Music artist MIKE-E's song "WEY FIKIR (Alleh)" portrays a couple's story in a new music video that is about more than just romance. MIKE-E, who was born in Ethiopia to African American parents and raised in Reston, Virginia set out with multiple goals when he created the project.
“The song is about love, conflict, and reconciliation. Within that framework there are many metaphors at play,” MIKE-E told Blavity, adding that the video also expresses his hopes for his birth country, a nation that currently finds itself in political turmoil.
In the video, a young Ethiopian woman, Hewan Lemma, appears to be discontent when her long-lost lover, a Black foreign man, suddenly comes back into her life and shows remorse for the way their relationship fell apart.
"Selam, selam," the man says, announcing himself with the common greeting used in the woman’s language. "We haven't talked in so long."
The man then proceeds to express condolences for the tragic events that have transpired in his beloved’s life since they last spoke.
"I'm sorry about your mom," he says. "You're trying to be strong, ha? You hold the globe on your shoulders. Nobody knows when your soul hurts. But everybody needs a shoulder, wish I was there to hold ya."
As the couple lock hands and bring their uncovered Black bodies together, attempting to rekindle the fire from the old days, the woman still appears hesitant. Continuing with his effort to console his partner, the man follows up with common words of affection used in Ethiopia.
“Yene konjo, let me hold ya” he says. “Hodiyay, I hope you’re OK.”
But the video also encapsulates the “awkward and often hilarious stumbles” MIKE-E faced when he later visited Ethiopia as an adult. He said the experience is captured through various anecdotes in the song, including the man’s effort to communicate in a foreign language.
“Melkama, betesebwatish selam nachew?” the artist says to his East African queen, muttering with a foreign accent as he inquires about the well-being of his lover’s family.
The young woman eventually shows off a beaming smile as her admirer takes time to reminisce about the good times.
“Remember when I fed you injera?” her lover says, referencing the traditional bread which is commonly eaten with other Ethiopian dishes.
“Mama laughed at my accent, Ababa went to get us a buna with sukwa, another with butter,” the foreign man adds, reminiscing on the times he would sit down with the family to enjoy coffee with sugar or butter, a metaphor that symbolizes the beauty of Ethiopia’s diverse customs while also calling for harmony.
Speaking with Blavity, MIKE-E said there is also a message in the video about a traditional Ethiopian family extending their love to someone who is learning the culture.
“Rarely would we expect a man, let alone an elder, to go get us anything and serve us,” the musician said. “So all of that was a metaphor for the older generation being receptive to broader cultural acceptance.”
The visuals depicted in the latter stages of the video represent MIKE-E’s dream for Ethiopia, he said. As the setting transforms in the final minutes of the story, going from dark to bright, the couple is surrounded by fireworks and crystal-clear waterfalls. They also breakout into eskista, a traditional Ethiopian dance.
Lemma and her Black king eventually appear in various types of traditional Ethiopian wardrobe, symbolizing the fusion of the country’s different cultures.
The level of intimacy seen in MIKE-E's video is rare in Ethiopian productions. MIKE-E, however, said he intentionally chose to show the characters being intimate.
"We wanted it to be intimate, but not sexual," the musician said. "It was done to portray vulnerability and also the closeness of the couple. Ethiopia, being a sovereign nation and never being colonized and having its own language and rich history, all of that came out of intense love. So I didn't feel that we can portray that by the couple just holding hands and walking through a field of flowers. We felt that you had to see affection, a sense of longing, sense of passion."
In the background, the phrase “Wey Fikir” is heard repeatedly. Those two words, as MIKE-E illustrates in his music, speak to the power of love.
“Love is kind . . . love is true,” the artist says. “Love is free.”
The original “Wey Fikir,” performed by the legendary Mahmoud Ahmed, echoes a similar sentiment in the Amharic language of Ethiopia. MIKE-E describes the classic as one of his favorite songs of all time.
“I’ve wanted to honor it for at least 15 years,” he said. “When I communicated the concept to my friend, co-producer, and composer, Mark Chu, he took it to another level. We can all agree that Mahmoud Ahmed is a phenomenal artist who has given us timeless, beautiful music. We can all agree that love matters.”
Still, as Ethiopia grapples with a tumultuous chapter in its history, MIKE-E doesn't expect a song about love to suddenly resolve the country’s turmoil.
“I am hopeful yet certainly not naïve about the deep divisions within this conflict,” the musician said. “I don’t expect one song to solve the situation. However, if it helps anyone communicate or even begin to heal then that’s a positive.”
Ethiopia’s conflict involves multiple political parties that have been feuding for decades. But the issue reached a climax in Nov. 2020. As Blavity previously reported, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched an attack on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the ruling party in the north. In a statement released at the time, Abiy said he ordered the operation after the TPLF stormed a military base.
As tensions escalated into war during the following months, innocent people faced the consequences. Multiple news reports uncovered mass killings, rape and property destruction in the Tigray region. Thousands were also forced to flee to neighboring Sudan.
While advocates tried to bring awareness to the crisis in the Tigray region, supporters of the federal government pointed to atrocities that were allegedly being caused by the TPLF in other regions. Tensions have now extended onto social media as people continue to engage in vitriol discourse, refuting each other’s perspectives on the conflict.
MIKE-E, who has witnessed some of the back-and-forth discussions unfolding on the internet, said “social media algorithms give more traction to negativity.”
“Therefore, we engage with each other in very negative and confrontational ways,” he said. “Rather than exchanging ideas, we feel this compulsion to embarrass, silence and one up one another. It’s a consistent struggle to lean toward positivity. As it relates to Ethiopia, the extent of political division is so deep that it has led to broad and intense indifference toward innocent people facing unimaginable suffering.”
As he strives to do his part for the people of Ethiopia, MIKE-E said he proceeds with caution. The artist said while he feels a responsibility to speak up for his birthplace, as he has done for many years, he’s also aware of critics who may resent him for being involved with Ethiopia as he sits behind a keyboard in Detroit, his longtime creative base.
“I have been granted grace and acceptance by the broader Ethiopian community that I’m eternally grateful for,” he said. “That said, I have not lived full time in Ethiopia since I was a child. So anything I say to Ethiopians must be through the lens of love because I don’t live there full time. It would be irresponsible of me to tell Ethiopians what they should and shouldn’t do.”
When he offers his perspective on Ethiopia’s social or political issues, MIKE-E describes his thoughts as “partially-informed opinion” at best.
“It would be irresponsible of me, if not insensitive, to fan the flames of violence, while I sit safe from the comfort of a keyboard,” he said. “For those of us in the diaspora, I believe we have a responsibility to speak peace and to speak love, not in a naïve way. But I don’t think it’s responsible for us to fan the flames of violence and to talk tough while we’re in the West, living a life of luxury.”
While he offers a message of peace and love, MIKE-E said he also remains cognizant of the various ways in which his purpose can be interpreted.
“I was worried about people thinking I was minimizing their respective struggle across the board, like just minimizing it as ‘let's just end all this and love each other,” he said. “I know it’s not that simple. I understand there are deep wounds we are dealing with here, so I wanted to be sensitive to that.”
Mike Ellison, the son of New York natives Bob and Diane Ellison, spent the first two years of his life in Ethiopia, as Blavity previously reported. Bob, the first Black journalist to serve as president of the White House Correspondents' Association, worked as an educator. Bob and Diane, who raised their son in Virginia when they returned to the U.S., reminded the young man to never forget his birthplace.
In 2004, MIKE-E fulfilled his parents’ wish, returning to the African nation to complete volunteer work with several non-profit organizations. While he was there, the artist also released “Everything Will Be Alright,” a song that would officially introduce him to Ethiopian audiences.
MIKE-E’s deep connection to Ethiopia, coupled with his passion for creating inspiring art, still fuels his burning desire to speak up for his loved ones who represent various tribes across the country.
“Because of my connection to Ethiopia, because of my family members who are still there — who span many so-called tribes, I feel a responsibility to say something,” he said. “And because I’m an artist — a lot of artists, we create for the sake of creation. Like if you ask an artist, why do you paint, it’s like asking her ‘Why do you breathe?’ So I have to create for the sake of creation, just for my own sanity. So if I’m gonna create and I’m gonna create about people I love, I’m gonna choose love as the message for that.”
“Wey Fikir,” according to MIKE-E, is more of a folk song and “poetry set to music.” This particular classic turned out to be the appropriate choice as the musician set out to tackle a difficult subject.
“I felt like allegory and metaphor are nice ways to approach tough subject matters,” he said. “Rather than try to send some incendiary political message, I wanted to tell a story and ask questions.”
In his conversation with Lemma in the song, MIKE-E presents some comments that could also be applied to the country’s ongoing conflict.
“I thought about where we went wrong,” he says in the song. “We let our friends get involved, babe. We never fought about nonsense. And we talked about our conflicts. And I respected your strength and independence. So I guess I’m just guessing ‘cause you left me with some questions.”
MIKE-E’s partner in the video also serves as a symbol of the Ethiopia he always loved—the same beautiful land which his parents illustrated in the stories they told to him when he was a child.
“Growing up, I romanticized Ethiopia, as many African Americans longing for a sense of heritage and belonging often do,” MIKE-E said. “The stories my mother and family told me about Ethiopia were overwhelmingly positive and almost mystical. ‘WEY FIKIR (Alleh)’ reflects that romance. Simply returning to Ethiopia was a dream come true. To then be embraced by Ethiopians was and still is beyond anything I could have ever imagined.”
Now, MIKE-E, who is also a film, theater and television actor, continues to show love and concern for all his loved ones who reside in various parts of Ethiopia, “without one negating the other.” The artist, who has traveled to many regions of Ethiopia, has dispelled misconceptions about certain tribes with his own observations. His voyage includes trips to the various parts of Tigray, including Axum, Mekelle and Maychew.
“I wanted to go and see for myself because I would always hear these rumblings of ‘the Tigrayans don’t pay taxes, Tigray gets everything, they’re rich.’ I would hear that from people who have never been (there),” the musician said. “I went and saw it for myself. And that was not my experience.”
MIKE-E makes note of the fact that he is only speaking on his observations about the people and the region, not any political party. Traveling to other regions, MIKE-E said there were times where he heard derogatory remarks exchanged between different tribes. The experience turned out to be a rude awakening for the artist, who was not expecting to witness racism in Africa as he had seen in America.
“You come to Africa and you think everybody is African and we’re one,” he said. “Then you find out about all these political divisions and ethnic divisions and tribal divisions, it’s shocking and it’s heartbreaking.”
MIKE-E said he has become especially worried about his loved ones who are trying to survive war while also dealing with the pandemic, which has taken an intense emotional, physical and spiritual toll on people all over the world.
"Imagine enduring, fighting starvation while facing isolation from the entire world for over a year. That is the reality for millions of ETHIOPIANS and ERITREAN refugees living in Tigray – regardless of whom we blame or do not blame for this war," he wrote in an email to Blavity.
The multifaceted artist says innocent civilians in Tigray didn't "bring these hellish circumstances on themselves, as some have callously suggested."
"Nor have the innocent ETHIOPIANS throughout the Afar, Somali, Amhara, Oromo and other regions of the country," he said, adding that he lost contact with his loved ones across the country during the conflict. "Those are simple facts that should not be deemed political statements. Anyone would be concerned if they couldn’t reach relatives for an entire year and counting."
He admits, however, that music plays a role in helping him cope with the harsh reality.
“The best way I can express my feeling about it is through art,” he said. “I’m gonna continue to pray for and call for unhindered humanitarian aid everywhere regardless. And if people want to politicize that, that’s their choice.”
