February 20, 2012
ADDIS ABABA - Sebhat Gebregzabher, a journalist and
novelist known for his eccentric lifestyle and yet adored in literary
circles as the 'father of short-story writing' died in Addis Ababa on
Monday. He was 76.
Sebhat's golden days were during the emperor's
time, when he was a flamboyant handsome journalist whose very popular
weekly columns appeared in Menen, a magazine named after the wife
of Emperor Haileselassie. In the late '60s and early '70s, he was being
schooled in France, where he said he was widely exposed and influenced
by the works of great literary figures such as French writer Émile Zola.
His novel in Amharic, Letoom Aynegalign, was translated and published in French while he was living in Paris.
During the military regime (1974-1991), Sebhat was chief
editor at then state-owned Kuraz Publishing Agency. There at Kuraz,
Sebhat and a few others were ordered by the military regime to translate
Das Kapital, the masterpiece of Karl Marx. They complied and translated the monumental book of Marxists into Amharic.
After Kuraz, Sebhat moved to Arat Kilo's
Berhanena Selam Printing Press, where he was writing weekly columns for
the Amharic daily Addis Zemen while doubling as editor for the English daily The Ethiopian Herald.
His early manuscripts that he wrote after he returned
from France were never published because of their sexually explicit
nature.
Nevertheless, his newspaper columns continued to be very
popular as they were standing out for being short and entertaining. In
literary circles, Sebhat was unofficially adored as the 'father of short
story writing.' He had a great admirer as well. Novelist Ba'alu Girma,
who was murdered mysteriously in the late '80s by the Derg military
regime for his fictional work Oromai, honored Sebhat by writing a biographical novel that he named Deraseew (The Novelist).
A native of the historic town of Adwa in northern Ethiopia, Sebhat's published works include Tekusat, Säbatägnaw Mälak, Egrä Mängäd, Mastawäsha, and Amist-Sidist-Sebat, among others.
A stern face with piercing eyes may portray Sebhat as an
aggressive and trouble-seeking man, but for those who closely know the
novelist, he was extremely humble and generous that at one time he
shared his home with about a dozen homeless children. He is survived by
two sons and three daughters.
Source : Ethiomedia
2 comments:
What just happened was such a great loss that, we will be mourning more and more about Sibhat's death as the years go by.He was misunderstood by most but I consider him as a great revolutionary philosopher who dared to tell our society to change its ways, for better or for worse.Though we might want to keep our sexual culture, we've so many traits that pulls us down and needs to change.Belive it or not, our children will be studying his books in college.Ferwell Sibhat,you have ignited the lights of change./Zelalem Nigussie- writter/
Sad of Sebhat death..
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