Connecting 16,500 Ethiopians Worldwide: News, Comedy, Music, Video and Community
By Emily Wax, Published: August 21
With Ethiopian flags unfurled and satellite televisions set to the African nation’s state-run news channel, hundreds of stunned Ethiopian Americans crammed into restaurants in the Shaw section of the District, known as Little Ethiopia, on Tuesday to watch news reports about what they had suspected for weeks: the country’s longtime ruler, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, had died at 57.
But for many in the crowds, which included parking attendants and cabbies, professors and college students, the African nation’s long-awaited official announcement was not enough.
“Where did he die? From what exactly? We deserve to know,” said a red-eyed Petreous Melek, a 46-year-old real estate agent who wept as he sat in an Ethiopian restaurant sipping strong coffee and watching the patriotic reports on Ethiopian Television.
Flashing on the screen were grainy black-and-white images from the 1970s of a young Meles in frayed military clothing and an Afro, cradling an AK-47 as a guerilla fighter who vowed to seize power from Mengistu Haile Mariam’s Soviet-backed military junta. Next came footage from 2008 of the balding prime minister, cleanshaven and dressed in a suit as he congratulated Ethiopian Olympic medalists upon their return home.
The diaspora in the Washington region burgeoned to 200,000 — the largest outside Ethiopia — in the decades after Mengistu’s military seized power in 1974. Many who fled were educated elites who were fearful of Mengistu’s communist policies and hoped that Meles would bring democracy and wide-ranging economic reforms to the impoverished Horn of Africa nation.
On Tuesday, many Ethiopian Americans shared conflicting emotions about Meles’s legacy — pride that their native country had become one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa under the leader, but anger and disappointment at the Meles government’s repressive policies and jailing of opposition leaders.
And many of the questions that lingered after Zenawi’s death reflected anxiety about Ethiopia’s future and the fate of relatives and friends there.
“There’s just a lot of worries, questions about what’s next,” said a crying Messeret Araya, 40, as she watched the television at Habesha Market and Carry-Out on Ninth and U streets NW.
“He was our leader and we were proud of him because the country was at zero when he took over,” Araya said. “Will we turn into a Somalia now?”
The Ethiopian government has offered little information about what has become known in the Ethiopian American community in Washington as the “Meles Mystery” — Meles Zenawai’s disappearance from public life in June. In mid-July, officials said only that Meles’s “health condition is very good and stable” and that he was “taking some rest.”
In the end, Ethiopian officials said only that Meles had died in a hospital “abroad.” A European Commission spokesman disclosed that Meles was being treated in the Belgian capital for an unspecified illness when he succumbed to a secondary infection just before midnight Monday.
Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon offered little more, saying that Meles had been ailing for a year and died after being rushed to intensive care. Hailemariam Desalegn, the minister of foreign affairs and deputy prime minister, will become the new premier, the government said. Unlike many in Meles’s party who are from the north, he is from the South and an ethnic group known as the Wolayta, which has not traditionally dominated national politics.
Opposition leaders in exile in the United States said the intrigue surrounding Meles’s death showed just how autocratic his government had become.
The dearth of information “shows just how fragile our political institutions are,” said Birtukan Mideksa, a female judge and former opposition leader who was jailed by Meles twice for three years. “But when I heard the news, I also felt sad because I wanted him to leave a better legacy. Unfortunately he didn’t use the opportunities he had to lead the country into more inclusive and democratic and political systems.”
In Washington, Addis Dimts Radio, an Ethiopian radio program is planning to hold a series of meetings so opposition parties here can list their “demands for change,” said political radio host Abebe Belew.
“This is the time in Washington to sit down and figure out the important things that we want: a free media, an open opposition,” said Belew, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison on terrorism charges by Meles’s government in July because his show has included guests from the political opposition in Ethiopia.
Comment
Comment by mesafint on August 26, 2012 at 12:09am people like abebe belewu is so idiot and try to restore old feudal system!!!!!!!! we will not give them chance!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by Marx Amaniel on August 23, 2012 at 12:51am Abebe Belew is changed to Abebe Gelebaw. Don't salivate to take the power from the ruling party out of constitution. if you planned to take power illegally the consequence on the power salivators will be devastating
▼
Join Sodere.com and receive daily Ethiopian news, music, comedy and drama video updates straight to your e-mail box. Subscribe.
Submit news, pictures and videos to sodere.
Video: Sew Le Sew Ethiopian Drama Season 3 Review and Public Comment Part 2 - Sew Le Sew Ethiopian Drama Season 3 Review and Public Comment Part 2
Video: Sew Le Sew - Before Part 88 : Ethiopian Drama , Public Comment Part 1 week 1 - Sew Le Sew - Before Part 88 : Ethiopian Drama , Public Comment Part 1 week 1
Video: Sew Le Sew - Part 87 at Ethiopian TV - Sew Le Sew - Part 87 at Ethiopian TV
Video: Sew Le Sew - Part 87 : Ethiopian Drama - Sew Le Sew - Part 87 : Ethiopian Drama
Video: NEW Sew Le Sew Ethiopian Drama Part 87 - NEW Sew Le Sew Ethiopian Drama Part 87![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
Video: Just for Laughs - Beer & Wet T-Shirt Prank - Just for Laughs - Beer & Wet T-Shirt Prank
Video: Best Of Just For Laughs Gags - Best Jesus Pranks - Vol. 2 - Best Of Just For Laughs Gags - Best Jesus Pranks - Vol. 2
Video: Betoch : Part 14 - Ethiopian Comedy Drama - Betoch : Part 14 - Ethiopian Comedy Drama
Video: Ethiopia - Kibebew Geda's Comedy የቻይና ጉዳይ Chinese in Ethiopia - Ethiopia - Kibebew Geda's Comedy የቻይና ጉዳይ Chinese in Ethiopia
Video: Antenatal care in Amharic(YeEregezena Ketetel beAmaregna) Part-1 - Antenatal care in Amharic(YeEregezena Ketetel beAmaregna) Part-1
Video: Antenatal care in Amharic(YeEregezena Ketetel beAmaregna) Part-2 - Antenatal care in Amharic(YeEregezena Ketetel beAmaregna) Part-2
Video: Antenatal care in Amharic(YeEregezena Ketetel beAmaregna) Part-3 - Antenatal care in Amharic(YeEregezena Ketetel beAmaregna) Part-3
Video: Antenatal care in Amharic(YeEregezena Ketetel beAmaregna) Part-4 - Antenatal care in Amharic(YeEregezena Ketetel beAmaregna) Part-4
Video: Antenatal care in Amharic(YeEregezena Ketetel beAmaregna) final part - Antenatal care in Amharic(YeEregezena Ketetel beAmaregna) final part
Video: Ethiopian St. George 2:0 Egypt ENPPI - Highlights and Goals - Ethiopian St. George 2:0 Egypt ENPPI - Highlights and Goals
Video: ETHIOPIA - Ethiopian SPORT NEWS in Amharic - Friday, May 17, 2013 evening - ETHIOPIA - Ethiopian SPORT NEWS in Amharic - Friday, May 17, 2013 evening
Video: E-SAT sport with Fisseha Tegegn May 17, 2013 - E-SAT sport with Fisseha Tegegn May 17, 2013
Video: ETHIOPIA - Ethiopian SPORT NEWS in Amharic - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 evening - ETHIOPIA - Ethiopian SPORT NEWS in Amharic - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 evening
Video: ETHIOPIA - Ethiopian SPORT NEWS in Amharic - Sunday, May 12, 2013 - ETHIOPIA - Ethiopian SPORT NEWS in Amharic - Sunday, May 12, 2013Ethiopian Social Network, News and Video portal. Sign in, create profile,share videos,upload picture, invite your friends and have fun.
Video: [Full] Balageru Idol : Ethiopian Music and Dance Competition - May 18, 2013 - [Full] Balageru Idol : Ethiopian Music and Dance Competition - May 18, 2013
Video: Balageru Idol : Ethiopian Music and Dance Competition - May 11, 2013 - Balageru Idol : Ethiopian Music and Dance Competition - May 11, 2013
Video: Balageru Idol : Ethiopian Music and Dance Competition - May 04, 2013 - Balageru Idol : Ethiopian Music and Dance Competition - May 04, 2013
Video: Balageru Idol : Ethiopian Music and Dance Competition - Balageru Idol : Ethiopian Music and Dance Competition
Video: ETHIOPIA - Ethiopian NEWS in Amharic ( abroad NEWS ) Saturday - April 20, 2013 - ETHIOPIA - Ethiopian NEWS in Amharic ( abroad NEWS ) Saturday - April 20, 2013
Video: Ethiopian family members in Texas graduated with six degrees in one week - - Ethiopian family members in Texas graduated with six degrees in one week -
Video: Ethiopia - Entertainment News May 19, 2013 - Ethiopia - Entertainment News May 19, 2013
Video: Ethiopia's economy has evolved to become the largest non-oil exporting economy in Africa - Ethiopia's economy has evolved to become the largest non-oil exporting economy in Africa
Video: Ethiopian News in Amharic - Friday, May 17, 2013 - Ethiopian News in Amharic - Friday, May 17, 2013
Video: ETHIOPIA - Ethiopian SPORT NEWS in Amharic - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - ETHIOPIA - Ethiopian SPORT NEWS in Amharic - Thursday, May 16, 2013© 2013 Created by Sodere.



You need to be a member of Sodere: Ethiopian Social Media Network Video News Drama Music to add comments!
Join Sodere: Ethiopian Social Media Network Video News Drama Music