Ethiopian Music Festival III @ the Alliance
A tribute to the great Asnakech Worku
By
Selome Kifle
This year the
third edition of the Ethiopian Music Festival, which starts on January
23rd, will be a tribute to the great Ethiopian vocalist Asnakech Worku.
A CD devoted to this soulful vocalist will be released on the occasion
as well as a biography compiled by the Alliance Ethio-Française,
Ethiops Art Entertainment and Vagabond Production.
Art exhibitions, panel discussions, and concerts by local musicians
are expected to take place during the 10-day festival. In addition, as
the festival will be trying to expand its scope this year it will
include two guests from aboard, Susheela Raman an Anglo-Asian Singer
and American big band jazz called Either/Orchestra. The Alliance
Ethio-Française makes the scopes of the festival possible through help
from the British Council, US-based foundation Arts International and
by the American Embassy in Addis Ababa.
Beginning with the procession through the streets of Addis Ababa by
the Police Orchestra, there will be a variety of concerts that focus
on different aspects of Ethiopian music, from the semi-traditional
folk of the Azmaris, to performances of the Begena (King David’s Harp)
to the greats from the golden 60’s, a night of Reggae and more. The
event is going to be unique by including the first collaboration
between a talented young singer and a classical trained pianist. At a
2003 concert of “Dous and Duets”, the show was stolen by a performance
by Tsedenia and Girma of the traditional Bati. The two have now worked
together to develop a longer series of songs, which promises to be a
fruitful exciting new musical project at the Hilton on January 12,
2004. On the same date the national string Quintet, a group, which was
established last year by teachers and students from the Yared Musical
School and classical string chamber orchestra group from the National
Theater, is expected to give a performance to the audience.
The festival is a tribute to Asnakech Worku and to serve as the
occasion of the launch of both The Lady with Kirar, the Ethiopiques CD
volume devoted to her, as well as her biography by renowned Ethiopian
playwright and actor Getachew Debalqe.
Buying her first Kirar (the traditional Ethiopian lyre) while still
very young for only 25 Cents, Asnakech taught herself to play and
began performing in small bars and cabarets. She was the first actress
in Ethiopia, making her debut in 1952 at the City Hall Theatre, before
joining the national theatre in 1955, where she would remain until her
retirement in the late ‘80s.
Despite her long and distinguished career on the stage, Asnakech is
known primarily not for her career as an actress, but for her skill
with the Kirar and her quick wit and inspired improvisations.
In this festival other than a CD devoted to Asnakech, the Alliance
Ethio-Française is also going to launch another CD devoted to the
Ethiopian great Musician Tilahun Gessesse.
Capital learned that on January 14, 2003, there is going to be an art
exhibition by young artists and by a well-known artist at the Alliance
Gallery. Through this exhibition one way or another the artists will
be trying to show the similarities between the world of art and the
world of music. The Alliance attempts to showcase both established and
younger artists who address music in their works of art.
The panel of discussion will try to bring together voices from
different fields and perspectives to provide an overview of the issues
of copyright at the Goethe Institute on January 14, 2003.
Rock with Coke
The Coca Cola
Company in Addis is currently organizing a live musical concert
featuring two of Ethiopia’s top recording artists (Dawit Melese, and
Abegaz Shiota).
The concert will be taking place at Meskel Square on January 18, 2004.
Among the show’s many highlights will be the accompanying performance
of the famous Express Band.
This concert is the latest in a series of shows that have taken place
previously at Meskel Square. Some of the earlier performances have
featured the likes of Teddy Afro, Chachi Tadesse, and Tibebu Workiye.
“The concert series is part of an effort to associate the world’s
number one soft drink brand with some of the bigger names within the
Ethiopian Music Industry.” In keeping with tradition, the concertgoer
must simply present three Coca Cola bottle caps to gain admission to
the show. This innovative entrance fee was first established to make
the show accessible, as well as to further promote the concert’s
underlying theme: branding the company into the hearts and minds of
Ethiopian music listeners. Coca Cola is planning to continue
organizing such events in the future.
The company has long been the world’s number one soft drink/beverage
bottler. In the case of Ethiopia, it has held this distinction for the
last forty-five years. More than just organizing entertainment
programmes, Coca Cola has been involved in various charitable
activities such as the promotion of HIV/AIDS awareness, poverty
eradication, street children welfare programs, and various other
sponsorships.
Among the activities the company is involving itself in, with regard
to the promotion of HIV/AIDS awareness, is the erection of twenty
‘Awareness’ billboards in partnership with Save The Children (USA).
The billboards will be erected along one of the high-risk corridor
from Addis Ababa to Djibouti.
“Flowers of Ethiopia and
Eritrea”
By
Selome Kifle
A new book
entitled “Flowers of Ethiopia and Eritrea” written by professors
Sebsibe Demissew of the Addis Ababa University and Inger Nordal of the
University of Oslo, and Odd E.Stabeetorp of the Norwegian institute
for nature research, was officially launched on Saturday January
10,2004 at Book World.
The book contains the latest offer the natural series flowers, which
includes Aloes and Lilies found in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Ethiopia’s
fauna and flora have been overlooked by the preoccupation with its
cultural, historical and religious heritage. According to some experts
there are up to 42 different flowers and species of plants are found
only in Ethiopia. The book also talks about how Ethiopia occupies a
special place in bio-diversity.
According to the information at hand a lot of newer spices of the
Aloes and Lilies have been discovered within the last years and many
of their photographs are appearing for the first time. These wilds
flowers are found all over Ethiopia and Eritrea. The book supplemented
by beautiful photographs and describes at length 193 species.
Aloes are used in many traditional medical preparations and treatments
and research has shown that they might kill the bacteria responsible
for Tuberculosis.
Sebsebe Demissew leads the Ethiopia Flora project and he is keeper of
the National Herbarium Department, Department of Biology at Addis
Ababa University.
Inger Nordal is a leading expert on the field Lilies and she has
contributed to several regional floras in Tropical Africa. She is a
staff member of the Department of Biology at the University of Oslo
and Norway.
Odd E.Stabbetorp has a long experience within conservation biology,
botany, ecology and GIS (Geographical Information System) techniques.
He is a staff member of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research.
‘Sewur Enba’
Documentary Film at Alem Cinema Center
Documentary film produced by Walta Information Center in cooperation
with CDC- Ethiopia and HAPCO titled “ Sewur Enba” was screened at Alem
Cinema Center on Monday January 5, 2004. Present at the screening were
invited guests, representatives of governmental and non-governmental
organizations concerned with creating awareness on the spread of HIV/ADIS,
and its effects on society and especially on women.
The film is a documentary research made in four cities (Bahir Dar,
Addis Ababa, Awasa and Yirgalem). The interview made with HIV positive
women depicted the stigma and discrimination that women suffer. The
director of the film Ato Kidane Yilak said that it took three months
to make the film and to combine the research that they got from the
four regions on the stigma and the discrimination on HIV positive
Women. “In all the four regions, during the making of the film, we
faced a lot of difficulties, even to interview the victims on the hurt
they feel from discrimination,” said the director of the film.
Asked by Capital why they chose a documentary film instead of other
media, Ato Kidane said that video has more impact when it comes to
creating awareness in the public’s mind than written material such as
flyers, pamphlets and billboards. He said the film was made with
professional digital beta Camera and cannot be projected with other
projector than a digital one, that’s why it is screened at Alem Cinema
Center; they have the right equipment. But later on the plan is to
convert it to videocassettes so that it will be easily distributed to
the public.
Capital also asked about the contribution of CDC-Ethiopia (Center for
Disease Control) and HAPCO in making the film, and Ato Kidane said
that both organizations contributed a great deal by giving some
crucial ideas and financial support.
Walta Information Center is a private news and information service
establishment based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It focuses mainly on
major political, social and economic issues. Walta organizes
discussion forums on topics of importance to Ethiopia’s development,
such as corruption, democracy and AIDS. These have been the major
topics discussed in the past.
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Tuesday
January 13, 2004
