Ethiopia, a unique time with aura of liberalism, before it was changed by the 1974 revolution. Hanna Yilma, who passed away a week ago, and Sibhat Gebre-egziabher (1936–February 20, 2012) belonged to…
Renowned Ethiopian washint (folk flute) player and a member of the influential yet long-dissolved Orchestra Ethiopia, Melaku Gelaw, who settled in the United States in 1996, died on Tuesday in Arlington, Virginia, his family announced. A friend and close associate…
While Ethiopian Airlines began commercial operations in 1946 with American aircrews, the first four Ethiopian pilots commenced their training with the airline on May 23, 1951. Despite having no prior exposure to mechanical vehicles, these trainee pilots displayed outstanding performance,…
A prominent physician and educator, Professor Edemariam Tsega passed away on Jan 1, 2018, in Hamilton, Canada where he lived and served in the medical school of McMaster University for more than twenty three years. He was 80. “A light…
The renowned Ethiopian journalist, anchor, editor, and chief of Ethiopian Radio and Television under Emperor Haile Selassie, Samuel Ferenji has died in Toronto Canada on November 29 after a long illness. He was 80.