Tewodros Kassahun aka Teddy Afro
Born: July 14, 1976
Spouse: Engaged To Amleset Muchie
Parents: Kassahun Germamo & Tilaye Arage
An Excerpt from Biography
They tried to show art without the five talents but failed to foretell either the boy’s life journey or his destiny. His father’s soul was inspired by goddess of art. He became a stage conductor. He humored studying and observing the legacy of people who made history and mocking them by changing his voice and character. He fell in love while he was getting his fame with his poetry and whenever he felt like it, creating interviews by drawing out phrases in various stages. The young lady that he saw did not disappoint him. They became close.
Kassahun Germamo
He admired her dancing style. She praised his charming approach. Love prevailed. They longed for marriage. A music composer who heard the news of the marriage has beaten everyone to discharge the responsibility of marrying off. He folded the book of his music notes. He behaved his fingers off the piano and sang in his heart for the beloved ones.
Tilaye Arage
The actor stood at the front from those who requested to be the best man. They bonded through their common stage and humor. It made them to be close to each other. Stage performing continued. Months have gone while the stage host with his words and style, his wife with her dancing skill, the music composer with his ear pleasing melody and the actor with his act of his stage character glow the stage.
The 16 years old stage dancer became pregnant. After a while, she gave birth to a baby boy. She and her husband who were devoted for art, the composer who made the marriage possible and the actor who was the best man only tried to show their talent and told they were won over by what they have loved but have not foretold the boy’s life journey nor his destiny. The mother hasn’t wondered around looking for a name for her son nor has she pleaded for the help of others. She was gazing at the painting on the wall. She has been to Debrezeit before she gave birth. The painter has given her the painting of Atse Theodros. She muttered a sound while her eyes were fixed at the painting. She called out for her husband.
“Kassahun….Kassa! …” she thought of her husband’s name and named her son Theodros. Theodros Kassahun grew up. He was titled the first born. He celebrated his fifth birthday. The mother was not present at his sixth birthday. The couple began to live separately. Father took the responsibility of raising the child.
The boy grew tall. His age increased. The little boy understood his father’s wish in his big heart. He knew he favored him. He noticed his silence at home and entertaining character outside home.
The mother left her dancing career and became an office secretary while the father became a radio journalist leaving his stage hosting career. The boy who saw his mother dancing in television and who heard his father’s humor and his narrating style in radio was consumed by the feeling he had for art. At the gate of his adolescence, he wrote a whole exercise book of poetry and took it to his mother. She didn’t mind him much when he showed it to her.
He went home and tried to express his love for music to his father. He didn’t encourage him. Both of his parents have recalled their years on a stage. They have elevated audience of that time. Their only remaining treasure was the audiences’ and listeners’ admiration and their only fame was of the price they have paid for art. They didn’t want their legacy to be his.
The father tried to convince the child as the son grew with age and physique. He tried to encourage him telling him his wish and showing him the way he has to walk through.
The child fell in love with music secretly. He created music out of the life of his parents who went through art.
He went out of the way of the standard love lyrics and singing style. Just like other listeners, he pleased the heart of his mother and father yet from the beginning.
While he sang “tizita”, his mother was accompanying her sister who was in bed sick. She was surprised when she saw him and stunned when she heard him sing. She found herself without knowing it beneath the television before he finished his song.
The father was taken back by his only son’s song more than the crime investigation stories he narrates in the radio. He knew everything before few days. He didn’t press him like before.
He traveled outside Addis for business. When returned he was sick and was diagnosed with meningitis. He was treated. It was just after the recovery that he heard his son’s song for the first time.
He shared his happiness with his friends calmly. He was proud when they admired his son. When the boy’s songs were heard across the country with his unique lyrics and melody and when listeners admired and praise his songs, his father had already passed away. He continued creating lyrics, melody and backing melodies. He aggressively continued to work for himself and for others. His devotion showered him with love.
No one has foretold his life’s journey.
No one predicted his destiny.
In addition to his father, the five artists, the man that made their marriage possible; Colonel Ayalew Abebe and his best man the stage actor of Hager Fiker Theatre, Fiseha Haile have also passed away.
The painter Lema Guya aside giving his mother, Tilaye Arage the painting of Atse Theodros, has never thought that it would be the name of her son.
The actor who was the best man and the music composer who made the marriage possible has never predicted a famous artist will be born aside having done what they did in the name of love and marriage. The five artists were not aware that an art was born.