Ato [Mr.] Seyoum Woldemariam
Brief Life History
His students at the Special School for the Blind [Meriha Iwran School for the Blind] used to call him as “yeneta” a shortened form of “yene geta” [my lord] just like students of the Orthodox Church schools address their teachers. This could be because many of the blind boys that were admitted to Meriha Iwran School had come from Orthodox Church schools.
Teacher Seyoum taught his students Braille literacy and biblical principles. He played a leading role in the formation and development of the Ethiopian Association of the Blind [ENAB].
The Meriha Iwran School for the Blind was opened by the then Emperor Haileselassie I in 1952. A couple of years earlier, Ato Seyoum Woldemariam who lost his sight in 1944/45 [GC] came to Addis Ababa, most probably, in 1950 from Asmara and after staying in the Mekaneyesus Evangelical Church for a short period of time, moved to Entoto Swedish Mission School to teach Braille and handicrafts, to blind students that the Mission School taught Braille and certain other subjects side by side sighted students. By some chance, he met the Emperor in one of the streets of Addis Ababa who, on discovering that he was a Braille expert, chose him to become the Braille teacher of the special school for the blind that he intended to open sometime in the near future.
In the mean time, the Emperor made an arrangement through the Imperial Office, with the Entoto Swedish Mission School to accept on temporary basis, a number of blind boys he had brought to Addis Ababa with the intention of admitting them when the new special school for the blind was to be opened. Ato Seyoum was entrusted by the Emperor to look after and supervise the performance of the blind boys until they were to be transferred to the special school for the blind, following its opening.
Teacher Seyoum, probably stayed teaching at the Mission School for two years. On the eve of the inauguration of Meriha Iwran School which was to take place on July 23 1952 at the occasion of the Emperor’s birthday celebration, he was transferred to the new school with four of the boys who were staying with him.
As he was the only Braille teacher, he was responsible for instructing all the boys in the school which was supposed to accommodate forty boys; but this number was exceeded by about 10% before a year elapsed. However, the four boys that were already taught Braille, contributed in helping those who were unfamiliar with Braille.
The first Amharic Braille alphabet was designed in a way to correspond to the Amharic alphabet for the sighted. But, sometime after Meriha Iwran School was opened, the Braille alphabet was changed in a manner as to correspond to the English alphabet to simplify and make it more international. This involved the reduction of certain characters seemingly having the same sounds. Zena Wengel Ministry is not aware as to who proposed or designed the change. Later on, it was discovered that the change resulted in serious disadvantages. Consequently, a revision of the Amharic Braille alphabet had to be made.
Teacher Seyoum Woldemariam prepared his teaching materials by transcribing passages from the Amharic Bible into Braille The ten commandments from Exodus and passages from Proverbs were the main focus of his teaching materials.
While, still in the Entoto Swedish Mission School, he even prepared small Braille books for awarding students who stood first and second. This was of course in the first Amharic Braille alphabet. Besides, he had the four gospels in the same Braille alphabet which the four boys were asked to read during class. We do not have clear evidence as to who transcribed them into Braille. But one possibility is that Teacher Seyoum himself did the transcribing. No substantial Braille transcription took place with the modified Amharic alphabet. Perhaps, Teacher Seyum did not like that Braille Alphabet.
Ato Seyoum Woldemariam was born in 1914 [GC] in Asmara and grew there with his brothers and sisters under the care of his parents. During his youth, he got training in vehicle driving and became a professional truck driver for an Italian company at a relatively young age. His profession gave him the opportunity of seeing various towns and places of Ethiopia, particularly, those in the north and north western areas of the country which had road access.
In the course of his tenure of service, in Meriha Iwran School he used to sing spiritual songs during the Ethiopian Christmas and Easter seasons to his students, staff members and guests present at the school accompanying himself by his mandolin. Besides, he composed both spiritual and patriotic songs in Amharic or Tigrigna.
One of the songs went like:
Our “kedamawi” [Emperor] was born on this day,
on which day, it became perfect light and darkness vanished away.
Let us never be unhappy due to our blindness,
As long as his Majesty, majestically reigns…
Another song was about, Ethiopia stretching or outreaching her hands to Almighty God [which is based on Psalms 68, 31] He sang it in Tigrinya.
He made his students sing such patriotic songs at special occasions such as the birthday celebration of the Emperor. In the mean time, Teacher Seyoum established close ties with members of the nobility, high ranking military and civil government officials as well as members of the upper class community. This fact ensured his success when he initiated the idea of establishing a national association of the blind in cooperation with other blind fellow Ethiopians. Thus, when the Ethiopian National Association of the Blind [ENAB] was founded on January 2, 1960, well known high ranking military and civil officials as well as notable members of society became its board members and supporters contributing a lot in financial and moral support. Teacher Seyoum became the first president of the Association. He invited a few of the senior students to become founding members during the formation of the Association. During his presidency, he succeeded in securing 30,000 square meters of urban land close by the present Armed Forces Hospital. This was a great achievement. He was awarded by the Emperor for his distinguished service to his country and the cause of blind people in Ethiopia, a medal of “The order of the Star of Ethiopia”.
After Teacher Seyoum completed his service as president of ENAB, there was an organizational structure change of the Association in which involvement of government officials became more conspicuous. Accordingly, there was a period of time during which the president of ENAB was a government minister. This lasted until the end of the imperial era following which blind members of ENAB were left to take matters into their hands. But still, the Ministry of Social Affairs of the Derg government had a role to play.
Ato Seyoum Woldemariam Got married to W/t Ts’rha Nemariam in the early 1940s. He had a happy and successful marital life lasting for nearly five decades. He had six children-—four boys and two girls.
Teacher Seyoum’s teaching service came to a conclusion with the transfer of the Meriha Iwran School with its staff and elementary students to Sebeta in 1962/3 [GC] where he became deputy director of the new school. He was then founded and was appointed as the director of the Abrha Bihata School for the Blind in Asmara the following year [1964 GC], where he served in the same position until his retirement in 1976 [GC]. He died at the age of 73 in 1987 [GC].