Ethiopian Canadian Kids

For anyone who has visited the Ethiopian National Museum in the last six years and been disappointed to learn that the Lucy skeleton was not there – maybe it’s time to plan another trip, because Lucy is going home.

Her somewhat controversial tour of the US ends in April this year and the skeleton will be returning to Addis Ababa shortly thereafter. You can read more about the tour and its final stop in this article.

Check out this great look back at Ethiopian arts & culture in 2012! This annual list is a great place to discover some new musical talent or great books to check out. Even if you’re up to date on Ethiopian arts & culture, I bet you will find something new – for example, who knew about this one? “The hip-hop space opera takes place in the year 2089 featuring three renegades from another world who hijack a spacecraft and ride it to Earth, and eventually land in Ethiopia.” Not me, that’s for sure… but now I’m listening to it, fascinated.

The documentary “Endurance” about the great Ethiopian distance runner Haile Gebrselassie can now be seen on YouTube. It’s well worth watching, not only for Haile’s story but for a glimpse at childhood in rural Ethiopia. (One thing to be aware of – if you are watching with your children, there is a scene near the beginning where Haile’s mother dies, followed by a traditional funeral. If your kids were older when they came home, this could stir up some memories.)

It’s posted in seven parts, and the first one is here. At the end there will be a link for “Up Next” which is the next part – or you can click on “486 videos” beside the poster’s name at the top and you will see the rest of them. (Check the numbers – Endurance 1, Endurance 2, etc, because they don’t appear in order.)

Haile Gebrselassie will be competing in the 2012 Olympics after all – he had announced his decision to retire last November but has changed his mind. You can read about his Olympic plans here.

Tadias magazine has published their choices for the top 10 Arts & Culture stories from the Ethiopian diaspora. You can check them out here.

Here are a couple of my personal favourites: singer Meklit Hadero & the trailer for The Athlete (Atletu) – the story of Abebe Bikela.