{"id":281177,"date":"2019-07-09T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?guid=d155a1cc771c9c1f17e7f3a15972da63"},"modified":"2026-10-07T11:26:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T15:26:01","slug":"in-mekelle-a-reggae-ballad-for-tigrayan-unity-captures-growing-anger-at-abiy-ahmeds-govern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/281177","title":{"rendered":"In Mekelle, a reggae ballad for Tigrayan unity captures growing anger at Abiy Ahmed\u2019s government"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his cramped studio in Mekelle, the Tigrayan reggae singer Solomon Yikunoamlak, best known for love songs, was in July 2019 working on a ballad calling for unity in his native Tigray. He expected it to resonate with listeners who felt their region\u2019s authority fading under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. \u201cNowadays everybody becomes activists, and everybody becomes politicians,\u201d he told AFP. \u201cThis is because of the current problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alula
Alula Street in Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, January 2018 (A. Savin, Wikimedia Commons, Free Art License) [file photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since taking office in April 2018, Abiy Ahmed had loosened controls in long-authoritarian Ethiopia and upset power arrangements that had stood for decades. Many Tigrayans felt sidelined as other groups jostled for influence, and in Mekelle residents complained that they had been scapegoated for the country\u2019s troubles. Tigrayans make up about 6 percent of Ethiopia\u2019s population but were long seen as holding outsized power. After the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front helped topple the Derg military government in 1991, it became the strongest party in the ruling coalition. Under Abiy Ahmed, Tigrayans had been removed from top posts and in some cases jailed on corruption and human rights charges.<\/p>\n

The anger came into the open after the killings of five senior officials on 22 June 2019, which the government described as part of a coup attempt in neighbouring Amhara. Two of the dead, including army chief of staff General Seare Mekonnen, were Tigrayan, and at their funerals in Mekelle some mourners denounced the prime minister as a traitor. \u201cThere is a huge frustration here in Tigray,\u201d said Nebiyu Sehil Mikael, a writer and lecturer at Mekelle University. \u201cThere is a sharp opposition against the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of those targeted by federal authorities had become local heroes. Clothing vendor Zayid Meles said one of her best sellers was a T-shirt reading \u201cI am Getachew Assefa\u201d, after the former intelligence chief who was dismissed in 2018 and was wanted on an arrest warrant but believed to be living in Tigray. \u201cAll Tigrayans buy it,\u201d she said. \u201cGetachew is a hero.\u201d Mahari Yohans, a Tigrayan political commentator, said fears about the future outweighed frustration with the TPLF\u2019s record on democracy and poverty. \u201cThe politics of Tigray is the politics of security,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are under threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wondimu Asamnew, a Mekelle native and long-serving Ethiopian diplomat, said Tigrayans were increasingly entertaining the idea of secession. \u201cIt\u2019s very sad,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have started even to question whether or not they belong to the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tension had even reached football. Fans of Mekelle 70 Enderta were angered earlier in 2019 when supporters of a rival club tore down a poster of the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi during a match in Addis Ababa, and a later clash in Mekelle led the Ethiopian Football Federation to suspend the league temporarily. When Mekelle 70 Enderta won the league title at home in July, with party officials in the stands, fans set off fireworks late into the night. Not everyone welcomed the politics. \u201cThe so-called politicians need to focus on their politics,\u201d said fan Asmelash Nigus. \u201cIt would be better if they don\u2019t involve themselves in football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong> The Independent, Uganda (AFP)<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Calls for unity in Ethiopia’s Tigray as anti-Abiy sentiment swells  Yahoo NewsIn his cramped studio, Ethiopian reggae singer Solomon Yikunoamlak plucks his guitar and reads over his latest ballad, a strident call for unity in his native …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":837394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mekelle-alula-street-2018.jpg?fit=1280%2C854&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1b97","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281177"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837410,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281177\/revisions\/837410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}