Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest.
Curious if anybody from Ethiopia made it our most famous people in the world list? This article explores notable Ethiopians, sorted by their fields, highlighting their significant contributions to sports, politics, arts, and culture.
Exploring Ethiopia's Rich Culture And History #ethiopia #part1
Historical Figures
Emperor Haile Selassie I
Haile Selassie I, born Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael, was Ethiopia's regent from 1916 to 1930 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He was the heir to a dynasty that traced its origins by tradition from King Solomon and Queen Makeda, Empress of Axum, known in the Abrahamic tradition as the Queen of Sheba. His internationalist views led to Ethiopia's becoming a charter member of the United Nations, and his political thought and experience in promoting multilateralism and collective security have proved seminal and enduring.
At the League of Nations in 1936, the Emperor condemned the use of chemical weapons by Italy against his people during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. His suppression of rebellions among the nobles, as well as what some western critics perceived to be Ethiopia's failure to modernize adequately, earned him criticism among some contemporaries and historians.
Haile Selassie I
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Queen of Sheba
The Queen of Sheba was a monarch of the ancient kingdom of Sheba and is referred to in Yemeni and Ethiopian history, the Bible, the Qur'an, Yoruba customary tradition, and Josephus. She is widely assumed to have been a queen regnant, but, since there is no historical proof of this, she may have been a queen consort.
Emperor Menelik II
Emperor Menelik II baptized as Sahle Maryam, was Negus of Shewa, then Nəgusä Nägäst of Ethiopia from 1889 to his death. At the height of his internal power and external prestige, the process of territorial expansion and creation of the modern empire-state had been completed by 1898. Ethiopia was transformed under Nəgusä Nägäst Menelik: the major signposts of modernization were put in place.
Externally, his victory over the Italian colonizers had earned him great fame: following Adwa, recognition of Ethiopia’s independence by external powers was expressed in terms of diplomatic representation at the court of Menelik and delineation of Ethiopia’s boundaries with the adjacent colonies. After defeating the Italians, he became the first black African king in modern history to engage in slavery of white European war captives held as slaves inside Ethiopia.
Mengistu Haile Mariam
Mengistu Haile Mariam is an Ethiopian politician who was the most prominent officer of the Derg, the Communist military junta that governed Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987, and President of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia from 1987 to 1991. Effectively a dictator, he oversaw the Ethiopian Red Terror of 1977-1978, a campaign of repression against the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party and other anti-Derg factions.
Mengistu fled to Zimbabwe in 1991 at the conclusion of the Ethiopian Civil War, and remains there despite an Ethiopian court verdict finding him guilty in absentia of genocide.
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Meles Zenawi Asres
Meles Zenawi Asres was the Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 1995 until his death in 2012. From 1989, he was the chairman of the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front, and the head of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front since its formation in 1991.
In 1975, he left college to join the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, and opposing the Derg. While his government was credited with reforms such as those that led a multi-party political system in Ethiopia, introduction of private press in Ethiopia and decreased child mortality rates, his government was also accused of political repression and various human rights abuses, curbing freedom of press. and dissent.
Athletes
Haile Gebrselassie
Haile Gebrselassie is an Ethiopian long-distance track and road running athlete. He won two Olympic gold medals over 10,000 metres and four World Championship titles in the event. He won the Berlin Marathon four times consecutively and also had three straight wins at the Dubai Marathon.
Haile had major competition wins at distances between 1500 metres and the marathon, moving from outdoor, indoor and cross country running to road running in the latter part of his career. In September 2008, at the age of 35, he won the Berlin Marathon with a world record time of 2:03:59, breaking his own world record by 27 seconds. The record stood for three years.
Haile Gebrselassie
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Kenenisa Bekele
Kenenisa Bekele is an Ethiopian long-distance runner, who holds the world record and Olympic record in both the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres events. He is the most accomplished runner in IAAF World Cross Country Championships history, with six long course and five short course titles.
He won the 10,000 m title at the World Championships in Athletics four times running from 2003 to 2009. At the 2009 World Championships in Athletics he became the first man to win both 5000 m and 10,000 m title at the same championships. Over 5000 m he has also won an Olympic silver, World Championship bronze, two African Championship titles and one All-Africa Games gold medal. Bekele is one of the greatest distance runners of all time, owning several world records and an array of medals.
Tirunesh Dibaba
Tirunesh Dibaba also known as Tirunesh Dibaba Kenene is an Ethiopian long distance track athlete and the outdoor 5000 metres world record holder. She is the current World and Olympic 10,000 metres champion. She has won in total five world track titles and five world cross country titles.
Born in the village of Bekoji, Dibaba was the 4th of 6 children. She is a member of the Oromo ethnic group, and was raised in the high-altitude Arsi Zone of the Oromia Region. She began doing athletics at the age of 14. Dibaba is part of an athletic family, with older sister Ejegayehu Dibaba winning the silver medal in the 10,000m at the 2004 Summer Olympics and brother Dejene marked as a future star. Their sister Genzebe won the junior race at the 2008 World Cross Country Championships.
Abebe Bikila
Abebe Bikila was a double Olympic marathon champion from Ethiopia, most famous for winning a marathon gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics while running barefoot.
Meseret Defar Tola
Meseret Defar Tola is a female long-distance runner from Ethiopia who competes chiefly in the 3000 metres and 5000 metres events. She has won medals at top-tier international competitions including Olympic and World Championship gold medals over 5000 metres.
Defar has been successful in the 5000 m at the Olympic Games, taking gold at the 2012 London Olympics, 2004 Athens Olympics and bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She has experienced similar success in the World Championships, taking silver in 2005 Helsinki Championships and gold at the 2007 Osaka Championships. Defar holds the indoor records for the 5000 metres, 3000 metres and two-mile run. She has dominated the 3000 m indoor event, winning four consecutive gold medals at the IAAF World Indoor Championships from 2004 to 2010.
Derartu Tulu
Derartu is the first black African woman to win a gold medal which she won in the 10,000m event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. The race, where her and Elana Meyer raced for lap after lap way ahead of the rest of the field launched her career.
She sat out 1993 and 1994 with a knee injury and returned to competition in the 1995 IAAF World Cross Country Championships where she won gold, having arrived at the race only an hour before the start. She was stuck in Athens airport without sleep for 24 hours.
At the IAAF World Cross Country Championships Tulu lost her shoe in the race and had to fight back to get 4th place. She also finished 4th at the Olympic Games where she was nursing an injury.
In 1997 she won the world cross country title for the second time but did not factor in the 10,000 metres World Championships. 1998 and 1999 she gave birth, but came back in 2000 in the best shape of her life and won the 10,000 metres Olympic gold for the second time. She had also won the IAAF World Cross Country Championships title for the third time. In 2001 she finally won her world 10,000 track title in Edmonton. This was her third world and Olympic gold medal.
Notable Ethiopian Athletes: Medals and Achievements
| Athlete | Sport | Achievements |
|---|---|---|
| Haile Gebrselassie | Long-distance running | 2 Olympic gold medals, 4 World Championship titles, multiple marathon wins |
| Kenenisa Bekele | Long-distance running | World record holder (5000m, 10,000m), Olympic record holder, multiple World Cross Country titles |
| Tirunesh Dibaba | Long-distance running | World record holder (5000m), Olympic champion, multiple World Championship titles |
| Meseret Defar | Long-distance running | Olympic gold medalist, World Championship gold medalist, multiple indoor records |
Other Prominent Figures
Liya Kebede
Liya Kebede is an Ethiopian born model, maternal health advocate, clothing designer and actress who has appeared three times on the cover of US Vogue. According to Forbes, Kebede was the eleventh-highest-paid top model in the world in 2007.
Liya Kebede
Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi
Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi is a Saudi Arabian/Ethiopian businessman and billionaire who lives in Ethiopia and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As of 2011, Forbes has estimated his net worth at $12.3 billion, making him the 63rd richest person in the world. This listing also ranks him as the richest person in Ethiopia and the second richest Saudi Arabian citizen in the world. As of March 2013, Forbes ranked Al Amoudi as the second richest black person in the world.
Al Amoudi made his fortune in construction and real estate before branching out to buy oil refineries in Sweden and Morocco.
Abraham Verghese
Physician-author Abraham Verghese is Professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford University Medical School and Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. He is also the author of three best-selling books, two memoirs and a novel. He was born in Ethiopia to parents from Kerala, India who worked as teachers. He was raised as a Malankara Orthodox Syrian Christian.
Verghese, his father's Christian name, being Malayalam for George, is a very common Suriyani name. In 2009, Knopf published his new book and first novel, Cutting for Stone. in 2010, Random House published the paperback version of the book and since that time, it has risen steadily up the bestseller charts, ranking #2 on the New York Times trade paperback fiction list on March 13, 2011.
Ismail Omar Guelleh
Guelleh was first elected as President in 1999 as the handpicked successor to his uncle, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who had ruled Djibouti since independence in 1977. Guelleh was re-elected in 2005 and again in 2011; the 2011 election was largely boycotted by the opposition amid complaints over widespread irregularities. He is often referred to in the region by his initials, IOG.
Julie Mehretu
Julie Mehretu is an artist, best known for her densely layered abstract paintings and prints. She lives and works in New York City.
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