Source: National Archives & Historic Records of Ethiopian Empire
Literature & Poetry • Historical Archive • 🇪🇹 Ethiopia • 0 views

Kebede Michael 🇪🇹

Kebede Michael (Known as "Kegnazmach Kebede")
Master Poet, Dramatist, Translator of Shakespeare and Dante, Director General
Born Nov 02, 1916 🇪🇹 Menagesha, Shewa, Ethiopia
Passed Away Nov 12, 1998 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Lifespan 82 years old
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"Knowledge is the true light that raises man above the beasts; through books, the poorest mind can dine with kings."

Archival Overview

Colossal intellectual and author of over ninety books of poetry, history, and drama who translated Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Macbeth' and Dante's 'Divine Comedy' into sublime classical Amharic verse.

Biographical Record

Kebede Michael was born in Menagesha on November 2, 1916. A prodigiously gifted linguist who mastered Amharic, Ge'ez, French, English, and Italian, Kebede was appointed Director General of the Ministry of Education and National Library.

He single-handedly transformed Ethiopian schooling, authoring foundational textbooks in mathematics, world history, and literature. His original plays like Ato Belayneh and poetic philosophical dialogues, alongside his masterful Amharic metric translations of Shakespeare, Molière, and Dante, established him as the paramount literary educator of 20th-century Ethiopia.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Holy Trinity Cathedral (Kidist Selassie)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
GPS: 9.0310, 38.7670
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