Some people do not represent a place. They reveal it.
Debre Zeit was not only where we lived. It was where ways of being were practiced daily — often without naming them.
The lakes did not rush. The schools did not shout. The streets did not compete for attention.
Life moved with a certain rhythm — steady, observant, communal.
It was in this rhythm that we grew.
Debre Zeit offered:
proximity without intrusion
discipline without harshness
expectation without humiliation
freedom without abandonment
It did not demand excellence. It assumed effort.
And among us was Tebabu.
Not as an exception, but as a clear expression of what the place made possible.
He listened before he spoke. He studied without spectacle. He helped without keeping score. He carried intelligence lightly and responsibility seriously.
In him, the place became visible.
Not because he was perfect, but because he was consistent.
Debre Zeit shaped people who learned:
to think before reacting
to value preparation over performance
to treat knowledge as shared, not hoarded
to move forward without severing where they came from
Tebabu carried this quietly into the world.
When he left Debre Zeit, the place did not leave him.
And when he left us, the place did not disappear.
This page is not about loss. It is about continuity.
About how a place lives on through those it formed. About how remembering a person can sharpen our understanding of the ground beneath us.
Debre Zeit is not frozen in time. It is still moving — through memory, through values, through lives shaped long ago.
To understand the magic, we begin with the place.
And we see it most clearly through someone who carried it well.
Unique Feature of the Place
One event in Debre Zeit that imprinted a lasting memory is the annual celebration of Irreecha. Irreecha meant a lot of things to different people, but for us when we were growing up, it meant festival and lots of singing and dancing.
Lake Hora have been used as cultural festival (Irreecha) destination for a long time. It still used now, although Addis Ababa celebration has been added to make it a national event.
In the 1950s and 1960s, when we were growing up in Debre Zeit, Irrechaa was one unique Oromo cultural festival we look forward to go to. Irrechaa is a big festival held every year under a big tree by lake Hora. The festival occurs just as the rain season ends and the fields are field with green grass and yellow flowers (Addie Abeba). Participants of the festival flock to Lake Hora to give thanks to Waka (God), join friends and family to dance and get merry as well as some come to wish for fertility.
Most of the essence of Irrechaa cultural values remained the same over time. However, Irrechaa is now also celebrated in Addis Ababa at Meskil square. This increased the visibility and number of participants of the celebration. A cultural celebrations which was unique to Debre Zeit is now a national celebration.
