Dr tibebu haile selassie biography
Tibebu Haileselassie along with the Mulu Wongel Mission. The purpose of this paper is to acknowledge the sacrifices, challenges, and successes of the greatest missionaries to the Somalis. Any Somali Christian, whose name became well-known, even outside Christian circles, was saved under the ministries of these four organizations within the one hundred years stated above.
Hussein A. Bulhan writes that the Sayid's "wrath intensified when he met Somali boys converted to Christianity by missionaries who came and collaborated with the colonial administration. For many people, "Somali" and "Christian" are oxymoron but history is littered with enough evidence that this assumed oxymoron is one big fallacy. The purpose of this brief history is to highlight the long and consistent engagement of Christian missions among Somali people in the Horn of Africa.
This work will review few of the most prominent mission organizations among Somali people, the challenges and success of these organizations in Islamic Somalia. This review will also elaborate the rebirth of the Protestant mission work in Somalia in the 's and the impact the collapse of Somalia's central government in still has on the church in Somalia.
Somalia has years of continuous Christian presence which started in Unbeknownst to many, there are numerous established Christian house-churches in Somalia today. While the exact number of these Somali Christian congregations in Somalia is hard to know, estimates range from few dozens to several dozens. There are also thriving Somali Christian congregations in the Somali inhabited regions of Kenya and Ethiopia.
Sustained missionary work among Somalis started in northern Somalia in when Roman Catholic fathers opened an orphanage in what was then British Somaliland. While the Roman Catholic mission quickly faced intense objections from the local Somalis, the SOLC encountered minimum opposition from the local people. Through their orphanage ministry, the Roman Catholics witnessed the conversion of many children while the ministry of SOLC produced numerous adult believers in a short span of time.
Both mission organizations were eventually expelled from the Somali lands by the colonial powers but some of the local Christian communities they left behind hung onto the faith despite the intense persecutions they faced from the Somali Muslims. This paper attempts to examine the missionary strategies that enable the survival of Christianity in Ethiopia till today.
The study was based on the library and internet materials. There were discussions on the historical background of Ethiopia, historical development of Christianity in Ethiopia, the historical background of religious war in Ethiopia and the Missionary strategies that helped Christianity to take root till today in Ethiopia. Lastly, the conclusion was drawn from the entire work.
It was recommended that in this twenty first century missions to any community or country should be centred on conversion of political heads or local heads to the Christian faith as this would help a lot in the future of Christianity in that community and beyond. More so, any Christian community, nation, city, town or village that may be experiencing invasion of antichrist should quickly seek the help of other Christians in their dr tibebu haile selassie biography or other Christians around the world.
Finally, ot The mission carried out by the Society of Jesus in the Ethiopian highlands from to has been for the last two decades object of an important number of publications. The interest for the political and religious activities of the missionaries has gained momentum; there is hardly a meeting on the history of Ethiopia that does not include at least one contribution dedicated to this issue.
The bibliography on this mission is growing at an increasing pace. An essay reviewing the main scholarly trends and providing the most complete list of titles was, thus, heavily needed. Serious research is based on a sober knowledge of what has been produced and an awareness of what remains still to be studied. It is our hope that this work will contribute to both goals.
Writing about the Somali Church has been both challenging and rewarding at the same time. I found the whole process to be surreal since this church is little known compared to the churches in Ethiopia and Kenya. This is strange since the history of the modern Somali Church goes back to when the first Western missionaries settled near Berbera, British Somaliland.
Hence, this is a book like no other. Despite its years history, very little has been written about the Somali Church. Subjects covered include the religious heritage of the Somalis Waaqism, Judaism, Christianity and Islammission work, missionaries and their fruits, the benefits of denominationally based ministries, challenges and blessings of persecution, the relationship between persecution and church growth, utilizing the Somali clan system for the glory of God, and the role of poetry in the Somali ministry.
The following chapters were previously published as papers by three different publications and are now included as book chapters. Some of the papers, in repurposing them as book chapters, have been slightly edited for space and clarity. Grenstedt, Staffan Ambaricho and Shonkolla. ISBN ISBN: Log in with Facebook Log in with Google. Remember me on this computer.
Enter the email dr tibebu haile selassie biography you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Need an account? Click here to sign up. Ambaricho and Shonkolla. Cassanelli Herbert S Lewis. Tibebu Haileselassie Naol Befkadu Kebede Introduction Evangelical missions among the Somalis began in the late 19th century similar to the Catholic mission, and it did not target a specific political region initially.
Successive governments in Somalia and the Somali region have not properly safeguarded these important documents. Therefore, our literature highly depends on the works of present-day historians and scholars. Similar to protestant missions progress in Ethiopia and the rest of the Horn of Africa, the greatest factor that affected protestant missions among the Somali people is also the political situation of the country.
The period from s to s is known for its political upheaval in the Horn of Africa, especially the challenges the Somali people faced. The vast land of the Somalis fell under three main colonial administrations, namely British, French and Italian administrations. Abdirahman, In the same way, Italians made their direct claims of Italian Somaliland and its coast in It was in the Italian occupied Somalia that the first ever protestant mission began through Swedish Lutheran Missions.
In the British protectorate of Somaliland, however, protestant missions were prohibited by request of the Somali clan leaders. Although we do not have a 1 The pioneer missionaries that arrived to the Somali and Oromo people were the Swedish Evangelical Mission. Brief Discussion of the History of Protestant Mission among the Somalis Although my main focus in this paper is to discuss the life and ministry of Dr.
Tibebu Haileselassie, I will do a brief review of protestant missions among the Somalis in Ethiopia. The first phase of protestant missions lasted from the advent of the Swedish Lutheran Mission in Somalia to the Phase one of the history of Evangelical missions s to s towards the Somalis can be considered as a success with the pioneering works by Swedish Evangelical Mission and John Ethelstan Cheese in Kismaayo, Jubaland.
Dr tibebu haile selassie biography: Dr. Tibebu served as teacher and
However, SEM faced significant challenge from the geopolitics of the Horn of Africa in that period which finally led them to be expelled by the Italian Colonial Authority in John was not as strong as SEM and he also had to travel to many places, establishing his station in Mombasa and as far as Muscat, Oman, working alone. For this reason, there was a significant gap in the mission field after the SEM left.
It is also noteworthy that the Ogaden Somalis on whom this paper mainly focuses on were not reached from to as stated earlier. Phase two was the period betweenwhen the British handed over Somalia to the Italians for ten years of Italian trusteeship under the U. N decision 3 and when evangelical churches and mission activities were ordered to halt both in Somalia socialist government and in Ethiopia Derg regime.
That Italian Somaliland shall be an independent sovereign state; 2. That this independence shall become effective at the end of ten years from the date of the approval of a Trusteeship Agreement by the General Assembly; 3. Yearbook of the United Nationsp. Hence, the Ogaden mission can now be studied under the Ethiopian missions. After the end of World War II, fascist Italy was expelled from Ethiopia with its repressive treatment of missionaries.
Emperor Haileselassie I had allowed foreign missionaries to work in the country even though there was a constant antimissionary threat from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. For this reason, in early s, the Emperor had given order to the missionaries to work on areas where there was no Ethiopian Orthodox Church activity in order to ease the tension and in a comity agreement was signed; in this arrangement, every mission agency was assigned to minister in a specific non-Abyssinian non-Orthodox areas in Ethiopia.
It was also comparatively the golden age for the Somali mission work, not only because of the convenient sociopolitical situations in Somali inhabited areas in Horn of Africa as compared to phase one and three, but also the mission activity in Somalia bore significant fruit. In phase three, however, things changed. The geopolitics of the Horn of Africa gradually made foreign missions or Christian missions in general difficult every place.
In Ethiopia, the Derg regime shut down mission organizations, missionaries were expelled from the dr tibebu haile selassie biography and their properties were nationalized. See Ahmed I. This conflict was one of the most disastrous wars in the 20th century Africa. The calamity this war brought forth is unparalleled in the Ogaden, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
However, it also paved the way for some mission organizations to reenter into Somalia and provide relief work. Although this period was so difficult for the church to thrive, there were also underground mission works done mostly by individuals and by few organizations. In Phase Three, however, things changed. The geopolitics of the Horn of Africa gradually made foreign missions or Christian missions in general difficult every place.
In Ethiopia, the Derg regime shut mission organizations and missionaries were expelled from the country and their properties were nationalized while in Somalia the Siad Barre socialist government did the same a bit harshly. This period was also characterized by the famine in the Somali inhabited areas following the Ogaden warone of the disastrous wars in the 20 th century Africa.
The disaster this war brought is unparalleled both in Ogaden, Ethiopia, and Somalia. However, it also paved some ways for mission organizations to reenter into Somalia and provide help in disaster and relief work. Although this period was so difficult for the church to thrive, there were also underground mission works done mostly by individuals and by few organizations.
Phase Three of Somali mission was characterized by persecution by the Ethiopian Derg government in Ogaden and the Siyad Barre communist government in Somalia. Missionaries were expelled both from Ethiopia and Somalia with their properties being nationalized. Although there were converts in underground, it was also difficult to maintain their faith in the area.
Other Ethiopians including Dr. However, most of the prisoners were released after 11 years. In major political events took place in both Ethiopia and Somalia. While Ethiopia was able form a transitional charter and solid Federal government that ratified a constitution that upheld individual and collective rights including the right to worship and assemble, Somalia did not have an official government until August 12, Hence, religious right and mission activity in Somalia did not show progress as compared to the Siyad era.
In fact, some claim that it got worse.
Dr tibebu haile selassie biography: Dr. Tibebu was born
The new Ethiopian constitution ratified in also made the Somali state among the nine autonomous regional states in the country. In August the Constituent Assembly officially transferred power to the new legislature, and the country was renamed the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. The new constitution provided self-determination and nine ethnically based regions Asnake K.
Hence, many Somalis who migrated to Somalia in since came back to Somali following the change in Ethiopia Abdi Samatar, Consequently, missionaries and mission agencies that were expelled in the Derg regime came back to full activity following the downfall of the Derg regime with Churches also getting reopened. The Ethiopian Mulu Wongel Church was officially founded in in Addis Ababa, even though it was late in that it was legally registered.
The Derg, the military junta that seized the power after overthrowing Emperor Haileselassie I intried to catch the attention of the Ethiopian people in various ways. One by which it showed its supposedly harmless face was its open espousal and encouragement of ecumenical relations between various religions. On the one hand, they were trying to create a platform from which they could gain influence and control over the leaders of the two great religions in Ethiopia.
The Derg announced its own version of the Chinese Cultural Revolution on 12th September when it had already been abandoned by the Chinese government because of its regrettable consequences. The newspaper mentioned that the government would not tolerate the hidden schemes of imperialists who sought to derail the Revolution by numbing the minds of the youth through idealistic thoughts.
Beginning in Juneflagrant denunciations of religion appeared in official newspapers such as Addis Zemen.
Dr tibebu haile selassie biography: › obituaries › tibebu-haileselassie
Dawit Wolde Giorgis, a former authority on the Derg period, noted that the highest echelons of the government had given instructions to the political cadres party officials and their cohorts to eliminate religion. Dawit adds that the military rulers began to make sweeping attacks against Evangelical Christians of the south and western parts of Ethiopia in the early s with unimaginable hatred.
As Pentecostalism and mainline protestant churches were under attack, the Mulu Wongel mission was highly targeted. The Mulu Wongel churches in country sides were also closed. This will lead us to anticipate the same had also happened in the Ogaden region. It was difficult to proceed with church service or even a house worship services because of the communist spies who would inform the local authorities.
For convenience, it is better to look at the ministry and influence of Dr. Tibebu and Lishan Agonafir along with the Mulu Wongel mission. Tibebu Haieselassie was born in Addis Ababa on September 8, and was a son of an Orthodox priest. Growing up, Tibebu was a brilliant student, excelling in all his studies, winning scholarships to the best schools in Ethiopia, and receiving awards from Emperor Haileselassie for his academic achievements.
He was a thoughtful and considerate child to his parents, siblings and friends, thinking beyond his age. Even from this group, Tibebu always ranked top of his class. After completing his secondary education, he went to Addis Ababa University and continued to excel and graduated from Addis Ababa University Medical school with honors in June Even though the country was under war from North and East, Dr.
Tibebu chose to serve the people in the east, in Ogaden region. He was placed in Kebrei Dehar, Ogaden. Tibebu served in Kebridehar, Ogaden for two years from During this time of his service with his wife Lishan, Dr. Tibebu also made it his aim to reach the local Somalis to reach them with the gospel in addition to the service he gave.
Tibebu, Lishan and their two relatives had worship service in their home at Kebri Dehar. Non- Somali people eventually came to attend the worship services in Dr. However, ethnic Somalis did not come nor were they converted in Dr. It is also necessary to note that there was no evangelical church in Kebri Dehar in those days; hence, Dr. Tibebu was a pioneer I his mission in the area.
Even though no ethnic Somali was converted in the two years Dr. He is our doctor. Do not harm him! It was during this time of service when he, along with nearly civilian residents, was taken as civilian prisoners of war into Somalia on July 24,when a full-scale war broke out between Ethiopia and Somalia. In his time in Somalia, Dr. Tibebu served his fellow prisoners as their advocate, doctor, and educator, fighting for their basic rights.
He was able to learn the Somali language, translate Somali text books into English and Amharic and establish a K school for the prisoners. He and his fellow prisoners were miraculously released from Somalia after 11 years. July 24 thwas a difficult day for the residents of Kebridehar, Ogaden. On that very day the Ethio-Somalia war broke out.
Tibebu and his friends were at their usual place, at the hospital, when they heard the first missile blow. The residents of the town ran for their lives and most of them took a shield at the hospital because it was thought hospitals would be spared from a war dr tibebu haile selassie biography. Coincidently, on this very day, while Dr.
Many bemoaned his poor land reforms which they believed impoverished the poorest of the society. Haile Selassie also had to contend with the famine of Tigray which claimed the lives of overpeople. On December 13,a palace coup by the imperial guard Kebur Zabagna was unsuccessful because he still enjoyed some level of support from the army and the police.
But the seeds of discontent had started to take roots as Ethiopia started engaging fiercely with insurrectionist in Eritrea and Muslim pastoralists, who felt oppressed and marginalized. The Emperor was quick to crush the unrest and restore order in Ethiopia. Rebellions in Eritrea caused a great deal of unease in Ethiopia. Ina small section of junior officers and senior non-commissioned officers mutinied.
Following the political instability, there was a general strike by workers to show their increasing discontent with the Emperor. The committee, which was chaired by Maj. Aman Andom went on to become chairman of the council and the head of state.
Dr tibebu haile selassie biography: Specific to this paper is the
The executions drew sharp criticism from Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen, who later ended up stripped off his title as the military abolished the Solomonic Dynasty completely. Emperor Haile Selassie died at his palace on August 28, — less than a year following his house arrest. The military government at the time stated that the Emperor died of completely natural causes.
According to them, Haile Selassie suffered a respiratory failure that they claim he picked up from a prostate operation he had a few months prior. However, there were claims that the military government ordered his death by strangulation. This claims surfaced after the Derg regime was overthrown. On November 5,the Ethiopian Orthodox church gave him a befitting funeral.
The funeral was attended by a number of followers of the Rastafarian movement, including Rita Marley, the wife of legendary reggae musician Bob Marley. Ethiopian imperial standard of Haile Selassie I. Primarily based in Jamaica, Rastafarianism is both a religious and social movement that hails Emperor Haile Selassie as the personification of God on earth.
He is revered as the messiah i. Haile Selassie himself never came out openly to reject or confirm the claims that he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. He did once say that he was simply a mortal man and that regarding him as divine being is a complete mistake. Did you know : To majority of the followers of the Rastafarian movement, the two most important days are: the coronation date of Emperor Haile Selassie i.
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