Teddy Afro, Ethiopia’s biggest pop star, was born on 14 July 1976 to parents of artistic talents and fame.  Afro, born Tewodros Kassahun, is known as Ethiopia’s Bob Marley, thanks to his occasionally socio-political lyrics and his frequent use of roots-reggae rhythms.

 

While his mother, Tilaye Arage, was well known in Ethiopia for her professional dancing in her younger days, his late father, Kassahun Germamo, was a renowned and highly-regarded Ethiopian songwriter. Since musical talent runs in the family, it is easy to conclude that Teddy Afro was predisposed to have admirable musical talents too. 

 

As evidently stated by Teddy Afro himself in his tribute song to his late father called Music – My Life, Teddy’s father always resisted the idea of his son becoming a musician. \ Regardless of his father’s wishes, however, Teddy trusted his own instincts and saw himself doing anything but singing as a career to arguably become the single most popular pop-star Ethiopia has produced in many years. Not only is he a vocalist that countless Ethiopians have come to adore, he also writes his own lyrics, which many say are filled with meanings, enabling him to sing songs that mean something. His father did not live long enough see the effects of his son’s music on the lives of countless Ethiopians all over the world. But Teddy tells his deceased father in Music – My Life, that he will continue to exist through the artistic works of his son. In Music – My Life, Teddy also confesses that his life is intrinsically intertwined with music that he cannot live outside of it, and that he was destined to be what he has become.

 

Ten years ago, the name Teddy Afro was non-existent as a celebrity and it wasn’t until 2001 that he really stepped into the limelight. What Teddy has become since is something beyond what he would have ever contemplated for himself.

 

Heralded throughout the Ethiopian diaspora since 2001, Teddy and his band, Abogida, toured the world bringing many of his sensational songs that have made him famous live to his fans. From South Africa to North America, the Middle East and Australia, he criss-crossed the world to entertain and convey messages of peace, love, hope and unity in a language almost anyone can understand.

 

Afro is little-known in the Anglo music world—he is not even mentioned at allmusic.com—but he has received some media attention here in articles discussing  his attitude toward his country’s government, as well as his recent jail time.

 

Afro’s profile at home grew when the Ethiopian government banned several of his songs as part of a 2005 post election crackdown. 

 

Then, after a controversial indictment and trial, Afro began serving a jail sentence in 2008 for a 2006 incident in which he allegedly hit and killed a homeless boy with his BMW and fled from the scene. Afro maintained that he was innocent and that the government trumped up the charges because of his political criticisms. He spent 16 months in jail.  A judge had originally sentenced him to six years but an appeals court ruling and time off for good behavior reduced his jail time.

 

However, don’t expect Afro to cross over to Anglo audiences based on that rebel-poet image, at least immediately. He sings in Amharic and his music often has the very smooth, loungelike feel of quiet-storm R&B. While many of us may just hear polished crooning, the Ethiopian community will hear his messages—his pleas for peace in his homeland, his pronouncements of love, and his ode to Haile Gebrselassie, an Ethiopian gold medal-winning long-distance runner.