02/12/2023
Dear Teferi Assefa Negarit Band
We, the people of Lasta and the residents of St. Lalibela monastic town, are writing to express our disappointment with the unfortunate title you have given to one of your songs. We kindly request that you change the name of the song to "Hamina," which is the original name of the artisan featured in your music titled "Lalibela".
For your future reference, we want to clarify that the name "Lalibela" was given to the "Haminas" by the Shewan aristocratic family to tarnish the name of King Lalibela and his sacred achievements in transforming Christianity in Ethiopia. To this day, only people from Shewa refer to the Haminas as "Lalibela's", not in other places.
We are confident that you will understand our concerns and make the necessary changes as soon as possible. We appreciate your hard work in contributing beautiful pieces of art.
Despite the vocal nature of the artisan “Lalibela” culture (not the ancient city of Lalibela), Negarit Band creatively interweaves sampled freestyle vocal improvisations of the artisans' oral poetry with the basic “call-and-respond” African foundations of jazz music. "Cherota" achieves this ...
