WELCOMT TO SHESHEMANE

SHESHEMANE PIONEERS DEVELOPMENT OFFICE.

ETHIOPIAN INSIGHT LIAISON & RESOURCE CENTRE

This house was constructed by a group of friends from Birmingham who wanted to assist in the development of Ethiopia.

Mr Joseph Edwards (Habte Wold) is one of the original members who has kept that vision alive.

Now through Ethiopian Insight he has taken the initial idea of assisting the Pioneer elders in their later years of life forward into the new millennium,

Sadly the elders have all passed on, and Ethiopian Insight is now lifting that vision to a new height for the years to come.

INFORMATION CENTRE
Ethiopian Insight is in the process of establishing an independent office in Sheshemane…
To create a positive public perception of Africa and to disseminate information about activities & opportunities throughout the continent.

To organize the Insight Pilgrims Tours, we wish to ensure a positive experience to our clients, visitors & young people while learning about Africa and the many cultural aspects that exist side by side.

Distribute basic & accurate information relating to living in Ethiopia, to buy, rent or lease building materials and general assets.

RESOURCE CENTRE
Make available a community focus point that operates for the benefit of the people.
To utilize human resources for the benefit of the community.

DEVELOPMENT & BUSINESS HUB
To facilitate workshops & classes for adult education, development strategies, international business support networks, community think tanks.

To create a path which will allow progressive individuals to channel their energies.

MARKET GARDENING CENTRE
Mr Carl Nugent (Gebre Meskel) of H&G Agro Industries oversees the market gardening projects while assisting in the general administration.

To offer work / training to local youths.

PIONEER SETTLERS MEMORIAL MUSEUM & PARK
The history of the elders who came to Ethiopia in the early years must be memorialized and taught to our children from generation to generation.

WHY IS IT NEEDED

Next to Addis Ababa Sheshemane is the next most well known place in modern Ethiopia.
It is already home to hundreds of international residents from Britain, France, Germany and other parts of Europe along with many other places like America, Jamaica with the many Caribbean Islands living among thousands of local Ethiopians.

At the moment there are no out-posts or contact points in the southern region representing any of the many embassies that are responsible for their international citizens, and no central social community point from which the international residents can interact with the locals, there are no places where the young & old share time together, no women clubs, no table-tennis / table football, chess clubs etc.

The local & international communities would both benefit from a centre that would encourage, organise & centralise a greater proportion of the tourism market to visit Sheshemane as a historical & cultural location while providing a host of services for the users of the centre & the wider community.

The youth of Ethiopia & the youth of the international communities are crying out for a program that can create a sense of hope and offer them a chance of a brighter future.
The youth are talented and only need support and a push in the right direction, there are many thousands of people who are yet to visit Ethiopia and it is possible to cater for them while creating a unique service for the residents of southern Ethiopia.

(Dawit Baugh in Sheshemane)

SHESHEMANE THE EARLY YEARS

Sheshemane Land Grant in Ethiopia was given by Emperor Haile Selassie 1st. in 1955 after the Italian war to the black people of the world.

Members of an Organisation named Ethiopian World Federation which was set up by Dr. Malaku Bayen the Emperor's nephew & personal physician, asked to be allowed to settle in Sheshemane after working to organise support for Ethiopia during the Italian invasion which lasted between 1935 - 1941.

Friends & family gathered at the airport in Jamaica to see off Clifton & Inez Baugh, who were members of the Pioneers Settlers Corp which was set up to give support to it's people going to Africa.

Shashamane looks calm and cultivated today, but in 1968 when they arrived with their young family to inherit a portion of the land grant it was little more than a wild and forested area. But still they rejoiced having come home at the invitation of Emperor Haile Selassie 1st during his 1966 visit to the Caribbean & Jamaica.

Papa Baugh built a house for his family from wooden planks, then he began clearing the land for farming, there were other settlers on the land grant but the Baugh’s were one of the first real farmers to settle on the land grant planting many fruit trees and crops while living off the produce from their own garden.

The years between 1968 and 1974 were generally hard but happy.Papa & Mama Baugh first met the Emperor as the Imperial motorcade stopped in Sheshemane on route to Lake Awasa in the southern province of Shoa.

The Emperor got out on the kings highway and asked “Where are my people?” the Baugh’s shouted “Here we are Your Majesty, here we are” and stepped forward.Papa quoted “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed Great David’s Greater Son here in this time appointed his reign on earth begun, Mama Baugh found herself bowing up & down over and over before the Emperor who asked them "what do you want"? We want to stay here your Majesty, “really, well why not, why not, let them stay”. The Emperor’s entourage departed, but an orthodox priest soon arrived to baptise them.

Papa says “it was a very dry time, but as soon as the Emperor left there was a downpour that washed a cow down the road, and when the priest come from Majesty there was no fighting what the Emperor had sent for us, and so we receive our New Names. The same applied to the Rastafari delegation which included Mortimer Planner each man had to be baptised before they were granted an audience with the Emperor.

The Imperial court subdivided the land in 1970 after the pioneers encountered difficulties in managing the land grant. The Emperor said that it would be easier for individuals to find assistance to aid their own development little by little instead of as a whole. The land grant was divided between the 12 permanent settlers on the land.

Mr Clifton Baugh signed as one of the original 12 and received his families portion of the land grant.

During the years between 1968 and 1970 papa Baugh was one of the main representatives of the Sheshemane pioneers settlers to the palace where he often met with a minister named Ato Tesfi to discuss the land grant, and papa would regularly deliver fresh garden produce to the palace in Addis Ababa which continued right up until the revolution in 1974.

During the revolution the marxist government captured the land from the people of Ethiopia and the land grant was also on their agenda. Their supporters planted their crops right up to the pioneers doorstep in an attempt to provoke them and chase them off the land.

Some of the original 12 land grant holders returned to the Caribbean like papa’s brother named Lanford Baugh, others went to Kenya to wait out the revolution which eventually lasted 18 years, but Clifton & Inez Baugh remained unmoved in Sheshemane even under the threat of death for anyone who supported the Emperor.

Another great figure who made the journey home is a man named NOEL DYER otherwise known to the wider Rasta community as Papa Dyer.He left Jamaica the country of his birth for England in 1961 as a young agile Rastaman seeking to reach his destiny of Africa, namely Sheshemane.

He arrived in England and spent approximately 3 years before he decided that he had enough of the belly of the beast.

He made a conscious decision to leave Babylon for that spiritual homeland Ethiopia, with only five shillings and six pence in his pocket he left for Ethiopia.

It took Papa Dyer approximately 1 year to reach Ethiopia.

He hitch-hiked through France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan arriving in Addis Ababa Ethiopia in September 1965. Papa Dyer was privileged to have an audience with H I M. He subsequently reached Sheshemane and maintained a presence on the Sheshemane Land Grant.

Papa Dyer passed away on 31 st July 2000 leaving a wife and nine children in Sheshemane.

Please E-mail any comments to

Info@Ethiopianinsight.com