Ahmad is the only one who had seen የክፍል ኣስተማሪው ኣጠገቡ የተቀመጠውን ተማሪ(Mohammad Reza)ን ሲቆጣ

and “ስንት ቀን ነው የቤት ስራህን በወረቀት ሳይሆን በደብተርህ ላይ ስራ ብዬ የነገርኩህ? ስንት ቀን?'“ ብሎ ሲጮህበት

“ከዚ በሗላ ቢደገምህ ኣባርርሃለሁ” ሲለው neither of these kids’ parents had seen or listened.

Only two kids and a scary teacher.

Nothing is more frightening to these kids than Mohammed forgetting his homework yet again the next day.

But that is exactly what happens.

On the same day of scolding, Ahmad, who has a notebook cover similar to Mohammad’s, mistakenly takes both of their notebooks to his house.

Back home, when Ahmad sees his friend’s notebook in his bag, we see how frightened he gets. Being the reason for his friend’s expulsion from school prevents him from doing his homework in peace.

Do we remember our childhood well? enough to be able to understand how the stress we felt back then is the same as what we are feeling now? Do we not disregard children’s worries just because they are children and ‘what would they know’? Do we remember how important our exercise books were?

Ahmad’s relatives and neighbors certainly don’t.

Because when Ahmad decides to return the notebook to Mohammad’s house, Ahmad’s parents, and everyone in his village, throughout the entirety of the movie, would not understand the need. Instead, we see that they repeatedly order him to attend to household tasks and other errands.

Ahmad is then threatened with a beating if he doesn’t shut up about the nonsense notebook he keeps talking about.

Despite all of this, Ahmad, risking it all, holding his friend’s notebook close to his chest, runs off.

Ahmad did what was right.

Chelina, though, can only wish she did

Have you listened to Bati, in her debut album ‘Chelina’?

አጉል ቀረ ልቤ
ከምንም ሳይሆነው
ኦሆ ሆ ኦሆ ሆ
ምክንያት ስደረድር
ፍቅርን ላወዳድር
የትም የማይሄድ መስሎኝ
ምርጫዬን በዝርዝር
አሁን ከየት ላግኘው
ኦሆ ሆ ኦሆ ሆ
አልቻልኩ ልመልሰው
ኦሆ ሆ ኦሆ ሆ
የራስ ውሳኔ የለኝ
ተመራሁ በነርሱ
ቤተሰብ ጓደኛ
መስሎኝ የሚያኖሩ
አውላላ ሜዳ ላይ
ኦሆ ሆ ኦሆ ሆ
እንደቀረሁ ሳየሁ
ልቤ ላልወደደው
እጅ እንዳይሰጥ ኧረ ተው

Chelina regrets handing the most important decision of her life over to her friends and family. Not being able to stand firmly on what we believe in አውላላ ሜዳ ላይ ያስቀራል. የምንኖረው ብቻችንን ቆመን ብቻችንን ወስነን በገነባነው የኣይምሮ ሰላማችን ነው

Just as Ahmad’s villagers’ wrong perception, people around us also simply lack adequate information or decision-making skills to be able to give advice that is well aligned with our morals and values.

What has to be done has to be done. No one can see through our eyes to be able to dictate how we live.

መማር የምትፈልጉት ትምህርት ኣለ?

ተማሩት

መስራት የምትፈልጉት ስራ ኣለ?

ስሩት

ማግባት የምትፈልጉት ሰው ኣለ?

ኣግቡት

As long as it doesn’t hurt other people and is not a sin, do what you have to do and deal with the responsibilities as they come.

Just like Ahmad, we can risk a beating for the right cause because the alternative is እንደ chelina አውላላ ሜዳ ላይ መቅረት and regretting it for the rest of our lives.

We might notice the ring on her left hand. 

Or maybe like too many beautiful Ethiopian women, she too is pretending to avoid the excess attention her undeniable beauty brings. By having that huge ring on the finger she might for sure be shooing away potential admirer's next move.

In fact she is well aware of our admiration. She is avoiding our eyes. Looking down to only the painter knows what. She is well aware, to the point she needed to pull her ካባ towards her neck and chest by her busy left hand-building a lot of walls by now.  

From her thick black hair neatly tied up and back, her jewellery, her red ካባ, and her iconic dress, to her ahead of its time heeled slipper showing off her slender toes, all of her scream “this is no ordinary woman”. Considering the age of the painting, and this woman's elegance she must be of a very good fortune. She must be educated of the outside world, one might also conclude seeing how carefully she blended the modern with the traditional. 

She is holding Adey abeba with her right hand, symbolizing meskel, a ceremony of gathering. Adey abeba comes once a year. This woman must too. We must have to wait another year to see her again the way we all are trying our best to memorize every bit of her. 

The dark background indicates this must be happening at night. She must have come out to lit the torches of meskel demera as shown by the light coming from where she is headed to. Or it might also show how ye meskel abeba indicates the coming of a new year, the bright future ahead.

There is nothing else in the painting. she is at the center, taking in all of our attention. She is one, yet stating too many things at the same time.

why?

Perhaps because she is not standing. She is moving towards that light. This makes us drawn to the painting more. As we are not given too much context in this picture, her seeming fast strides of someone standing on business makes us want to know where she is going, makes us want to know what she is looking at, who she has waiting for her to get here. 

Most is pleasantly left for the audience to contemplate on.

Yemeskel Abeba, (meskel flower)

By Maitre Artist Afewerk Tekle, 1959

Dedicated to all the childhood meskel ceremony I got to be a part of, getting out of the house at 4Am to light up demera, adey abeba in my hand, gazing at fire and friends.

A renowned writer, Sibhat Gebreegziabher, is asked on national television. Are you surprised? He is also asked whether he lied throughout the interview.

This friendly banter was from a MEET ETV interview with Tefera Gedamu, aired 06 October 1999. You might remember the simple black background, the matching turtle neck of the interviewer, and a round table with only one guest. An interview so focused on ideas and lengthy, unfiltered self-expression that it pleasantly resembles a modern podcast way ahead of its time.

It is not only the simplicity, or the interviewer’s curious questions, or his iconic demeanor that stands out. The program was able to consistently surprise us with timeless conversations with timeless people.

You open your tv on a random day, and Alula Pankhurst is talking about mental health issues of Ethiopian youth due to war, or Haile Gebresilassie about running for presidency in the athletics federation, Dan Connell talking about Eritrean refugees crossing borders in hopes of a better life, or American honored writer Maya Angelou talking about her mother.

The sessions stand out for me as they only focus on a specific idea and not the guest’s personal life. People come and talk about what has occupied their mind recently, and Tefera manages to make those seemingly very tight 30 mins interesting by following up with questions that keep them around their topics. You don’t see anyone jumping from topic to topic, no matter how interesting most of their life is. Teffera keeps the flow easy and focused.

Tefefera’s career spans 3 decades of still existing MEET ETV, and collaborative documentaries. The 1983 Addis Abeba sociology graduate sits across a table from what seems like the whole world. Late Abune Paulos, patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox church, renowned filmmaker Haile Gerima, and South African social rights activist Desmond Tutu are some of the biggest figures Tefera enabled the Ethiopian people to get exposed to through their television screen. Though, as he spoke in an interview, how language was a constant barrier to Teferra’s aspiration to give the stage to Ethiopian’s in all walks of life, he still managed to interview Ethiopian artists, humanitarians, designers, and political analysts on his show.

Teferra’s iconic interviews are still available to the public in ETV archives for anyone seeking to relearn people’s ideas or simply admire his work.

Tefera: Do you write what you live
Or live what you write?

Sibhat: It is the egg and the hen theory.

We heard this story over hundred times,

“Tata”, we call her. Her name, given by her birth mother is yeshash-werk. Yeshash is to mean those who wished for you, those who wanted you, and the name translates to “gold are those who wished for you”.(werk means gold in Amharic; it is used to show love and appreciation for someone close). Or it could also translate to “a golden head band”. Her mother named her after a governor's child at the time. And as any Ethiopian child, she didn't have that name only. Her father Ambelu( to mean the coordinator) calls her delelech (she teased, deceived ), her mother in law Taitu and her husband Addis called her sewunetie(my body, my human).

During summer, we would go to my grandmother’s house and it is her quest to feed us everything in the house. Living adjacent to the biggest farms that seem to feed the whole country, she wouldn’t believe anybody from the city really gets the best of what she always had in her house. To her, the city was a place far away from adequate food.

“Tata atneshi” “Don’t get up from your meal” my mom would exclaim while my ayat (grandmother) stands up again because she just won’t believe someone would eat with out her having to get up and forcing a whole lot more food on their table for the fifth time.

“Blu eski” “would you eat?”

“here at the softest” she would point at the injera soaked better with sauce.

You could eat everything and she still won’t believe it enough.

“forget them and eat for yourself, worrying for a goremsa!! ( teenager)” my mom begs her to eat with a visible distress over her face.

“It was tradition for ayat to spoil grand children” she walks out with the second round of cheese while the first was not even touched.

I was always amazed by how many conversations of “what should I bring” “what should be added””this is tasty you should eat more of this or that””why are you not eating?” happen over a single lunch.

we would sometimes respectfully disagree “beka tata, it is enough tata”

”we are eating, tata don’t get up” most of the time our plates will be filled again several times that we no longer have the capacity to refuse and stand up taking it to the kitchen, announcing it over.

“a ‘You should eat’ begging breaks one’s back” My mom has a saying. Yet it is the most common thing anyone would find in any traditional Ethiopian house. One has to know how to say no, firmly say no in a respectful manner, and once an owner of a house, how to say eat, firmly say eat. This surly breaks many backs of women around Ethiopia.

Writing is my escape, the source of all my flow states. My way to clarity. It is where I always belonged in. In college literature was my love affair and my medical degree? my strict, taxing, jealous husband.

As much as I loved it though, it is also the reason to my constant frustration. The source of all of my “I am not good enoughs“, the cause of my vicious self criticism, all of you's ከበሮ, I exclaim, writing ያደናግረኛል.

I practiced both writing and ከበሮ since I was a kid. I was specially good at ከበሮ and anything mezmur in my neighborhood, I see now because I wasn't as sensitive about making mistakes as I was when writing.

From practicing rhythm on my thighs to using that yellow 20lts jerrycan, I was constantly making an out of place “dubb!!“ to my way of eventually being one of the preferred ከበሮ players in my Sunday school. Making mistakes was okay. The whole point was being able to play. I wasn't a perfectionist and it helped.

But why isn't writing as easy? Why do I scold myself when I make a mistake to the point I didn't even want to even try anymore?

I bought a ከበሮ six months ago. It was huge, a real, church size. Purchase driven only by my recently found freedom, it was clear from the very beginning that a ከበሮ that delicate can't belong to me only. It was to be sent to a church in the country side. I was told that I only had 6 months with it. I was happy. It was enough time for me. I played all the mezmures I knew from childhood.

The ከበሮ was meticulously designed to serve its purpose for those 6 months. Every part had meaning. The peebles inside, its red color, the leather rope patterns, all in the aim of producing the hymn my heart won't forget. It got me thinking how we also are designed that way, each of us having an inclination, passion, whether we took time to develop it well or not.

Sending the ከበሮ back taught me how my time too is quantified and limited.

Now what am I trying to say?

Well, all this is a pitch to add all of our passions to the ያደናግር saying. Because, just as my ከበሮ our time to do what we came here for is limited. Because like my ከበሮ's random, out of rhythm “dubb!!” my writing also needs patience to practice without too much negative self talk. Just as my ከበሮ, I too am እየተደናገርኩ my way to writing here.

In middle school, with me and my friend’s newly found courage, we would sneak out of the compound we live in to discover new places. If we had one of our cousin here to visit, we would give them a tour to lake tana found only a street away. We would for a second be poets, writers and painters watching the sunset in to the lake before snaping back to being mindless teenagers again.

In high school I’d come back home from school and sleep with the intention of staying up late to study. My mom would wake me up saying we don’t sleep while the cattle return home, something her mom would always say. I’d make coffee, talk to my mom about my day and hers. I’d listen to music and take a walk. The sun would set while I obsess about a question I heard some philosopher ask.

During almost all of my summer breaks I’d go to my grandparents house in the countryside. 5 p.m would be the time my grandmother tethers the calves and sends us to tell the kid who would be tending the rest of the heard to release the cows. The cows would run to the sound of their calves. It is as if they knew what time is. everything turns yellow, and my heart explodes with happiness. The sun sets in to the far far away mountains coloring all of us with shades straight from heaven. I’d look at all of my family, my hands, the grass, the setting sun so fondly for a fleeting moment.

It is true, the best things in life are free.

I would delete and logout of all of my accounts only for me to sign in again in a few days time. I was asked frequently as to why I keep doing that, but I didn’t have enough self awareness to fully articulate the reason behind my discomfort. I would simply say “I don’t like how it makes me feel”.

But why?

Why pressure myself if this is what came to be of our time? Why, if everything is done through a small screen on my hand, join the crowd and accept it for what it is?

Now that I am half a decade away from high school, I not only start to come up with reasons “why not”, but I am also seeing a big shift of mindset from a lot of people towards social media and general screen time. People seem to notice the difference smart phones caused and I see a nostalgic recognition of a healthier past.

One of the many reasons is an attempt to “regaining focus”. I have noticed social media has an underminable effect on my attention span. I used to finish reading a book in one sitting, bear boring conversations and lectures even go days without getting exposed to any significant news, all of which seem quite far from my reach now.
I only have to ask myself a question “where feels the most at home?” for me to be reminded of how much my grandparents house (which had nothing except a radio that didn’t even work half of the time ) made me feel aware and “at the moment” and at peace. It is where I was the closest to being mindful and reasonably it is where I remember being so out of reach of any electronics let alone social media.

The next reason is exposure. I don’t think my mind was wired to process this many information in a given fixed amount of time. Social media has made it extremely difficult for me to be able to track what set of information caused my so sudden mood change. I am feeling sad and then a little more happy, and a little scared and a couple seconds later I am motivated. My body experiences so many emotions without proper attention and intention, causing a stimulation not easy to calm down from.

The solution I first thought useful was to get rid of social media altogether in high school. But getting rid of it made me only an install away from all the chaos and it didn’t work. That was a solution that didn’t bring an alternative choice. Because what should I do now that I have deleted Instagram? download it again.

I realized I should be focusing on the time when I am not on my phone and try to work on my way from there. The solution lies on my daily schedule and how much time and focus I was willing to set aside for my hobbies and the things that made me motivated and full of life.

I came to conclusion that I have to beat my consumer self with a more creative self. I have to at least create half of the time I spend consuming. I could write, I could take pictures, I could talk to a friend about what I learned recently only for a week and that will change my screen time drastically while also changing me to be the better person I want to become.

Leaving the reasons for the lack of good movies in Ethiopia to be explained for someone behind, I will discuss instead, on those which succeeded to exceed my expectations by adding meaning and unique perspective to their story, cinematography and over all production.

#1 kemis yelebesku’let (The day I wore a dress)

With out exaggeration, I have watched this movie 5 times at least. I have never seen a movie so real that it is almost unbearable to listen to certain conversations at the movie’s climax without wishing it to be bad dream. With a beautiful character introduction, it has the best first 10 minutes I have seen in any Ethiopian movie.

We are introduced to the protagonist Samrawit as her psychology professor tries to explain behavioral theory by taking her as an example and talking how her upbringing affects her personality in a classroom she was attending. We learn that she grew up with male friends, and that generally she doesn’t fit into the societal roles of a woman.

This movie perfectly captures gender roles and the effect opposite sex friendships has on people’s lives. This movie raises the seemingly ever existing question of can male and female ever be best friends apart from the movie’s main theme of resilience and integrity during a difficult time.

This movie is all about family and friendship. That relatability made me comfortable at first only for a few minutes later everything to change in ways I didn’t expect. Through those fast plot changes, I was only left with my own judgment of what message the movie is trying to convey.

And that is no matter how we decide to lead our life, at the end of the day nature seems to have it is own way of working. Mistakes happen in life but that doesn’t mean, as shown by the main character’s last decision, we totally don’t have our own perspective on the measures needed to be taken to make life better than it would otherwise be.

#2 Lnleyay

Another one on young friendships, this heart wrenching movie has so much power for only being a high school story. Following a high school student named Amanuel who is on his way to US on a scholarship depicts how life changes after the news of his leaving reaches his friends and how dreaded that time becomes as it approaches.

The unavoidable urge to try and understand the past just when circumstances seem to be changed for good is shown through the main character’s last minute rush for meaningful conversations of reflection. It was discussed subtly, how the attempt to understand oneself changes someone and how that will inevitably create frictions on existing relationships.

This movie taught me how important it is to focus on the present moment and spend time on what we all our lives valued the most. It was shown how, in the main character’s case, no matter important it is trying to find peace in the past, fixating on a past and future at such a critical time has its own risks too, as shown in the movie leading to a very strange ending that we don’t see often.

This movie transfers a very good message subtly in a relatable, normal seeming high school movie plot. It so tragically explores the not so discussed painful loss of friendships at the age of early 20’s that most of us resonate with.

#3 Zetegn mot

I don’t think I have ever cared for the well being of a character the way I tenderly followed the story of a working woman named “Hidar” in this movie. This magnificent story, written by Dawit Tesfaye, is rich in every aspect that it doesn’t feel it was released 10 years ago.

This movie follows Hidar, a widowed man “Abegaz” and his daughter “Blien” who together travel to work by a bus every morning which later is discussed to have a symbolic meaning of life. Upon the unfortunate loss of her mother Hidar, played beautifully by Birtukan Befekadu, denies that fact and seemed to be in a place where she didn’t even want to hear anything that might remind her of it.

The widowed man played by Admasu Kebede (aymro), is constantly faced with the painful responsibility of breaking the truth to his daughter and his friend throughout the movie. And it shows how sometimes to care to someone is to tell the much needed truth even when it is painful.

Loss, grief, and denial are depicted through characters that feel so real that they seem to be based on the people we know around already. How people in our lives, no matter how close we are to them, fill our gaps by every little thing they do or say is discussed throughout the movie by almost all characters including the main character’s co-workers who each bring their own sub context for the movie.

There is a lot of symbolism in this movie. Every detail that I find out I missed when I first watched it astonishes me by how many meanings and life lessons it perfectly packed in its 1 hr and 45 minutes screen time and how new it feels every time I see it again.

If I have loved this movie less maybe I would be able to talk about it more. I can’t say anything more except to recommend it to anyone who haven’t watched it already.

Art and jazz has become Ethiopia’s favourite combination of entertainment. On 7^th March, jazz was performed by the renowned Roha band while captivating illustrations and paintings were on display at Hilton hotel Kikundi gallery.

Roha band, which was active starting from 1979, is Ethiopia’s most beloved band with some of it’s generous members still performing to some very lucky enthusiastic audiences.

The dynamic works of Harerta Teklu and Yeabtsega Getachew showcased honourable Ethiopian jazz musicians, displayed the magnificence of Ethiopian coffee by a collection named “caffeinated”, and radiated the beauty of jazz by featuring characters immersed in the joy of playing instruments. The displays were given a sweet linguistic context by the short narrations of Kalkidan Getnet.

The art exhibition also featured some of the digital art works of Ermias Assefa, a visual story teller and co founder of Behager Lij, a creative group well known for its animated short films and the intro sequence in the magnificent movie adaptation of Fikir Eske Mekabr.

Ermias assefa’s collection named “Portals” invites the audience to stop and examine thoughts, feelings and values to be found in everyday mundane activities. Art works such as “on easter day” and “unshakable” illuminate the beauty of Ethiopian everyday tasks.

The art exhibition also collaborated with Art and Design Drift, an interactive workshop series that invited the audience to show their artistic side on a canvas. The brushes and palette, postcards and old memorable Ethiopian news paper pages created an interactive artistic corner.