He is widely regarded as one of the most prolific and versatile intellectuals of modern Ethiopia – he was a poet, playwright, essayist, translator, historian, novelist, philosopher, journalist, and government minister belonging to the Shewa Amhara nobility and member of the Solomonic dynasty.

[1] In about 1924, when his mother and grandmother moved to Arusi, today's Arsi for work, he went instead to his uncle Lij Seifu Mikael in Addis Ababa where he joined the Catholic Cathedral School as a boarding student.

Kebede Mikael studied at Alliance Éthio-Française for three years before he got the opportunity to be introduced to the art of literature through the school director, a Lebanese man called Malhabi.

[4] Taking note of his apt command of the French language and his high potential, his school officials recommended him for a scholarship opportunity under the then monarch, Emperor Haile Selassie I.

[5] The plan to send him to France for further French instruction was thwarted by the onset of the five-year war with Italy (1936–1941), particularly because of the declaration of the Battle of Maychew (1936).

[1] At home and school, he used the resources provided by his family and teachers to carefully study the Who's Whos of Greek, Roman, English, French, German, Russian, and Italian philosophers and scientists.

Her father was Ethiopia's first Western educated medical doctor Workneh Eshete During the occupation, his uncle and guardian Lij Seifu Mikael was captured and sent off to the Asinara prison in Italy.

At the behest of his stepfather, he was employed in the fascist government as a liaison between the Italian officials and the Ethiopian nobility as well as in their Department of Information, then called "Office of Propaganda".

Upon hearing his employment at the occupying fascist government, his incarcerated uncle Lij Seifu wrote: "he is an ailing, frail, weak boy who stood no chance in guerilla warfare; let him make use of his brains to assist the resistance."

Even though Kebede could not go to France and pursue his studies because of the Italo-Ethiopian War, he spent a lot of time reading in the library founded by Mr. LeMoins, one of the French instructors of Prince Makonnen.

He also wrote Ye Qine Wubet (The Beauty of Qəne) in which he proved his command of the unique Ethiopian literary tradition of qene, a form of linguistic indirection and play.

[5] After the defeat of Fascist Italy, Kebede Mikael served in the government in several capacities between 1941 and 1974 (when Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed).

The stately mansion of the Seifu Mikael family around the Wabi Shebele Hotel that was built during Emperor Menelik II's time and later expanded and modernized during the following three monarchs was confiscated.

In November 1997, Kebede Mikael received an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Addis Ababa University for his unparalleled excellence in literature and his role as an inspiration to generations of Ethiopian authors and writers.

[2] A respected multilingual speaker, Kebede Michael spoke over four languages, including Amharic, Ge'ez, English, French and Italian.

[1] Later on, in the time of the Derg military regime, it is said that Kebede was so frustrated with the tyranny and harassment of the state that he burned a lot of his unpublished works.

[5] He has produced several poems, plays, anthologies of qene poetry, history books, translations, fictions, essays, and philosophical works regarding modernization.

He received great acclaim for this work because not only did he show his linguistic competence, but he also combined his poetic talent and play-writing prowess into a single text that flowed beautifully.

[4] From 1940 to 1970, Kebede Michael wrote Amharic-language textbooks in which he provided several generations of Ethiopian students with literature covering a wide range of issues and disciplines.

[10] The popular Ethiopian historian Bahru Zewde writes that intellectuals of the early as well as mid-twentieth century called for "Japanization" and the "rapid development" of Ethiopia is to sustain its independence and pride.

[11] In his book on the topic, Kebede provided a summary of how the Japanese aristocracy managed to build a strong, self-supporting, and technologically advanced state under the Meiji Dynasty, and drew lessons from Japan for Ethiopia.

[12][13] He pointed out striking similarities between Ethiopian and Japanese histories in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as the fact that they were both peoples of color who enjoyed victories over White European colonizers (Ethiopia against Italy in 1896, and Japan against Russia in 1905);[10][14] withstood imperial powers in prior history (Japan against the Mongols in the 1280s, Ethiopia against the Ottoman Turks in the 1580s);[14] and drove out Portuguese missionaries at about the same time (during the seventeenth century) to preserve their religions.

"[13] Even before the Meiji reformation, Japan had attained a higher state of social development, literacy, agricultural commercialization and specialization than had Ethiopia in the twentieth century.

Even in the present regime, the tendency to emulate East Asian countries' development models is still seen, as during the rule of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who was set on mirroring South Korean and Taiwanese growth in Ethiopia.