Former Ethiopian President Girma Wolde-Giorgis Pass away at 95

Former Ethiopian President Girma Wolde-Giorgis  Pass away at 95 

Girma Wolde-Giorgis was the President of Ethiopia from 2001 to 2013.He was the second person to hold the office of President since the founding of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia in 1995. He died on 15 December 2018.

Girma Wolde-Giorgis

He was elected President on 8 October 2001, as a relatively unknown and a surprising choice, by a unanimous vote of the Ethiopian Parliament. The Ethiopian presidency is largely a symbolic office with little power. Most of the power is vested in the hands of the Prime Minister. Presidents serve two six-year terms. Girma was re-elected as President on 9 October 2007.

Girma was born in December 1924 in Addis Ababa. He first attended an Ethiopian Orthodox Church school and later joined the Teferi Mekonnen School in Addis Ababa where he followed his education until the Italian invasion. The school was then renamed "Scuola Principe di Piemonte" (Prince of Piedmonte School) for the Crown Prince of Italy, in Addis Ababa.

Between 1950 and 1952, he received certificates in Management (from the Netherlands), in Air Traffic Management (in Sweden) and Air Traffic Control (in Canada) under a training programme sponsored by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). He was one of the first Ethiopians in the Ethiopian airforce dominated by American technicians. Girma tried to motivate Ethiopians to join the airlines and wrote a book on fundamentals. He was an activist and in the Inter Parliamentary Summit in Yugoslavia, he condemned the apartheid system in South Africa. Girma speaks Afan Oromo (Oromiffa), Amharic, and English fluently.

Girma Wolde-Giorgis is from the plurality Oromo ethnic group. He is married and has five children. Girma is a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. He is widely renowned for his usual presence at Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Meskel Demera Festivals.

• 1941: Enlisted at the Ethiopian Military Radio Communication set up by the United Kingdom
• 1944: Graduated from the Oletta Military Academy as a Sub-Lieutenant
• 1946: Joined the Air Force in and took various Air Management courses
• 1948: Became assistant teacher in air navigation and flight control
• 1951: Became Director General of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Planning at its establishment
• 1955: Became head of Civil Aviation of Eritrea (Eritrea, at the time, was federated)
• 1957: Assumed the post of Director General of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority and was Board member of the Ethiopian Airlines during the same period.
• 1961: Became member of the lower house (Chamber of Deputies) of the Imperial Ethiopian Parliament
• Elected speaker of the lower house (Chamber of Deputies) of the Imperial Ethiopian Parliament for three consecutive years.
• Helped win a seat for the Ethiopian Parliament in the International Parliamentary Union and attended conferences of the IPU in Switzerland, Denmark and former Yugoslavia and was elected as Vice President of the 52nd Meeting of the International Parliamentary Union.
• Served as Manager of the Import and Export Enterprise (IMPEX).
• Served as deputy Commissioner of the Peace Programme drawn up in 1977 by the provisional military government of Ethiopia (Derg) to settle the Eritrean problem peacefully.
• 2000: Became member of the House of Peoples' Representatives of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) after winning in the Becho woreda constituency, Mirab Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region, as an independent candidate in the second round elections.

Between 1965 and 1974:

• Board member of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce
• Representative for Australian Trade Mission in Ethiopia
• Founder and Director of the Ghibe Agricultural Association
• Founder and Director of the Keffa and Illubabor Timber Processing Industry

While in the then province of Eritrea before 1990:

• President of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society – Eritrea Branch (Asmara)
• Board President of Cheshire Home
• Managing Director of Leprosy Control Organization

Upon returning to Addis Ababa in 1990, he served as Board Member of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society and Head of its International Logistics Department.

He launched an environmental protection association called Lem Ethiopia in March 1992 to date serving as Vice President of the Board of the Association.

Two days before Ethiopian Christmas, on January 5, 2014 he made a clear statement on Ethiopia TV, calling for pacification between Ethiopia and Eritrea, calling it his last personal task and fight. He is coordinating from his office a group of people trying to launch peace talks, after fifteen years of disagreements, culminating in the Ethio Erithrean war of 1998–2000.

Indian author Sivakumar K.P. has produced the official biography of Girma Wolde Giorgis. The book, Under the Shade of a Gaashe, was released on 15 July 2015 at the official residence of the former president.Micro Business College is the publisher of the Ethiopian edition. The author acknowledges the role of Abera Tilahun, founder and president of Micros Business College in Ambo in introducing him to the former president and financing the publishing of the book.

Ethiopian Music

The music of Ethiopia is extremely diverse, with each of the country's ethnic groups being associated with unique sounds. Some forms of traditional music are strongly influenced by folk music from elsewhere in the Horn of Africa, especially Somalia. However, Ethiopian religious music also has an ancient Christian element, traced to Yared, who lived during the reign of Gabra Masqal. In northeastern Ethiopia, in Wollo, a Muslim musical form called manzuma developed in 1907. Sung in Amharic, manzuma has spread to Harar and Jimma, where it is now sung in the Oromo language. In the Ethiopian Highlands, traditional secular music is played by itinerant musicians called azmari (Zageth), who are regarded with both suspicion and respect in Ethiopian society.

Chordophones

Aerophones: In the highlands, traditional string instruments include the masenqo (also known as masinko), a one-string bowed lute; the krar (also known as kirar), a six-string lyre; and the begena, a large ten-string lyre. The dita (a five-string lyre) and musical bows (including an unusual three-string variant) are among the chordophones found in the south. Also "kebero" ( a drum) used by the religious group like Orthodox's or other Christian religious group to praise what they believe in.

The washint is a bamboo flute that is common throughout or in the highlands. Trumpet like instruments include the ceremonial malakat used in some regions, and the holdudwa (animal horn; compare shofar) found mainly in the south. Embilta flutes have no finger holes, and produce only two tones, the fundamental and a fourth or fifth interval. These may be metal (generally found in the north) or bamboo (in the south). The Konso and other people in the south play fanta, or pan flutes.

Mansko

Kirar

Begena

Idiophones

In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, liturgical music employs the senasel, a sistrum. Additionally, the clergy will use prayer staffs, or maqwamiya, to maintain rhythm. Rural churches historically used a dawal, made from stone slabs or pieces of wood, in order to call the faithful to prayer. The Beta Israel use a small gong called a qachel as liturgical accompaniment, though qachel may also refer to a small bell. The toom, a lamellophone, is used among the Nuer, Anuak, Majangir, Surma, and other Nilo-Saharan groups. Metal leg rattles are common throughout the south.

Membranophones

The kebero (ከበሮ) is a large hand drum used in the Orthodox Christian liturgy. Smaller kebero drums may be used in secular celebrations. The nagarit (ነጋሪት), played with a curved stick, is usually found in a secular context such as royal functions or the announcement of proclamations, though it has a liturgical function among the Beta Israel. The Gurage and other southern peoples commonly play the atamo, a small hand drum sometimes made of clay.

Popular music

Ethiopia is a musically traditional country. Popular music is played, recorded and listened to, but most musicians also sing traditional songs, and most audiences choose to listen to both popular and traditional styles. A long-standing popular musical tradition in Ethiopia was that of brass bands, imported from Jerusalem in the form of forty Armenian orphans (Arba Lijoch) during the reign of Haile Selassie. This band, which arrived in Addis Ababa on September 6, 1924, became the first official orchestra of Ethiopia. By the end of World War II, large orchestras accompanied singers; the most prominent orchestras were the Army Band, Police Band, and Imperial Bodygu ard Band. Most of these bands were trained by Europeans or Armenians.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, Ethiopian popular musicians included Bizunesh Bekele, Mahmoud Ahmed, Alemayehu Eshete, Hirut Bekele, Ali Birra, Ayalew Mesfin, Kiros Alemayehu, Muluken Melesse and Tilahun Gessesse, while popular folk musicians included Alemu Aga, Kassa Tessema, Ketema Makonnen, Asnaketch Worku, and Mary Armede. Perhaps the most influential musician of the period, however, was Ethio-jazz innovator Mulatu Astatke. Amha Records, Kaifa Records, and Philips-Ethiopia were prominent Ethiopian record labels during this era. Since 1997, Buda Musique's Éthiopiques series has compiled many of these singles and albums on compact disc.

During the 1980s, the Derg controlled Ethiopia, and emigration became almost impossible. Musicians during this period included Ethio Stars, Wallias Band and Roha Band, though the singer Neway Debebe was most popular. He helped to popularize the use of Sem ena Worq (wax and gold, a poetic form of double entendre) in music (previously only used in qiné, or poetry) that often enabled singers to criticize the government without upsetting the censors.

Contemporary scene

Currently the most prominent Ethiopian singer internationally is Gigi. Through her performing with top jazz musicians such as Bill Laswell (who is also her husband) and Herbie Hancock, Gigi has brought Ethiopian music to popular attention, especially in the United States, where she now lives.Popular musicians from Ethiopia include internationally renowned and recognized artists such as the Los Angeles area expatriate Aster Aweke, The Weeknd and Teddy Afro, who is often accredited with the fusion of Rastafarian styles into mainstream Ethiopian music.More recently, music from Tigray and Eritrea has become popular in Ethiopia and among exiles, especially in Italy. One of the biggest new trends, however, has been the rise of bolel, a sort of blues-like music, played by sarcastic azmari playing in parts of Addis Ababa, especially Yohannès Sefer and Kazentchis. Bolel musicians include Tigist Assefa, Tedje and Admassou Abate.

Other popular performers include Tewodros Tadesse, Neway Debebe, Tadesse Alemu, Hamelmal Abate, Martha Ashagari, Yohannes Berhanu, Kuku Sebsebe, Aster Aweke, and Manalemosh Dibo. Neway was very popular among the youth of the 1980s and early 1990s with such songs as "Yetekemt Abeba," "Metekatun Ateye," "Safsaf," and "Gedam," among others. Abatte Barihun has exemplified all four main qenets on his 2005 album Ras Deshen.

Éthiopiques producer Francis Falceto criticizes contemporary Ethiopian music for eschewing traditional instruments and ensemble playing in favor of one-man bands using synthesizers. Harvard University professor Kay Kaufman Shelemay, on the other hand, maintains that there is genuine creativity in the contemporary music scene. She further points out that Ethiopian music is not alone in shifting to electronically produced music, a point that Falceto acknowledg

Culture Of Surma People in Ethiopia

Suri is a traditional local name for a people living in southwestern Ethiopia. Suri is composed of three subgroups; Chai, Timaga and Baale groups (self-names), politically and territorially different, but all speaking 'South East Surmic languages within the Nilo-Saharan, like Mursi, Majangir, and Me'en.

Surma girl

The term Suri is the Ethiopian government's collective name for the Chai, Timaga, and Suri Baale as expressed in the label 'Suri woreda' (= lower administrative district) in southwestern Ethiopia, bordering South Sudan. The 2007 national Ethiopian census figures for ethnic groups distinguish "Suri" from "Mursi" and "Me'enit" (= singular of Me'en). Some authors have used the terms "Suri" and "Surma" interchangeably, or for contradictory purposes.

Surma woman with lip plug

The Suri are an agro-pastoral people and inhabit part of the Bench Maji Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia, while the Baale live partly in neighbouring South Sudan. Some are also found west of Mizan Teferi. The Suri population was ca. 20,622 in 1998 (census est.)  and ca. 32,000 in 2016. The Suri are culturally closely related to the more 'famous' Mursi, but the latter do not regard themselves as 'Suri' despite the similarities.

Surma man with body art

The Suri groups share a similar culture and show social and historical kinship with the Mursi and Me'en groups. Within Ethiopia, their homeland is relatively remote, located in semi-arid plains, valleys and foothills. There are traditional rivalries with neighbouring groups such as the Nyangatom and the South Sudanese Toposa, constantly raiding into Ethiopian territory. In recent decades, these conflicts have become quite bloody, with multiple use of automatic firearms (now present in significant numbers), no available overarching structures of mediation, and lack of effective government action. Major sources of the weapons have been the parties in the Sudanese Civil War. At times, the local police only allows foreigners to travel there with a hired armed guard. Local Suri authorities have also been imposing hefty tourist 'travel sums' on foreign tourists visiting the area.

The Suri are a self-conscious and culturally proud people, with, among others, a liking for stick fighting called saginé. This is more properly called 'ceremonial duelling', and serves as a rite of passage for male youngsters and brings great prestige to men  it is especially important when seeking a bride and they are very competitive, at the risk of serious injury and occasional death.

Surma person with arm scarification

At a young age, to beautify themselves for marriage, most women have their bottom teeth removed and their bottom lips pierced, then stretched, so as to allow insertion of a clay lip plate. This has become the hallmark of the Suri - as for the Mursi - and the main reason they have been sought out by tourists interested in the 'exotic'. Some women have stretched their lips so as to allow plates up to sixteen inches in diameter. Increasing with exposure to other cultures, however, a growing number of girls now refrain from this practice. Their children are sometimes painted with (protective) white clay paint, which may be dotted on the face or body.

Suri villages normally range in size from 40 to 1,000 people, but a few may reach 2,500 people. Suri life is egalitarian. The Suri 'chiefs' (called komoru) have a ritual function and are merely the most respected elders and have no executive powers. They are elected from within a certain clan lineages. Few Surma are familiar with Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, and their literacy level is relatively low. In recent decades, however, schools have been built and the number of literate Suri is growing, with several now working in the local adnministration's district capital, and others studying in various towns.

Culture 

Piercing lips and lobes and inserting lip plates are a strong part of the Suri culture. At puberty most young women have their lower teeth removed in order to get their lower lip pierced. Once the lip is pierced, it is then stretched and lip plates of increasing size are then placed in the hole of the piercing. Having a lip plate is a sign of female beauty and appropriateness; a common thought is that the bigger the plate, the more cattle the woman is 'worth' for her bride price, though this is denied by some.

Piercing lips

The Suri pride themselves on their scars and how many they carry. Women perform decorative scarification by slicing their skin with a razor blade after lifting it with a thorn. After the skin is sliced the piece of skin left over is left to eventually scar. On the other hand, the men traditionally scarred their bodies after they killed someone from an enemy group. These rituals, which are extremely painful, are said by some observers to be a way of getting the younger Suri used to seeing blood and feeling pain.

Stick fighting

A sport and ritual the Suri take very seriously is ceremonial duelling with sticks. In most cases, this is engaged in by young men to get respect from their families and community. The fights usually take place between two villages during harvest time, draw large audiences, and start with 20 to 30 representatives of each side, all of whom get a chance to duel against someone from the other side. During these fights there are referees present to make sure the rules are being followed. It is not uncommon for stick fights to end within the first couple of hits, but at the same time deaths are not unheard of, especially from hits to the stomach. Shooting incidents have occasionally erupted between men who have other disputes in real life.

Surma Stick Fighters

Ways of life

Each household in the Suri village is managed by a married woman. The women prepare the food, take care of the children, and cultivate their own fields and gardens, and are allowed to use their profits however they wish. There are also age grades. Young men (Tegay) are the 'warrior grade', not yet fully responsible adults. They are mainly responsible for herding and defending the cattle. Junior elders (Rora) are the dominant decision-making age-grade and entrance is gained in an initiation ritual that is held every 20 to 30 years. During this initiation the young men to be 'promoted' are tried and tested by elders, and are sometimes whipped until they bleed. Decisions in the Suri community are made by men in an assembly. Women are not allowed to voice their opinions during these debates but are allowed to do so before or after the debates take place. These debates are closed and summed up by the community’s ritual chief (the komoru).

The Suri have a sky god named Tumu. The Suri also believe in spirits and take recourse to (female) diviners as well. Another belief of the Suri is in rainmaking. This skill is passed down through heredity and is only given to one male in specific clans. When his services are needed, the men collect chips from a specific tree. These chips are then masticated and the remaining juice is then mixed with clay. This combination is poured and smeared over the man's body. After this process, rain is expected to fall.