Bezawork: Plenty of Gold Indeed!

[Abtigiis]

The 'Tizita' genre, which is about reminiscing about the past - usually in a longing and wistful recollections, is to Ethiopians what football is to Brazillians.

 

It is a national treasure and pride and as such no single poet or singer can lay claim of exclusivity to it. Needless to say, there is no singer - old or young, modern or traditional, tall or short, man or woman, boy or girl, rebel or loyalists - who did not sing Tizita at one time or another. It is the world cup of Ethiopian singers - if you are great, you have to be there...

 

But no one sang it better than Bezawork Assefa, whose name is synonymous with Tizita nowadays.

 

Not the great Aster; not King Tilahun; not Mohamud Ahmed; not Minilik Wosenachew; not Teddy Afro.

 

Not even Mikael Belayneh whose modern rendition really came close!

 

Ultimately, doing the Tizita so superbly was to prove Bezawork's undoing in her later career. Nothing she produced in later years gripped the nation. Buna (coffee) with a rocking beat - far removed from the tranquil Tizita - was a modest success, but Bezawork did not shine ever after.

 

Bezawork's heart-seizing melancholic voice, the pain of unfulfilled love her facial contortion betrays, and the ingenuity and simplicity of the lyrics she munches on so romantically, is what distinguished her Tizita rendition from those done before and after hers.

 

Bezawork is assured of a legendary place in Ethiopian music and it is hard to imagine anyone who could ever rob her of her undisputed crown as the queen of all queens in Tizita!

 

More than any other song, Tizita when sang by Bezawork, has the power of dragging you out of the drudgery of life and transferring you to a land full of bliss and beauty.

 

If it does 't move you , then you must have the heart of a Maaddey, the mindest of Che, and the bitterness of Gabbal. Go and read Alkataa'ib! This world is not for the likes of you! ....Say again...What? ...Please stop the useless excuse you don't understand the language. Half of the CDs I bought over the years is Malian music and my name is not a Traore! Music is a universal language. That cliche is ace.

 

But Bezawork would probably have languished in artistic solitude if the late Ketema Mekonnen was not alive in her time, and did not rattle hearts with his fading yet tantalizingly bucolic voice, which graciously intersperses romantic lyrics between sam-ina-warq (Wax and Gold) poetic lines.

 

Sam-ina-Warq is a dualistic, paradoxical Amharic poetry, ubiquitous in Northern mountains, whose last lines are expected to send two messages from one single phrase or word. The wax is the supeficial message; the gold is the hidden one, which the wise ones ponder on for days to get it. This conflation of seemingly disparate messages is produced by either stressing or relaxing the incantations of few words, or playing with the sequence of words by conjoining them. When you get the meaning after several trails and tribulations, it is a eureka moment. The mystery is solved.

 

Ketema rarely utters one direct word. His lyrics are Wax and Gold from start to finish and the song is filled with intrigue and suspense. Like a movie. It has chapters and its own history and transitions.

 

One of his most memorable lines (not in the song I posted here) was when he decried social injustice by mocking society's behaviour when death takes one of its members.

 

Genzeb yaalawuna,Ganzab ya loow,

Sihed yaas taawiqal, ka wadha holaaw

 

"You can tell the have from the have-not,

By looking at their backs as they walk to the horizon"

 

The beauty of the lyrics - which no doubt loses potency and context through my lousy translation- is that the Wax describes the physiological (asthetically) difference between the haves and have- nots when they are alive rather playfully and in amusing way, while the gold is a more macabre affair. Entertaining and educating at once!

 

Listen to the Tizita duet of Bezawork - plenty of Gold in Amharic - and Ketema , and discover the nirvana of bliss and perfection. Unless you are that Tigre-worshipping Passerby who looks at art through political lenses! He can go and twist his shoulders and chest with Tertaraw Sibul's war chant against Eritreans... hufer tabagas!... Warriors of Shire and Adwa, children of Alula Aba Nafso, conqueror of Italians. Go take Barentu and Keren... the liver and heart of Eritrea....shame the moustached Wodi Sharmuta - Isayas!

 

Pity. Even in war chants, the Amharas do better. Of course, they don't fight better than Tigres. But instead of hufar... They have the inciting and instigating Zeraf, which highlights own bravery in a more philosophical way.

 

"Say Zaraf, zaraf!!" They Say, "Zaraf warms the mouth!" as they wield swords and sheilds!

 

Bezawork, plenty of gold in her voice indeed. A gem.

 

[Carafaat]

Nice song Abtigiis. I liked this version of Bezawork, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0wF8UeS3_g

[Abtigiis]

Thanks Carafat, of course you can see the transformation. She is more urbane now and the music is upgraded to match the times. This version is for young Wire. The old men like me prefer the old version with less music and more voice.

 

One of the most talked about enigma in Ethiopia is why all the great singers came second to Bezawork on Tizita, and why Bezawork's undispited talent failed to produce one other great song!!

 

I think she has other nice songs, but her debut Tizita - the one with Ketema - got viral and so widely enjoyed over many, many years that people simply concluded she cannot possibly do better. Mind you, the voice and the music is a plus, it is the lyrics that is gripping. In this new version you posted, she is saying many philosophical things!

[Carafaat]

Listen to this version of Tamrat Desta. kind of soul music, gives you the same feeling and goose bumps.

 

[Carafaat]

Aster Aweke seem to be inspired by the Tizita? mise anaa mooday?

 

[Abtigiis]

Nah! Carafaat, Tamirat is nowhere close...this is Tizita, not the Hakime nesh yelling of his that titilate the youth!

 

Aster's fikrin cherishew ( I finished love!) is great. I was not back home when it was released last year to read the mood, but I know it was well received. Yet, if you just say Tizita, 10 out of 10 Ethiopians will most likely say Bezawork!

 

Michael Belayneh did a fine job. I think the best from the male side.

 

[Haatu]

Apophis;897780 wrote:

Sometimes I can't tell a difference between galti & axmaro.

Now you know why reer NFD and Waamo employ 'xalaaleyn' when they pay us a visit

 

Soomaali Amxaar is moodey wax ka fool xun ma laha.

[Carafaat]

Indeed, Fikeren Cherishew is a great song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=tBpt3bDwqPU&feature=endscreen

 

@Haatu, aflagada jooji. Ethiopian music is more authentic and original then the recyled western crab. .

[PasserBy]

Well put, Abtigiis. It is as if Bezawork was created to sing Tizita. She has had many different songs over the years, but she will always be remembered for Tizita. But I beg to differ on the modern version of Tizita. It is not a new thing. I remember listening to the swinging 60s era songs on vinyls that my dad bought before I was born (Mohamed Ahmed, Alemayehu Eshete, Tilahun Gessesse ...). I especially loved listening to one particular song called Tizita. I forgot the name of the artist. The guitar sound was so unique and off the hook that it still plays in my head.

 

The lyrics go like this:

 

Tizitash zewetir wedene eyemeta (twice)

 

efoy yemilbet hiwote gize ata

 

la lalala lalalala ....

 

 

this all I remember of the song.

[PasserBy]

Sometimes I can't tell a difference between galti & axmaro.

 

Shoa amhara, to some extent Gojjam Amhara, and Oromo have intermixed over the years that sometimes it is very hard to distinguish them.

[Abtigiis]

Wogane, I did not say Tizita is a modern phenomena. I mentioned it was there even before Bezawork did her rendition. I was talking about which modern artist did well. I know Tizita was as old as the country.

 

Galti is a name given to my folks when they go to jubbaland. He was saying that one can't tell between a somali from my region and Amharas; not Galla-Amhara mix.

[PasserBy]

Osman's errant boy,

 

I don't think you understood what I wrote. I meant to say Modern Tizita is not a new phenomena. It was done in the 1960s. That was my point.

 

As for the galti thing, blame it on LOST IN TRANSLATION.

[Abtigiis]

...but that is what I am saying! Has Tizita also become an ONLF and we should fight over it?!

 

Zare ba tena new? Araqe new ways tej? Just read what i wrote, it is the same as what you said. I am saying Tizita is not new, but modern singers do renditions. Of these modern artists, I was saying for me Miki came close!

 

Did you get it now atta wadi chigaram Tigre!

[PasserBy]

Well, the only thing we agree on is Bezawork is Tizita. The rest of your mambo jumbo is worse than Osman's ONLF. BTW, I don't know who miki is. Nor do I care. Bezawork is good enough for me. And no, I don't drink tej or Areke. I drink Siwa.

[Abtigiis]

Ay gid yelem zare birille chabitahaal! Maryamin! And I think you have abisho when you touch the yellow honey.

 

By the way is the right reply for wogane ( which i called you despite our political differences) Osman's errand boy? Why do I have to invoke the old adage that a donkey can not send you a thank you card for feeding it ice-cream. It prefers galaba.

 

...oh I missed that one. You drink siwa?? Hahaha. And then why do brave men who drink siwa (death) nag me online? Emperor Tewodros did it in Maqdella and he died as siwa is not a drink or food but the taste of courageous death??

 

Your types can't drink siwa. You are boqbaaqa (a bit lower than a coward)