THE GODFATHER OF SOUL

Once in a lifetime, comes a person who, by nothing more than just the sheer love and dedication to his/her craft, becomes the standard that all others are measured with.  People like that are very rare. All they want to do is that one thing they know and love most; not for some unforeseen fame or fortune, but just for the pure passion for it.  They do it in a way that no one has ever done it before, without compromising their talent.  They don't lead or follow.  They just do their stuff.  Everything, eventually, and naturally will fall into place. James Brown was one of those people.

Before there ever was a Michael Jackson, an Elvis Presley, a Smokey Robinson, or someone like Marvin Gaye, there was James Brown.  Even back home in Ethiopia, James Brown was a household name in the 60's and 70's. There was even a fictional equivalent to his name, 'Demissie Berehanu'.  From old to young, rich to poor, everyone knew who James Brown was. 

Who as a kid, with a foolish aspiration to be an America Pop star, hasn't shouted the name ‘James Brown' after belting out that patented James Brown scream?   As a mother or father, what parent hasn't cursed the name James Brown after a fight with a rebellious son who was caught in the local shai bet listening to, ‘I feel good' or 'Hot Pants' by James Brown? What young man in the 70's has not worn those bellbottom pants and large lapelled colorful coats and tried that James Brown spin dance? 

James Brown has inspired many African musicians with the likes of Alemayehu Eshete, Fela Kuti and countless others.  He truly was the Godfather of Soul.  He will be sorely missed.

The Greatest Ethiopian Entertainer

"I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music."

George Eliot (1819 - 1880)

By Ketsela

I had a rare opportunity to see "THE GREAT TILAHUN GESSESSE"'s concert on Saturday night. By no means am I considered a concertgoer. In my life I attended three Ethiopian concerts and two of them were of Tilahun. Please, do not assume anything different, the only reason I did not attend other Ethiopian concert was that they schedule at 8 pm and never start until 11 pm. Yes, it was the same with the Tilahun concert but I can wait even longer for his. That is the least I can do for a man who lived to entertain me for all my life. Yes, he was on a wheel chair but nothing was different since last I saw him here in Minneapolis or when I saw him back in Ethiopia. Ah! Those eyes still sing along with his lips and confirm the sincere messages he was delivering then and now.

One can sit and compile his songs and will be able to write a book about us Ethiopians - our nature, poverty, war, love, relationship and can be a best seller in the New York Book Review. And I mean it too. Tilahun has touched every Ethiopian generation. If not yours, your parents; if not your parents, your grandparents’. Certainly, there were many titled songs that disappeared due to censorship. Do you readers know that once Tilahun brought a dog on stage and sang "MY DOG" in front of the Emperor Haile Selassie? Some part of the lyrics went like this:

Got punished for it too. I might be from the old school in being a music lover, and yet I witnessed young men and women crying and sobbing by the sight of seeing him. This is one Ethiopian I know and love. Once on Medrek,  a reader condemned him for not singing a Tigrigna song.  I feel the individual loves him as much as I do, but he/she seemed to blame him for his linguistic inability. There is a Latin saying that goes "They condemn what they do not understand". To me, that sounded like blaming a young white man or woman for being responsible for the act of slavery. Consider it just as an analogy. Music, like a great painting, is designed to express the social significance of the situation of the people. I remember once an Ethiopian painter told me that if he paints a cup of tea with a lemon on the side, viewers must and should smell the tea and lemon. That seemed to be the quality of Tilahun in his music for Ethiopia and to Ethiopians. In the same token all the songs made by Tilahun carry messages reflecting the ETHIOPIA we know and love. The art of his songs are relayed from generation to generation and can be translated in more than one ways. They all smell good, look good and gurantee individual and socital satisfaction.

What Tilahun proved to me last Saturday was that being handicap is just a state of mind; I see no difference in him when singing, smiling and moving his body to the tune of the music.
I may not be an expert to compare Ethiopian singers; it is because this was only my third one to attend an Ethiopian concert in America. Two of them were for one and only one Tilahun. Come on! Readers, it was not because I do not like to listen to an Ethiopian music but only that the organizers tell me it start will at 9 but let me sit in an empty hall for about three hours. And I go stag too.

I just like to THANK Ato Tilahun for all contributions he has done to entertain me through out his life.

By Terengo

One Woman's Odyssey to Save AIDS Orphans in Ethiopia

By Mimi

Like a pebble dropped in a pool, AIDS sends ripples to the edges of society, affecting first the family, then the community, then the nation as a whole.

Our beloved Ethiopia, according to UNAIDS, is home to over 1, 563, 000 AIDS orphans, the second-highest concentration in the world. Over one and half million heart-broken children that will never know a mother’s unconditional love or a father’s protective heart.

Over 1.5 million lonely little girls & boys that face poverty, stigmatization, isolation, rejection and extreme sadness live in Ethiopia. These voiceless children live ignored in a country that has no national policy to provide care and support for orphaned kids, but so passionate it spent $ 2 million/ day and had $800 million dollars in defense budget during a senseless border dispute. The plight of these poor little souls, as they witness a government so cold-blooded, it rather blow billions of dollars for killing than on AIDS medicine to save their lives

Mrs. Haregewoin Teferra is that angel. A grief-stricken widow that turned her home into a makeshift orphanage to care for hundreds of AIDS orphans, after losing her own daughter to the epidemic. She runs the haven Atetegeb Worku Memorial Orphans Support Association AWMOSA named after the daughter she lost to AIDS. Since it has opened doors to AIDS orphans in 2001, AWMOSA has fostered over 250 kids.

Mrs. Haregewoin Teferra has made it her life mission to house and support children orphaned by AIDS, both HIV-positive and HIV-negative. She provides food, clothing, education, and medical care to the children, all with her own money. She is a selfless woman, who sold her car, jewelry and even the cloth on her back to put food on the table for the orphans. She is a benevolent woman, that sometimes goes to bed hungry doing her very best to nurture and mother the forgotten victims of AIDS.

Mrs. Haregewoin runs a school, a daycare, and a shelter for sick mothers. She operates two houses in Addis Ababa near the Gullele area. Older and healthy children attend neighborhood schools. Children too young or in too-fragile health to leave home attend school within the compound, complete with school uniforms, classrooms, and teachers. Mrs. Haregewoin is also a saint for HIV-positive young women and widows. She assists them in finding food, housing, and work. Yes, all of it at her own expense.

Mrs. Haregewoin also places the orphans with families in North America and Europe. One of them is famed author and journalist, Melissa Fay Greene who was so moved by Mrs. Haregewoin, she adopted two kids from the orphanage and also wrote a book about her called “There is No Me Without You: One Woman’s Odyssey to Rescue Africa’s Children”.

There is No Me Without You tells the powerful story of Mrs. Haregewoin’s courage, service and commitment as she struggles to heal from her personal loss by opening her heart and home to orphaned children with a renewed spirit and purpose. I am grateful for author Melissa Fay Greene for introducing this Ethiopian angel to the world. I was moved beyond words by this powerful and poignant book about Mrs. Haregewoin Teferra, whose life illuminated for me how one human being can make a world of difference.

Today, as we observe World AIDS day, let us consider ways to help these orphans Mrs. Haregewoin desires our help to spread Love and Hope to these needy children.

We can all be angels, if we tried. Let us be angels to the orphans. Please, visit Mrs. Haregewoin http://www.awmosa.org/ or e-mail her at atetegeb@ethionet.et .

The Stephen Lewis Foundation is gathering tax-exempt donations which will be used to benefit Haregewoin's foster children. Stephen Lewis is the United Nations Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa. You can donate here

Please, support great non-profit organizations that are making a wonderful difference in the fight against AIDS

Worldwide Orphans Foundation
http://www.orphandoctor.com/wwo/index.html

Global AIDS Alliance
http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/

The William J. Clinton Foundation Anti-AIDS Initiative
http://www.clintonfoundation.org/cf-pgm-hs-ai-home.htm


Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/

Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org,/

http://www.msf.org/