Kebede Michael

Kebede Michael (ከበደ ሚካኤል; 2 November 1916 – 12 November 1998) was an Ethiopian-born author of both fiction and non-fiction literature.

He is widely regarded as one of the most prolific and versatile intellectuals of modern Ethiopia – he was a poet, playwright, essayist, translator, historian, novelist, philosopher, journalist, and government minister belonging to the Shewa Amhara nobility and member of the Solomonic dynasty.

His maternal ancestor was King Sahle Selassie of Shewa.

He has produced about ninety published works in several languages, some of which have been translated into foreign languages, and have greatly influenced twentieth-century Ethiopian literature and intellectual thought.

He has received ample recognition domestically and internationally, including an Honorary Doctorate from Addis Ababa University.

He is well known as one of the mid-twentieth-century Japanizing Ethiopian intellectuals.

Kebede Mikael was born on 2 November 1916 in Menz Gerim Gabriel in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region to Ato Aytaged and Woizero Atsede Mikael.

Soon after his birth, his father left the country and vanished.

Hence Kebede Mikael came to be known under his mother's last name, instead of his father's as prescribed by the standard Ethiopian naming tradition.

His uncle Lij Seifu Mikael became his father figure and would raise him into adulthood.

Kebede Mikael attended Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥədo Church education, starting at a very young age.

It is reported that his grandmother, WoleteGabriel, took him to his first day of church education at the age of four at his nearby Gerim Gabriel church that was founded and built by his great grandfather Dejazmatch Mekuria Tesfaye, one of Emperor Menelik II's generals and cousins.

His mother is said to have instilled a sense of ethics in him by raising him with Christian values, and telling him stories from the Bible.

By the age of nine, he had learned much of the traditional church education and had a good mastery of the church language Ge’ez.

In about 1924, when his mother and grandmother moved to Arusi, today's Arsi for work, he went instead to his uncle Lij Seifu Mikael in Addis Ababa where he joined the Catholic Cathedral School as a boarding student.

His mother moved back to Addis Ababa in 1929 during which time he was enrolled in the best boarding school in Ethiopia at the time, Alliance Éthio-Française School with the help of his uncle Lij Seifu Mikael who was a Sorbonne-educated Ethiopian scholar and an important imperial government official.

It is said to be that he grew tired of the punishments by teachers at the school, and thus switched to Lazarist Catholic Mission School for some time.

Then, when matters at his former school improved, he switched back to Alliance Éthio-Française.

In between, upon his uncle's appointment to administer parts of Harer, the 13-year-old Kebede Mikael befriended Prince Mekonnen and was tasked with tutoring him.

Kebede Mikael studied at Alliance Éthio-Française for three years before he got the opportunity to be introduced to the art of literature through the school director, a Lebanese man called Malhabi.

The director was himself a novelist and thus wanted to teach the art of writing fiction to six outstanding students of his choice in his own house, and one of the six students was the young Kebede Mikael who had already gone through his uncle's library.

The lessons were given in French, and Kebede Mikael proved to be highly proficient and hard-working.

During his student years, Kebede Mikael proved that he was highly receptive to learning: he had a strong affinity for the French language, and earned high grades in his French exams.

Taking note of his apt command of the French language and his high potential, his school officials recommended him for a scholarship opportunity under the then monarch, Emperor Haile Selassie I.

Also impressed by his abilities, the Emperor granted him a full scholarship to go to France and pursue his studies.

However excited Kebede Mikael was about the unique opportunity, he could not make use of it because he fell ill at that time.

At the suggestion of his uncle, alternative arrangements were set up so that he could instead stay in the palace while he recovered and served as one of three French teachers to Prince Makonnen, the emperor's son, alongside French instructors visiting from France.

The plan to send him to France for further French instruction was thwarted by the onset of the five-year war with Italy (1936–1941), particularly because of the declaration of the Battle of Maychew (1936).

It would be the second time for Kebede Mikael to tutor Prince Mekonnen.

Kebede Mikael was an avid reader.

Although his formal education did not extend beyond high school, his writing was informed by his vast reading, as he revealed in an interview with Yekatit, a widely read Ethiopian newspaper, in September 1980.

From his readings, Kebede Mikael was greatly influenced by the teachings of prominent Ethiopians such as his own uncle Lij Seifu Mikael, Aleka Atsimegiorgis, Aleka Kidanewold Kifle, Professor Afework Gebreyesus, Negadras Gebre-Hiwot Baykedagn and Kegn-geta Yoftahe Negussie.

At home and school, he used the resources provided by his family and teachers to carefully study the Who's Whos of Greek, Roman, English, French, German, Russian, and Italian philosophers and scientists.

His uncle Lij Seifu's wife Sarah Workneh introduced the young Kebede to English literature.

She was the first Ethiopian to translate the works of Williams Shakespeare into Amharic language.

Her father was Ethiopian first Western educated medical doctor Workneh Eshete

During the occupation, his uncle and guardian Lij Seifu Mikael was captured and sent off to the Asinara prison in Italy.

Atsede's husband Dejazmatch Melise Sahle submitted to the fascist occupying force.

At the behest of his stepfather, he was employed in the fascists' government as a liaison between the Italian officials and the Ethiopian nobility as well as in their Department of Information, then called "Office of Propaganda".

Due to the unique access he had to high-level Italian officials and his command of the Italian language, he passed on important intel to the patriots fighting for the country's liberation.