I never have been to Ethiopia. I don’t know the Ethiopian language. I don’t know any Ethiopian even though I may be passing some of them on the subway daily.
For that matter, I don’t have any connection with Africa, except for a brief visit to Cairo some thirty years back.
Recently, I stumbled upon this musician while searching online for Bob Marley. Frankly, I was stunned. The first day I was so “possessed” by his music that I woke up ‘in the dead of the night’ to hear that music again. My other half who was disturbed by this commotion at 3 a.m. commented, “ You should be out of your mind!”
Agreed, the pictures of Marley, Haile Selazie, religious and national symbols all point to the possibility that he may be a man with a mission, an actvist. (And yes, the beat is akin to Reggae.)
That doesn’t apply to me as I don’t speak his language and most of the time I don’t even know what he is singing about.
But I am in a trance whenever I hear his music. And I am not that young.
So when music transcends geographic, racial, cultural, linguistic, and generational barriers,
