A Laureate from Ambo, Ethiopia - Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin (17 August 1936 - 25 February 2006 ) ============================= Laureate Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin was Born in Boda, near Ambo, Ethiopia, While still at elementary school he wrote a play called King Dionysus and the Two Brothers and saw it staged in the presence, among others, of Emperor Haile Selassie. Tsegaye later attended General Wingate school and the Commercial school in Addis Ababa, then he won a scholarship to Blackstone School of Law in Chicago. In 1960 he travelled to Europe to study experimental drama at the Royal Court Theatre in London and the Comédie-Française in Paris. Upon returning to Ethiopia, he devoted himself to managing and developing the Ethiopian National Theater – which institution staged an impressive memorial for its former director.. In 1966, at the age of only 29, he was awarded his countrys highest literary honor: the Haile Selassie I Prize for Amharic Literature – which earned him the title of Laureate, by which he has ever since been known. He was elected to the United Poets Laureate International, and received many international awards – the last of them from Norway. Following the Ethiopian revolution of 1974, Tsegaye was appointed for a short time as vice-minister of Culture and Sports, and was active in setting up Addis Ababa Universitys department of Theatre Arts. In 1984 he wrote an extended, and very poetical, essay Footprints in Time, which appeared with photographs by the Italian photographer Alberto Tessore, as a coffee table book. It traced Ethiopian history from the prehistoric time of Lucy, the first-known hominid that had recently been found in the Afar Desert in eastern Ethiopia. One of Tsegayes passionate interests throughout this time was in the struggle to regain Ethiopias looted treasures; Tsegaye was present when the ambassador agreed to throw his diplomatic pressure behind the national demand for the return of the Aksum obelisk, which had been taken on Mussolinis personal orders in 1937. Tsegaye was no less insistent that Britain should return the manuscripts, crosses, tents and other loot taken from Emperor Tewodross mountain citadel. Much of this loot is currently in the British Museum, the British Library, and the Royal Library in Windsor Castle. Tsegaye died on 25 February 2006 in Manhattan, where he had moved in 1998 to receive treatment for kidney disease. He was buried in Addis Ababa in the national cathedral where the body of Emperor Haile Selassie lies. He will always be in the minds of Ethiopians !!
Posted on: Thu, 15 May 2014 09:01:49 +0000
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