Ena istilini, is the greeting I was taught to say as soon as I took the stage to be the night’s director of ceremonies. It was a celebration of the Ethiopian New Year, 2018 and the commemoration of the just inaugurated Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. A double celebration to usher in a new year with style, attended by various ambassadors, consular, government officials, Ethiopian community in Zimbabwe and other friends.

Ethiopia is the only country that still uses the Alexandrian calendar, which unlike the Gregorian calendar, consists of 13 months with 30-day durations and the 13th month carries only 5-6 days. This is different from the 12 months in a Gregorian year.

As soon as I stepped on that podium, I knew I had to represent the Ethiopians well, the embassy was my paymaster anyway. What I have taken with me from this experience was how warm Ethiopians are. They are jovial and full of life, something that I fed into as the program ensued.

“Melikami adisi ‘ameti,” I shouted to the echoing responses from the Ethiopian community as we bid farewell to 2017 and welcomed the new year, 2018.

2018, which to us is 2025 has seen the Democratic Federal Republic of Ethiopia step into the spotlight with the finalisation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) which is the biggest hydro power dam in Africa and top 20 in the world. This feat was uniquely achieved through the able leadership of their Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed Ali.

The dam was built using funds generated from bonds given to citizens and fundraising from Ethiopian diasporas. It is reported that no foreign aid was used for this project and the whole five billion united stated dollars came from Ethiopians. The success of this project will see the issue of power resolved in the country and excess being sold to some countries in the horn of Africa.

In his speech, the Ambassador of Ethiopia to Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mauritius, H.E Rashid Mohammed Abdulwahid, emphasized that this dam was not built to be source of conflict but to be a pride for the whole of Africa. It was to help with renewable energy, it was to create employmentand power manufacturing industries. Over 45% of the 100 million population had no access to electricity and this dam was an answer to that.

“The success of Ethiopia is success to all of us asAfricans and this dam will provide so many opportunities,” he said as he declared the event duly opened.

Drawn from the Blue Nile, the dam stands at dimensions of 145 meters (476 feet) tall and 1,800 meters (1.1 miles) long, containing 10.7 million cubic meters (378 million cubic feet) of concrete. It holds a massive reservoir, Lake Nigat, with a surface area of approximately 1,875 km² and a total volume of 74 billion cubic meters. It will produce more that 5000 watts of power.

As the night progressed, we danced to Dudu Manhenga’s jazz sound and we also danced to some of the 80 Ethiopian dances, im told one of them is Amharic, where I was shaking my upper part following the rhythm and the lovely ladies around me. I needed the powerful coffee from Ethiopia after the gyrating.

For me, this night was eye opening and it made feel so proud to be African and I celebrated the new year with pride. Maybe, just maybe, byassociated I shed off seven years.

Happy New Year Ethiopia.