User:Lillianyorkuni/Mulatu Astatke

Early Life
Mulatu Astatke was born in 1943, to an upper-middle class family in Jimma, Ethiopia. He was the second of four sons born to, Woizero ("Lady") Taterework Mulat, and Ato Astatke Tasew. His father, Ato Tasew, is known to have worked as a double-agent through to the 1930s, while Ethiopia was under Italian occupation, a position he used to supply secret information and intelligence to the nationalist Arbegnoch (Patriot) Movement. From early childhood, Astake recognized his inclination for music, which he describes as "“(I) have something musical in myself—just a feeling,” However, as regional elites his parents were unsupportive of his musical interests, as musicians “were considered really lower (class) than an artist or a creator”