The veteran actor and director Debebe Eshetu, whose remarkable career left an indelible mark on Ethiopian theatre and cinema, has died at the age of 83. His contributions to the arts, both on stage and behind the camera, inspired generations of performers and storytellers.

Born in Addis Ababa in 1943, Debebe Eshetu attended the former Teferi Mekonen School, where he participated in the Boy Scouts and took part in amateur theatre productions led by French teachers. In eighth grade, at the all-boys school, he notably played a female role, one of his earliest experiences on stage. He later enrolled at Debre Berhan Teachers College, then administered by the Americans, where he became involved in theatre performances, further nurturing the passion for acting that had taken root during his school years. His studies, however, were cut short by student riots following the 1960 coup attempt against the emperor. After moving back to Addis Ababa, he pursued his passion for the stage by enrolling in the Performing Arts programme at Addis Ababa University.

At the Creative Arts Centre of Addis Ababa University, Debebe became an active member of a theatre troupe established by American director Philip Kaplan with Rockefeller Foundation funding. There, he landed his first professional role in Mengistu Lemma’s 1964 drama Yalacha Gabicha (Marriage of Unequals). A year later, he had appeared in Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin’s first English-language play, Tewodros, and later performed in Tsegaye’s Yekermo Sew (The Seasoned), a four-act drama also staged at the Centre. “The spark for theatre was lit at Teferi Mekonen School, but my true foundation was laid at the Creative Arts,” he told Ethiopia Observer. Of the fifteen original troupe members, only two endured—Debebe himself and Wogayehu Nigatu.

When the curtain closed at home, a door opened abroad

However, the Creative Arts Centre closed before Debebe and Wogayehu could graduate. Frustrated that their two-and-a-half years of study seemed wasted, they sought an audience with President Kassa Woldemariam. ‘What can we do? We don’t even have theatre departments,’ he acknowledged, advising them instead to take their efforts to the Ministry of Education. At the Ministry of Education, the official who listened to them asked why they needed further schooling for theatre, citing the then-popular actress Zenebech Tadesse as proof—”you don’t need formal education to succeed in the craft.” He advised them to approach embassies—if they agreed, arrangements could be made to send them abroad. “When we began our search, the first embassy we came across was near the Hotel d’Afrique—the Embassy of Hungary. We entered the embassy and met the educational attaché, presenting our case—blending truth and a touch of exaggeration—to explain how our studies had been cut short and opportunities denied.” The attaché explained that no scholarships were available for theatre—only two for agriculture, which Ethiopia had not yet used. He said he would see if it might be possible to reallocate them for their purposes. A few days later, they received positive news—both were awarded scholarships to study professional theatre at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.

After returning from his training in Hungary, he and Wogayehu had a hard time landing a job, since at the time, students coming home from abroad were often branded as radical communists. The fact that the two had studied in Hungary only reinforced this perception. After nine months of idleness, Debebe finally landed a job on a contractual basis. He was appointed to revive the Creative Arts Centre, which had become inactive a few years after Kaplan’s departure. He staged several foreign plays in translation and, as Jane Plastow notes in History of East African Theatre, ‘then opted to revive what he must reasonably have thought was a safe bet given its initial reception, directing Mengistu’s Telfo Bekisse. No issue was raised by the censors, but on the morning the show was due to open, a government van arrived. Workmen proceeded to remove all the chairs in the auditorium. Debebe took the hint. He resigned his post.’”

He spent the next few years working as a salesman and as a trainer of Amharic for Peace Corps teachers at Alem Public Relations Consultancy, which was established by Sibhat Gebreigziabher and Dereje Deressa. After the consultancy was discontinued with the arrival of the Derg, he began publishing a magazine called Kumneger, appointing Sibhat Gebreigziabher as its editor. Sebhat began his series Agafari Endeshaw, a humorous tale about a middle-aged man’s relentless efforts to outwit death, later compiled and published as a book. The magazine featured notable figures such as Mary Armede, Asnaketch Worku, Askale Menoshewa, and Abera Joro.

Over the years, Debebe performed in numerous productions, including Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin’s adaptations of Romeo and Juliet and Enat Alem Tenu (inspired by Mother Courage and Her Children), Mengistu Lemma’s Telfo Be Kisse (“Marriage by Abduction”) and Dandew Chebudie (adaptation of Chekhov’s The Bear), Aseffa Gebre-Mariyam Tesemma’s adaptation of Chekhov’s The Inspector General, and Negash Gebre-Mariam’s Ye Azawintoch Kebeb (“Senior Citizens’ Circles”).

One of Debebe Eshetu’s first international roles came in 1971, in a film about Arthur Rimbaud’s life in Ethiopia. The Italo–French co-production Una stagione nell’inferno (Une saison en enfer, or A Season in Hell) cast him as Emperor Menelik II. A few years later, he starred in the 1973 Italian erotic drama Afrika, directed by Alberto Cavallone, which follows an eccentric artist torn between his wife and a young Ethiopian girl and was filmed primarily in Ethiopia. In the film, Debebe plays the role of an inspector.

That same year, Debebe Eshetu played a key supporting role in Shaft in Africa (1973), which prominently showcased Addis Ababa, Massawa, and Harar. In Richard Roundtree’s third outing as the New York City private eye, Shaft investigates human trafficking and the slave trade. Debebe portrays Wassa, a double agent who meets Shaft and guides him in navigating the criminal network. The criminals are aware of Shaft’s identity from the start, and an African government enlists him to go undercover to dismantle the ruthless conglomerate responsible for mistreating and murdering migrant workers. The film proved a major success across Ethiopia, despite Emperor Haile Selassie walking out halfway through its premiere, after a scene in which Ethiopian actress Zenebech Tadesse, portraying a prostitute, briefly exposed herself. Debebe also appeared in other English-language films, including The Sailor from Gibraltar, Guma, The African Spy, Zelda, The Grave Digger, The Great Rebellion, and Red Leaves.

In Red Leaves (2014), Debebe Eshetu plays an Ethiopian immigrant in Israel who resists assimilation and holds fast to his roots. The film earned multiple honors, including the Anat Pirchi Award at the 2014 Jerusalem International Film Festival, the FIPRESCI Award in New York.

Beyond his acting roles, he directed and produced 28 plays, including Mengistu Lemma’s Teyaki (based on J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls), Tesfaye Gessesse’s Tehadiso, Ayalneh Mulatu’s Shatar Beye Fergu, and Tsegaye’s adaptation of King Lear.

In 1976, when he produced Mengistu Lemma’s adaptation of J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls — a play in which an inspector questions each family member over the death of a young woman — officials of the Derg took it as an allegory about who had killed Ethiopia. “We had to give a lot of explanations,” he told the Ethiopia Observer. Even the poster had to be changed. But the play was acclaimed, he said.

In 1987, he participated in a workshop on theatre, adult education, and development in Zimbabwe, and helped establish the African Actors Association, serving as its chairman for twelve years.

From stage to cell: Debebe’s political struggles

Debebe Eshetu was active in opposition politics during the EPRDF era, particularly after 2004, when he became an active member of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD). Following the contested 2005 elections, he was sent to Kaliti Prison along with other opposition leaders and journalists and was later released on pardon in 2007. In September 2011, Debebe was imprisoned on charges of alleged ties to terrorism and held in solitary, incommunicado detention for more than three months. During this time, a controversial video surfaced that sparked public outrage: hidden cameras had recorded him, and the footage—showing him speaking incoherently and expressing regret over his political actions—was broadcast on national television in a calculated attempt to humiliate him. Reflecting on the ordeal with characteristic restraint, he later remarked, ‘I could have brought charges, but I did not.’ He wrote about his prison experience in an Amharic book titled Ye Eminte Fetana (Test of My Faith). He said his time in prison was a period of learning, noting, for example, that he had quit smoking—a habit of many years—unlike many who take up the habit upon entering jail.

Debebe taught generations of young actors, translated Stanislavsky’s An Actor Prepares into Amharic for training purposes, and played a key role in shaping the country’s theatre curriculum. He also translated Dawit Wolde Giorgis’s The Red Tears into Amharic, as well as Roman Prochaszka’s Abyssinia: The Powder Barrel, which he rendered in Amharic as Etyopiya: Yebarud Bermel and published by TSEHAI Publishers. In their tribute, the publisher wrote that “this translation, now part of his enduring legacy, brought critical historical work into the hands of Ethiopian readers and reflected his lifelong dedication to knowledge and cultural sovereignty.”

Debebe, devoted husband to Woizero Almaz Dejen, was the father of four children and the beloved grandfather of eight.