39 Facts About Kebede Michael

Kebede Michael was an Ethiopian-born author of both fiction and non-fiction literature.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kebede Michael's father was Ethiopia's first Western educated medical doctor Workneh Eshete.

Kebede Michael reached Addis Ababa four months before the liberation and was ordered to stay under house arrest at his own residence.

Kebede Michael picked up Italian during those years of extensive reading and learning.

Kebede Michael wrote Berhane Helina, which is largely considered his debut, during these years.

Kebede Michael wrote Ye Qine Wubet in which he proved his command of the unique Ethiopian literary tradition of qene, a form of linguistic indirection and play.

Kebede Michael served as a journalist and radio program announcer; then as Inspector and Vice Director, and later, Director General of the Ministry of Education; as Director General and head representative as well as translator in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ; Director of the Ethiopian Postal Office; Director of His Imperial Majesty's Private Information Cabinet; and Director of the Ethiopian National Library and Archives.

Kebede Michael Mikael participated in important international conferences as a special representative extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Ethiopian government.

Kebede Michael was a regular Ethiopian delegate to numerous international conferences at the United Nations in New York.

Kebede Michael published a total of 26 books during these thirty-three years of government service.

Kebede Michael's extended family members were either in the Derg prison, executed, or fled the country.

Ever since the Derg regime confiscated it, Kebede Michael house has gone through an unusual series of rebranding and remodeling efforts: since 1974, it has been used as an office of the local Derg rulers, then a prison for their inmates, a clinic, a bar, a billiard ball game center, and, as recently as 2012, the Menaheriya Hotel, Bar and Restaurant.

Kebede Michael Mikael died at the age of 82 on 12 November 1998.

Kebede Michael Mikael was the first-ever winner of the Haile Selassie I Prize Award in Amharic Literature in 1964, a prestigious award that was later conferred on other Ethiopian literary giants such as Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin.

In November 1997, Kebede Michael Mikael received an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Addis Ababa University for his unparalleled excellence in literature and his role as an inspiration to generations of Ethiopian authors and writers.

Kebede Michael received distinguished awards from the governments of other countries, such as France, Germany, Italy, the USSR and Mexico.

Kebede Michael's translated works presented new, foreign concepts in localized and contextualized words that any Ethiopian could easily understand.

Kebede Michael has produced several poems, plays, anthologies of qene poetry, history books, translations, fictions, essays, and philosophical works regarding modernization.

Kebede Michael received great acclaim for this work because not only did he show his linguistic competence, but he combined his poetic talent and play-writing prowess into a single text that flowed beautifully.

Kebede Michael translated Shakespeare's Macbeth, and Charlotte M Brame's Beyond Pardon into Amharic.

From 1940 to 1970, Kebede Michael wrote Amharic-language textbooks in which he provided several generations of Ethiopian students with literature covering a wide range of issues and disciplines.

Kebede Michael recommended that since Ethiopia and Japan have many socio-economic and political similarities, Ethiopian policy should follow Japan's footsteps toward an advanced economy in the shortest possible time.

Kebede Michael wrote that Japan had charted its own course and had maintained its independence in the world, through education.

Kebede Michael pointed out the differences separating the two countries: Japan was more developed relative to Ethiopia even before its contact with the West, especially in shipbuilding and arms manufacture, and Japan had adopted European ways with remarkable speed, while Ethiopia was much slower.

Kebede Michael Mikael has influenced Ethiopian thought, identity, and government through his writing and service in office.

Bahru Zewde writes that Kebede Michael Mikael's writing contributed a lot to the cultural vibrancy of the 1960s.

Kebede Michael Mikael influenced and inspired other Ethiopian literary figures through his works.