Kebede Michael (; 2 November 1916 – 12 November 1998) was an Ethiopian-born author of both fiction and non-fiction literature. He is widely regarded as one of the most prolific and versatile intellectuals of modern Ethiopia – he was a poet, playwright, essayist, translator, historian, novelist, philosopher, journalist, and government minister belonging to the Shewa Amhara nobility and member of the Solomonic dynasty. His maternal ancestor was King Sahle Selassie of Shewa.
He has produced about ninety published works in several languages, some of which have been translated into foreign languages, and have greatly influenced twentieth-century Ethiopian literature and intellectual thought. He has received ample recognition domestically and internationally, including an Honorary Doctorate from Addis Ababa University. He is well known as one of the mid-twentieth-century Japanizing Ethiopian intellectuals.
Early life Kebede Mikael was born on 2 November 1916 in Menz Gerim Gabriel in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Amhara Region to Ato Aytaged and Woizero Atsede Mikael. Soon after his birth, his father left the country and vanished. Hence Kebede Mikael came to be known under his mother's last name, instead of his father's as prescribed by the standard Ethiopian naming tradition. His uncle Lij Seifu Mikael became his father figure and would raise him into adulthood.
Education Kebede Mikael attended Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥədo Church education, starting at a very young age. It is reported that his grandmother, Wolete Gabriel, took him to his first day of church education at the age of four at his nearby Gerim Gabriel church that was founded and built by his great-grandfather Dejazmatch Mekuria Tesfaye, one of Emperor Menelik II's generals and cousins. His mother is said to have instilled a sense of ethics in him by raising him with Christian values, and telling him stories from the Bible. By the age of nine, he had learned much of the traditional church education and had a good mastery of the church language Ge’ez. In about 1924, when his mother and grandmother moved to Arusi, today's Arsi for work, he went instead to his uncle Lij Seifu Mikael in Addis Ababa where he joined the Catholic Cathedral School as a boarding student. His mother moved back to Addis Ababa in 1929 during which time he was enrolled in the best boarding school in Ethiopia at the time, Alliance Éthio-Française School with the help of his uncle Lij Seifu Mikael who was a Sorbonne-educated Ethiopian scholar and an important imperial government official. It is said that he grew tired of the punishments by teachers at the school, and thus switched to Lazarist Catholic Mission School for some time. Then, when matters at his former school improved, he switched back to Alliance Éthio-Française. In between, upon his uncle's appointment to administer parts of Harer, the 13-year-old Kebede Mikael befriended Prince Mekonnen and was tasked with tutoring him.
Kebede Mikael studied at Alliance Éthio-Française for three years before he got the opportunity to be introduced to the art of literature through the school director, a Lebanese man called Malhabi. The director was himself a novelist and thus wanted to teach the art of writing fiction to six outstanding students of his choice in his own house, and one of the six students was the young Kebede Mikael who had already gone through his uncle's library. The lessons were given in French, and Kebede Mikael proved to be highly proficient and hard-working. During his student years, Kebede Mikael proved that he was highly receptive to learning: he had a strong affinity for the French language, and earned high grades in his French exams. Taking note of his apt command of the French language and his high potential, his school officials recommended him for a scholarship opportunity under the then monarch, Emperor Haile Selassie I. Also impressed by his abilities, the Emperor granted him a full scholarship to go to France and pursue his studies. However excited Kebede Mikael was about the unique opportunity, he could not make use of it because he fell ill at that time. At the suggestion of his uncle, alternative arrangements were set up so that he could instead stay in the palace while he recovered and served as one of three French teachers to Prince Makonnen, the emperor's son, alongside French instructors visiting from France. The plan to send him to France for further French instruction was thwarted by the onset of the five-year war with Italy (1936–1941), particularly because of the declaration of the Battle of Maychew (1936). It would be the second time for Kebede Mikael to tutor Prince Mekonnen.
Kebede Mikael was an avid reader. Although his formal education did not extend beyond high school, his writing was informed by his vast reading, as he revealed in an interview with Yekatit, a widely read Ethiopian newspaper, in September 1980. From his readings, Kebede Mikael was greatly influenced by the teachings of prominent Ethiopians such as his own uncle Lij Seifu Mikael, Aleka Atsimegiorgis, Aleka Kidanewold Kifle, Professor Afework Gebreyesus, Negadras Gebre-Hiwot Baykedagn and Kegn-geta Yoftahe Negussie. At home and school, he used the resources provided by his family and teachers to carefully study the Who's Whos of Greek, Roman, English, French, German, Russian, and Italian philosophers and scientists. His uncle Lij Seifu's wife Sarah Workneh introduced the young Kebede to English literature. She was the first Ethiopian to translate the works of Williams Shakespeare into Amharic language. Her father was Ethiopia's first Western educated medical doctor Workneh Eshete
Italo-Ethiopian War (1936–1941) During the occupation, his uncle and guardian Lij Seifu Mikael was captured and sent off to the Asinara prison in Italy. Atsede's husband Dejazmatch Melise Sahle submitted to the fascist occupying force. At the behest of his stepfather, he was employed in the fascist government as a liaison between the Italian officials and the Ethiopian nobility as well as in their Department of Information, then called "Office of Propaganda". Due to the unique access he had to high-level Italian officials and his command of the Italian language, he passed on important intel to the patriots fighting for the country's liberation. Upon hearing his employment at the occupying fascist government, his incarcerated uncle Lij Seifu wrote: "he is an ailing, frail, weak boy who stood no chance in guerilla warfare; let him make use of his brains to assist the resistance." After repeated requests by him and Leul Ras Seyoum Mengesha, his uncle Lij Seifu was released from Asinara after about four years. He reached Addis Ababa four months before the liberation and was ordered to stay under house arrest at his own residence. Even though Kebede could not go to France and pursue his studies because of the Italo-Ethiopian War, he spent a lot of time reading in the library founded by Mr. LeMoins, one of the French instructors of Prince Makonnen. It is reported that one of the books he most frequently read was Napoleon because he had a great admiration for Napoleon Bonaparte. He also picked up Italian during those years of extensive reading and learning. Italian was only one of the many languages he spoke. He wrote Berhane Helina (The Light of the Mind), which is largely considered his debut, during these years. He also wrote Ye Qine Wubet (The Beauty of Qəne) in which he proved his command of the unique Ethiopian literary tradition of qene, a form of linguistic indirection and play.
Political career After the defeat of Fascist Italy, Kebede Mikael served in the government in several capacities between 1941 and 1974 (when Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed). He 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 (1950); Director of the Ethiopian Postal Office; Director of His Imperial Majesty's Private Information Cabinet; and Director of the National Archives and Library of Ethiopia (1952). Kebede Mikael also participated in important international conferences as a special representative extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Ethiopian government. He was a regular Ethiopian delegate to numerous international conferences at the United Nations in New York.
Even while holding these positions, Kebede Michael did not stop writing. He published a total of 26 books during these thirty-three years of government service.
Later life and death It is said that Kebede Mikael faced many struggles after the revolution of 1974 when the Derg toppled the imperial monarchy headed by Emperor Haile Selassie. His extended family members were either in the Derg prison, executed, or fled the country. His cousin, Lij Seifu's son, Kifle Seifu, a prominent businessman of the time was already languishing in the communist Derg prison while his younger brothers were not able to return to Ethiopia from their studies in the U.S. because of the revolution. The family's vast estate that included the National Theater, Ras Hotel, and the vicinity stretching to the Artistic Printing Press, as well as farms, manufacturing, and export businesses run by Kifle and other family members, were all nationalized. The stately mansion of the Seifu Mikael family around the Wabi Shebele Hotel that was built during Emperor Menelik II's time and later expanded and modernized during the following three monarchs was confiscated. To some admirers' dismay, his personal residence was nationalized by the Derg in 1975 because Kebede was believed to have benefitted from the previous feudal regime and, as a result, he led most of his remaining life alternating between the Awraris and Tourist Hotels in Addis Ababa as residences. Ever since the Derg regime confiscated it, Kebede 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. Residents of the vicinity and his admirers express their disappointment that "his walls, which once were stacked end to end by book shelves, are now stacked with alcohol." There has been a call for concerned parties to memorialize his name and legacy in the space. Some sources also claim that he faced some discrimination based on rumors of mental illness in his late years. Those who were children during the Emperor Haile Selassie's regime recall that the emperor used to visit Kebede Mikael and greet the village children, and give them 2 Ethiopian birr.
Kebede Mikael died at the age of 82 on 12 November 1998. June 28 has been designated as a memorial day in Ethiopia to commemorate him.
Honors and recognition Kebede 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 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.
He also received distinguished awards from the governments of other countries, such as France, Germany, Italy, the USSR and Mexico.
Those who knew him closely say that he loved to go to church and was a very polite and spiritual man.
Literary works