The man separated from his mother in Ethiopia the same year. He reunited this Saturday
borkena
Updated on October 10 , 2022 at 7:00 P.M. Toronto Time.
Birhan was born to his mother Kidan and his father Captain Mulatu in 1972. He was separated from his mother, Kidan, when he was only nine months old.
Until he was six years of age, he was living with his father who was a passenger jet pilot. But his father died at that age and Birhan had to grow up with his auntie from his father’s side.
Kidan has been searching for her son since they were separated, as she said during an online show
Just a single picture of her holding Birhan in babe in arms age is what she had when she appeared last week on the EBS television Saturday show looking for her son she saw forty-seven years ago.
“I have been crying all those years. Where are you, my son?” she said tearfully. A week later, her son Berhan who is now living in Toronto responded to the call.
He is the father of three children now. It was the family members who told him about the show. “When they told me to sit down and that there is something to tell me, I was saying to myself what happened,” Birhan said during an interview with EBS television.
He reflected when you are told “sit I have something to tell you” it is usually bad news, and I was thinking who died now.
His family members in Toronto who watched the EBS show in which his mother was talking about her son told him that his mother was found and he had difficulty believing it.
He had to watch the video of the show. Yesterday, Birhan himself was on that show virtually meeting his mother after 47 years. She was in tears again – this time out of sheer joy (Video of it shared below).
He was seen struggling to hold back his tears too. Many from the audience in the studio of the show were seen weeping.
It could make one very emotional for any Ethiopian.
From what Birhan said during the interview, the trouble reconnecting with his mother for all these years had something to do with government change after the 1974 Ethiopian revolution.
His father had a cotton plantation close to Metehara town, which is about 188 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa via the expressway, where his mother and father met.
But that plantation was confiscated as part of the nationalization of private properties. Kidan said she returned to Metehara looking for Capitan Mulatu to no avail.
And she did not establish contact at the time with the relatives and parents of Captain Mulatu.
As strange as it may sound, stories of family separations are not uncommon in Ethiopia. In fact, many have been appearing on EBS shows – some looking for their fathers. some looking for mothers. Others are looking for siblings. Some are lucky to reunite.
Yet, there are also cases when family members learn about the death of their loved ones after years of search. Sadly, it happens on a live show at times against the practices in Ethiopian traditions.
Before EBS Saturday show got popular the task of reuniting separated family members, Josy in the House show ( another Ethiopian broadcaster) reunited many separated family members including Eritrean and Ethiopian families.
Birhan is yet to meet with his mother in person after all those years.
__
To share information or for submission, send e-mail to info@borkena.com
Telegram Channel : t.me/borkena
Join the conversation. Follow us on twitter @zborkenato get the latest Ethiopian News updates regularly. Like borkena on Facebook as well. To share information or for submission, send e-mail to info@borkena.com
What an uplifting story!!! Congratulations Mom and Son!!!