Famous Ethiopian People
:: List of Famous People from Ethiopia ::
Jembere Hailu is an Ethiopian traditional painter who started painting while still quite young. According to Hailu himself, he was born about 80 years ago in Debre Tabor where he received a church-based education and where he studied religious procedures and texts, including Qene, Aqwaqwam, Zemare, Dawit and Tsome Degwa, which are from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Jembere Hailu mentioned in his autobiography that he used to serve as a priest in Qangeta.
He learned to paint when his uncle was commissioned by Empress Zawditu to paint the Tedbaba Mariam church in 1927. After finishing their commission, the governor of Begemder, Ras Gugsa Wale gave an order for them to paint the Enatitu Mariam church located in Debre Tabor. Jembere Hailu was later asked to paint the palace of Governor Wondwossen Kassa.
He got married in 1933 and was drafted into the army to fight against the Italians in Maychew together with his father, a professional soldier. He fought the war for 5 years and only started painting again by 1943. In 1948 he and his family moved to Addis Ababa where the emperor gave him a house and a parcel of land. He began painting in earnest and sold many of his works, and at the same time got some additional commissions to paint churches. He taught his son Markos how to paint.
Gezahegn Gebre Yohannes
Gezahegn Gebre Yohannes is a famous jewelry artist in Ethiopia who works with gold and silver. He is from Addis Ababa and he learned his craft from Haile Abraham, with whom he worked as an apprentice when he was 11 years old and stayed at Abraham’s shop until he was 20.
Gezahegn was born in Aksum in 1953. Aksum, an ancient city was famous for gold and silver works. His teacher, Haile Abraham was also from Aksum but relocated to Addis Ababa. He only finished 6th grade when he moved to Addis Ababa and wanted to finish his education by taking night classes. However, he was not able to do so because his work at the shop of Abraham had him working until 8 in the evening and classes began at 6. So he decided to leave the shop after 9 years, pursued his education and started his own business in 1972. According to his own biography, his designs are combinations of traditional Ethiopian and modern European designs as well as products of his own creativity. His shop carries necklaces, earrings, finger rings, pins, hair combs, bracelets and traditional neck crosses patterned after designs from Gondar, Aksum and Lalibela. He said that most of his designs have been copied by other goldsmiths. His regular customers are Ethiopians as well as different embassy workers and officials.
Tolera Tafa
Tolera Tafa is a 24-year old model maker from Addis Ababa. He still lives with his parents in a small farm where they grow chick peas, maize and sorghum. He wanted to stay in school because he values education highly but had to leave school for the meantime to help his family. He’s a brilliant boy and has always been about the third or fourth student in their class of 60. Tolera discovered the art of making models out of sorghum stalks. The art had been started 35 years ago, and the place, Ambo Road has become famous for it. Some of the beautiful models of churches and transportation are displayed in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa.
Tolera learned the art of making sorghum pith models easily just by watching other model makers. And he quickly became the best pith model maker at Ambo Road. He specializes in cars, ships and taxis as well as churches. He uses his teeth or a double-edged razor blade to remove the tough outer covering of the sorghum stalk to get the softer pith and makes small pins out of the tough outer layer, which he uses to attach the pieces together.
His best known work is a model of the St. George Cathedral in Addis Ababa, locally know as Qeddus Giyorgis. And his models are not just plain miniatures. He creates models with moving parts – vehicle tires, plane propellers, windows and doors. He is remarkable for being able to create models of buildings that he has never seen before, just by looking at photographs. He has been able to create a model of the Tower of Pisa measuring six feet tall and a model of the Palazzo Vecchio of Florence, Italy that is five feet high that were commissioned by the Italian Cultural Center located in Addis Ababa. For the Michigan State University Museum, Tolera created large-scale models of the White House and the Jefferson Memorial. Aware of his works being purchased by tourists, he makes sure that they are structurally sound, even if he had to sacrifice some details.
Yared
Specifically he is called Saint Yared, born in April 25, 505 and lived until May 20, 571. His feast day falls on May 19. Saint Yared was an Ethiopian musician who invented the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo Church’s sacred music chants called the Zema. He was also the one who created the system of musical notation of Ethiopia. The Zema is still being performed up to this day.
Menelik I
His original name was Ebna la-Hakim and he was the first Emperor of Ethiopia of Jewish descent. It was believed that Menlik I was a son of Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, an ancient kingdom that was located either in Ethiopia or in Yemen and Israel’s King Solomon. Menelik I was said to have brought the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Ethiopia. When he succeeded his mother after her death, he was crowned the Ethiopian “King of Kings” and records said he founded the Solomonic dynasty which ruled Ethiopia for about 3,000 years.
Kitaw Ejigu
He was a scientist who held the position of Chief of Spacecraft and Satellite Systems Engineering. He was the first Ethiopian aerospace scientist and had been part of the team that worked on the space shuttle.
Kitaw Ejigu hailed from Bonga, Kaffa in Ethiopia. He was born on February 25, 1948. He was a top student in school and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from the Bahir Dar Polytechnic Institute in 1966. His major was agricultural technology. He worked as chief technical advisor and assistant manager for the Ethiopian Automotive Services and Sales Company.
He studied at Hiroshima University for his degree in automotive engineering under a scholarship given by the Japanese Overseas Technical Association. He also took up economics and language at Osaka University before he went to the United States for his MBA. That was in 1979. Afterwards he worked for his doctorate in space vehicle services engineering at the Northrop University.
Kitaw Ejigu died in the United States on January 13, 2006 without realizing his plans to use his knowledge for the betterment of Africa.
Kenenisa Bekele
Kenenisa Bekele is considered to be one of the greatest long distance runners. Born on June 13, 1982 at the Oromia Region, he had amassed several gold medals, a few silvers and still fewer bronze medals. He also holds world and Olympic long-distance running records. He is the current Olympic champion in the 5,000 meters distance. He is also a 2-time champion in the 10,000 meters race and has never been beaten in that course. His notable characteristic as a long distance runner is his ability to accelerate towards the end of a long distance race. The sudden death of this girlfriend while training with him briefly affected his career in 2005 but he quickly recovered. In 2006 Kenenisa was the world indoor and outdoor track champion, the world cross country champion and the Olympic champion. Kenenisa was the first athlete in history to hold this distinction.
Adebe Bikila
Adebe Bikila was a long distance runner. He came to world attention when he competed in the Summer Olympics in Rome in 1960 barefoot. Bikila, an imperial bodyguard by profession was trained by Onni Niskanen, a Swede who was hired by the government to train people with athletic potential. He was just a replacement for Wami Biratu when he was sent to Rome to compete in the Olympics. However, shoe sponsor Adidas did not have shoes that will fit Bikila, so he decided to run barefoot since he had been trained to run like that in his home country. He won the gold, besting his Moroccan rival, Rhadi Ben Abdesselam by 20 seconds. He participated in the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics. He wore shoes at that time and set a new world record. His time was 2:12:11:2, which was 4 minutes and 8 seconds ahead of Basil Heatley from Great Britain who took the silver medal. This feat earned him a hero’s welcome, a Volkswagen Beetle and a promotion from Emperor Haile Selassie. In 1969, he met a car accident when he avoided a group of students staging a protest. The accident rendered him a quadriplegic but he had an operation in England that improved his condition although he had to live as a paraplegic. Abebe Bikila died on October 25, 1973. The cause of his death was cerebral hemorrhage, which was a complication traced to his car accident. He was 41 when he died. Seventy-five thousand mourners attended his funeral and the Emperor proclaimed it a mourning day. There were dedications made in his honor after his death. There is an annual Abebe Bikila Award given by the New York Road Runners for deserving long-distance runners. A stadium in Addis Ababa was named after him; a gym at the American Community School, Addis Ababa was dedicated to him and the Yaya Abebe Bikila Primary School was built in his honor from the support given by Isabel and Dave Welland through the Glimmer of Hope Foundation.
Haile Selassie I
His birth name was Tafari Makonnen and he was born on July 23 1892. His family lineage can be traced from the Solomonic dynasty. He was a Regent of Ethiopia from 1916 up to 1930 and reigned as emperor from 1930 up to 1974. He was credited for being Ethiopia’s defining figure as well as that of Africa’s history. He was given the title Ras Tafari Makonnen when he was younger and the Rastafari Movement hailed him as God- incarnate and a messiah. His name was changed to Haile Selassie when he was crowned as the Emperor of Ethiopia. His regnal name translates to Power of the Trinity.
As a Regent he began to institute government reforms during his reign, and desired to be admitted to the League of Nations. He abolished slavery and had schools created so that former slaves can receive education. Ethiopia’s first newspaper was established to announce his reforms and to gain widespread support. He traveled extensively to Europe and the Holy Land to visit the different heads of nations to convince them to admit the only independent nation in Africa.
He opened the eyes of the rest of the world to Ethiopia while he patterned his reforms on the modernization of Ethiopia on models he had learned in Europe. While there were many conflicts with the conservative ruling officials, he was able to overcome them and his road to modernization flourished. His coronation as king was attended by a list of illustrious guests including royals and dignitaries from the US, Japan, Great Britain, Italy, France, Sweden, Egypt, Turkey and Belgium and most of them brought lavish gifts. Haile Selassie also introduced the first written constitution of Ethiopia.
His courage and fortitude inspired leaders like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X. His death on August 27, 1975 was rather mysterious. It was said that is was complications from prostate operation but his remains were buried in an unmarked grave. It was discovered in 1992 under a toilet in the palace. His body was finally laid to rest at the Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa in 2000, 25 years after his death. Selassie was the last Emperor of Ethiopia.
Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi
Now a Saudi citizen, Al Amoudi was born in Ethiopia and spent 18 years of his life there. His father was a Hadhrami Yemeni and his mother was Ethiopian. He was 19 years old when he went to Saudi Arabia. Al Amoudi is now a billionaire and a businessman who divides his time between Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia. According to Forbes, his estimated net worth is $12.3 billion which means he is the richest Ethiopian, the second richest Saudi Arabian citizen and the 63rd richest man in the world.
His fortune started from real estate and construction business, then from buying oil refineries in Morocco and Sweden. He is totally committed to helping Ethiopia through his philanthropic work, investments for infrastructure and job creation as well as education, health, sports and arts development.
Noah Samara
Noah Samara is the founder and the CEO of WorldSpace Corporation, the first company to launch a satellite radio system in the world. He also helped in founding XM Satellite Radio, one of the two satellite radio systems servicing Canada and the United States that uses technology from WorldSpace.
He was born in Addis Ababa but went to the United States at 17 years of age because he wanted better education. He first received a bachelor’s degree in English in 1978 from the East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania. From Georgetown University he received his master’s degree in international business and his doctor of jurisprudence. International communications satellite laws is his specialization.
He participated in developing low earth orbit and geostationary satellite systems before he founded WorldSpace. Samara’s company started its initial broadcasts in Africa in 1999 and in Asia a year after. Broadcast services to the Caribbean and Latin America were started two years after launching the broadcasts in Asia.
Marcus Samuelsson
His birth name is Kassagun Tsegie and he was born in Ethiopia in 1970. His father was a priest and he has 8 half-siblings from his biological father who still lives in their village in Ethiopia. At age three his mother died of tuberculosis and he and his older sister, Fantasy were adopted by a Swedish couple. His adoptive father is a geologist. His name was changed to Marcus Samuelsson. He became interested in cooking at an early age and studied at Gothenburg’s Culinary Institute. He started his apprenticeship in Austria and Switzerland before he came to the US to works as apprentice at Restaurant Aquavit. By age 24 he was already the executive chef of the said restaurant and soon became the youngest chef to get a 3-star restaurant review from the prestigious New York Times. The James Beard Foundation named him the best Chef in New York City in 2003. He opened a second restaurant in New York called Riingo in the same year. The restaurant serves American food with a distinct Japanese influence. He is now co-owner of Restaurant Aquavit in NY and C-House Restaurant in Affinia Hotel, Chicago. Chef Marcus Samuelsson was a guest chef at the first state dinner of President Barack Obama in 2009.
