Notes from Getahun Solomon Addis

From: "Getahun, Solomon Addis"
List Editor: Jonathan Reynolds
Editor's Subject: Obit: Dr. Berhanou Abebe
Author's Subject: Obit: Dr. Berhanou Abebe
Date Written: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 09:50:07 -0400
Date Posted: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 09:50:07 -0400

Central Michigan University


I have a sad news. Dr Berhanou Abebe, a polyglot (he spoke Amharic, Geez,
Tigrigna, Oromifa, French, English, Italian, Latin, Classic Greek, and
Arabic) and the most distinguished Ethiopian French scholar (He obtained
le Doctorat d'Etat es Lettres in France from the University of Sorbonne),
passed away on July 1, 2008.

Dr. Brihanou has numerious publications including The Rise of Land Tenure
in Ethiopia (1971), The History of Monasticism in Ancient Ethiopia (1981),
and History of Ethiopia (2002). He was also winner of several national and
international awards such as Commandeur de l'Ordre de Hailesellassie
(Ethiopie), Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (France), Chevealier de
l'Ordre du Merite (France), Commandeur des Arts et lettres (France), and
Officer des Palmes Academiques (France).

Prof. Berhanou, in addition to teaching at the Haile Silassie I, the now
Addis Ababa University, has served his country and Africa in various
capacities. He died while on assignment to monitor the elections in
Zimbabwe as a representative of the African Union. His death is a great
loss to Ethiopia/Africa. May God rest his soul.

I am a very old friend of Dr Berhanou Abebe (From Jean Salomon)

Hello,

I am a very old friend of Dr Berhanou Abebe. I read your tribute to his passing of life and have appreciated its content.

Even if I am not part of his family, we have always considered ourselves as real brothers since 1945 (1935 e.c.) when I joined the Catholic Mission at the age of eight. We then went together to the Alliance Française and the Lycée. We have always stayed in touch, except for the period of the Derg. His mother and mine were friends and he has always taken care of my mother as a son and she feels now that she lost a son.

Whenever I had a problem, Berhanou was the first person to whom I would talk it over to have his precious advise. So, it is ounce again on his advise that I went to Ethiopia with my wife from last May 28 to June 11 to see my mother but also to see him. This has been the case each time I went to my mother land. He proposed to pick us at the airport at 6:50 in the morning and I had to insist so we could wait until the afternoon to see each other. Naturally, he came to our hotel to fetch us and take us to his house at the Piaza. He would stop any activity, God knows he had a lot on his agenda, if I happened to call him for any insignifiant subject. When I learned his death, I felt I lost my legs.

I appreciate all the projects you are planning to put on foot to perpetuate Dr Berhanou's memory and wish to be informed on their developments. I am most willing to bring testimonies about my big brother. I still hear his voice telling me stories in a restaurant in Paris in June 2007 where I went to see him.

With best regards,
Jean Salomon

What is the risk to election observers

It is known that African peace keepers are risking their lives when they are caught between warring groups. Recent examples include Somalia and Darfur. Now can election obsevers run the same risk in a relatively known and predictable confrontations between opposition groups ? For example Mugabe and his opponents. I think it is possible that people like Dr. Berhanu Abebe become targets as they make their stands clear on rigged elections, such as seen in Zimbabwe. I would like to see a full account of the events leading upto the death of Dr. Berhanu Abebe. Could he have been poisoned ?.

Hommage au Prof. Berhanou Abebe (L’équipe du CDH)

Qui, à Bangui, n’a pas croisé le regard ou le chemin de cet homme à la chevelure
aussi dense et blanche que son sourire? De l’enfant des rues errant devant le Grand
café au Président de la République, le Professeur éthiopien Berhanou Abebe a
marqué la mémoire des Centrafricains. Celui qui a présidé avec succès le Comité Préparatoire du Dialogue Politique Inclusif (CPDPI) à Bangui, s’est soudainement éteint le 1er juillet à Harare, au Zimbabwe, alors qu’il participait à la mission d’observation électorale de l’Union africaine. Des milliers d’Ethiopiens et de nombreux représentants étrangers sont venus lui rendre un dernier hommage à Addis Abeba le 3 juillet dernier lors de ses funérailles.

Agé de 75 ans, ce grand homme de Lettres et d’Histoire, a consacré les derniers mois de sa vie à la promotion du dialogue et de la paix en République Centrafricaine (RCA).

C’est à la demande du Centre pour le dialogue humanitaire (CDH) qu’il s’est rendu à Bangui en août 2007 afin de diriger la réunion de concertation nationale, puis d’assumer la présidence du Comité Préparatoire du DPI de décembre 2007 à avril 2008. Son écoute des autres, son expérience, son humanité et son humilité étaient chez lui des qualités naturelles reconnues de tous. Ce sont d’ailleurs ces qualités qui lui ont permis d’incarner si parfaitement le consensus nécessaire et indispensable à la réussite les travaux du CPDPI.

Durant son séjour en RCA, sa préoccupation la plus grande a été de faire en sorte que les travaux du Comité Préparatoire aient un sens pour tous les Centrafricains.

Aujourd’hui, le plus bel hommage que puissent lui rendre ces derniers serait de tenir ce Dialogue Politique Inclusif en veillant à ce qu’il profite à ceux qui sont véritablement dans le besoin; c'est-à-dire la grande majorité des Centrafricains. Dans l’un de ses ouvrages consacrés à l’Ethiopie, le Professeur Berhanou Abebe conclut de la façon suivante:

"Seule la souveraineté du peuple pourra écarter les dangers de la suprématie d’un groupe ou d’un individu, fut-il l’Atsé, le monarque absolu ou le parti; elle seule pourra réaliser une démocratie où le gouvernement est au service du peuple et non l’inverse."
A l’heure où la Centrafrique et le Centre pour le dialogue humanitaire viennent de
perdre un ami, un frère en la personne du «Prof», tout le monde est invité à méditer ces paroles.

L’équipe du CDH

During Zemecha in Metekel, Gublak

solomondejene

Selam Abebe and all,

I am glad that you intend to hand over the legacy of Prof. Dr. Berhanu. I think this is one of the best ways to preserve our cultural, historical, academic and other treasures. As Prof. Berhanu has been a good friend of emeritus Prof. Mekonnen Argaw, Paris, contacting him seems to me essential as that would mean access to a wide range of information on Prof Berhanu and his works.

Even if I do not know Prof. Berhanu very well I still have a fresh memory of him being sympathetic toward student during the zemecha in Metekel, Gublak. The students composes a rhyming phrase on many of them based on their role in siding the students or the political cadres. Docter berhanu yelubetim kemnum kemnum as he was not involved in making our life either worse or in lobbying as if we were in good shapte there, while a number of the others got really very negative evaluations.

Selam

Nikolay Sarkozi sends letter of condolences on death of Dr. Berhanu

Addis Ababa, July 3, 2008 (Addis Ababa) - French President Nikolay Sarkozi expresses condolences on the death of the renowned Ethiopian scholar, Dr. Berhanu Abebe. Sarkozi sent the letter of condolence to President Girma Woldegiorgis on behalf of the French people and government; and on his own.

President Sarkozi said the death of Dr. Berhanu was a loss not only to Ethiopia but also to Africa, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told ENA.

A press release from the French Embassy in Addis Ababa also said "Professor Berhanu Abebe will be sorely missed".

"An incredible mind and a wonderful scholar, Professor Berhanu Abebe was, all through his lifetime, a committed and outstanding proponent of the Ethiopian culture as well as of Francophony.”

“A lawyer, historian and erudite , Professor Berhanu Abebe was entrusted with prestigious positions, which he owed to his great talent: an academic and researcher of great renown, he was also appointed Vice-president of the PanAfrican Congress and Deputy General Manager of the Ethio-French Railway Company.”

“Professor Berhanu Abebe authored a French-Amharic dictionary and an Amharic-French one and translated several pieces of work into Amharic (notably "le Bateau ivre", by French poet Arthur Rimbaud). In 1998, he published a remarkable history of Ethiopia in French, a testimony of his love for both Ethiopia, his native country, and France, to which he was the greatest of friends.”

"France honored Professor Berhanu Abebe's many achievements by bestowing upon him its greatest destinations: he was made a knight of l'Ordre National du Mérite, an Officer of the Palmes Académiques (for academic excellence), a knight of La Légion d'Honneour and a Commander of "Arts et Lettres"'.

His commitment to the values of peace and dialogue, and his humanist principles were at the heart of his life, it said. On the occasion of the bi-centenary of the French revolution, Professor Berhanu Abebe had translated the Declaration of human Rights into Amharic.

(http://www.ena.gov.et/EnglishNews/2008/Jul/03Jul08/61893.htm)

From colleagues who knew Dr. Berhanu Abebe

Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:04:40 -0400
To: gutaye@ncat.edu
From: Teferi Abate
Subject: Possible contacts at AA
X-YaleITSMailFilter: Version 1.2c (attachment(s) not renamed)

Dear Professor Abebe,

Please accept my deepest condolence. I had the privilege of working with working with Dr. Berhanu Abebe for several months at the French Ethiopian Studies Center in Addis some years back. He was a great man with big heart. I was always looking forward to meeting him on the corridor or just stopping by his desk to get struck a discussion on something so that I could slowly get him enlighten me about land tenure issues under the imperial regime (I was writing a dissertation on land and society in Wollo with particular reference to local consequences of land reform in the post 1975 period). He was a walking encyclopedia with amazing patience to answer questions even when the question you are asking was not clear enough. He was also the most grateful man I ever met in my life. As you know very well, learning and working at AAU can be painful at times. But Dr. Berhanu was always grateful to everything around him. I remember meeting him near his apartment in Piassa one afternoon. He invited me to a small tea room around the block. It was a real pleasure looking at this great man in the eye from the other side of the small table and listen every single word from him. He used to quote his beloved mother for beautiful sayings; "God would always straighten life for the lucky man especially in the twilight years" (I hope my translation makes sense). You can see how happy he was doing what he always wanted to do even after leaving AAU (the French Center was an excellent place; the Director at that time was a young Professor called Betrand Hirsch and prior to that the late Jacques Bureau- Getie Gelaye and myself were his students). Finally, I also remember seeing Dr. Berhanu with tears on the eyes when he came across a picture of his mother with the emperor in one of the Ethiopian Studies exhibitions (in the ethnographic section of IES Museum). His love and attachment was very obvious.