Way to go girl!.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, The First Family:

Details about Teza

Set in 1970s Ethiopia, Teza tells the story of a young Ethiopian as he returns from West Germany a postgraduate. The young Anberber comes back to a country at the height of the Cold War and under the Marxist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam. Working in a health institution he witnesses a brutal murder and finds himself at odds with the revolutionary gangsters running the country. He is ordered by the regime to take up a post in East Germany and uses this opportunity to escape to the West until the Berlin Wall falls and Ethiopia’s military regime is overthrown.

Now aged 60, Anberber finally returns to his home village. Although he finds comfort from his ageing mother he feels alienated from those around him by his absence from home for so long and is disillusioned and haunted by his past. Teza is a sharply constructed political drama with solid story- telling values that include excellent performances, as well as a compelling soundtrack and the best choice and use of location.
Keith Shiri

Directed by: Haile Gerima
Written by: Haile Gerima
Cast: Aron Arefe, Abiye Tedla, Takelech Beyene
Country: Ethiopia-Germany-France
Year: 2008
Running time: 140min

First was Sodere. Then came Langano and Wondo Genet. Abule Bassuma & Bishangari made a third. Now, Sabana Beach Resort is the hottest spot on that side of the river. The beach resort surrounded by trees and looking down Langano river is as good as it’s name. Except for the 200 birr entrance fee, the fact that they don’t serve anything before or after hours (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and nobody around seems to know what the name “Sabana” stands for (spanish for Savannah, “a plain with a climate so that the grasses are the dominant vegetation, punctuated by a tree”) there is nothing you won’t love about the place. Give the Lasagna a try and you’d know what i mean .

Ethiopians have been involved since time immemorial in various fictional works by foreigners. Some of those stories teach people a lesson (like the one with Moses’ Ethiopian wife) and some don’t. Aida maybe one of the later. Written by Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, according to wikipedia, “for the celebration of the opening of the Suez Canal” in 1871, one finds it hard to understand where the lesson lies. Except inter-racial relationships are fatal and people shouldn’t indulge in them .

Still, Aida is an Ethiopian Princess which is enough for any Ethiopian . So.. I invite you to read or listen to it this opera at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16505142 or to go here to read somebody else’s race-reading take on it.

Then I tried to imagine what i would look like to “them”….

[ The Ethiopian Version ] 

… Haile Gebre-Silassie: It doesn’t matter why the chicken crossed the street… what matters is that it crossed it in record time… and ahead of the Kenyan chicken.

… Tilahoun Gessesse: Echick-chick-chick-chick… hoy chicken… hoy chicken…. tey chicken… chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
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iiiiiicken… ere chicken… hoy chicken… ney chicken… tey chicken… ney chicken…

… Average ye-Mammosh-inat on the Street: Was it a gebsimma doro…? egzio y’adadeewa Mariyam, what have I done to offend you that you let a gebsimma doro cross my path…?

… Ababba Tesfaye: You see, children, once upon a time, in a distant land, there used to be a chicken that laid golden eggs… the moral of the story, children, is that every street you cross will come back to haunt you… especially you by the window.

… Girma Cheru: And-hulet-and-hulet… what? and-hulet- oh… don’t worry, it’ll cross back. And then back again, 19 more times. And-hulet-and-hulet- and then it’ll do 25 push-ups… and-hulet-and- and 45 sit-ups…

… TekleTSadiQ Mekuria: 3,702 chickens have crossed streets since the time of Atse Libne-Dingil. Several have crossed during the time of Atse Tewodros, and then again during the time of Atse Yohannes. Fabio DiConte puts the number at 3,705 [ See #6. pp.66-666 ]

… Poet Laureate TSegaye Gebremedhin: Chickens crossing the road is an ancient Egyptian custom… er…… in fact, er………… , the word ‘chicken’ itself is, er…….., derived from the words ‘Chi‘ and ‘Qin‘, short for ‘yi-Chi‘ ‘QinQinam‘ which is related to… anyway, did you say you were from Gonder?

… AleQa Gebrehanna: Litdegim… Dawit’n. Beats me why anyone would name a rooster “Dawit”.

… SELEDA Mail Editor: Yikes and yowzer! We certainly don’t know, but we thinks that it’s one of them asadagi yebedelachew ye Nazret School graduates caught in the treacherous, rah-rah-siss-boom-bah, cycle of promiscuity … get laid… then lay… get laid… then lay… but that’s between them and ye Qulubeew Mike.

… SELEDA Male Editor: Did you say chick? or just chicken?

… Disgruntled SELEDA Reader: Why you poepel make fan of our belovd cheeken? stop talking about crossing straits, and axept the one tru cheeken as your saver.

… Atse Tewodros: Belu tolo! Catch that chicken and its entire clan and cut off their wings and hang ‘em from their necks… also, any chickens on the other side found wearing a TimTim, cut off their wings and throw them off the MeQdela afaf… any chickens found wearing a shurubba, give them a velvet kabba.

… Berhanu Zerihun: Which chicken? The chicken on the eve of the revolution…? the chicken during the revolution…? or the chicken in the aftermath of the revolution…?

… Prof. Ephraim Isaac: By the way, do you know how you say ‘chicken’ in Aramaic…? i know how to say ‘chicken’ in seven extinct languages.

… Col. Mengistu Hailemariam: Add this as decree #857: All chickens 18 months or older are, from this date on, forbidden by law from crossing streets. any chicken found doing so will be considered to be diverting the course of revolutionary progress and shall be eliminated summarily by the cadre‘s of the appropriate local Qebele.

… Maitre artist Afework Tekle: That’s the problem with chickens. You can’t get them to pose still for five minutes… so, if you are a clever student, as I was back at the Accademia di Michelangelo, you just superimpose a bunch of chicken shapes on the canvas and top that with a criss-cross of decorative lines to hide the inconsistencies.

… Average Azawint on the road: Ay siminteNaw sheeh… guud eko new… chicken in our day never used to go running about on the streets…

… Azmari:
Street aQuwarTa hedeCh alu chicken
Road aQuwarTa hedeCh alu chicken
Kentu hullu kentu latalfew yichin Qen

… Average Abebe on the Street: DV lottery! But it’s a dumb chicken because she could’ve gotten 40,000 Birr to cross the street with Ato entina‘s rooster.

… Average Abbebu on the Street: It’s actually crossing to… you know… throw up in the bushes. It just found out that the ehil it’s been picking on was not called ‘QinCHe‘, but rather ‘koos-koos‘.

… Average “Abe” back from the US: What road?… Oh, that patch of dirt…?

… Street Wefefé: I can hear the voices in the chicken’s head… wait, no, it’s Mahmoud’s voice in the chicken’s head telling it, “run chicken run! fly chicken fly!” not only is it crossing the street, it’s actually gliding over it… do you see it levitating…? it reminds me of ye Emamma Bafena’n samma weT. The chicken and I are one.

… Nigist Saba: To test the chief cock on the other side.

… Yodit Gudit: I don’t care… it was a Christian chicken…. or was it? You never know with the Christian chickens hereabouts, they all look Jewish below the waist.

… Average DifabaChew on the Street: Obviously, to avoid a bloody encounter with that other chicken walking up towards it, with whom it’s locked in a deadly land feud which involves lacing each other’s Tiré enna wuha with poison, and setting each other’s nest on fire.

… Weyyala: I don’t know… it was standing here until i started calling out, “Doro maneQiya — doro maneQiya!“.

… Yené BeeTé: Nothing new, my son, they all would rather do that than spare some change. Anyway, my son, now that I’ve answered your question…

… Bolé Airport Gumruk Worker: The chicken can cross the road as long as it leaves all its luggage here with me while I assess the taxes Let’s see — two extra feathers, that’s 10,021.09 Birr; excess sindE 7,021.03 Birr

… Zere’a YaQob: Why are chickens crossing the road and not roads crossing the chickens?

… Former Land Owner: Drom blenal! When you let all those yemnamintE lijs just cross roads willy-nilly, that’s when things begin to disintegrate. Does anyone know who the father of that chicken is?

… American Embassy official in Addis: Hey, I remember denying that chicken a visa. That chicken is going to take jobs away from Americans. I want that chicken deported!! OK, enough work for today. Nap time!

… Chairman of an Ethiopian Community Association: “Bewnitu kehone…yaw indeminawQew… before we start this meeting, we will set up a committee to set up a sub-committee to investigate which committee should handle what roads the chicken had intended to cross before it crossed that particular road.

… Ethiopian Discussion Board:
My sources tell me that that chicken was pushed across the road.
[ Response 1 ]: Not only was it pushed, but its mother was hit by a car when she tried to run after him.
[ Response 2 ]: Abet magganen! I know the chicken’s mother and she is fine. She just has gunfan. But the chicken’s y’agot lij was shot crossing another road.
[ Response 3 ]: Ante gemed aff! I am the chicken’s cousin and I am alive. Antew dbn bel! Amedam!
[ Response 4 ]: Mannew amedam, ante siliCho! If I see you crossing a street, anten ayargeN!
[ Response 5 ]: Why can’t we have a peaceful discussion on where the chicken went after it crossed the street?
[ Response 6 ]: We are having a peaceful discussion, ante godolo!

Herebelow are some pictures i found of him. Place the pointer on top of the pictures to read their description.