Siniddu Gebru: Pioneer Woman Writer, Feminist, Patriot, Educator, and Politician

Siniddu Gehru: Pioneer Woman Writer, Feminist, Patriot, Educator, and Politician Reidulf K. Molvaer Frognerkilen, Oslo, Norway In the 1980s I collected the life history of several Ethiopian authors. Most of these portraits and sketches have been published in a book entided Black Lions: The Creative Lives ofModern Ethiopia's Literary Giants and Pioneers.1 1 also interviewed Siniddu Gebru and intended to include her portrait there, but she wanted it done in her own way. She said she was writing a sketch ofher life, and in that connection she was working on a number of philosophical essays that should present her views on various issues in some depth and which she wanted included witii her life story. Ad this she said she would give me. However, as time passed and notiiing was forthcoming, I wrote a sketch of my own, largely budt on a student essay about her, but with points added which I had from people who knew her. I asked her to read it and give her comments. The next time I contacted her, she said diat die essay was too superficial and contained some errors, and tiiat she wanted it done in a different way. I have included in my present portrait ofher the points from my first draft which she corrected, and as I never received any substantive materials from her, I have decided to publish what I have. Under die circumstances , I could not probe into the depths of her mind, soul, or heart. A letter she sent me in 1996 in response to one from me brought no new information.® Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 4, No. 3 (New Series) 1997, pp. 61-75 61 62 ReidulfK. Molvaer I was told that she had become somewhat absent-minded and forgetful by die time I talked to her, but tiiis was not evident when I interviewed her. As what is included in this article is the substance of diose conversations, I present my material with readers interested in Etiiiopian literature in mind. But Siniddu Gebru was a woman pioneer in other fields as wed. There are not many woman writers in Ethiopia. In former days, few girls were given an education equal to that ofboys, but this has gradually changed. However, still few women write, at least fiction. I firstheard of Siniddu Gebru in connection with her efforts to help the Black Lion patriots as a nurse during the war withItalyin 1936.2 Her one published book, only a tiny part ofher total production, was not easy to find when I wanted to buy it, but lucidly I was offered a worn copy by a Guragé street seder who knew of my interest inbooks in Amharic. Mïkaél Imru told me that once (when he was about thirteen years old) he was playing tennis witii a couple of Kentïhaï Gebru's "many daughters," Gebru ("short, stocky and witii a beard") came up to them and spoke to his daughters in German (probably he did not want otiiers to understand what he said). Gebru Desta was one of the most enlightened and progressive men of his time. He had been to Sweden for studies, sent by Emperor Yohannis IV, and to Switzerland to study German and Arabic, sentby Emperor Mindik ?. Later he was a member of the delegation representing the uncrowned ruler Abéto ïyasu (whom Siniddu told her grandson, Girma Yohannis, that both he and Lorénso Ta'izaz liked very much) at the coronation of King George V of Great Britain. Empress Zewdïtu and Ras (approximately Duke) Teferï Mekonnin (later Emperor Hayle-Sillasé) sent him to Britain and die United States after World War I to congratulate them on their victory. He also wrote a grammar of the Amharic language, one of the first to be written.4 I did not even know tiiat Weyzero (Mrs.) Siniddu Gebru was still alive when I wanted to write her story, but when I started to ask around in die late 1980s, I was told that she was alive and wed, but nobody could tell me where she lived. I knew the names of two of her sisters, and by going tiirough...