Ethiopia: Struggles of an Aspiring Singer

Born and raised in Erer Gota, a small town around Dire Dawa in eastern Ethiopia known for its fresh fruits Tezera Habtemariam bumped into his destiny inadvertently at the age of 17. It was Parent's Day celebration at the local school he attended and he was scheduled to read a brief poem. "But there was no one to sing [at the service] and I had to fill in," he says. "That was the first time I sang in public."

The main breadwinner of the family, his mother, had the family's livelihood depend on the troubled Ethio-Djibouti railway. She was one of those smalltime merchants who frequently travelled from Dire Dawa to Addis Abeba. But when the railway stopped giving service, the family's means of income was threatened. That's when Tezera had to step in and be a wage earner. "So I quit school and began working as a day laborer making around 30 Birr per day," he told this magazine.

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