In memoriam - Tekeste Kidan Zerhanes

On June 6th, Tekeste B.G. Kidan Zerhanes left his body in his apartment in Courage. He was 79.

Tekeste, who in the late sixties came from Ethiopia to Ashram and Auroville and to whom Mother gave the adesh to “spread the light to Africa”, always kept the Mother’s words and love as the guiding principle of his life. Tekeste wrote to both the Emperor Haile Selassie and to Father Dioskoros, Archbishop in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, about The Mother and the creation of Auroville. As a result of this, Emperor Haile Selassie and Bishop Dioskoros were, after India, the first Head of Sate and religious leader to express in writing their respects to The Mother and support for Auroville and the ideals it stands for.

Backed by firm spiritual connections with the Ashram and Ethiopia, he strongly endeavoured to create an Africa centre and, after joining Auroville in 2001, connected with the Unity Pavilion and Auroville International with the same intent. One of the results was a week-long conference on developing an integral approach to collaboration between Auroville and African countries in Addis Ababa in October 2011. He also helped bring professors and students of architecture from Addis Ababa University to Auroville to work on the Africa House project.

Tekeste’s burial at the Adventure Burial and Cremation grounds on June 9th was followed a day later with a bonfire in his honour by the young people of the Africa House.