Ethiopian old music melkamu tebeje
Nonetheless, I couldn’t help but ask myself a question I already knew the answer to: why do the young Eritreans in the Diaspora whose Tigrigna vocabulary doesn’t go past the basics, love Yemane Barya’s music? The answer is obvious, he speaks to and with their souls. I could hear what he is saying and what he meant because it is sang in the language I know very well. Anyway, I was lucky enough to appreciate Yemane Barya’s music the way I did and the way I still do. It was quite amusing to witness her become puzzled about how fast the beat went from a single tempo to derb, skipping all of the noticeable substance in between.
I knew that my mother would go crazy if she found out what happened to those tapes, so I used to glue those strings back up using her nail polish. His tapes were dubbed and passed among my friends so many times that the string would often break. However, something in his music and his words awoke a certain rebellion spirit, no matter how timid, quiet and tamed. Yemane knew all it took to help his fellow men was nothing more than the will to do so.ĭuring the Derg’s era, it was dangerous to get caught with his tape in hand.
There are several Eritreans who would recount about how Yemane personally helped them get to where they are now. His wife replied matter of factly, “Aye adey! He will simply buy another sack and put it out there again.” Yemane was not a man of wealth, but he shared the little he had with his people. All who came to his house didn’t have to be asked if they would like some tea, they felt so much at home that they would simply go ahead and make tea as much as they please.” Concerned that her son’s generosity was bordering foolishness during such a difficult time when sugar was as scarce and as expensive of a commodity as everything else was, his mother thoughtfully advised Yemane’s wife to at least put the sugar inside the house.
Ethiopian old music melkamu tebeje full#
“He had a sack full of sugar outside his door and a tea kettle with some cups. Azeb Gebrehiwet, recalling the time when she visited him in Sudan. “His generosity knew no boundaries!” says his mother Mrs. where they were able to make better lives for themselves. While in Sudan, he aided hundreds of Eritrean refugees cross over into Saudi, Europe, the US etc. Yemane’s inexhaustible kindness, generosity and love for his people is not something that is merely to be pointed out with simple references to his powerful music. With his heartfelt approach to his passion for music and his knack for moving lyricism, Yemane soon began to grip the imagination of the youth in Asmera. Although Yemane was an excellent student, he simply could not resist his true calling. Completely overtaken by the passion that gave him the power to defy his parents insistence that he should solely focus on his studies at Kidisti Mariam, Yemane would eventually drop out of school when he was only in the 9th grade. As time progressed, Yemane found himself gravitating into the world of performing arts to the dismay and relentless opposition of his parents. Soon after, his interests expanded into music and theatre. Yemane’s interest in poetry began to bubble into the surface when he was in 7th grade at Camboni School. Yes, this date marked the birth of the Eritrean griot whose revolutionary and defiant music would force him to flee his beloved Asmara 26 years later. On January 21st, 1949, the revolution that dared to be broadcasted arrived as a bundle of joy to Mr.