Books: Memoirs/Ethiopia, Poems, Memoirs/Africa, Amharic, Adoption, Hair, Race, Science, Art, Travel Guides, Photography, Food & Cooking, History and Culture, Nature, Children, Fiction, Other.
Movies: Fiction/Ethiopia, Fiction/Africa, Fiction/Adoption, Fiction/Race, Documentary/Ethiopia, Documentary Free Online/Ethiopia, Documentary/Africa, Documentary/Adoption, Documentary - Black Issues, Children.
Music: Ethiopia, Children, Other.
My rating shows, in stars 
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BOOKS
BOOKS: MEMOIRS - ETHIOPIA
The Chains of Heaven: An Ethiopian Romance by Philip Marsden
When Philip Marsden first went to Ethiopia in 1982, it changed the direction of his life. What he saw of its astonishing antiquity, its raw medieval Christianity, its extremes of brutality and grace produced in him a restless curiosity, and made him a writer. Twenty years later, Marsden returned. The Chains of Heaven is the account of a journey deferred. Walking hundreds of miles through a landscape of cavernous gorges, tabletop mountains and semi-desert, he encounters monks and hermits, rebels and farmers, people whose spiritual passions reveal a reckless disregard for the material. He stays in isolated homesteads, climbs to monasteries accessible only by ox-hide rope or by chain. He creates an unforgettable picture of one of the most remote regions left on earth, and explores the ambiguities of a nation and a Church fiercely proud of their independence but also shackled by it.
A Man With Integrity by HAYMANOT BERHANU
The life story of an Ethiopian Christian who raises his family in the late twentieth century, A Man With Integrity follows the life of Berhanu Ademe as told by his daughter, Haymanot.
The Mountains Of Rasselas: An Ethiopian Adventure by Thomas Pakenham Rasselas is a tale of the royal princes of Abyssinia, who were condemned to live on the prison-mountain of Wehni until they died or the order of succession called them to the throne. How much of this was truth and how much legend? Thomas Pakenham traveled to Ethiopia to find out. The predicament of the prisoners had been even more melodramatic than previously surmised. And an incredible archeological discovery was made: a medieval church of the finest style ever recorded. Nearly 40 years after the story was published in 1959, Pakenham returned to the Mountain. In this edition, historical insight and new color photography are added to the original story.
An Ethiopian Odyssey by Annette Allen
By the age of nine, Annette Allen had been to five different schools, trailing behind her father, an itinerant aeronautical engineer. In Ethiopia, she sat beside princesses at school whilst witnessing heart-breaking poverty; falling in love with the complex people and magnificent scenery. After apartheid South Africa, she returned to middle class life in Britain. But after a dream she had in April 2000, transporting her back to the heat and drought of Ethiopia, she decided to go back. Little did she know that the 25,000 mile quest would reveal how interconnected everything was.
In Ethiopia With a Mule by Dervla Murphy The story of this prolific travel writer’s extensive journey through Ethiopia from Addis Ababa to Eritrea, mostly on foot and by mule.
Notes from the Hyena’s Belly by Nega Mezlekia 
Part autobiography and part social history, Notes from the Hyena’s Belly offers an unforgettable portrait of Ethiopia, and of Africa, during the 1970s.
Held at a distance - a rediscovery of Ethiopia by Rebecca Haile Rebecca Haile lived in Ethiopia until she was 11 years old. When the Emperor was deposed by a military coup, her father was shot. Barely surviving, he escaped with his family and settled in Minnesota where they struggled with the strain of their changed circumstances. This book brings into focus the consequences of political upheaval in Ethiopia.
There is no me without you by Melissa Fay Greene 
Melissa Fay Greene documents the tragic lives of the children of Ethiopian AIDS victims. Greene focuses on the efforts of Haregewoin Teferra and her orphanage while chronicling how the Ethiopian government and much of the world ignore these innocent children.
Breafast in Hell - A doctor’s experiences of the Ethiopian famine by Myles Harris This is an Australian doctor’s account of his four months working for the Red Cross in Ethiopia during 1984 when the famine there had reached the world’s attention. Harris vividly portrays frustration with inadequate living conditions, bureaucratic inefficiency and mismanagement, and politically motivated activities that contribute to starvation.
The hospital by the river by Catherine Hamlin Gynecologists Catherine and Reg Hamlin established a midwifery school in Ethiopia in 1959. Through this work thousands of women have been able to resume a normal existence after living as outcasts. They dedicated their lives to women suffering the catastrophic effects of obstructed labor - a problem easily dealt with in the developed world, but disastrous without medical intervention. The awful injuries that such labor produces are called fistulae, and until the Hamlins began their work in Ethiopia, fistula sufferers were neglected and forgotten - a vast group of women facing a lifetime of incapacity and degradation.
Surrender or Starve - Travels in Ethiopia, Sudan,Somalia and Eritrea by Robert D. Kaplan 
Reporting from Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritrea, Kaplan examines the factors behind the famine that ravaged the region in the 1980s, exploring the ethnic, religious, and class conflicts that are crucial for understanding the region today. He offers a new foreword and afterword that show how the nations have developed since the famine, and why this region will only grow more important to the United States. This book is also available in Spanish under the title: Rendicion o hambre: Viajes por Etiopia, Sudan, Somalia y Eritrea.
The scent of eucalyptus: a missionary childhood in Ethiopia by Daniel Coleman A pink-skinned, fair-haired child of Canadian missionary parents, Daniel Coleman grew up with an ambivalent relationship to the country of his birth. He was clearly different from his Ethiopian playmates, but because he was born there and knew no other home, he was not completely foreign. Like the eucalyptus, a tree imported to Ethiopia from Australia in the late 19th century to solve a firewood shortage, he and his missionary family were naturalized transplants.
The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley Hartley, a journalist and British subject with four generations of colonial administrators in the family, offers a startlingly refreshing perspective on the political, social, and cultural impact of British colonialism in Africa and Arabia. The son of a foreign service officer, Hartley was raised in East Africa and educated in British prep schools. As a journalist, he traveled the war circuit through Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Bosnia, and other hot spots.
Tiempo Etiope by Luz Dominguez (ONLY IN SPANISH) The desire of this book is to change the view about Ethiopia, and finally about other cultures, outcast because they are unknown. It’s what we ignore what doesn’t let us move forward in the journey of life. In these days in which everything is tinted by the global idea, it’s important to live in the Ethiopian time, because the Abyssinian empire keeps its calendar and in this way the year has 13 months. In this extra month that Ethiopians enjoy is what we Europeans lack to expand the view and to be more generous with our hands and our ideas.
Eating the Flowers of Paradise: A Journey Through the Drug Fields of Ethiopia and Yemen by Kevin Rushby The title refers to qat, a leaf that when chewed produces a hypnotic effect. When Rushby was teaching English in Yemen, he became enraptured by the drug, which is central to Yemeni social life. Back in Britain and feeling nostalgic several years later, he decided to go back and follow the ancient trade routes of qat, which overlapped the routes of Arthur Rimbaud and the explorer Richard Burton. Rushby’s vivid writing reveals places that few visit: Southern Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Yemen. He meets strange and sometimes dangerous characters but finds generosity almost everywhere he goes.
My Fathers’ Daughter: A Story of Family and Belonging by Hannah Pool Hannah Pool, adopted by a British academic from an orphanage in Eritrea and raised primarily in Manchester, returned to the land of her birth to seek out her biological father and the rest of her family. She spent only two weeks there, so she was unable to delve into the country’s history and politics, or the lives and psyches of the numerous relatives she found, including a sister she hadn’t known that she had. Nonetheless, the experience was a hugely emotional one.
BOOKS: POEMS
The Healing Conscious by Kifle Bantayehu
The "Healing Conscious" tells the story of an Ethiopian immigrant boy on his fascinating journey to America and adulthood. The author, a second-generation Ethiopian immigrant, recounts this poignant tale in poetic format. His inspirational collection of poems reflects the final words and thoughts of a dying man who traveled across the world, raised a family and became successful—finally fulfilling the American dream. Part of the proceeds from book sales will be donated to 46664, Africare, the African AIDS Initiative and other organizations working to promote HIV awareness and helping those affected in Sub-Saharan and East Africa.
BOOKS: MEMOIRS - AFRICA
The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari This memoir, written by a native Darfuri translator who, after escaping the massacre of his village by the genocidal Janjaweed, returned to work with reporters and UN investigators in the riskiest of situations. Taking readers far from their comfort zones, Hari charts the horrific landscape of genocide in the stories of refugee camp survivors. Also available in Spanish as El traductor.
Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey Of A Desert Nomad by Waris Dirie and Cathleen Miller By age 6, Waris Dirie was herding her family’s sheep and goats, fending off hyenas and wild dogs as the family carved a path through Africa. She was just twice that age when she ran off into the vast furnace of the Somali desert to escape an arranged marriage to a much older man. Traveling for days without food and water, she made her way to Mogadishu and later to London as a servant to her uncle, the Somalian ambassador. There she wrestled with culture shock and got her first taste of the modeling life that eventually brought her into the public eye. Dirie is resilient, having survived drought, hunger, and the ritual female genital mutilation that marks a step toward womanhood among some traditional Moslems but, argue critics, steals or ruins many girls’ lives. Also available in Spanish under the title "Flor del Desierto".
Heart of Fire by Senait Mehari Born in 1974, Senait Mehari was abandoned by her parents as a baby and spent her early years in a state orphanage. After four years she returned to her father, but at the onset of the War of Liberation he made the shocking decision to give Senait and two of her stepsisters to the rebel troops of the Eritrean Liberation Front. Senait spent three harrowing years in a training camp for child soldiers - witnessing first-hand the brutalities of war and enduring hunger, sickness and beatings. She was rescued in 1983 when her uncle arranged a daring escape to Sudan and the sisters lived in Khartoum for four years, until they were summoned to Germany by their father. Life in Germany was difficult. At fourteen Senait left home to live on the streets and began composing music. Now Senait feels compelled to speak. Heart of Fire is the moving and inspirational story of a woman determined to succeed.
BOOKS: AMHARIC
Colloquial Amharic by Davis Appleyard
Colloquial Amharic is easy to use and completely up to date. Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Amharic. No prior knowledge of the language is required.
Amharic Basic Course by Foreign Service Institute This is one of the courses produced for US Foreign Service personnel based on courses produced during World War II by the American Council of Learned Societies when the US needed materials that would teach languages to soldiers fast.
Amharic the EZ Way and Amharic 101 to 104 by Shining Star Multimedia Amharic the EZ way is a stand alone program that will teach you over two thousand important and often used Amharic phrases and words. It is a very simple and straight to the point program. While Amharic 101 to 104 will teach you Amharic in great detail and depth. It assumes no prior knowledge of the Amharic language and it is suitable for all ages. It will teach you the alphabet, vocabulary, reading and grammar and there is also an additional workbook that teaches how to write in Feedel.
Let’s Speak Amharic by the NALRC As the title indicates, the text invites students from the very beginning to communicate meaningfully in Amharic and at the same time understand better the daily life and attitudes of Amharic-speaking people. Students, who complete this book will master the basic vocabulary, functions, and structures of the Amharic language. There is companion audio CD for the book. Mail order only.
Amharic for Foreign beginners by Alem Eshetu This is a situation-based text for beginners. It starts with a brief introduction about the Amharic language. This is followed by Amharic characters. Each unit is organized as follows: dialogue, expressions and vocabulary items, grammar, exercises, and cultural considerations. The dialogues focus on different everyday situations. Then the expressions and vocabulary items relating to the situations are presented. The grammar sections discuss the basic grammatical aspects of the language and present various examples.
Amharic Ethiopian Script: Lakech One by Zewditu Fesseha Amharic is a Semitic language that has been used for centuries. Ethiopia is one of the oldest nation in the world and its Alphabe is used for documenting the old Ethiopian civilization. The Laqech-one Amharic script helps all those who are interested in learning Amharic.
Talk Now! Learn Amharic by Euro Talk Interactive 
Designed for newcomers to the language, Talk Now! is a method to access a wealth of comprehensive fundamental vocabulary and accurate pronunciation in one user-friendly plan packed with useful words, a picture dictionary, and quizzes. Anyone over 10 years of age will find the program indispensable for improving listening, understanding and spoken language skills. Very basic, for beginners only.
Lonely Planet Ethiopian Amharic Phrasebook by Tilahun Kebede Useful phrasebook for those with no previous knowledge of the language. It is intended for foreign travelers to Ethiopia and not for Ethiopians who live abroad. The book is pedagogically constructed and you can quickly find what you’re looking for. As a tourist you get a good insight of the country culture and social behavior.
Simple Amharic for Adoptive Families by Amy Kendall (book + CD) Created by an adoptive mom in the great hope of helping adoptive families connect with the new child in their lives. The book contains approximately 250 translated words and phrases that are recommended most by families who have previously adopted internationally. In addition to the translations, the words and phrases are written in an easy to follow phonetic form. Professionally recorded CDs accompany each book so that families can hear and practice the new language before they welcome their child home.
Learn the Amharic Alphabet! by Nigat Tadesse The book has pictures giving you the ability to color and to tear and share pages. You will also have the ability to practice writing Amharic alphabet plus word exercises. Amharic pronunciations are included in the book in English. The educational workbook includes all the essential skills such as reading, writing and fine motor skills.
Our first Amharic words by Stacy Bellward Our First Amharic Words has 75 Amharic words transliterated for easy pronunciation. Each word label includes the transliteration, English and Amharic language script called "Fidel".
Ge’ez Activity Book by Adda Tewolde Ge’ez Fidel is used as the writing system for key languages in Eritrea and Ethiopia including Amharic. This book is intended to be an activity book for anyone learning how to read and write fidel.
Abgd Ethiopian Alphabet : Amharic-English for Beginners by Gebregeorgis Yohannes and Robert Gutierrez A book of pictures with the name of the object in both English and Amharic. Includes phonetic pronunciation of Amharic words. Useful for beginners in the language.
MY-Amharic CD by MY-Media Engineering & Trading Plc. MyAmharic is designed to make learning fun for children. In addition to children, adults may found this software helpful as a starting point to learn the Amharic language
CRE - Amharic from English by Dr. Bob Boland Practice of basic Amharic with creative learning exercise and a 30 minute audio, in about a day. (FREE Text Download)
Ethiopic, an African Writing System: Its History and Principles
by Ayele Bekerie
This is a book about the history and principles of Ethiopic (Ge’ez), an African writing system designed as a meaningful and graphic representation of a wide array of knowledge, including languages. In this study, Ayele Bekerie argues that Ethiopic is a component of the African knowledge systems and one of the major contributions made by Africans to world history and cultures.
Concise Amharic Dictionary by Wolf Leslau Students of Amharic as well as visitors to Ethiopia and foreign workers will benefit from this concise dictionary with phonetic transcriptions that allow for its use by those unfamiliar with Amharic script.
Advanced Amharic Lexicon: A Supplement to Concise Amharic-English Dictionaries by Girma Getahun
An Amharic to English supplement for current dictionaries, providing the advanced student of Amharic with entries for rare, archaic and idiomatic expressions.
Afrikan Alphabets: The Story of Writing in Africa by Saki Mafundikwa Afrikan alphabets have a rich cultural and artistic history and many continue to be in current use today. African Alphabets presents a wealth of highly graphical and attractive illustrations. Writing systems across the Afrikan continent and the Diaspora are included, analyzed and illustrated: the scripts of the West Africans - Mende, Vai, Nsibidi, Bamum and the Somali, and Ethiopian scripts. Other alphabets, syllabaries, paintings, pictographs, ideographs, and symbols are compared and contrasted.
Language and National Identity in Africa by Andrew Simpson Simpson gathered an inspiring and diverse set of chapters on language and national identity in selected African countries. These impressive sixteen chapters, written by leading scholars, vary in style and coverage. However, they are unified by a sociolinguistic and ethnographic focus on politics and identity in pre- and post-colonial Africa. The papers are of exceptional quality and their depth of descriptions represents a copious body of knowledge that exemplifies the extent to which communities are (dis)interested in the elevation of indigenous languages of a national offical language.
A Linguistic Geography of Africa by Bernd Heine and Derek Nurse More than forty years ago it was demonstrated that the African continent can be divided into four distinct language families. Research on African languages has accordingly been preoccupied with reconstructing and understanding similarities across these families. This has meant that an interest in other kinds of linguistic relationship, such as whether structural similarities and dissimilarities among African languages are the result of contact between these languages, has never been the subject of major research. This book shows that such similarities across African languages are more common than is widely believed. It provides a broad perspective on Africa as a linguistic area, as well as an analysis of specific linguistic regions.
BOOKS: ADOPTION
The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child by Nancy Verrier Verrier, an adoptive mother, teacher, and therapist, believed love could conquer all when she and her husband adopted a three-day-old infant girl. Her parenting experience led to ten years of research to understand the complex dynamics of the adopted person. While our society and many potential adoptive parents view adoption as a panacea for unwanted children, Verrier helps us see the deep wounding and pain that festers and grows inside the adopted person. This pain—or primal wound—is physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual. This is a painful book to read. Yet, it is only by walking through the pain of grief and loss that we are able to heal ourselves.
The Handbook of International Adoption Medicine: A Guide for Physicians, Parents, and Providers by Laurie C. Miller M.D.
Since 1989, American families have adopted more than 230,000 children from other countries. Many of these children have lived in crowded conditions, sometimes with poor standards of hygiene, inadequate nutrition, and limited numbers of caregivers. Some suffer from endemic infectious diseases. Upon arrival, practitioners often fail to recognize the unique concerns of this group.
This text provides an overview of the specialized medical and developmental issues that affect internationally adopted children, offering guidelines to the physicians caring for these children and their families before, during, and after adoption. The reader will learn how to advise families prior to an international adoption, how to perform an effective initial screening assessment of the newly arrived child, and how to recognize and manage developmental and other more long-term problems as they emerge.
Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Child: From Your First Hours Together Through the Teen Years by Patty Cogen In this book, child and family therapist Patty Cogen, guides parents in promoting an internationally adopted child’s social and emotional adjustment, explaining how to help a child adopted between the ages of six months and five years bond with his or her new parents, become a part of the family, and develop a positive self-image that incorporates both American identity and ethnic origins. Other topics include how (and why) to tell the child’s story from the child’s point of view; how to handle sleep problems and resistance to household rules; and how to encourage eye contact, ease transitions and separations, and deal with problematic anniversaries (birthdays, adoption day, Mother’s Day).
Parenting the Hurt Child : Helping Adoptive Families Heal and Grow by Gregory Keck and Regina M. Kupecky The authors explore how parents can help adopted or foster children who have suffered neglect or abuse. They begin by outlining changes in adoption and fostering procedures in recent years and use case studies to document the friction and disruption introduced into a household when a hurt, adopted child is brought into the family. The authors examine attachment disorders and control issues as well as parenting techniques that work (praise, consistency, flexibility, anger management) and those that don’t work (punishment, withholding parental love, grounding, time-outs, deprivation). They highlight the symptoms of abuse and options for therapy.
Weaving a family: untangling race and adoption by Barbara Katz Rothman Weaving together the sociological, the historical, and the personal, Barbara Katz Rothman looks at the contemporary American family through the lens of race, race through the lens of adoption, and all—race, family, and adoption—within the context of the changing meanings of motherhood.
Love in the driest season: a family memoir by Neely Tucker When veteran reporter Neely Tucker, a white man from Mississippi, came to Zimbabwe, his goal was to report on the country’s political meltdown. But when a doctor at an orphanage forced him and his black wife to take home an infant abandoned at birth in order to save its life, their lives swiftly focused around adopting that infant.
Faces of Layla - A journey through Ethiopian adoption Faces of Layla, a book of stunning photographs of children at Layla House orphanage in Ethiopia by Emma Dodge Hanson, foreword by Melissa Fay Greene and text by Jennifer Armstrong. Emma Dodge Hanson captures the lives of the children at Layla House.
I’m chocolate, you’re vanilla: raising healthy black and biracial children in a race conscious world by Marguerite Wright Young black and biracial children are unable to understand racial prejudice. In fact, developmentally they are incapable of understanding the concept of race.A child’s concept of race is quite different from that of an adult. Young children perceive skin color as magical even changeable and unlike adults, are incapable of understanding the mature concepts surrounding race and racism.
This essential guide for parents and teachers of Black children, offers clear, well-grounded advice of the things children need to know about race to build self-esteem.
Black Baby, White Hands: A View fron the Crib by Jaiya John July 15, 1968, a black baby becomes perhaps the first in the history of New Mexico to be adopted by a white family. Here is a brazenly honest autobiographical journey through the mind and heart of that child, a true story for the ages. BLACK BABY, WHITE HANDS, is a poetic, lyrical waterfall of jazz splashing over the rocks of pain, love and the honoring of family. Magically, this book finds a way to sing as it cries, and to exude compassion even as it dispels well-entrenched myths.
Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption by Jane Jeong Trenka In 30 personal essays, research-based studies, poems and accompanying artwork, transracial adoptees "challenge the privileging of rational, ‘expert’ knowledge that excludes so many adoptee voices." Conceived by the editors as "corrective action," the collection offers an eye-opening perspective on both the "the power differences between white people and people of color, the rich and the poor, the more or less empowered in adoption circles" and the sense of loss and limbo that individual adoptees may feel while "living in the borderlands of racial, national, and cultural identities."
In Their Own Voices: Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories by Rita J. Simon This book is the story of every person who has lived in an environment in which he or she didn’t quite fit… Yet, while the stories in the book are universal, they are also deeply personal and incredibly touching. You cannot read this book without being changed."
Two Little Girls: A Memoir of Adoption by Theresa Reid For parents hoping to adopt, self-reflection is the key phrase. Future parents of an adopted child need to be completely honest about their ability to parent and, although it may sound strange, about the type of child, including sex, age, and health factors. This book explores with an unflinching honesty one couple’s soul-searching and sometimes painful journeys as they adopted, first, a Russian girl from Ekaterinburg and then a Ukrainian girl from a town near Odessa. Reid details her and her husband’s desires, fears, doubts, anger, and frustrations–and, finally, their joys. Although the first adoption went comparatively smoothly, the second was filled with stumbling blocks, in both the U.S and Ukraine. Still, through luck and perseverance, they triumphed. This book is an excellent primer for those in the early stages of the adoption process, especially foreign adoption, and a wonderful story of a family’s growth.
BOOKS: HAIR
Plaited Glory: For Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Braids, Locks, and Twists by Lonnice Brittenum Bonner From the uptown micro braid to the simple cornrow, braids, locks and twists have come into their own. Plaited Glory gives the lowdown on everything from choosing a braiding salon to differentiating between styles and their costs. More than a "hair-do" book, this is a hari primer with a cultural twist. Photos.
Kinki Kreations: A Parent’s Guide to Natural Black Hair Care for Kids by Jena Renee Williams
Kinki Kreations offers step-by-step, easy-to-follow instructions for styles that can be created in less than fifteen minutes. This innovative handbook reveals expert techniques for crowning little heads with afros, braids, cornrows, twists, and a variety of other all-natural styles. Tips for proper shampooing, caring for newborns’ hair, and finding the right salon are included too.
It’s All Good Hair: The Guide to Styling and Grooming Black Children’s Hair by Michele N-K Collison Finally, there’s a lifeline for those who are desperately seeking help in styling their Black children’s hair. Learn the tricks and techniques for today’s most popular hairstyles with the easy-to-follow steps found in It’s All Good Hair. It features hair-care and styling tips from a variety of experts, and you’ll learn all the secrets to braiding, relaxing, and locking, as well as discover many other creative styling ideas.
Kids Talk Hair: An Instruction Book for Grown-Ups & Kids by Pamela Ferrel Kids Talk Hair is a full color instruction book that explains how to care for newborns to teenagers natural hair. It’s fun, easy-to-read and written for both grown-ups and kids. The righthand pages are for grown-ups and most of the lefthand pages are for kids.
Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America by Ayana Bird and Lori Tharps In this entertaining and concise survey, Byrd and Tharps revel in the social, cultural and economic significance of African-American hair from 1400 to the present.
Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women by Noliwe M. Rooks Rooks takes an interesting look at the social and political implications that hair has held for African American women. The six chapters discuss hair and its connection to black pride, race, advertising, gender, and women’s magazines. She has used advertisements from different periods to trace representations of hair, which she then analyzes to show the political implications for women. Rooks demonstrates that Western definitions of beauty are often not endorsed by African American women.
400 Years Without a Comb: The Untold Story by Willie L. Morrow 400 Years Without a Comb studies the effect the denial of sufficient hair care tools had on African slaves in America. Willie Morrow has written more than 5 books and created more than 20 videos on barbering, styling, and the history of Black hair. This book locates the origin of the good hair/bad hair argument in the days of and following slavery.
Tenderheaded: A Comb-Bending Collection of Hair Stories by Pamela Johnson Ranging from the shaving of newborns to the coiffing of the dead, from the anecdotal to the scholarly, and from antebellum America to contemporary Africa, this remarkable array of writings and images illuminates black women’s hair and its cultural meaning. Embracing all types of hair whether it’s relaxed, worn in an Afro, has extensions woven in, is twisted into dreads or shaven off altogether the authors urge readers to respond to their own particular hair without judgment and to view it as an essential part of their personal space.
BOOKS: RACE
Nappy: Growing Up Black and Female in America by Aliona L. GibsonAs an eloquent rendering of the experiences of black women coming of age in America, Gibson’s memoirs strike to the heart of a generation in transition and resonate with its wit and its troubles. Using her personal experiences, Gibson examines how American standards of beauty affect women of color and their struggles for self-acceptance.
Don’t play in the sun: One’s woman journey through the color complex by Marita Golden Golden paints an intimate self-portrait of her life as a dark-complexioned black woman and invites readers to take a behind-the-scenes look at the twisted and emotionally charged path of color-based discrimination that began when she was warned not to play in the sun. She succinctly details how the "light is right, black get back" mentality has permeated the African diaspora, its invasion of black institutions and how it sits just below the radar in Hollywood, athletics, news coverage and music videos. She includes stories from dozens of friends, acquaintances and experts, which as a whole suggest that blacks the world over may have been traumatized as much by colorism as they have by racism and colonialism.
The color of water, a black’s man tribute to his white mother by James McBride The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man, making her isolation even more profound. The book is a success story, a testament to one woman’s true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered.
Interracial intimacies - Sex, Marriage, Identity and Adoption by Randall Kennedy
A Harvard law professor, Kennedy offers a brilliant analysis of one the most controversial areas of American race relations–interracial sex. Kennedy weaves together history, law, literature, politics, and social policy in a searing examination of how blacks and whites have intermixed since Africans were brought to the U.S. as slaves.
Tripping on the color line - Black-white multiracial families in a racially divided world by Heather M. Dalmage Tripping on the Color Line: Black-White Multiracial Families In a Racially Divided World, by Heather Dalmage, discusses the "lived experiences" of multiracial families and family members in America. Having interviewed both members of multiracial households and children of such unions, Dalmage has successfully shed light on an element of a society centered on and rooted in the construct of race, but known only to those involved in such relationships, marriages, and families.
African Roots/ American Cultures by Sheila S. Walker This multidisciplinary volume highlights the African presence throughout the Americas, and African and African Diaspora contributions to the material and cultural life of all of the Americas, and of all Americans. It includes articles from leading scholars and from cultural leaders from both well-known and little-known African Diaspora communities. Privileging African Diaspora voices, it offers new perspectives, data, and interpretations that challenge prevailing understandings of the Americas.
Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000 by George Reid Andrews While the rise and abolition of slavery and ongoing race relations are central themes of the history of the United States, the African Diaspora actually had a far greater impact on Latin and Central America. More than ten times as many Africans came to Spanish and Portuguese America as the United States. George Reid Andrews synthesizes the history of people of African descent in every Latin American country from Mexico and the Caribbean to Argentina. He examines how African peoples and their descendants made their way from slavery to freedom and how they helped shape and responded to political, economic, and cultural changes in their societies.
The Black Girl Next Door: A Memoir by Jennifer Baszile Baszile grew up in an affluent Southern California suburb, a postsegregation child in a not quite integrated world and "the only black girl in my class, my grade, and my school besides my sister." In this craftily structured memoir, Baszile carries the reader at a leisurely, but in no way slack, pace through her girlhood and adolescence, maintaining both her young vulnerability and her sophisticated adult perspective. In trips to her parents’ childhood homes–big city Detroit for her mother, deep country Louisiana for her father–she sees their (and her own) African-American pasts.
The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter Who are white people and where did they come from? Elementary questions with elusive, contradictory, and complicated answers set historian Painter’s inquiry into motion. From notions of whiteness in Greek literature to the changing nature of white identity in direct response to Malcolm X and his black power successors, Painter’s wide-ranging response is a who’s who of racial thinkers and a synoptic guide to their work.
BOOKS: SCIENCE
The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey by Spencer Wells
In this book, British geneticist Wells sets out to answer long-standing anthropological questions of where humans came from, how we migrated and when we arrived in such places as Europe and North America. To trace the migration of human beings from our earliest homes in Africa to the farthest reaches of the globe, Wells calls on recent DNA research for support.
The Official Field Guide to the Cradle of Humankind: Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai and Environs World Heritage Site by Brett Hilton-Barber and Lee Berger Who were the original people that occupied South Africa, and how far back do we go to find out? Beneath the dolomitic outcrops and the grasslands of an area in the north east of South Africa known as the "cradle of humankind", lies an extensive series of underground caverns that have preserved clues of our most ancient past. Research in the area has shaped much of our thinking about the development of Homo sapiens, and fossil finds have proved beyond doubt that humanity originated in Africa.
In the Footsteps of Eve: The Mystery of Human Origins by Lee Berger and Brett Hilton Barber Where did we come from? Though it’s been fairly well settled that our species was born in Africa, the debate still rages over our hometown. In the Footsteps of Eve: The Mystery of Human Origins is a beautifully written argument in favor of the southern end of the continent rather than the eastern locations more popular among paleoanthropologists. Author Lee R. Berger’s discovery and analysis of 117,000-year-old fossilized footprints of modern humans in South Africa, as well as a wealth of other fossils and artifacts, point to a speciation event in the unique ecosystem found along the Cape.BOOKS: ART & CRAFTS
Ethiopian Art: The Walters Art Museum by Gary Vikan
The volume contains fine reproductions from the largest collection of Ethiopian art outside that country, held by the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore. A text on the life and religious practices in Ethiopia and another on the country’s art history provide an introduction to the people, culture, and art of Christian Ethiopia.
Churches of Ethiopia by Mario Di Salvo Narga Sellase’s monastery was founded in 1748 and sits on a tiny islet in the middle of Lake Tana. The church is one of the masterpieces in the multi-millennial Ethiopian civilization, an ancient Christian enclave in Africa.
Art of Ethiopia by C. Griffith Mann The hand crosses, icons and illuminated manuscripts of Ethiopian Christianity are the subject of this slim, lavishly illustrated volume, a treasure of devotional art. This carefully curated book is divided into three sections, focusing on the ornate cast iron and bronze crosses first used in church processionals during the Middle Ages; the illuminated texts that were popular from the 14th to the 16th century and then again in the late 17th and 18th; and the painted icons that had begun playing a crucial role in worship by the 15th century.
Crosses of Ethiopia by Mario Di Salvo There is no country in the world that matches Ethiopia in the number of forms and types of its crosses. Ever since Ethiopia’s conversion to Christianity, the cross has appeared almost universally, not only as a liturgical instrument in churches and monasteries, but also in common devotion and in daily life. This volume examines a multiplicity of crosses, highlighting a plurality of types as well as the relationship between one cross and another with the aim of discerning a common origin.
Ethiopian Art by Sam Fogg The fifteenth century saw a magnificent flowering of painting in the highlands of central and northern Ethiopia – in paintings on panel and above all in manuscripts. This book features an unparalleled collection of Ethiopian Christian artifacts, mostly fifteenth-century manuscripts, icons and metalwork but also some work from the two succeeding centuries.
Art that heals: the Image as Medicine in Ethiopia by Jacques Mercier Art That Heals examines the connection between Ethiopian scroll art and other African art, inviting the reader to consider more general rather than mere inter-ethnic relationships. If African healing art is of so much interest today it is due to its discovery or rediscovery in a world where alternative medicines are being sought and our relationship to art is being questioned - Are we only passive admirers of aestheticized objects, or might we be deeply touched and changed by the objects we create.
Ethiopian Passages: Contemporary Art from the Diaspora by Elizabeth Harney Ethiopian Passages tells of the importance of the arts in the African diaspora and explores the important histories of migration and the myriad negotiations of artistic groups among African artists in the diaspora. This book brings together the works of ten artists of Ethiopian descent living in a Diaspora that stretches from Ethiopia to California, New York, Washington DC, and France. It presents these dramatic works of art against a backdrop of Ethiopia’s fascinating and often troubled history and demonstrates how the artists’ techniques and choice of material have been influenced by their experiences of displacement and by their search for a sense of identify.
Seven Stories About Modern Art in Africa by Catherine Lampert African art is often pigeonholed under the heading of tribal art. The exoticism of jungle adventure movies and anthropological photography have blinded us to the modern artists in Africa who are painting and sculpting with contemporary techniques addressing universal themes just like artists on other continents. This collection of essays accompanies a traveling exhibition of African art that opened in London. Trying to present a coherent view of the whole continent is not its aim. Instead, we are treated to a disparate group of artists and thinkers pondering various facets of the problem of integrating their African heritage with the essentially Euro-American international art world.
Ethiopia: Traditions of Creativity Edited by Raymond A. Silverman Unlike most African art studies, this one focuses primarily on individual, named artists, wood sculptors, basket makers, metalworkers, potters, church muralists, and modern painters. Wide-ranging if not all-inclusive, the text reveals much about the scope of Ethiopia’s artistry.
African Textiles: Color and Creativity Across a Continent by John Gillow This is an authoritative survey of textile arts—unique and collectible rugs, tapestries, garments, and more—from all parts of Africa. Five sections detail the textile history and traditions of west, north, east, central, and southern Africa, examining materials, dyes, decorations, patterns, and techniques.
BOOKS: TRAVEL AND TRAVEL GUIDES
Ethiopia Map by ITBM
Road and travel map, in color. Distinguishes roads ranging from paved highways to unpaved seasonal roads. Legend includes national parks/reserves, sand dunes, railroads, tracks, trails, international/national airports, aerodromes, gas stations, police, bus stations, hospitals/medical facilities, customs posts, border crossings, no border crossings, points of interest, vistas/views, historic/archaeological ruins, lodging, rest houses/hostels/bungalows, campsites/huts, oasis, caves. Includes inset map of Addis Ababa.
Lonely Planet Ethiopia & Eritrea by Matt Phillips The only comprehensive guide to Ethiopia and Eritrea. It includes access chapter on crossing between Ethiopia and Eritrea, features the popular Historic route plus walking tours to Gondar, Lalibela, Harar and Massawa.
Rumbo a Etiopia by Denberu Mekonnen Siyoum (ONLY IN SPANISH) Ethiopia is a country of contrasts; deserts to the east, large and fertile plateau in the center, many lakes, some of them with small islands with mysterious monasteries. In the south: huge national parks and cultures that kept intact their rites and life styles. To this and more add the amiability of the people and enjoy the excellent coffee of Kaffa.
Ethiopia, 4th: The Bradt Travel Guide by Phillip Briggs This Bradt guide has become the definitive source of information on this country rich in culture, history, and dramatic scenery. For first-time visitors, Philip Briggs supplies plenty of practical advice on how to bridge the cultural gap and plan a trouble-free trip.
Ethiopia, the unknown land by Munro-Hay Munro-Hay is a leading Western authority on Ethiopian history and culture. In his latest book, he fills an existing void by providing a much-needed comprehensive guide to the history, culture, and art of that ancient and mythical African nation. Regions, historic sites, monuments, and various religious and cultural treasures are introduced with background histories that clarify their place and reinforce their significance in Ethiopian history and life. Such information, a wealthy resource for any historian, may also be used by travelers to the region. The balance between popular and academic is masterfully achieved through a personable style that does not sacrifice the required rigors of historical research even as it remains entertaining throughout.
Vertical Ethiopia, Climbing Toward Possibility in the Horn of Africa by Majka Burhardt In March of 2007, four women traveled to northern Ethiopia to climb virgin sandstone towers in the Horn of Africa. They explored rock monoliths in a region that is best known for the drought and famine of the 1980 s and was the site of one of the bloodiest massacres of the Derg. Vertical Ethiopia is the narrative of their journey. Told through a series of vignettes that reveal what it means to climb, to travel, and to explore, Vertical Ethiopia looks closely at the intersections between adventure and culture, history and opportunity, and sky and sandstone.
The Linen Goddess: Travels from the Red Sea to Prizren by Sheila Paine The third volume of Sheila Paine’s odyssey takes her through war-torn Eritrea and Somalia, past the ancient rock churches of Ethiopia and the tiny pyramids of Sudan, through Egypt, and across the Mediterranean to Greece, ending in the bandit land of Albania.
Life Through a Different Lens: Reflections and Lessons from the Horn of Africa by Ward Brehm This book chronicles a journey of an American Businessman to East Africa. It is a passionate story of a bond developed with people who posses few material things—but radiate a stunning spiritual richness in their faith relationship to God. It is a powerful story of self discovery, personal awareness, and perspective changes as the author encounters people with vastly different resources and priorities. It is an exciting story told through the journal, photographs, and poetry of Ward Brehm.
BOOKS: PHOTOGRAPHY
Vanishing Africa by Gianni Giansanti
This book celebrates the eternal beauty and mystery of Africa by showcasing its remotest regions and most obscure inhabitants. Here are fascinating peoples that have remained isolated for centuries, retaining their ancient cultures and customs intact to the present day.By means of his camera and his pen, in this book the authors have encapsulated long years of study of the peoples and ethnic groups of this continent, in search of vanishing Africa. Also available in Spanish under the title: "Lejana Africa" .
Ethiopia: Peoples of the Omo Valley by Hans Silvester The first volume of this deluxe two-volume set presents the everyday lives of the Omo people, their rituals, parades, children’s games, and even their battles. In the second volume, each photograph becomes a masterpiece of abstract art, revealing close-ups of the tribes’ traditional body paintings. Silvester’s accompanying text traces his journey to the Horn of Africa, revealing the fascinating beauty of a world now in danger of extinction.
Faces of Africa by Carol Beckwith Rather than view African cultures as an indistinguishable whole, seasoned photographers Beckwith and Fisher carefully focus on the varied life journeys and rituals of the peoples they have encountered over three decades of travel in 36 countries. From Ethiopia to Senegal to Namibia, they crisscross the continent to capture traditional rites of passage.
Tribes of the Great Rift Valley by Elizabeth L. Gilbert Tribes of the Great Rift Valley is a celebration of the traditional peoples who occupy the lands of the Great Rift Valley, from the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Eritrea, across the Ethiopian highlands, and down to the great lakes and plains of Kenya, Tanzania, and Malawi. Here are the proud, majestic warriors of the Maasai and Samburu, the Mursi with their jutting lip-plates, the guinea-fowl-painted faces of the Karo, among many other tribes.
African Ark: People and Ancient Cultures of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa by Carol Beckwith, Angela Fisher and Graham Hancock Two talented photographers focus on the Horn of Africa–an "ark" that shelters an astonishing variety of landscapes and human societies. Starting with the Christian Amharas of Lalibela and Axum and the Falashas of Lake Tana, they complete an arc that takes them to the seacoast of Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia, as far south as Lamu in Kenya, and finally to the remote peoples of the Southeast who still engage in stick fighting, body painting, scarification and the wearing of lip plates.
African Trees: A Photographic Exploration by Charles Bryant and Brita Lomba The book takes the reader on a journey to a range of habitats – from the savannah of the Serengeti and the bushveld of Mpumalanga to riverine forests, woodlands and other fragile ecosystems in the game reserves and national parks of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Kenya. Seventeen pristine destinations are covered in all.
Ethiopia Photographed: Historic Photographs of the Country and its People taken between 1867 and 1935 by Richard Pankhurst and Denis Gerard Ethiopia Photographed is a unique photographic record of this mysterious and fascinating land up to the Italian Fascist invasion in 1936. The people, terrain, buildings, and rulers of Ethiopia — such as Emperor Menelik, Lej Iyasu, and Emperor Haile Selassie — make it a highly photogenic country, as this lavishly illustrated book reveals. The book begins with an introduction which gives a brief history of the country in this period, and describes the role of photography. The rich captured images in the book bear witness to many personalities and places not previously seen and, in many cases, now lost for all time but for the photographic memories recorded here, grouped around the following themes: Historic Personalities; Historic Towns; Addis Ababa; Economic, Social, and Cultural Life; Innovation and Modernization; and Preparing to Resist the Impending Invasion.
Bless Ethiopia by Richard Pankhurst andKazuyoshi Nomachi From the beauty of Labilela’s rock churches to the traditional ceremonies of the people of the Omo Valley, this book reveals the hidden face of this striking, mysterious land. Photographer Kazuyoshi Nomachi captures the unique mosaic of Ethiopia as it was meant to be experienced, from the traditions of an ancient people to the daily chores of survival.
BOOKS: FOOD & COOKING
Foods of Ethiopia by Barbara Sheen
This book introduces Ethiopia and its culture by way of its foods, cooking traditions, customs, eating habits and food sources. Specifically prepared for upper-elementary and lower-middle school students.
Exotic Ethiopian Cooking : Sociey, Culture, Hospitality, and Traditions by Daniel J. Mesfin In Exotic Ethiopian Cooking, Mr Mesfin brings to your table the secrets of fine Ethiopian cooking, from appetizers like Anebabero (Ethiopian pizza) and Qwalima (Spiced Sausage)to traditional chicken and beef dishes such as Yedoro Infille (Chicken Dipped in Hot Sauce) and Salayish (Shredded Beef Stew). Mr Mesfin has included 178 recipes covering a wide range of meats, chicken, fish, breads, vegetables, and alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages.
The Recipe of Love: An Ethiopian Cookbook by Aster Ketsela Belayneh This 186 page Ethiopian cookbook has numerous recipes with colorful full page images of the dishes and clear instructions.
Aster Ketsela Belayneh has owned and run an Ethiopian restaurant in downtown Toronto for over 16 years and the restaurant has won several awards during this time.
The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa by Marcus Samuelsson Born Ethiopian, raised Swedish, and now one of New York City’s top chefs, Samuelsson (Aquavit: And the New Scandinavian Cuisine) has written an exotic yet accessible book that will hasten the coming of the African fusion cookery he envisions. His 204 recipes and 258 color photos are enriched with personal and political history; as in his many condiments and sauces, the balance is right. While he stresses the diversity and bounty of the second-largest continent, he repeatedly describes African cuisine as poor people’s cooking, crafted with simple tools and necessarily emphasizing starches, vegetables and big flavors.
BOOKS: HISTORY AND CULTURE
A History of Ethiopia by Harold G.Marcus
This book attempts to cover the entire history of Ethiopia from prehistoric times to the fall of the Mengistu government in 1991. Marcus views Ethiopian history as a series of cyclical expansions from its component parts to empire and back again; he argues that the idea of the greater Ethiopian nation will always cause the state to reunify despite its current disintegration.
Wax and Gold: Tradition and Innovation in Ethiopian Culture by Donald N. Levine Levine’s pioneering work, Wax and Gold, has become an Ethiopian classic. The very concept of Wax and Gold has taken a life of its own: it figures at once in our understanding of Ethiopia’s pre-modern culture and in our coming to grips with Ethiopia’s reception of modernity.
Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant by Graham Hancock English journalist Hancock retells the circumstances and thoughts that led to his discovery that the Lost Ark of the Covenant really exists. This book is a lesson on the history of the ancient Israelites and of the Biblical Ark, a history of Ethiopia, a history of the mysterious Knights Templar, and a story of Gothic architecture and mediaeval literature.
The History of Ethiopian Immigrants and Refugees in America, 1900-2000 by Solomon Addis Getahun Ethiopians form the third largest post-1960 African immigrant in the U.S. Over the years, their migratory patterns have changed in response to changes in Ethiopian and American diplomatic relationships. The Ethiopian immigrants also vary among themselves depending on whether they were granted asylum, are refugees, or benefit from the Diversity Visa lottery winners. Getahun studies the context of the immigrants arrival, their patterns of settlement, and their adjustment in the U.S.
The Ethiopians: A History by Richard Pankhurst The book opens with a review of Ethiopian prehistory, showing how the Ethiopian section of the African Rift Valley has come to be seen as the "cradle of humanity".
Emperor by Ryszard Kapuscinski Haile Selassie, His Most Puissant Majesty and Distinguished Highness the Emperor of Ethiopia, enjoyed a 44-year reign until his own army gave him the boot in 1974. In the days following the coup, the Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski traveled to Ethiopia and sought out members of the imperial court for interviews.
The Barefoot Emperor: An Ethiopian Tragedy by Philip Marsden In 1863, a young Irish adventurer named Laurence Kerans found his way to the court of Tewodros II, the ruler of Abyssinia, better known in Victorian Britain as “mad king Theodore”. Kerans carried with him a gift: a carpet depicting a European hunter vanquishing a lion. He hoped this offering would win over the Christian emperor. But Tewodros perceived it as an affront: to his eyes the carpet showed himself, the lion, being conquered. He had the Irishman clapped in chains and cast into prison.Philip Marsden’s compelling account of these extraordinary events is a lovingly researched book drawn from both Abyssinian and British sources. As such, The Barefoot Emperor is a balanced, full-bodied account. But Marsden, an expert on Ethiopia, is also a gifted storyteller and his narrative has pace and, above all, suspense.
Golden Legends: Images of Abyssinia, Samuel Johnson to Bob Marley by W. B. Carnochan From the eighteenth century to the present, travellers, explorers, journalists, imaginative writers like Samuel Johnson, and legendary reggae musician Bob Marley have shared a fascination with Abyssinia. So did even earlier writers and mapmakers, who thought Abyssinia was the land of the mythical (and fabulously rich) Christian ruler, Prester John.
The principal subject of this book is the allure of the exotic, as represented by Abyssinia, to the British imagination. In addition to Johnson and Marley, some others included are the eighteenth-century Scot James Bruce, nineteenth-century explorer Richard Burton, author Evelyn Waugh, Wilfred Thesiger (best known of twentieth-century British explorers), Sylvia Pankhurst (crusading journalist and daughter of the suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst), and the contemporary Irish traveller Dervla Murphy. The author also considers the beginnings of anthropology and the variations of quest narrative in modern travel writing.
Barefoot Runner: The Life of Marathon Champion Abebe Bikila by Paul Rambali Abebe Bikila, a soldier in the imperial guard of Ethiopia’s Haile Selassie, wasn’t just the first African athlete to win a gold medal in Olympic competition. He won the marathon in the 1960 games while running barefoot, then defied odds to win again in Tokyo four years later. Between the two victories, however, he nearly faced execution after being used as a pawn by leaders of an unsuccessful coup against Selassie. His life has all the makings of a compelling story—and despite being billed as a biography, Rambali’s account takes a highly novelistic approach, imagining the inner thoughts of Bikila (1932–1973) and other figures in every scene.
Bikila: Ethiopia’s Barefoot Olympian by Tim Judah On September 10, 1960, Abebe Bikila, an Ethiopian, stunned the world when he won the Rome Olympic marathon running barefoot. He was the first black African to win a gold medal at the Olympics and overnight became a sporting hero, an African hero, and, for many, the first black African they had ever heard of. Bikila was a man of his times—a symbol of hope in the new Africa. Now, for the first time, his true story is told. Central to that tale is the extraordinary life of another man—the Swede Onni Niskanen, Bikila’s trainer, a soldier and an adventurer. Together they took the sporting world by storm.Although feted as a hero on his return to Addis Ababa, the celebrations didn’t last and Bikila was almost killed during Emperor Haile Selassie’s coup shortly after his return. His life spiralled into booze, girls, and cars until finally he was paralyzed in a car crash. The great athlete, however, forged through, and Bikila won a medal in the first Paraplegic Olympics for archery.
BOOKS: NATURE
Field Guide to common trees and shrubs of East Africa by Najma Dharaniz
Designed to help the plant enthusiast identify prominent species that can be observed in gardens and parks, and in the countryside, this is a field guide to the more common trees and shrubs, indigenous, naturalized and exotic, of the East African region.
A guide to endemic birds of Eritrea and Ethiopia by Jose Luis Vivero Pol For the first time, the thirty endemic birds of Ethiopia and Eritrea are brought together in one volume for easy reference. An illustration of each bird and a distribution map accompany a brief description of each species. Information on habitat, distribution, behaviour, breeding, threats and IUCN category is also included to assist the keen observer.
BOOKS: CHILDREN
Silly Mammo: An Ethiopian Tale by Gebregeorgis Yohannes and Bogale Belachew (English/Amharic)
This popular Ethiopian folktale, told here in English with Amharic translation, resembles the story of Silly Jack and all those other stories of the foolish boy who gets everything wrong. When Mammo’s loving mother sends him to work, he loses his wages, so she scolds him and tells him to put them in his pocket next time. The next day he finds work with a cattle herder, who pays him with milk, and remembering his mother’s words, Mammo pours the milk in his pocket. The farce escalates until Mammo’s wild mess-up makes a beautiful young woman laugh, which cures her of her inability to speak and prompts her grateful, wealthy father to allow Mammo to marry his daughter.
The Perfect Orange: A Tale from Ethiopia by Frank P. Araujo and Xiao-Jun Li Discovering a perfect orange in her Ethiopian mountain village, Tshai travels to the city to tender her prize to the King. When the girl passes the house of the Lord Hyena, the jeering animal scorns her silly gift. But the ruler himself is so moved that he tries to reward Tshai with riches. When she refuses, Nigus orders his Royal Chamberlain to follow her and give her a donkey whose saddle bags are filled with gold and jewels.
The Garbage King by Elizabeth Laird Dani is a rich, fat kid, failing at school, who runs away from his bullying dad. Orphan Mamo, kidnapped and sold as a slave to a cruel farmer, escapes and returns to the city. The runaways meet in the city cemetery, where they hide out until they join a gang of homeless kids. Under the direction of their stern leader, the gang members care for one another and share everything, including what they scavenge from the garbage and beg from passers-by. A friendship story of fear and hope that will draw in readers.
Fire on the Mountain by Jane Kurtz and E.B. Lewis\ This is a well-known Ethiopian folktale about a clever shepherd boy and his sister. In exchange for a bag of money and four cows, Alemayu accepts a challenge from his sister’s boastful, rich employer to spend the night alone on a mountain with minimal clothing and without a fire. He survives the bitterly cold night by concentrating on a shepherd’s fire across the way on another mountain. The haughty man refuses to pay him, stating that looking at someone else’s fire is the same as building one’s own-until the siblings devise a plan that allows the man to see the foolishness of his reasoning.
Pulling the Lion’s Tail by Jane Kurtz and Floyd Cooper
A retelling of the Ethiopian folktale "The Lion’s Whiskers." In the traditional story, a new stepmother learns to be patient in drawing her stepson into accepting her. Kurtz’s version has a female child as the central character, emphasizing her persistent attempts to reach out to her father’s new wife after her mother’s death. The details of mourning and her daily life make the forlorn Almaz seem real, and the respectful warmth of her relationship with her wise grandfather is sensitively portrayed.
When the world began: Stories collected in Ethiopia by Elizabeth Laird Twenty tales, myths, and extended jokes paint a picture of a vibrant culture, open to the world around it. The title story tells how people stole the gift of dominance from God’s favorite creature, the buffalo, and is followed by selections that explain such things as how the tortoise got her shell, how one might best depose a tyrant, and how arrogance and pride are answered. Some stories are reminiscent of Aesop and some of Perrault. The fluid recountings read aloud or tell equally well. Folktale enthusiasts who prefer to read their stories will find the tales extended by the work of four artists.
The Story of Coffee by Sultan Mohamed The beans that a young Abyssinian shepherd boy brings home are too bitter to eat, but his mother discovers that after being roasted, they make a wonderful drink.
Shades Of Black by Sandra L. Pinkney and Myles Pinkney Ages 3-7. Indeed, there are many shades of black, and they are beautifully exemplified in this photo album that depicts the varied palette that makes up black skin. These gorgeous children are "gingery brown like a cookie," "brassy yellow like popcorn," and "midnight blue like a licorice stick." And yes, "black" can be creamy white like vanilla ice cream. But the author and illustrator don’t stop there. They also look at eyes and hair, showing the beauty and uniqueness of eyes with hints of tiger-eye yellow and sturdy, coiling, woollike hair. All of it is black. All of it is beautiful. This may be just the kind of book that black children don’t see enough of, but it can certainly be appreciated by children of any color.
I Love My Hair! by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley A young African-American girl describes the familiar mother-daughter nightly ritual of combing the tangles out of her hair. When she cries because it hurts, her sympathetic mother tells her how lucky she is to have such beautiful hair. Imaginatively, the woman goes on to say that she can spin it into a fine, soft bun or "plant rows of braids" along her scalp, prompting her daughter to think of other wonderful things she likes about her hair.
Nappy Hair by Carolivia Herron At a family picnic, everyone pokes fun at the youngest girl’s nappy hair. Devised as a call-and-response dialogue, the interchanges offer explanations and comments on why Brenda’s hair is the nappiest, the curliest, the twistiest hair in the family. The answers involve African origins, God’s intent, and pride in one’s self.
Happy to Be Nappy by Bell Hooks Renowned feminist and social critic bell hooks takes on… hair! "Hair for hands to touch and play! Hair to take the gloom away." This rhythmic read-aloud is, on the surface, all about hair: nappy, plaited, long, short, natural, twisted, "soft like cotton, flower petal billowy soft, full of frizz and fuzz." Comb through the surface and find a celebration of childhood and girls and the freedom to express individuality. The rituals implied in the book are rooted in the traditions of hooks’s own childhood, when "doing" hair was just as much an excuse for girls to laugh and tell stories and just be together. Going still deeper is the much-needed message encouraging girls to love and accept themselves (and others) just the way they are.
I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont This curly haired African-American moppet really likes herself. No matter what she does, wherever she goes, or what others think of her, she likes herself because, as she says, "I’m ME!" Catrow’s watercolor, ink, and pencil illustrations bring even more humor to the funny verse. The brightly colored art and rhymes are reminiscent of Dr. Seuss’s work with their quirky absurdity, especially the full spread of the child and her highly unusual bicycle.
The Colors of Us by Karen Katz Lena’s mother is an artist, so she knows whereof she speaks when she insists that there are many different shades of brown. The two take a walk through their neighborhood by way of illustration, and the friends and relatives they meet along the way aptly reinforce Mom’s contention. Their skin colors are compared to honey, peanut butter, pizza crust, ginger, peaches, chocolate, and more, conjuring up delicious and beautiful comparisons for every tint. Katz’s pencil-and-gouache pictures joyously convey the range of human pigmentation. Positive and useful.
Red in the Flower Bed: An Illustrated Children’s Story about Interracial Adoption by Andrea Nepa
The journey of adoption is beautifully depicted with the comforting imagery of a poppy flower who is welcomed into a garden family. It is a charming story of seeds being planted in the perfect place - exactly where they belong. Children and adults will enjoy this simple yet meaningful story and homespun illustrations. The book’s loving approach helps children to understand adoption. Andrea Nepa has captured the essence of adoption and family, and has illustrated it beautifully with images and poetry that even a small child can comprehend and enjoy.
Children Just like me by Anabel Kindersley and Barnabas Kindersley A delightful, attractive look at children from around the world. The authors spent two years meeting and photographing youngsters from every continent and more than 140 countries. The volume is divided by continent, which is introduced with photos of children, their names, and nationalities. Then a double-page spread features pictures of each child’s food, eating utensils, housing, school, friends, and family. The text gives the young people a chance to comment on their favorite games, friends, and hopes for the future. The final section includes excerpts from the Kindersleys’ travel diary. This book is factual, respectful, and insightful. It provides just the right balance of information and visual interest for the intended audience
No Mirrors in My Nana’s House: Musical CD and Book by Ysaye M. Barnwell & Ysaye M. Barnwell The song itself, the heart of the book, was composed by Barnwell and sung by world-renowned a capella quintet "Sweet Honey in the Rock" for years. This soul-warming tribute in upbeat, five-part harmonies (deeply rooted in the spirituals, hymns, and gospel of the black church) enhances the book-reading experience a hundredfold. Nana’s house had no mirrors to reflect her granddaughter’s clothes that didn’t fit, or "the things that she missed." When the girl viewed the world through her Nana’s eyes she saw love and beauty, not poverty or racism. Saint James’s artwork is colorful and stylized–the characters have no faces, but their movements–arms outstretched, exalted; a loving embrace between the grandmother and granddaughter–communicate plenty of emotion.
Something Beautiful by Shannon Dennis Wyeth This moving picture book offers a shining testament to the ability of human beings to find "something beautiful" in even the most unlikely places. An African American girl initially sees only the ugliness of her neighborhood. Searching for something beautiful, "something that when you have it, your heart is happy", she polls various neighbors. For an old man it is the touch of a smooth stone; for Miss Delphine, it’s the taste of the fried fish sandwich in her diner; for Aunt Carolyn, it’s the sound of her baby’s laugh. When the girl decides to create her own "something beautiful," she picks up the trash, scrubs her door clean and realizes, "I feel powerful."
BOOKS: OTHER
Our Day to End Poverty by Shannon Daley-Harris and Jeffrey Keenan
Our Day to End Poverty is organized into 24 "hour/chapter" segments. Each chapter/hour of the day proposes a variety of fun and practical actions one can take to help overcome domestic and global poverty. The chapters are short and pithy — full of specific facts and a menu of alternative action steps.
The Devil’s Cup: A history of the world according to coffee by Stewart Lee AllenStewart Lee Allen decides to travel the world in search of the history of coffee. He does a great job in adding adventure to the story of coffee.
Coffee: A Dark History by Antony WildThe history of coffee is indeed as "dark," as his subtitle puts it. A coffee lover and an expert on the subject , Wild is nonetheless no sentimentalist when it comes to the human and natural toll the bean has extracted — "poverty, violence, exploitation, environmental devastation, political oppression, and corruption" — nor to the threats that caffeine poses to the health of those who consume it.
The Bilingual Family: A Handbook for Parents by Edith Harding-Esch and Philip Riley First published in 1986, The Bilingual Family has provided thousands of parents with the information and advice they need to make informed decisions about what language policy to adopt with their children. This second edition contains updated references and new entries to the alphabetical reference guide. In Spanish under the title La Familia Bilingüe.
Parents’ and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker Colin Baker’s handbook is a great help for bilingual parents. Baker includes the most recent research results in a format which allows busy parents to read according to their current perception of their individual set of language parenting problems. In Spanish under the title Guia Para Padres Y Maestros De Niños Bilingües.
28: Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolen Here Stephanie Nolen offers 28 searing portraits of Africans affected by the deadly virus. Scattered across the continent from the slums of Lagos, Nigeria, to the bush in southern Zambia, these Africans present a mosaic of a continent in crisis and a collective cry for help. With a seasoned journalist’s finesse, Nolen effortlessly weaves technical information—health statistics, disease data, NGO reports—into these deeply intimate glimpses of people often overlooked in the flood of contemporary media. Nolen’s book packs a real emotional wallop. Also available in Spanish as "28 Historias de SIDA en Africa"
A crime so monstrous: Face-to-Face to modern-day slavery by E. Benjamin Skinner Today there are more slaves than at any time in history, according to journalist Skinner’s report on current and former slaves and slave dealers. Skinner focuses most sharply on Haiti, Sudan, Romania and India. Skinner reiterates that sexual trafficking is only one component of slavery, but devotes the bulk of this book to this issue.
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel Photographer Peter Menzel and author-journalist Faith D’Alusio, make a comparative photo-chronicle of their visits to 30 families in 24 countries for 600 meals in all. Their personal-is-political portraits feature pictures of each family with a week’s worth of food purchases; weekly food-intake lists with costs noted; typical family recipes. We soon learn that diet is determined by largely uncontrollable forces like poverty, conflict and globalization, which can bring change with startling speed. Thus cultures can move–sometimes in a single jump–from traditional diets to the vexed plenty of global-food production. People have more to eat and, too often, eat more of nutritionally questionable food. Their health suffers.
BOOKS: FICTION
The Texture of Dreams by Fasil Yitbarek The Texture of Dreams, a lush debut novel from an Ethiopian writer, Fasil Yitbarek, takes us on a fascinating journey with Yosef, a newly arrived immigrant, as he struggles to make sense of two sharply contrasting cultures. Set in New York City, the story revolves around the main character’s odyssey inside a world quite different from the one he grew up in. It is a captivating account of Yosef’s triumph and defeat, his hopes and despair, and his quest to find his place away from home while carving a career as an English teacher.
The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu In this novel, The Beautiful Things Heaven Bears, Dinaw Mengestu tells a compelling story of immigration, loss, and gentrification set in an impoverished neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Sepha Stefanos immigrated from Ethiopia seventeen years ago, a journey that saw him fleeing Addis Ababa at age sixteen, the day after his father was taken from the family home and summarily killed.
How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu Jonas Woldemariam, is foundering in his marriage and his career as a high school English teacher, unable to throw off old habits of evasion and fabrication that were established during his traumatic childhood. Jonas’s parents, Mariam and Yosef, were estranged for many years before his father’s recent death. But three decades earlier, they were a promising young couple, setting out on a car trip from Peoria, Illinois, to Nashville, Tennessee, in search of their new identities as Americans and as husband and wife.Jonas, who was born just months after that fateful journey, leaves behind his wife and his job in New York City to retrace his parents’ route through the Midwest.
What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers As a boy, Deng is separated from his family when the civil war in Sudan wipes out his village. He flees on foot with a group of other young boys, taking him to Ethiopia, a refugee camp in Kenya and finally to the United States, encountering danger and hardship along the way. The story is told in parallel to subsequent trials in the United States. This book is also available in Spanish under the title "Que es el Que" .
The Abyssinian: A Novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin At the heart of Jean-Christophe Rufin’s marvelous first novel is a bit of truth: in the year 1699, Louis XIV of France sent an embassy to the King of Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia). From this small fact Rufin has spun a mesmerizing tale of adventure, romance, and political intrigue. Available also in Spanish under the title: El Abisinio.
Caucasia: A Novel by Danzy Senna A young girl learns some difficult lessons in Danzy Senna’s debut novel Caucasia. Growing up in a biracial family in 1970s Boston, Birdie has seen her family disintegrate due to the increasing racial tensions. Her father and older sister move to Brazil, where they hope to find true racial equality, while Birdie and her mother drift through the country, eventually adopting new identities and settling in a small New Hampshire town.
To Asmara by Thomas Keneally This impassioned new work by the Australian author of Schindler’s List straddles the boundary between fiction and reportage so adeptly that it almost deserves a category of its own . Several individuals journey through Ethiopia and Eritrea, encountering oppression, politics, the arid grandeur of the land and the constant struggle for survival.
The Train to Djibouti by Lara Kassa This book has a very good storyline that takes place in a part of the world that few have every experienced. But to readers that have been there Lara capture the beauty that is felt the second you arrive. The train to Djibouti is a very interesting read to say the least. The reader will not be disappoint, this is definitely a quick read the author gives you enough but still has you yearning for more.
Cutting for Stone: A novel by Abraham Verghese Sister Mary Joseph Praise, a devout young nun, leaves the south Indian state of Kerala in 1947 for a missionary post in Yemen. During the arduous sea voyage, she saves the life of an English doctor bound for Ethiopia, Thomas Stone, who becomes a key player in her destiny when they meet up again at Missing Hospital in Addis Ababa. Seven years later, Sister Praise dies birthing twin boys: Shiva and Marion, the latter narrating his own and his brothers long, dramatic, biblical story set against the backdrop of political turmoil in Ethiopia, the life of the hospital compound in which they grow up and the love story of their adopted parents, both doctors at Missing.
Horn of Africa: A Novel by Philip Caputo Horn of Africa is a psychological/military thrill that takes place in a fictional province of Ethiopia, Bejaya, that closely resembles Eritrea. The story is told by Charlie Gage. Gage is a burnt out journalist hanging around Cairo. He’s recruited by the CIA to go along on a clandestine mission to Bejaya to assist local rebels against the Ethiopians.
Le Cantique des Cantiques de Casantchis (in French) by Tedbabe Tilahoun The hero of this autobiographical narrative is the "beautiful Casantchis" de Addis Ababa, a neighborhood of fun in the Ethiopian capital, with its nightclubs and hotels. The author tells us, without hiding anything, the nightlife of girls and their customers. This book is a challenge to the hypocrisy, and a virulent condemnation, distanced by humor, cynicism and cowardice of prostitutes. Fornicators, drunkards, tenants, pimps, and beggars are crudely protraited in this colorful fresco.
MOVIES
MOVIES: FICTION - ETHIOPIA
Endurance Directed by Bud Greenspan
This film about Ethiopian distance runner Haile Gebrsellasie, who won gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and is considered one of the greatest runners of all time, is a dramatization that often appears to be a documentary. Beautifully photographed, the footage shot in Haile’s native land is often spectacular enough to make you think you’re watching a National Geographic special. (Only in VHS)
Live and Become Directed by Radu Mihaleanu The film centers on the plight of Ethiopian Jews, called Falashas, forced to flee to Sudanese refugee camps for relief from persecution and famine. In 1984, "Operation Moses" begins the airlift of Falashas to Israel. A Christian woman in a refugee camp wants a better life for her nine-year-old son. She orders him to pretend to be Jewish so he can be airlifted out. After a poignant silent glance with the boy’s mother, a Falasha woman whose son has recently died takes the boy’s hand as she boards the plane to Israel.
Journey to Lasta, Directed by Wondwossen D. Dikran Inspired by a true story, the Lasta journey begins when three childhood friends from Ethiopia reunite at various
stages in their mundane lives as struggling musicians. Together, they embark upon a musical mission to bring modern Ethiopian music to the world. Hardships, triumphs, and rude awakenings ultimately test their faith, friendship, and honor to overcome the struggles to make their music a success.
13 Months of Sunshine, Directed by Yehdego Abeselom 13 Months of Sunshine is the story of an Ethiopian man who marries a woman so she can get a green card and become a citizen of the United States. In exchange, her family pays him $20,000, enough to open up his own dream business–an authentic Ethiopian coffee house. During the year-long naturalization process, they must learn to live with each other, finding that the marriage of convenience becomes complicated through love, jealousy, and the clash of cultural values each must face in following their dreams.
The Athlete (Atletu) Directed by Davey Frenkel And Rasselas Lakew Running the streets of Rome in 1960, an unknown barefoot Ethiopian man stunned the world by winning Olympic gold in the marathon. Overnight, Abebe Bikila became a sports legend. A hero in his own country and to the continent, Bikila was the first African to win a gold medal and, four years later, in Tokyo, the first person in history to win consecutives Olympic gold medals in the marathon. This soldier and quiet son of a shepherd is considered by many the greatest long-distance runner in history. Atletu premiered at the 2009 Edinburg Fim Festival to completely sold-out audiences, and was chosen “Best of Fest”.
Teza Directed by Haile Gerima Teza is set in Germany and Ethiopia, and examines the displacement of African intellectuals, both at home and abroad, through the story of a young, idealistic Ethiopian doctor – Anberber. The film chronicles Anberber’s internal struggle to stay true, both to himself and to his homeland, but above all, Teza explores the possession of memory – a right humanity mandates that each of us have – the right to our own pasts.
After studying medicine abroad in Germany for several years, Anberber returns home to Ethiopia only to find his beloved Ethiopia, and soon the quiet of his dreams, stifled and disarrayed by the country’s political turmoil.
Caravan 841 Directed by Zion Rubin Moshe, an 11 year-old Ethipian boy, lives in dwindling “Atidim” caravan site in the Wester Galilee and is awaiting the arrival of his mother from Ethiopia. She will not arrive and he is torn between Aharon, a 60-year-old repentant Jew who teaches him Torah, and Walter – an impulsive African American saxsophone player who has a jazz club at the edge of the site. Aharon gives Moshe a magic box and promises him that it will bring his mother to Israel. Walter gives Moshe the strength to believe only in himself.
Adera Directed by Nega Tariku Adera is a heart wrenching story about an Ethiopian refugee’s struggle to survive in the city of Johannesburg. Life in South Africa is dangerous and earning money is difficult. She quickly discovers that Johannesburg is not the promised city of gold. Marlam struggles to provide for her two children back home and through a series of twisted circumstances ends up as a surrogate mother for a wealthy Ethiopian couple, Tiru and Fre. Their fate is tied to that of Biru’s, the shady middle man who is only interested in money. As this unique African story unfolds, the true cost of dreams is revealed and each life is changed forever. Adera is a story of love, hope, deception and the human will to survive. Adera raises questions about old traditions and how they affect the lives of modern Ethiopians. One of the critical issues Adera confronts is adoption in Ethiopia. The culture in Ethiopia, as in most of Africa, is not to adopt children. With so many orphans left behind and the numbers always growing, it is high time to take fresh look at these conventions.
Zrubavel Directed by Shmuel Beru ZRUBAVEL is Israel’s first all Ethiopian feature film. Gite Zrubavel and his wife immigrated to Israel with their three children, Hana, Almaz and Gili. Hana’s husband has become religious without her support. Almaz marries a distant relative against her parents’ wishes. Gili vacillates between a life of crime and a dream of becoming an Israeli hero. Gite’s grandson, Itzhak, known as “Spike Lee” aspires to a film directing career. The story unfolds through his video camera lens as he films everything in his neighborhood, from the mundane to the criminal. A chain of events undermines Gite’s control over his family. The struggle is between Gite’s cherished Ethiopian customs and the younger generation’s desire to assimilate within Israeli culture. ZRUBAVEL is Shmuel Beru’s screenwriting and directorial debut. In 1984, at the age of eight, Beru walked across the Sudanese desert to immigrate to Israel as part of the United Jewish Appeal sponsored Operation Moses.
MOVIES: FICTION – AFRICA
Sankofa Directed by Haile Gerima In "Sankofa," a contemporary African-American woman travels back in time and experiences slavery. Haile Gerima’s poetic and precisely detailed film takes its audience into its heroine’s life and mind as her moral sense is challenged and changed. No viewer can avoid the discomforting questions the film so eloquently raises. Mr. Gerima is an Ethiopian-born film maker who has lived in the United States for decades and teaches at Howard University. His film is ambitious in its depiction of slavery and accomplished in its visual command, from the bright red scarves of the rebellious slaves to a fire they set in the fields.
Dreams of Dust Directed by Laurent Salgues Mocktar, a Nigerien peasant, comes looking for work in Essakane, a dusty gold mine in Northeast Burkina Faso, Africa, where he hopes to forget the past that haunts him. In Essakane, he quickly finds out, the gold rush ended twenty years before, and the inhabitants of this wasteland and strange timelessness manage to exist simply from force of habit. The beautiful Coumba, however, is still courageously struggling to raise her daughter after the death of her family. Mocktar will soon be fighting not only to survive, but also to provide a better future for this mother and her child.
Yesterday, Directed by Darrell Roodt After falling ill, Yesterday (Khumalo) learns that she is HIV positive. With her husband in denial and young daughter to tend to, Yesterday’s one goal is to live long enough to see her child go to school.
Tsotsi, Directed by Gavin Hood In Johannesburg, the small time criminal Tsotsi is a teenager without feelings, hardened by his tough life. One night, Tsotsi hijacks a car and under the despair of a woman, he shots her in the stomach. While driving the car, Tsotsi finds that there is a baby on the back seat and the woman was a desperate mother.
The Wooden Camera Directed by Ntshavheni Wa Luruli Two thirteen year old boys play along the railway line in Kayelitsha, a township close to Capetown. A dead man is tossed from a passing train, clutching an attach case. Inside, the boys discover a gun and a video camera. Sipho takes the gun, Madiba takes the camera. Madiba hides the camera within a makeshift wooden box to avoid losing his new toy. Through the lens, his everyday surroundings take on a strange new beauty.
Beat the Drum Directed by David Hickson A young orphaned boy sets out for the big city to find his uncle after a mysterious illness strikes his village. Driven by his determination to survive and his growing social awareness he finds a way to make an honest living and returns to his village with a truth and understanding his elders have failed to grasp. An emotional and timely drama reminding us how one small voice can be the brave start of colossal change uniting a village a township and even a nation.
Masai: The Rain Warriors Directed by Pascal Plisson This arrestingly beautiful adventure shot on the savannahs of Kenya depicts a community’s quest to bring rain to their land and ensure their survival. A band of very young Masai warriors sets out to kill a mystical lion to end a drought that is plaguing their village. Barely teenagers, the warriors are untested and unskilled, and they are unsure whether the lion actually exists. And, if it does exist, will bringing back its mane cure the drought.
It is the first film to be solely populated by real-life Masai and spoken entirely in their native tongue.
Feuerherz – Heart of Fire Directed by Luigi Falorni Feuerherz/Heart of Fire tells the story of a childhood spent in the Eritrean army. The movie is loosely based in the best-selling book by singer Senait Mehari. In 1981, Eritrea is still wracked by civil war. Ten-year-old Awet is in an orphanage run by Italian and Eritrean nuns who teach the headstrong girl about the strength that comes from dignified pride. When Awet’s father Haile unexpectedly calls her home to later hand her and her older sister Freweyni over to the Eritrean Liberation Front, known as the Jebha.
MOVIES: FICTION – AFRICA AS SEEN BY NON-AFRICANS
Nowhere in Africa Directed by Caroline Link Nowhere in Africa begins with a Jewish woman named Jettel Redlich fleeing Nazi Germany with her daughter Regina, to join her husband, Walter, on a farm in Kenya. At first, Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances, while Regina adapts readily to this new world, forming a strong bond with her father’s cook, an African named Owuor. But this is only the beginning of a series of uprootings, and as the surface of their lives is torn away, Walter and Jettel find they have little in common, and must–under tumultuous circumstances–build their marriage anew.
Out of Africa Directed by Sydney Pollack
This movie is about the life of Danish writer Karen Blixen better known as Isak Dinesen, who travels to Kenya to be with her German husband but falls for an English adventurer. The film is slow in developing the relationship, but it is rich in beautiful images of Africa and in the romantic tone surrounding Blixen’s gradual discovery of her life and voice.
I Dreamed of Africa Directed by Hugh Hudson Based on the memoirs of Kuki Gallman, I Dreamed of Africa . After a car accident warns Kuki of her mortality, she resolves to marry a man she barely knows and moving with him and her young son to the wilds of South Africa.
MOVIES: FICTION – ADOPTION
Casa de los Babys Directed by John Sayles John Sayles brings observant compassion and calm insight to Casa de los Babys. Dispensing with traditional storytelling to focus instead on the turbulent emotions surrounding the adoption of babies by American women in an unnamed South American country, Sayles takes an unobtrusive approach to their dilemmas, listening like an understanding friend to these hopeful women, who are either bound or separated by their disparate personalities. Sayles also covers both sides of the adoption equation by including a Latina mother, certain that her baby will enjoy a better life with adoptive American parents, but still struggling with the anguish of her sacrifice. Casa de los Babys is a sensitive film about a sensitive subject, allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions.
The King of Masks Directed by Tian-Ming Wu On the streets of Szechuan Province in the 1930s, the aged King of Masks, sole living master of "change-face" opera, delights and frightens audiences with the secret art of lightning-quick mask-shifting. His fondest wish is to pass on his skill to a male heir before he dies. Famous female impersonator Liang Sao Lang craves knowledge of the king’s secret technique, offering to relieve the old man’s poverty by taking him into his opera troupe. The king declines: what sort of heir would this half-female creature make? Instead, he buys an orphan on the black market, joyously showing him off as his grandson and heir.
Kolya Directed by Jan Sverák this charming Czech drama uses the backdrop of the Russian military occupation in Prague for its funny, sad, and ultimately delightful story of a 55-year-old man’s friendship with a 5-year-old boy. It doesn’t exactly start out as friendship: Louka is a cellist who lost his symphony job after writing a sarcastic remark on an official form, and although he’s struggling financially he still enjoys the company of several young women who find him irresistibly sexy. The last thing he needs is a surrogate child, but that’s what he gets when young Kolya is abandoned by his mother, a Russian woman Louka had agreed to marry so she could avoid being sent back to Russia.
Losing Isaiah Directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal
Jessica Lange is a social worker who falls for an abandoned newborn and breaks all the rules by bringing him home. Halle Berry is the homeless druggie who dumped the baby. We watch Berry painfully pull herself up out of the gutter and make a life for herself. After Lange and her amiable spouse have formed strong family ties with this difficult child, they find themselves fighting to keep him when Berry decides she wants Isaiah back.
The Italian Directed by Andrei Kravchuk The Italian, a film that aims to expose the overcrowded, impoverished conditions in Soviet state-run orphanages, is a chilling portrayal of contemporary Russian life. Director Andrei Kravchuk conveys, from inside orphanage walls, the sense of responsibility that employees feel to the children, and how desperate economic straits drive these same dedicated employees to sell their kids for a few Euros.
Beshkempir: The Adopted Son Directed by Aktan Abdykalykov Beshkempir is an exquisitely composed and photographed child-to-man tale of a Kyrgyz villager. Beshkempir is just like any other kid - playing in mud, getting into trouble, experiencing the first pangs of sexuality - until a fight with his best friend leads to the revelation that he was adopted. What sounds like a clichi takes on striking resonance here in a mostly pre-industrial society where the daily rituals are so earth-based that Beshkempir’s request for money to see a movie comes across as an anachronism. Shot in gorgeous black and white, the film explodes into occasional bursts of color.
Where Eskimos Live Directed by Tomasz Wiszniewski In a gripping tale of moral and spiritual redemption, a heartless crook picks up a street-wise orphan to sell in a black market adoption ring. Posing as a relief worker in war-torn Bosnia, the callous Sharkey (Bob Hoskins) befriends Vlado, a tough 9-year-old who mistakes the man for his meal-ticket out of the shattered region. As this unlikely pair struggles to escape a country where evil flourishes at every turn, a crook becomes a hero and a discarded child finds a future.
MOVIES: FICTION – RACE
Do the Right Thing Directed by Spike Lee
Spike Lee’s incendiary look at race relations in America, circa 1989, is so colorful and exuberant for its first three-quarters that you can almost forget the terrible confrontation that the movie inexorably builds toward. Do the Right Thing is a joyful, tumultuous masterpiece–maybe the best film ever made about race in America, revealing racial prejudices and stereotypes in all their guises and demonstrating how a deadly riot can erupt out of a series of small misunderstandings. Set on one block in Bedford-Stuyvesant on the hottest day of the summer, the movie shows the whole spectrum of life in this neighborhood and then leaves it up to us to decide if, in the end, anybody actually does the "right thing."
Skin Directed by A dark-skinned girl born to white South African parent attempts to explore her identity in the era of apartheid as her government, her parents, and society as a whole struggle with what it means to the black child of Caucasian descent in a nation deeply divided by race. The year is 1955. Sandra Laing has just been born two a pair of white Afrikaner parents, her brown skin and curly hair the surprising result of genetic throwback. As the government’s rigid apartheid system struggles with whether to classify Sanrda as white or black, the young girl and her parents gradually realize that the complications they face due to her appearance run deep and wide.
MOVIES: DOCUMENTARY - ETHIOPIA
Awra Amba. Utopia in Ethiopia Directed by Paulina Tervo
They harness education, equal rights for women and men and a strong work ethic. They believe there is a way out of poverty, hunger and inequality, simply by working hard, reversing traditional values and getting rid of lengthy religious practices.
‘They’ are Awra Amba, a remarkable, home-grown rural community in the Amhara Region in Northern Ethiopia. Theirs is a story of belief in a better, more equal world where humans don’t have to suffer, but live in peace and harmony.
The film follows Zibad, a young woman who has just arrived in the village, seeking refuge with her five children after a violent marriage. We follow her trying to become a member and adjusting to a new way of life. Her mother Zeinab, the village’s teahouse-keeper is at the heart of all social events – through her story we discover the every day challenges the community faces through interaction with outsiders who come in for tea and a chat.
Finally the founder and leader, Zumra Nuru takes us on a journey to the past where he recounts how he as a young man left his home and family to try and change women’s lives for the better in Ethiopia. His revolutionary vision was often met with hostility – and until this day, when he is 63 years old, he still needs round-the-clock protection by an armed guard due to decades of hatred and death threats.
Mothersland Directed by Victoria Trofimenko and Yosef Haimanot
A documentary film about a young filmmaker that goes back to his home country Ethiopia after 21 years exile. He backtracks his journey step by step showing the places that he lived during the early years of his life-long journey.
He was born in 1975 and lived through the civil war and the famine in 1984, which he witnessed first hand as a child. In 1988 at the age of 13 he and his brother climbed the anchor and stowed away on a Greek ship, which was bound for the UK.
Living with hunger (Surviving Hunger) Directed by Charlotte MetcalfIn an unprecedented mission, Sorious Samura moves into a remote village in Ethiopia. Between August and September 2003 Sorious lived in a hut and survived on the same meager diet as the rest of the villagers. As well as this remarkable film, the DVD includes specially commissioned interviews with Sorious Samura, the film’s director, Charlotte Metcalf and the film’s editor, Richard Guard.
The Birth Of Little Ethiopia by Bruke Films In November of 2002, Los Angeles celebrated the birth of Little Ethiopia. Thousands of Angelinos of all culture came for the celebration, including city councilman Nate Holden. Little Ethiopia represents the new faces of America. American where immigrants can retain their culture and adapt to an American way of life in their desire of justice, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This documentary covers the birth and inauguration of this historical milestone.
Black Gold Directed by Marc Francis and Nick Francis After oil, coffee is the most actively traded commodity in the world. Black Gold asks us to face the unjust conditions under which our favorite drink is produced and to decide what we can do about it. The film traces the tangled trail from the two billion cups of coffee consumed each day back to the coffee farmers who produce the beans.
Black Coffee Directed by Irene Angelico Black Coffee is a three part documentary examining the complicated history of coffee and detailing its political, social and economic influence from the past to the present day.
Don’t Forget your Passport - Ethiopia, Africa Host Marie Cruz roams the canyons and plateaus of the Semien Mountain ranges along the warring-border zone of Eritrea. There, far from civilization, she discovers elaborate frescoes painted on the walls of a 12th century cave dwelling. She also stumbles across the brutal killing of livestock during a ritual ceremony to the Muslim God "Allah" the city of Gondar the Camelot of Africa.
A Walk to Beautiful Directed by Mary Olive Smith The award winning feature-length documentary A Walk to Beautiful tells the stories of five Ethiopian women who suffer from devastating childbirth injuries and embark on a journey to reclaim their lost dignity. Rejected by their husbands and ostracized by their communities, these women are left to spend the rest of their lives in loneliness and shame. They make the choice to take the long and arduous journey to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in search of a cure and a new life.
Falasha: exile of the black jews Directed by Simcha Jacobovici The tragic plight of Ethiopian Jews (Falashas) takes center stage in this well-researched and moving documentary but very outdated, many things happened since it was filmed in 1984.The Falashas ("exiles") have lived for over 2,000 years in this region and are vastly outnumbered in a state that is half Muslim, with Christians making up the next largest religious group. But the discrimination arises from politics: Jews were massacred after the 1974 Marxist military coup — not by the Marxists, but by their opposition, because they feared the Falashas would support the government. They are also prosecuted by the Marxists who fear Judaism stops them from supporting the government.
Mystery of the Nile Join a team of explorers on the expedition of a lifetime as they set off to become the first to navigate the Blue Nile from source to sea. The epic 3,260 mile descent down the world’s greatest and deadliest river has eluded humankind for centuries - until now! Over the arduous, four month journey, the team faces nearly in-surmountable challenges - from crocodile attacks to armed bandits and arrests. Through breathtaking cinematography, Mystery of the Nile reveals a wondrous region and abundant treasures, from Tissisat Falls and the wonders of Egypt to the forgotten black pyramids of Meroe and 12th century churches that were carved into sheer rock.
Ethiopia: Africa’s Lost Kingdom A tour through Ethiopia from the northern highlands of Abysinnia to the southern isolated cultures along the Omo River. Discover where the Lost Ark really is! See the castles of Gondar, the ancient walled city of Harrar, the Semien Mountains (the highest in Africa), the glorious Christmas celebration at Lalibela, and the Timkat celebration in Addis Ababa, plus the ancient castle of the Queen of Sheba…but most of all meet an unbelievably ancient culture (the oldest Christian church on earth), and meet the Ethiopians…the kindest, most dignified, and beautiful people you will ever meet.
Geldof in Africa Geldof in Africa, is a profound, provocative, beautifully made six-part series that aired in 2005 on Britain’s BBC. Sir Bob, who narrates both on and offscreen, visited many parts of what he calls "the Luminous Continent", including Somaliland, a sort of non-country whose very existence isn’t acknowledged by any other nation; Ghana, from which slaves were once shipped to America and elsewhere; the Congo, the true heart of darkness, which still bears the ugly scars of Belgian colonization; the Sahara desert, Uganda, where a brutal "rebel leader" abducts children and turns them into sex slaves and soldiers; and Ethiopia, where it all started for Geldof.
Michael Wood: In Search of Myths and Heroes Directed by: Jeremy Jeffs Michael Wood takes an epic journey, following in the path of the Queen of Sheba, searching for Shangri-La in Tibet, untangling the tales of King Arthur’s Celtic Britain and tracing the trek of Jason who sought the Golden Fleece.
Home Across Lands Directed by John Lavall HOME ACROSS LANDS is a documentary that explores the journey of resettlement– it tells the story of a small group of Kunama refugees and how they reestablish their sense of community in their new home in America. Considered to be some of the original inhabitants of Eritrea, the Kunama people are a marginalized minority populating the remote and fertile regions near the border of Ethiopia. In 1998, war between Eritrea and Ethiopia broke out in a conflict over these border lands forcing over 4,000 Kunama to flee across the border into Northern Ethiopia. In 2000, the war ended with the Eritrean government regaining control of the disputed area, separating thousands of Kunama from their homeland and way of life. Today the Kunama wait in desolation, 45 km from the disputed Eritrean/Ethiopian border, warehoused in the Shimelba Refugee Camp in Northern Ethiopia. Life in the camp is difficult and opportunities for a better life are nonexistent, but the Kunama remain committed to their strong sense of community and family in spite of their displacement. Unwanted in Ethiopia and unable to return to their homes safely, a small number of Kunama are given the opportunity for resettlement in the United States.
Like a man on Earth (Come un uomo sulla terra) Directed by Dagmawi Yimer Giving voice to the Ethiopian refugees living in Rome, the film provides a direct insight into the brutal ways in which Libya, aided also by Italian and European funds, is operating to control the immigration movements of people from Africa. “Come un uomo sulla terra” is a journey of pain and dignity, through which Dagmawi Yimer voices his memories of unthinkable human suffering to denounce what appears to be a tragic political and humanitarian situation . In this respect both Italy and Europe share responsibilities for this situation and should be made accountable for it.
Guzo – The journey Directed by Aida Ashenafi
The film chronicles the interaction between two young residents of Addis Ababa and their peers in the Ethiopian countryside. Over the course of 20-days both the urbanites and country folks are forced to confront stereotypes about each other and grapple with issues of gender and privilege.
All of Us Directed by Emily Abt In the South Bronx, a young doctor embarks on a research project to find out why black women are being infected with the HIV virus at an alarming rate. Dr. Mehret Mandefro takes us into the lives and relationships of two of her female patients, Chevelle and Tara, as they identify and struggle with the social factors that put them at risk. Mehret expands her research to include women across boundaries of race, class and country. She also begins to grapple with these extremely personal themes as they appear in her own life. A visit to Ethiopia, her birthplace, and candid conversations with her privileged girlfriends in New York, yield a startling realization: heterosexual women across the continents face a dangerous power imbalance in the bedroom. When she lets her hair down, steps out of her doctor’s role, and confesses her own weaknesses, even this Harvard trained physician sounds just like one of us. ALL OF US is about AIDS but it is not a tragedy. It is a story of resilience, sisterhood and courage.
The Name my Mother Gave Me Directed by: Eli Tal-El The Name My Mother Gave Me" is a film about growth and self discovery. We follow Ethiopian and Russian Israelis who meet at a leadership training program in Israel. Their year of learning culminates in a journey to Ethiopia where the Ethiopian born participants return to their native villages and confront their roots. Though, back home in Israel, all the participants would consider themselves members of the fringes of Israeli society, in the highlands of the Ethiopian landscape they discover the universality of their experiences and their shared commitment to their new home in Israel. How will this journey transform them?
I had a Dream Directed by: Tezeta Germay As a young boy, born into a closed and isolated community in Ethiopia, far from the centers of the Jewish world, Yona Bugale was brought to Europe, where he discovered his common heritage with the Jewish people. Yona Bugale himself did not live to see the realization of his dream and life’s work, yet he worked ceaselessly as a teacher and community leader, promoting connections with the State of Israel and with Jewish organizations, in order to prevent the possible destruction of Ethiopian Jewry.
Based on rare archival material, the film’s aim is to expose and preserve not only an extraordinary life story, but also, to give expression to the complexity of the Ethiopian aliyah and of their absorption in Israel.
These Are My Names Directed by Ruth Mason Ethiopian Jews’ multiple names reflect the richness, wisdom and beauty of their culture — and every name tells a story. In the film, young Ethiopian Israelis share their journeys toward their names: stories of love and connection, survival and loss, anger and pride. The characters’ original names – changed without their consent upon arrival in Israel – take them back to their childhoods in mountain villages, to the hunger and fear in Sudan, to longing for loved ones who died or disappeared on the journey to Israel, to denial of their identity…and reclamation of their roots.
Black Over White Directed by Tomer Heymann Tomer Heymann followed Israeli pop/world-beat band The Idan Raichel Project on their 2006 concert tour to Ethiopia and emerged with a documentary that rollicks and rocks. The film, part lighthearted road trip, part examination of multiculturalism in Israel, is a close-up ride with the young Israeli-Ethiopian-Yemenite band members, who muse on the loss of their heritage and on their excitement as tourists embracing roots in Africa. Black Over White deftly explores their cultural ambivalence and their experience of racism back home in Israel. One of the musicians is reunited with his grandmother in Addis, music is made with rural villagers and in urban clubs, and in one poignant sequence, future immigrants to Israel meet the musicians. The culminating concert—a fusion of Middle Eastern multiethnic grooves—is a success and emotional high point, but for the band members, the meaning of home remains elusive.
Bewoket. By the Will of God Directed by Andrea Mydlarz Zeller and Sam Shnider In the small village of Debre Markos, in the northern hill country of Ethiopia, Sintayehu Tedesse lives with his family. He has eight children, and he has lost five to various diseases or weak health. Bewoket, his third son, is very sick. At age nine Bewoket overheard his parents saying, "He is so sick, it would be better if he died." There was some truth to their words: this boy would never last as a farmer. A quick end to his suffering would be better. But Bewoket decided to find help on his own. He got up from the bed in the middle of the night, and ran away from his father’s village. He knew only “Addis Ababa” the distant far off capital he had never seen. Hobbling, barely able to walk, he crossed sixty miles of countryside on foot, gathered food by the wayside, sold it for a bus ticket, and finally made his way to the capital where he met Dr. Rick Hodes, an American doctor who has devoted his life to working in Africa. Rick made friends with him, and took him home for better medical care. Rick had a family of adopted orphans, and Bewoket fit right in. But for Bewoket to completely heal his heart, he must travel to America. Bewoket’s journey to America is an amazingly successful one: his heart is repaired and he is given a new chance at life. He also sees a new world: a world of toys and cars and shopping malls, and dazzling whirring wonders like the towers and conveyor belts of Coca Cola World. It is a world unlike any he has ever known, and it changes him.
Making the Crooked Straight Directed by Susan Cohn Rockefeller Born in Long Island, New York and educated at John Hopkins-Dr. Rick Hodes has dedicated his life to helping heal the sick and poor of Ethiopia over the past 20 years. Many of his patients are stricken with tuberculosis of the spine, a disease that creates massive humps on the backs of its victims. Eventually they’re forced into permanent forward-bending posture, which in turn prevents their lungs from working properly, and if left untreated leads to death. Driven by his devotion to Orthodox Judaism and its belief that “He who saves one life, saves an entire world’, Hodes provides these patients with hospital care - arranges for complex overseas surgeries - often paying for these out of his own pocket - and has, thus far, fostered seventeen children in order to provide them with not only proper medical care but a home and an education. “Making the Crooked Straight” explores this remarkable man’s work in Ethiopia, his highly original family life, and the spirituality that has guided his choices and sacrifices.
MOVIES: FREE DOCUMENTARIES ONLINE - ETHIOPIA
44 Pounds (available to watch online)
“44 Pounds” is a feature-length video (~1hr, 20min) that documents some of a women’s morning work in Ethiopia. The video opens with Birhane cleaning the courtyard of her home which includes repurposing livestock manure for cooking fuel. After that, and just as the sun is rising, she leaves to collect water at a hand-dug well. Her village is 1.7miles (~2.7k) from the open well featured in the video and the journey took approximately 30 minutes. Water collection at the water point took another 30 or so minutes as the women do this daily task together as a group. The return trip took closer to 35 minutes given the added weight of a loaded gerry can of water — which weighs 44 pounds.It should also be noted, her village does this water collection twice a day. The water they collect is used for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and livestock health.
Not yet Rain (available to watch online) Nearly 67,000 women — almost entirely poor women from developing countries — die every year from unsafe abortion, devastating the children, families and communities for whom they are caretakers. Millions more are injured. These women — daughters, sisters, wives and mothers — are the core of their families and communities. Young children whose mothers die are far more likely to die themselves than children with living parents.
But there is hope. Unsafe abortion is the most preventable cause of pregnancy-related deaths. Access to family planning is a crucial element in the prevention of unsafe abortion, along with access to safe abortion services and well-trained providers. In Ethiopia, only 14 percent of women of childbearing age use modern contraceptives (compared to 55 percent worldwide); many are unable to prevent pregnancies because they lack access to basic health-care services.
Seeds of Hope. Meeting the challenges of HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia by Concentric Media (available to watch online) (English or Amharic with English subtitles) This series presents images that are rarely seen and voices that are almost never heard. In each of these documentaries, we meet people who are being directly affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Ethiopia. We see how education, support, community efforts, and advocacy are transforming lives.
Project Earth: Ethiopia - Tribes Of Ethiopia (29 minutes)(available to watch online) For five years Dr. Hans Joechler and his crews have travelled the world and visited the most beautiful places with their cameras. Always on the lookout for interesting stories and great shots, they focused on nature, but also kept an eye out for cultural events as well as geological history.
A Thousand Suns (27 minutes) (available to watch online) A Thousand Suns tells the story of the Gamo Highlands of the African Rift Valley and the unique worldview held by the people of the region. This isolated area has remained remarkably intact both biologically and culturally. It is one of the most densely populated rural regions of Africa yet its people have been farming sustainably for 10,000 years. Shot in Ethiopia, New York and Kenya, the film explores the modern world’s untenable sense of separation from and superiority over nature and how the interconnected worldview of the Gamo people is fundamental in achieving long-term sustainability, both in the region and beyond.
The Beggars in Addis Ababa (44 minutes) (available to watch online) A short documentary about extreme poverty in Ethiopia, where drought and climate change make people struggle for survival The life is tough for the two women Belay and Zemu, who live in the small village Kajima in Northern Ethiopia.
Malaria – Killer number one (20 minutes) (available to watch online) Malaria claims three million lives every year worldwide, most of them in the countries south of the Sahara. In Ethiopia, malaria can wipe out the lives of hundreds of thousands of villagers in a single epidemic.
MOVIES: DOCUMENTARY – AFRICA
Angels in the Dust Directed by Louise Hogarth
The inspiring story of Marion Cloete who with her family fearlessly walked away from a life of privilege in Johannesburg to start an orphanage for more than 550 South African children. For a nation overwhelmed by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and recovering from Apartheid’s legacy Marion’s orphanage offers a pathway of hope.
Soldier Child Directed by Neil Abramson A documentary on the amalgamation of an army of brainwashed children in Northern Uganda by a religious fanatic named Joseph Kony. Since 1990 Kony amassed more than 12000 children and forced them to commit unspeakable crimes against their families and communities. This video illustrates the rehabilitative efforts put forth by the Ugandan people to compensate for these atrocities
The Devil Came On Horseback Directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki This documentary presents a first-person account of the genocide in Darfur. Former Marine Captain Brian Steidle joined the African Union in 2004 to help monitor the cease-fire in Sudan. When his contract ends, Steidle leaves in disillusionment. He wrote his reports and took his pictures, but nothing changed. Since reporters lacked the same degree of access, he goes to The New York Times, and they publish his photographs. The soldier-turned-activist proceeds to spread the word everywhere he can.
National Geographic - Africa Directed by Alan Root From National Geographic, AFRICA is a groundbreaking eight-hour series captured over two years of filming in 11 countries. This epic series presents Africa through the eyes of its people conveying the diversity and beauty of the land and the compelling personal stories of the people who shape its future. (Part 4: MOUNTAINS OF FAITH Discover Ethiopia’s rugged beauty and ancient traditions in a tale tracing the lives of two ambitious young men on the brink of manhood)
Long Way Down Directed by David Alexanian, Russ Malkin
Long Way Down stars Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman in an epic journey as they drive their motorcycles from Scotland to Capetown, South Africa.
Cosmic Africa
Cosmic Africa explores Africa’s astronomy
In a journey that stretched from Namibia to the coastline and steamy jungles of Ghana, across crocodile infested lakes and deserts of Northern Kenya, the cliff-side dwellings of the Dogon in Mali and on to the mysterious archaeological sites of the Egyptian Sahara, the recently launched film Cosmic Africa explores Africa’s ancient astronomy history.
Cosmic Africa , a co-production between Cosmos Studios, Ã…land Pictures and Anne Rogers is a unique 72 minute feature length documentary film that both explores and sheds new light on traditional African astronomy and in turn global understanding of the world’s oldest science. Cosmic Africa is directed and filmed by the multi-award winning duo, Craig and Damon Foster.
The Great Dance The Great Dance is a film about three San (Bushman) hunters and their extraordinary relationship with the land and the animals. This film shows Africa in a new light, and ancient light not seen before. It shows man and animal at their most extreme limits of endurance through the ‘chasing hunt’, a ritual never before revealed to the world outside the Kalahari.The Great Dance as a film has received over 30 major international awards. Now the filmmakers have created a DVD that reveals the many layers of information and debate that lie beyond the film. World renowned athletes, anthropologists and psychologists add exciting insights and explanations. Amongst many features, the DVD offers two short films about the making of ‘The Great Dance’ – the viewer can even play the ancient rock gong that was used to create the soundtrack.
MOVIES: DOCUMENTARY – ADOPTION
Adopted Directed by Barb Lee
Adopted reveals the grit rather than the glamor of transracial adoption. First-time director Barb Lee goes deep into the intimate lives of two well-meaning families and shows us the subtle challenges they face. One family is just beginning the process of adopting a baby from China and is filled with hope and possibility. The other family’s adopted Korean daughter is now 32 years old. Prompted by her adoptive mother’s terminal illness, she tries to create the bond they never had. The results are riveting, unpredictable and telling. While the two families are at opposite ends of the journey, their stories converge to show us that love isn’t always enough.
Living on the fault line: where race and family meet by Jeff Farber This film explores the intersection where family love meets racial injustice in the experience of transracial families created through adoption. An honest open-hearted look at race in America, it is an intimate portrait that reveals the challenges transracial families face as children of color grow up in communities where racial discrimination, stereotyping and white privilege are often unspoken and undeniable realities. It tells the untold story of transracial adoption, while revealing the complex and emotional story of institutional inequities and racial stereotyping intruding into the haven of family. Shot in a naturalistic style, the voices in this film are intimate and numerous. The film profiles nine transracial families. The circumstances of these families vary - from traditional family, to single parent, to alternative lifestyle - with the children ranging in age from toddlers to young adults. Within the film the voices include parents, whose loving impulse to adopt place them in the position of unexpectedly having to face the institutional and unconscious racism of society; children of color who, although loved by their parents, are often misunderstood and out of place in their families and communities; and those professionals who understand the damaging effects of racism and white privilege and are trying to unmask its debilitating and often tragic consequences.
MOVIES: DOCUMENTARY – BLACK ISSUES
After Chris Rock’s daughter asked him why she didn’t have “good hair,” the actor/comedian embarked upon a journey to explore the history and culture of African American hair in America. The documentary, which is directed by Jeff Stilson and narrated by Chris Rock, follows Rock as he interviews various African American celebrities and travels across the globe visiting hair salons, styling battles, laboratories and Indian temples to learn about African American hair culture.
Rock succeeds in combining humor with genuine curiosity as he explores African American hair culture. This is a documentary which, even if you know little to nothing about the subject, you’re sure to enjoy.
500 Years Later Directed by Owen Alik Shahadah Crime, poor education, poverty, self hatred, incarceration, broken homes plague people of African descent globally, why? From the onset of the African Holocaust of enslavement and colonialism, Africans are still struggling for basic freedom. Filmed in five continents, 500 Years Later is a critically acclaimed multi award winning timeless and compelling journey, infused with the spirit and music of liberation. It chronicles the struggle of a people who have fought and continue to fight for the most essential human right self determination.
The Black Candle: A Kwanzaa Celebration Directed by M.K. Asante The Black Candle is a landmark, vibrant documentary that uses Kwanzaa as a vehicle to celebrate the African-American experience. Narrated by renowned poet Maya Angelou and directed by award-winning author and filmmaker M.K. Asante, Jr., The Black Candle is an extraordinary, inspirational story about the struggle and triumph of African-American family, community, and culture. Filmed across the United States, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean, The Black Candle is a timely illumination on why the seven principles of Kwanzaa are so important to African-Americans today. The first feature film on Kwanzaa, The Black Candle traces the holiday’s growth out of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s to its present-day reality as a global, pan-African holiday embraced by over 40 million celebrants.
MOVIES : CHILDREN
Ethiopian kids playground by Eyassu Woldesenbet
This is an original film about childhood games that kids in Ethiopia have been playing for generations. It includes more than 30 competitive and fun games that reflect the rich cultural heritage of Ethiopians. It will give your children a true picture of childhood life in Ethiopia.
Tsehai Loves Learning by Abshiro kids Tsehai Loves Learning is a new, animated, early childhood education DVD series that promotes cultural and environmental awareness and is presented entirely in Amharic. For the first time, puppets and animated characters will be speaking Amharic and educating children through teaching methods based on over 35 years of research.
MUSIC
MUSIC: ETHIOPIA
Ethiopian Urban and Tribal Music, vol. 1
Ethiopia contains many diverse peoples and many styles of music. It was still an Empire in July and August 1971 when these recordings were made. Over 70 languages and 200 dialects are spoken in Ethiopia, representing the existence of as many ethnic groups.
Ethiopian Urban and Tribal Music, vol. 2 The urban musicians, the bagana and Mary Armeede were recorded in Addis Ababa. Ethiopian urban musicians come from many parts of the country and are familiar with and adapt the styles of regions other than their own.
The Rough Guide to the Music of Ethiopia by Various ArtistsCompiled by Francis Falceto, who also put together the fantastic Ethiopiques series, these 15 tracks are culled from that collection and other single-artist releases to present a broad array of Ethiopian music, much of it recorded before 1974.
The Sounds of Contemporary Ethiopian Music - Millennium Collection by Various Artists This album offers world music lovers a glimpse into the heart of Ethiopian music. Ethiopia’s most influential singers have joined with their country’s leading musicians to bring you this collection of their greatest recordings.
Ethiopiques by Various Artists This is a series of albums that show the modern music from Ethiopia through out the years. (23 CDs)
Tizita - Vol 1 and 2 by Mahmoud Ahmed Born in Addis Ababa, Mahmoud shined shoes in that city before becoming a handyman at the Arizona Club, where he first sang professionally in the early 1960s. He sang for the Imperial Body Guard Band until 1974, and recorded with other bands for the Amha and Kaifa record labels throughout the 1970s. He opened his own music store in Addis Ababa’s Piazza district during the 1980s while he continued his singing career.
Gigi by Gigi Gigi’s Amharic lyrics might not be readily understood by American ears, but her seductive tones are warm enough to translate into any language. Despite its studio gloss and sometime ambient excursions, the record was made by real, live musicians, giving it a richness and depth.
Aster by Aster Aweke Sometimes referred to as “Ethiopia’s Aretha Franklin”, Aster Aweke is an Ethiopian singer who lives in the United States. Aweke’s distinct style has been influenced by other Ethiopian singers such as Bizunesh Bekele. In 1997 she performed in Addis Ababa for a crowd of over 50,000 people.
Sleeping in the Market: Ethiopian Music & Sounds from Amhara by Various Artists Sleeping In The Market is an example of field recordings at their finest. Recorded by Yayehe Smon, this is a cultural examination of Ethiopia, specifically Amhara and Addis Ababa, through the sounds of the people. For simple field recordings, the quality is astonishingly clear. Many of the songs sound improvised and are a cappella, or accompanied only with flute, percussion and what sounds like accordion and violin. Some of the pieces to be found on Sleeping In The Market include a blind beggar performing a traditional song on flute, a group of children singing in the streets and songs about love and work.
Indigo Sun by Admas Henock Temesgen and Abegasu Shiota formed ADMAS (which means "HORIZON" in Amharic) in Washington, DC in 1984. ADMAS, initially a backup band, went on to compose, arrange and produce music for most Ethiopian Artists working in the U.S., Europe and Ethiopia. They believe their music is reflective of today’s world, where globalization is defying geographic boundaries.
Hana by Hana Shenkute This, Hanas debut album, displays AITs exciting young artist at her best. Backed by the popular Admas Band, it is easy to see why many people believe she will be the future star of Ethiopian music.
Tesfaye: A Future Hope - Vocal & String Music of Ethiopia by Seleshe Damessae Accompanying himself on the krar — a six-string lyre with origins dating back to the ancient civilizations of the Nile — Seleshe delivers the powerful Tesfaye, a record perhaps most notable for its complex vocal performances sung in Amharic.
Ethio Jazz Vol. 1 by Mulatu Astatke Mulatu Astatke is an innovative multi-talented musician born in Jimma, Ethiopia. He is a composer, arranger and the founder of Ethio Jazz. As a vibraphone, conga and percussion player, he has performed at numerous concerts in Ethiopia and abroad, including appearances at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Lincoln Center in New York.
Teddy by Theodros Kassahun One of the most versatile and exciting singers ever to grace the Ethiopian musical landscape, Theodros Kassahun began his professional career singing with the Express Band and has worked with the Axuite Band, in addition to being a founding member of the AfroSound Band. A talented singer, he also writes music and lyrics for himself and other artists.
Ethiopia by Woretaw Wubet Woretaw Wubet, a phenomenal Ethiopian vocalist and Masinko player, has been performing music since he was 14 years old. Ethiopia is Woretaw’s sixth recording and his third solo effort. In this recording, Woretaw blends the Masinko with keyboards to give it a unique contemporary flavor.
Traditional Favorites by Temesgen Temesgen is an Ethiopian musician living in the United States. He was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and has been playing the begena and the kirar since 1990. A versatile singer-songwriter, Temesgen plays the traditional music of Ethiopia as well as ethno-fusion. His non-traditional work combines elements of Ethiopian music, reggae, Indian music, and blues.
In search of my roots by Abiyou Solomon This one-of-a-kind recording truly captures the soul and spirit of eight distinct Ethiopian tribes. The traditional songs and harmonized sounds demonstrate the beauty and diversity of the Ethiopian people, comprised of many tribes that live in peace.
In a town called Addis by Dub Colossus "In A Town Called Addis" was inspired by meeting , writing and working with singers and musicians in Addis Ababa in August 2006,and is a collaboration between Dub Colossus (Nick Page) and these amazing musicians covering Azmari and traditional styles as well as the popular singing styles of the 60s and 70s. It seeks to combine the golden years of ethiopique beats (popular again thanks to the release of the critically acclaimed ‘Ethiopique’ compliation ) and ethiojazz with the dub reggae styles of early 70s reggae groups like the Abyssinians, Mighty Diamonds and so on.
Ende Kale by Eyob Mekonen Great album of modern Ethiopian music with reggae rhythms. Eyob Mekonen considers Bob Marley as his main influence.
On a Day like this… by Meklit Hadero If Joni Mitchell were East African and met Nina Simone for tea in San Francisco’s Mission District, she might end up sounding like Meklit Hadero. Meklit is a true modern global singer and songwriter: born in Ethiopia, raised in the US and nurtured for the last several years by San Francisco’s richly diverse arts scene. Add in her warm and luminous singing voice, and song writing that veers from the starkly personal to the poetically metaphoric, and you have her entrancing debut full-length recording.
Ethiopian Liturgy
This is a rare recording in that it is the only cd available in the English-speaking world that contains an audio recording of the Ethiopian Divine Liturgy service.The Ethiopian liturgy is one of the oldest Christian liturgies in the world, and the only in sub-Saharan Africa. Sang in Geez, this beautiful liturgy is absolutely breathtaking and unlike any other Christian music, or any other African folk music in general.
Sorene: Children’s songs from Ethiopia by Seleshe Demassae
Seleshe Demessae is a master of the kirar, a six-stringed, East African, harp-like instrument that dates back more than 4,000 years and served as an ancestor to the banjo. Demessae has attracted acclaim as a singer, dancer, composer, poet, storyteller, music ethnologist and teacher.
Kidmia for Children This is an audio CD suitable for children of young ages. It contains both traditional and new Amharic songs. These songs are great for sing along while in the driving in the car or at home. Have fun and learn Amharic at the same time!
The Life of Childhood by Abshiro Kids Music is an excellent way to educate and entertain our children. In this case, it is the key for connecting our kids to their heritage/culture. This wonderful CD/Book Combo is a collection of 26 old Ethiopian children’s songs, as well as some new ones. The 41 pages songbook with its full color illustrations provides an ideal companion to the CD. The songbook was specifically designed to teach the Amharic language to youngsters living outside of Ethiopia.
Putumayo Kids Presents: African Dreamland Various Artists African Dreamland continues the series that has brought peace and relaxation to music fans both young and old. The soothing sounds presented on this collection feature vocal and instrumental blends from Cameroon to Cape Verde. Bedtime only gets easier as Putumayo Kids creates a cultural lullaby experience no child will be able to resist. Featuring new artists as well as longtime Putumayo favorites, African Dreamland is a great mix of talent for young ears. Well-known artists on this album include Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Toumani Diabaté and Samite. The sweet sound of newcomers Mapumba, from the Congo, and Chiwoniso, from Zimbabwe, are also featured. A portion of proceeds from the sale of this CD will be donated to NextAid, a non-profit organization committed to developing and implementing innovative solutions to the challenges facing African children.
Bole 2 Harlem Vol.1
Bole is the name of the airport that links the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa with the rest of the world. And Harlem is the New York City neighborhood that many Ethiopian expats and exiles have made their home just one Diaspora among many in an area also known as ‘little Africa’.
The album Bole 2 Harlem Vol. 1 represents a bridge between these two worlds, mixing up break beats, hip hop and a club-friendly ambience with traditional Ethiopian songs and rapping in English and Amharic Ethiopia’s ‘official’ language. There’s a sprinkling of other influences in the mix too.
Journey to Addis by Third World Third World is a band that some reggae purists disdain because they dare to deliberately cross-over to other genres to popularize their music for international mainstream audiences. Despite the critics, Third World remains one of most enduring and popular Jamaican bands in the world. This album is probably the first and best fusion of reggae and soul music by a reggae group, and is the one, finally broke through to a bigger audience thanks to the R&B staple "Now That We Found Love," that Third World sang with a sophisticated blend of pop, funk and reggae riddims. The song, an international Top Ten hit, provided listeners the opportunity to sample the new Jamaican sound in a familiar aural environment.
Higher Ground by Wayna The Ethiopian-born, D.C. area-raised Wayna manages to accomplish in this album the often unmanageable task of coupling meaningful, decipherable lyrics with well produced and compelling tracks. Wayna is a talented writer who wrote the lyrics to her songs. Her prowess in weaving great storylines into a very creative sound showcases just how versatile she really is.
The Idan Raichel Project by Idan Raichel Israeli keyboardist, composer, producer, and arranger Idan Raichel, invited over 70 different musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds to participate in the recordings. In particular, Raichel has long been fascinated by the music of Israel’s growing population of Ethiopian Jews, and many songs feature members of Israel’s Ethiopian community. The recordings also include Arab musicians, traditional Yemenite vocalists, a toaster and percussionist from Suriname and a South African singer, among others.
Broken Flowers: Music from the Film by Mulatu Astatqe Mulatu Astatke grew up in Ethiopia but went abroad to study jazz in America. He was influenced by Miles Davis and John Coltrane — and by the organist Jimmy Smith. What he brought back to Ethiopia was a blend of soul and jazz. Which he then proceeded to blend, once more, with traditional Ethiopian music.
Prester John Sessions by Tommy T. 2009 solo release from the bass player for Gypsy Punk powerhouse Gogol Bordello. Tommy was born and raised in Ethiopia and the knowledge of global rhythms he brings to Gogol’s sound has become part of their unclassifiable approach to music. The Prester John Sessions is a collection of 11 songs including a remix featuring Gogol Bordello band mates Eugene Huts and Pedro Srazo and mixed by Michael Goldwasser of the Easy Star All-Stars. The record also features two collaborations with Gigi, one of the most popular modern Ethiopian singers.
Imperial Tiger Orchestra - Addis Abeba The orchestra’s repertoire consists of revamped remakes from the Golden Age of Modern Ethiopian music(1969-1978).Visiting each of the foremost artists of period in turn, the orchestra blends Ethiopian rhythms with their own influences. Playing music that is usually sung, this entirely instrumental group emphasizes the dark and hypnotic grooves of the rhythmn as well as the polished, ethereal brass themes. Improvisations, a play on texture and dynamics, distorted sounds and "noise" complete the whole.
