Machaho Tellem Chaho

I am audio browsing through the discography of Gigi, perhaps Ethiopia's most well known contemporary songstress. There are many sensational Ethiopian women singers out there but Gigi will remain my favourite for sure. There's another world that few singers open, an outworldly place where the voice resonates further than what lyrics can ever hope to reach and pass on, when words become scales in order to allow the calligraphy of vocals, messages that transcend language, so that all is clear, intelligible, beauty full ... or maybe I'm just making do with not understanding :-) . Anyways, thanks Gigi for this beautiful song 'Ethiopia' that for me comes at a time when I was seriously considering dropping my project. Ethiopia is still far, but perhaps not that far.

Pluggin' Betty Rock. That's all. http://www.myspace.com/bettyandrock

This is a rather old article, as news time-counting goes (February 2010), but it is written by my favourite Ethiopian author, Hama Tuma, so I cannot resist him nor the urge to share. So here goes: a presentation of two of Africa's plight 'Ze politicians' Zuma and Zenawi. I have chosen to copy here the latter part of his article which deals with Zenawi. For the full version, use your index finger. "Zenawi versus Zuma : 'Ze burlesque' follies of Africa" by Hama Tuma (an article posted on Hama Tuma's website and also published in Afrik.com , for whom he is a regular columnist.) "If Zuma is funny son of Zenawi aka Meles is dull and boring. This is the man who invaded Somalia and claimed it was not an invasion; "we just crossed the border". This is the man who blamed the West for the famine in Ethiopia: "they did not send food aid in time". This is the very man who indefatigably claims the economy is growing by 10% per year whi...

I've just discovered Eyob Mergia , a young Ethiopian-American painter, born in Debre Berhan, and graduate of Addis Abbeba School of Fine Art, now based in South Dakota (the Sioux Falls his blog says, how cool is that!) The reason I picked up on his work initially is that he has done a project on Axum . Below is his poster for his exhibition (apologies, it looks terrible here because I lifted the pictures from his site, erm, Eyob, it's to redirect to you man, if you object to your photos being here, let me know and I'll take them down.) His compositions and technique are ... well, it's excellent, am lost for words, paintings speak for themselves, so I just wanted to say: check out his work !!!