Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou: the Ethiopian nun who devoted herself to music
It takes a tremendous amount of self-will for somebody to devote themselves entirely to one cause – whether that be political, religious or artistic. Luckily, figures like Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou exist to prove to us mere mortals that such a feat is certainly possible. Rising from East Africa’s cultural centre, Ethiopia, Tsegué-Maryam devoted herself entirely to improving the lives of others, either through her work as a hilltop nun or through her incredible musical talents.
The gifted pianist was born Yewubdar Guèbrou under the rule of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1923. At only six years old, she was sent away to Switzerland, where she studied the violin at a boarding school. It was within these mountainous surroundings that Tsegué-Maryam showed her first signs of musical excellence, building upon them upon her return to Ethiopia at the age of ten, when she became a singer for the Emperor. Abruptly, though, historically significant events got in the way of her musical development when Tsegué-Maryam, along with her wealthy family, was imprisoned in Asinara during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.
Following the bloody war, which resulted in a victory for Italy, the violinist and her family were freed, and Tsegué-Maryam began studying under the celebrated Polish musician Alexander Kontorowicz. Rather than continuing her studies, however, Tsegué-Maryam devoted herself to her faith, moving to a mountain-top monastery in Ethiopia and becoming a nun, completely abandoning her musical life. In 2017, she told the documentarian Kate Molleson, “I took off my shoes and went barefoot for ten years. No shoes, no music, just prayer.”
Seemingly, these years of pious contemplation and dedication served to intensify her later devotion to music. Upon her return to the vibrant world of instrumentation, beginning to compose tracks for the violin as well as piano. It was these compositions that would expose the Ethiopian composer to the wider world for the first time, releasing her debut record, Spielt Eigene Kompositionen, in Germany in 1963. Although much of her music career centred around European influences, due to her penchant for the traditions of classical music, she managed to imbue all of her work with a distinctly Ethiopian style.
Throughout the 1970s, the gifted multi-instrumentalist would continue creating these incredible compositions. The first thing that strikes you about her body of work is how deeply emotional and moving her work is, both in terms of her unique piano style as well as the captivating melancholy in her voice, which often evokes Édith Piaf on tracks like ‘Clouds Moving on the Sky’. Much of her music would detail her heartbreak at being away from her home nation, which was experiencing a particularly tumultuous time politically during the mid-20th century.
Despite her undeniable genius, global events soon got in the way of her musical career once again. In 1984, the pianist was forced to flee her native Ethiopia after facing subjugation for her religious beliefs under the military dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. She ended up in an Ethiopian Orthodox convent in Jerusalem, where she remained until her death in 2023 at the age of 99.
It is often said that great art comes from great suffering, and if that is true, then it goes some way to explaining the unique brilliance of Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou’s music. Throughout her life, she witnessed setbacks, war, oppression and exile and channelled it all into her celebrated body of work. Even today, decades after the majority of her recordings were first released, her music remains perhaps some of the most emotionally moving music to ever arise from the vibrant nation of Ethiopia.
