Michael's Blog

Michael Chebud The daunting task of making Africa the centre of attention awaits Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi when the Group of 20 (G20) rich and emerging economies meet in London tomorrow. Invited by the host country, Zenawi, who chairs the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), is the only African leader apart from South Africa’s President Kgalema Motlanthe to attend the G20 summit. Zenawi was in London two weeks ago to hold pre-summit consultations with senior African officials and organisers of the summit, including UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. His message to Brown was clear: that the richest countries cannot afford to ignore Africa in the wake of the global economic meltdown. His is a belief shared by African trade ministers who met in Addis Ababa on Mar 19 at the headquarters of the African Union. ‘‘As a result of the global economic crisis, more than at any other time, there is a need to place African economic development at the centre o...

Michael Chebud ADDIS ABABA, Mar 25 2009 (IPS)  - Haile Gerima’s film “Teza” may only have come to the world’s attention when it won Africa’s highest prize in Ouagadougou on Mar. 7, but it has been a sensation in his native Ethiopia since it premiered in Addis Ababa at the start of the year. Young Ethiopian film-makers welcome Teza co-producer Selome Gerima. Credit: Michael Chebud/IPS The winner of the 2009 Golden Stallion of Yennenga at the 21st Festival of Cinema and Television of Ouagadougou (better known by its French acronym, FESPACO), the film about the regime of former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam premiered in the Ethiopian capital on Jan. 3. “The film, in which Gerima portrays the true picture of rural Ethiopia, should be prized and hailed,” wrote movie columnist Masresha Mammo in, the largest Amharic private weekly, Addis Neger. Teza, 14 years in the making, tells the story of an Ethiopian whose dreams of serving his country after an education in Germany ...