Your mind literally twirls in the ether as you get massaged through your core by melodic tunes and vibrant bass of our country’s musika.

by:  Teddy Fikre  written:  Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

Promoting is an art as much as it is a skill.  Promoters have to hone their skill over years, getting to know their customers, their preferences, their desires and their needs.  Promoters are conveyors of the consumers’ dreams, they deliver to their clients their inner most yearnings. This art is one that is very demanding on the ones who dare to practice it, a promoter has to be on the constant cutting edge or else fear being obsolete.  Add to this mix the difficulty of promoting to the Abesha community and an aspiring promoter in the Abesha community could soon find themselves drowning in confusion.

It is with this backdrop that I introduce you to a family of promoters named DC Abesha.  When I say family, I mean literally family, this crew—Desta, Tefera, Malik, and Dawit—have made it a mission to highlight and promote the Ethiopian and Eritrean culture through weekly parties in DC and Addis.  DC Abesha did not arrive at this stage by sheer luck and happenstance, they did so through meticulous planning and perfect execution.  DC Abesha does it all, they throw parties for every occasion and Ethiopian event.  Need to go celebrate Gena—go see DC Abesha.  Want to celebrate Addis Amet—go see DC Abesha.  Want to celebrate Enqutatash—go see DC Abesha.  Want to just celebrate just for the sake of celebrating—yeah like I said, Go see DC Abesha.

DC Abesha ’s parties are less parties and more like galas, going to their galas is literally an escape from reality.  From the minute you enter the gala, you are greeted by either Malik or Tefera.  They welcome you with warm smiles and a welcoming three kisses on your cheeks.  I have seen Malik offer to take a lady’s jacket or buy a perfect stranger some beer to make him or her feel like they are at home.  From there, you enter the gala and find yourself transformed literally back to Addis.  You look about you and you will see hundreds of Ethiopians and Eritreans dancing on the dance floor.  One second you hear Ethiopian music, then Reggae, then Hip-Hop, then back to Ethiopian music. Your mind literally twirls in the ether as you get massaged through your core by melodic tunes and vibrant bass of our country’s musika.  Finally, you hear that sound, what is that…abeba yonesh, abeba yononesh….oh snap you run to the dance floor to jump and eskista to Teddy Afro.

This is what happens the whole night, you sweat, you celebrate, and you compete with perfect strangers.  You forget about all your troubles for at least four or five hours.  Thanks to DC Abesha, you are delivered to Nirvana and given breath to tired lungs through the help of the DJ.  You look up and you see Malik shouting out random people on the mic and there comes Tef with the camera taking DOPE pictures.  What else could one ask for, you found an oasis of Ethiopia in the middle of Chocolate City.  Finally, after four hours of dancing, you head out the door and there stand Malik, Tef, and Desta thanking you for coming out to celebrate with them.  See what I mean, promoting is an art, unless you cater to the needs of your clients, you are not a promoter, you are just a street hustler.

So thank you DC Habsha for making it happen, for giving the Diaspora Ethiopian community—especially one like me who has been away from Ethiopia for 30 years—a taste of what Addis feels like.  The thing I love about our community is that we eat together, we pray together, and when the time comes, we celebrate together.  I am thankful that a DOPE family of promoters by the name of DC Abesha is the crew that lets us celebrate together.  So next time you find yourself trying to figure out what to do for Gena, Addis Amet, Enqutatash or just for any random weekend and feel the yearning to celebrate, holla at your boys DC Abesha , trust me, they will make sure you are well taken care of.  That is why they are continuously promoting Abesha.

[click to see DC Abesha]

[click to go to DC Abesha website]

Author

Teddy Fikre

[click to view profile]

[click to follow on twitter or follow @browncondor]

We would love to hear your comments/feedback.  Also, share this on Facebook, tweet it on twitter, or print it and give it to your grandmother.  If you would like to follow us on Twitter, you can do so @browncondor

To get in touch with us, send email to info@browncondor.com