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After a three-year hiatus, Ethiopian pilgrims celebrate historical ‘Timkat’ festival

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After a three-year hiatus occasioned by a devastating civil war, thousands of Ethiopians were able to descend on the northern city of Aksum to celebrate the ‘Timkat’ festival and religious holiday which will last for the next three days.

The Timkat Festival is an epiphany ceremony which celebrates the baptism of Jesus Christ, and is a very popular festival in the country as majority of Ethiopians belong to the Orthodox church. The Timkat is deeply important to them.

Celebrations of the festival were paused because of the civil war in the Tigray region, but with the end of the war almost a year ago, the people will now gather in the city of Aksum, which was the site of an alleged massacre soon after the war began in November 2020, and the country’s holiest city for Orthodox Christians.

Aksum is said to be the home of the Ark of the Covenant which contains the 10 commandments handed down to Moses by God.

Aksum has also become the focus for the annual festival of St Mary, and the city is a major pilgrimage destination with people coming from all over the country and beyond.

According to a description of the festival, the Timkat is a three-day event which starts with the procession of ‘tabots’ (holy replicas of the Ark of the Covenant) to a body of water in the afternoon of the first day.

In Aksum, this body of water is called the Bath of Queen Sheeba, with the festivities going on through the night with singing, praying and burning candles and incense.

The next morning, the crowds gather again for colorful ceremonies and more prayers. After this, the tabots are paraded back to the church and the church leader blesses the pool of water.

When the priests are done, it is finally time for the annual baptism, and at this point, every participant jumps into the holy water or try to get a bit of water on their forehead from the big water sprays.

Culture

Collabo with Burna Boy enabled me buy house for my mum— Mozambican DJ Tarico

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Mozambican disc jockey and sound-producer, DJ Tarico, has credited Nigeria’s Afrobeats sensation, Burna Boy, with his sudden wealth which enabled him buy a house for his mother.

DJ Tarico attributed a collaboration with the Grammy Awards winning “African Giant” as the turning point in his story and said he would forever be grateful to the Nigerian star.

Speaking with the BBC African Voice on Saturday, DH Tarico said when he came up
with a particularly energetic beat one day, he couldn’t have predicted how it would change his life and that of his two friends.

He said one of his friends, Nelson Tivane, a songwriter and vocalist, came up with the lyric “Yaba Buluku” which was “inspired by the sound of coins jangling in a pocket”, while the other friend, Preck, “belted out that lyric with his gravelly, powerful voice,” with the song becoming an instant hit in their country.

“After we concluded the song, we went to a rural zone and we put a car with a big sound there, and we connected the song on the car and we saw many people dancing and ask ‘who is the owner of this song?’ Then we knew this song was going to be big!” Tarico recalls.

He said he was surprised that
none other than Burna Boy, realised the strength of “Yaba Buluku” and jumped on the remix, a move which had a massive impact on Tarico, Tivane and Preck.

“We were travelling all over Africa. Too many big artists were asking us for features. People started to know our face outside of Mozambique. We became internationals.

“And money! I bought a car, land and a house for my mother.”

The trio who now call themselves “Yaba Buluku Boyz”, have dropped their debut album, “Donsa”, on Friday, and are hoping to ride on the success of the collaboration to reach greatet heights in Africa and globally.

“Donsa”, according to DJ Tarico, “is high-energy, danceable amapiano, and features big African names including Ghana’s dancehall King Shatta Wale, Timaya from Nigeria and Harmonize from Tanzania,” he said.

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African men run away from single mothers— Joselyn Dumas

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Veteran Ghanaian actress and media personality, Joselyn Dumas, has lamented the fact that most African men shy away from getting married to single mothers due to the added responsibilities they will be saddled with.

The actress who made the assertion in her recent podcast, “Keeping it Real with Joselyn Dumas, The Perfect Picture”, opened up on the challenges of many single mothers who are struggling to find a partner because of societal biases.

In the podcast, Dumas who shared a personal story of a male friend whom she said refused to settle down with a lady because she had a child.

According to her, the friend named Anthony, firmly stated that it wasn’t his thing to be with a ‘born one’ or ‘born two’.

“He said B1, B2, I’m not in and I said to myself, ‘this is the reason why a lot of single mothers are single with their children.

“Now his reason was, why am I going to raise somebody’s child? That’s not my bloodline. He doesn’t have my DNA in him. Why am I now going to help someone’s bloodline grow? What about mine?” she said.

Dumas who is a single mother, noted that Anthony’s mindset is a “reflection of the views of a larger majority of people who don’t want to have meaningful relationship with single mothers.”

She also criticised what she termed as the double standard in society’s views on raising non-biological children, arguing that it should not be seen differently from adoption.

“I have a child but these men won’t even ask you, they don’t even care why you have a child. You’ve had seven miscarriages when you got married. You meet a guy, you were dating and you got pregnant, are you going to abort the baby because you aren’t married?

“He doesn’t want the child, are you going to throw the child away? No! You can raise the child. It takes a village to raise the child, so even if you don’t have a job, you will get support. This is part of the sacrifice you have to make regardless of what has happened,” she said.

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