A collection of poems by Poet Laureate Belatengeta Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin , Ethiopian poet, playwright, essayist and philosopher who passed away on Saturday, February 25, Prologue to African Conscience Tamed to bend Into the model chairs Carpentered for it By the friendly pharos of its time The black conscience flutters Yet is taken in. Into its head The old dragon sun Now breathes hot civilization And the wise brains Of the strong sons of the tribes Pant With an even more strange suffocation.
Its new self awareness In spite of its tribal ills Wishes to patch its torn spirits together: Its past and present masters With their army of ghosts That remained to haunt the earth Hook its innermost soul And tear it apart: And the african conscience Still moans molested Still remains drifting uprooted. On the grave of my friend, I stood. For blood and flesh, I stayed. And with faith I prayed, and prayed; For blood and flesh, he was robed.
And with doubt, I hoped, and I hoped. On the grave of my friend, as I stayed; โฆ On my future, I brood. I stood on the grave of a man. A tomb-stone of a man, I burdened. The grave of a man, I murdered: And with hope, my future, I sketched, When with prayer, my killer hand, I stretched. On the tomb-stone, of the man, I murdered:. I won! And I won, my daily wine, and bread! At the end of the rainy season in European calendar , the Emperor and Empress accompanied by their retinue descended the mountain to enjoy the hot springs of Filwoha where a large number of tents were erected.
The Empress Taitu admiring the beauty of the scenery from the door of her tent and remarking the softness of the climate, asked the Emperor to give her land to build a house there. In the following year, again according to the Chronicle, Taitu left Entotto and installed herself in her new house by the hot springs. Then began the building of the town.
Every chief was allocated an allotment on which to build his dwellings. The army loved staying there. And it was Woizero Taitu herself who ordered that the town should be given the name of Addis Ababa. On October 13 he reports that the Emperor has again left for the springs. On the following day, however, he says that he went there and found that Menelik and all his retinue except the Abuna had returned to the Ghebbi or Palace at Entotto.
