User talk:2600:1700:9E80:4EE0:88DB:C53C:3A7A:E16E/sandbox



There is so much that can be said about this towering Tigray intellectual giant, that I don't even know where to start. In his youth, he went to Asmara for some medical treatment and came in contact with Swedish Missionaries there. He was already a well-known scholar and priest of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Much has been written about him, and can be found in the annals of the Swedish Mission records in Stockholm, but suffice it to say that he studied and taught himself Hebrew and Swedish to add to his knowledge of Tigriña, Geez, and Amharic. He was commissioned by the Swedish Mission to translate the Bible into Tigriña. Soon, he gathered a staff of about a dozen scholars, and he led and directed them in the first translation of the Tigriña Bible by comparing from several original bibles in Geez, Hebrew, Amharic and Swedish. Shortly after that, Haleka Tewolde-Medhin returned to Tigray and started the very first 'modern' school in Ethiopia, where he opened a school, gathered some children and started to teach them reading, writing, arithmetic, and the Bible, of course. Before that time, all education was the sole task of the Church, and this new venture put him in direct conflict, and competition with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. For this 'crime,' and for associating with the Swedish Protestants, he was accused of being a heretic, arrested, tortured, and all his property confiscated. Haleka Tewolde-Medhin was sentenced to death. Twice, they took him to an infamous old Daéro/Warka (sycamore) tree in Adwa to be hanged, (a very common spot for hanging bandits, murderers, and criminals of similar caliber). Twice he narrowly escaped death by miraculous coincidences. This was during the era when Lij Eyassu was deposed and Empress Zewditu crowned, with Ras Teferri as Regent and Crown Prince. Ras Teferri had not consolidated his grip on the government, and Tigray was being governed by Dejazmach Gebreselassie and his son, Dejach Teklehaimanot, was the ruler of Adwa. Once Haileselassie's position as the Crown Regent was secured, he passed a proclamation that no death sentence could be carried out without his knowledge and express permission. That proclamation saved the neck of my great grandfather, Haleka Tewolde-Medhin Gebru, from a certain death by hanging. The execution was stayed. Some five years later, Haileselassie reviewed, and dismissed the case. He also gave his permission for my great grandfather to continue teaching kids. Soon, my great grandfather was transferred with his students into the newly opened Queen Sheba Elementary School. He lived into his mid-nineties. When I was a child, I used to sleep on an agoza (leather made into light, thin, soft, and yet strong and durable mat) on the floor in his bedroom, and because of his weak eyesight, I used to read him sections from various books and from the Tigriña Bible of his own translation. He died some forty years ago at the ripe age of 98, and I must have been twelve years old at the time, but I remember everything as if it was yesterday.