Malaku Mallato Mero was born in Chenna District, Kafa Zone, South West Ethiopia People’s Region, in 1993. Chenna is known as one of the areas where the exclusion of the Manjo people from social life has been harsh. However, the Manjo can obtain an education if the individual can cope with social discrimination.
Malaku trained to be a police officer and has served his congregation as a solo singer since 2015. He moved to the Sayilem District, where Protestant Christians have made significant contributions to the inclusion of the Manjo. There, the members of different denominations gave their assistance (choir, keyboard, connections) to produce his first DVD. It has also been popular in two neighboring Zones (Sheka Zone and Bench Maji Zone).
Album
(1) Hammaana ta beeto [ሃማና ታበቶ; “I am going” (cf. Mar 16:15)]. DVD with songs in Kafa language, edited by Elias Tefera and produced by Malaku Mallato in 2017 A.D.
[image of DVD?]
Picture
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Further Study
Leikola, Kirsi. “Talking Manjo: Linguistic Repertoires as Means of Negotiating Marginalization.” PhD dissertation in African Studies. Helsinki Univ., 2014. [HELDA]
Yoshida, Sayuri. “Why Did the Manjo Convert to Protestantism? Social Discrimination and Coexistence in Kafa, Southwest Ethiopia,” in Research in Ethiopian Studies: Selected Papers of the 16th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Trondheim July 2007, edited by Sven Ege, Harald Aspen, Birhanu Teferra, and Shiferaw Bekele, pp. 141‒52. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010.
- Preprint: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies; vol. 1, edited by S. Ege et al., pp. 299‒309. Trondheim: NTNU-trykk, 2009. [Academia.edu]
Documentary
Reel publ. in 2021: