BY MULUGETA GUDETA
Writing about the life and time of Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru who is considered the first Ethiopia woman pianist otherwise known as ‘the barefoot nun’, the BBC last week reported that, “the piano-playing nun died this week at the age of 99.” Adding that she had “an extraordinary life, which included being a trailblazer for women’s equality and walking barefoot for a decade in the isolated mountains of northern Ethiopia.
No doubt that Ethiopia is a land of music and poetry and that the long history of this ancient country is dotted with highly gifted women musicians who contributed to the spiritual awakening of the people whose dance and songs are now internationally recognized and acclaimed for their uniqueness, for being highly imaginative. Among the pioneering women musicians, Emahoy Tsege-Mariam stands head and shoulder above her contemporaries and the lesser known among them, simply because she was the best of her time. What is more amazing about the life and time of Emahoy Tsege Mariam is the journey she made from a nun in a monastery to playing secular music that was at the time considered the most serious blasphemy against the orders of the church.
Women in Ethiopia have been prohibited from saying the kidasse (mass) in public and this was considered one of the rules that relegated the fair sex from putting their talents in the service of the Orthodox Church. Tsege-Mariam broke this highly conservative rule without entering questioning the reason for enacting it and by challenging the clergy but by expressing her rebellion in a subtler and more appealing realm of arts. Irrespective of her religious background, we may even say that she was the one who provided moral support to the women musicians who had the courage to sing in public places that was for long the reclusive domain of their male counterparts.
What also made Tsege-Mariam unique in this sense is also the fact that she did not go back to traditional music and did not play one of the traditional instruments in order to execute her personal “revolution” in music. She went one step ahead of her time and tried what was for long the untouchable domain of Western music even European women did not dare exercise. Until then women lacked the self-confidence and inspiration needed to take up one of the most sophisticated music genres of the time that was the exclusive ‘property’ well-known and publicly supported and acclaimed male practitioners. In this sense, Tsege-Mariam has broken both the religious and secular taboo that was openly or subtly imposed on women.
By doing this, she has probably opened the way for 20th century Ethiopian women musicians who mustered the confidence to sing in public places and win the acclaim of their male counterparts whose voices were stifled because of the fear of social norms and taboos. The crop of modern female musicians, who emerged with their golden voice of the post-Italian occupation period and shook the Addis Ababa music scene with their romantic style and their highly poetic lyrics might have been inspired by Emahoy’s daring music styles and lyrics.
They made the music waves of their times and dominated the artistic scene in urban environments like Piassa and Wube Berha where the elites enjoyed secular and modern music. The difference with Emahoy Tsege-Mariam was that while her contemporaries used traditional instrument called the krar (string instrument) or massinko, to play their music, Emahoy used one of the most sophisticated elite European music instruments that even male artists on the continent did not have the guts or self-confidence to play. Her exposure to Western music was facilitated by her aristocratic background as a daughter of the once mayor of the northern Ethiopia historic city of Gondar, according to sources.
Emahoy’s courage was manifested when she decided to move from the remote rural monastery where she served as a nun to the capital Addis Ababa at a time when most rural girls were scared of leaving their domiciles to go to the market. Writing about the nun-turned-musician, the BBC report about hear death tells us that “She became a devout nun who lived a humble life in monastery in a remote part of her country. However, in earlier time, Emahoy had moved in the high society of the capital Addis Ababa where she performed in the court of the country’s last emperor Haile Selassie”.
Her educational life started with her being sent to Switzerland with her sister where she was supposed to get modern education. However, loneliness took a psychological tool on her as she was isolated from her natural social milieu. Living abroad, music became her unique comfort with which she dealt with the rough edges of life in a foreign land. She could not stay long and returned to Ethiopia when she was only eleven years old. But her planned return was sabotaged by Mussolini’s fascist invasion of Ethiopia that made it impossible for her to return as she planned. She had to stay in exile and mourning members of her patriotic and aristocratic family who were slaughtered by the fascists.
Emahoy was not only the first young girl to be sent abroad for education. She was perhaps the first young Ethiopia woman feminist who expressed her ideas of gender equality in a 1917 BBC interview that was quoted in her obituary. She was quoted as saying that, boys and girls are equal and there is no substantial difference between them. That was a very progressive stamen from an Ethiopian young woman of the time who was raised in a high conservative and religious social environment.
Emahoy Tsege-Mariam was not only courageous but also ambitious. She had a plan to study music at one of the most prestigious music academies in London but her dream was short-lived when she was prohibited from traveling to Europe by her devout entourage and some of her family members who wanted her to lead a life “a la Ethiopienne” as the French would say.
According to the BBC obituary, her heartbreak started with the death of her nears and dearest ones during the Italian occupation and culminated in the frustration she endured after she was discouraged to study music abroad. It is inevitable that depression and hopelessness to find a niche in her saddened heart. A kind of breakdown she experienced was followed by her return to the monastery, her old abode and shelter. However, she could not return to her old religious devotion or stay long in it. Her return to Addis was inevitable.
However replete her life was with many twists and turns, Emahoy had already left a solid artistic legacy with the appearance of her albums. “She resumed playing music. She continued to shun the spotlight but her compositions took off around this time.” Says her BBC obituary adding, “Her years of solitary musings and the dramatic episodes of her eventful life were reflected in her compositions.” Music critics consider her piano music very sophisticated and very inspiring coming from the heart of a woman who has seen the highs and lows of life, endured tragedy and survived in the midst of a society that regarded her perhaps a kind of weird woman who dared to do what others before her could not even imaging. We can say that her life fed her music and endured to posterity because of that.
Another remarkable feature of her life is that whatever the tragedies and displacements she was unlucky to go through, she never lost sight of her fundamental calling that is music that had long become part and parcel of the reason for her existence. Her commitment and consistency despite the pulls and pushes in the opposite direction is of course an indication of the strength of her character, which is rare in a woman with her background.
The saddest thing of all is that Emahoy Tsege-Mariam was little known by her compatriots and was not appreciated for her creativity when she was alive. This is common to many talented Ethiopians who lives were ignored and her deaths were celebrated while it should be the other way round. Emahoy came, lived, sow and retuned peacefully at the mature age of 99. This is a rare gift for a woman who lived and invented music under the direst of circumstances in a country where conservative clergy and a male-dominated society made her life harder than it should have been.
The legacy of Ethiopia’s “barefoot piano queen” is bound to prove enduring because she has left a lasting impact on Ethiopian music, by setting a precedence worth emulating by the still emerging generations of Ethiopian women musicians. Although posthumously celebrated, the life and artistic achievements of Emahoy Tsege-Mariam is bound to endure and thrive in the hearts and minds of her fans and the music critics who spoke highly of her great personality and talent.
The Ethiopian Herald April 13/2023
