Samuel Getachew: The king of Little Ethiopia

Samuel Getachew is a man with many plans, and 2014 is the year they could bear fruit.

For the Toronto community organizer, journalist, translator, campaigner and activist, the most ambitious is to see the designation of a Little Ethiopia in Toronto, the first official African neighbourhood in a city where Little Italy and Greektown are destinations.

There is also his plan to host a World Cup-like tournament among soccer teams from Toronto’s diverse ethnic communities, which he says he hopes will kick off in August.

But first on the 37-year-old owner of Sterling Janitorial’s schedule is Feb. 6, when he will vie to be elected president of the Black Business and Professional Association.

All that’s not to mention his scholarly plans — he is applying to study law at Osgoode Hall this year.

It is a crowded list for one man, sure. But Getachew has always been busy. A journalist and columnist for the Huffington Post, he also writes features for Indo-Canadian newspaper Generation Next and is a contributor to Ethiopian-Canadian monthly TZTA. He is on the board of Africans in Partnership Against HIV/AIDS.

Getachew has dabbled in politics, running unsuccessfully against Paul Ainslie for city councillor in 2010 in Scarborough East. His introduction to political campaigning was a big one: in 2008, he hopped a plane to the U.S., where he volunteered for Barack Obama’s presidential run.

In December, he won the city of Toronto’s William P. Hubbard Award for equity and human rights. It was the latest of several distinctions. In 2011, Ontario Lieutenant Governor David Onley presented him with a National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada award for community journalism.

There has been a warm connection between Ethiopia and Canada for decades, says Getachew. Canada’s aid to Ethiopia during its famine crisis in the 1980s forged a bond between the nations. Indeed, there is a restaurant called Oh Canada in Addis Ababa run by an Ethiopian who lived in Ottawa.

“They serve poutine,” he says.

So why not have a corresponding nod to the Ethiopians who call Toronto home — about 50,000, according to the GTA’s Ethiopian Association? Getachew envisions Little Ethiopia as a two-block stretch on the Danforth between Greenwood and Monarch Park Aves.

“They have a Little Ethiopia in California,” he says. “We don’t even have a section of anything named after an African country. I think that reality should change.”

Some argue that a Little Ethiopia wouldn’t make sense in the area, which is a relatively new neighbourhood in Toronto for Ethiopians. Many Ethiopians and Eritreans also live in the Bloorcourt and Victoria Park areas.

But Getachew argues that although Ethiopians live and work in many parts of the GTA, they own more businesses on the Danforth.