The activist walked out of a meeting and addressed a group of people: “I want to show to all that death is preferable than a life without justice and liberty and I call upon my fellow compatriots to fear nothing and rise up to wrest freedom and our rights from the hands of the local and national tyrants.”
Brief Bio: The activist Teacher
Born in Jimma, Yenesew spent much of his teens in Dawro Zone, where his elder half-sister Tadelech Bekele lives. After completing high school, he joined the Awassa Teacher Training College. During the 2005 national elections, his passion for change and activism shined in Awasa. He proved to be an orator and organizer. But his activism attracted unwanted attention from local officials and TPLF’s secret agents, who blacklisted Yenesew and other activists.
Yenesew was said to be exceptionally well-rounded. Close friends and relatives unanimously say that he was a highly intelligent, conscientious, articulate and well-read young man. Though he used to teach English language at Tercha Technical and Vocational College, he was fired around two years ago, reportedly due to his strong political convictions and critical views. Losing his job in one of the poorest communities in Southern Ethiopia, had obviously been a depressing challenge that seriously affected and outraged him.
A former teacher of the late Yenesew, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says that he was not only conscientious but also one of the most outstanding students he has ever taught. Yenesew was an activist in the Waka movement, which was mainly triggered by the injustice and oppression that ethnic Dawros felt at the hands of local and regional officials (From a bio by Abebe Gellaw).
