Senedu Gebru

Senedu Gebru (Amharic: ሰንዱ ገብሩ; 13 January 1916 – 20 April 2009) was an Ethiopian educator, writer and politician.

Her father, Gebru Desta, was a European-educated writer and former mayor of Addis Ababa and briefly president of the senate.

[1][2][3] She was educated at the Swedish Mission School in Addis Ababa before being sent to Switzerland at the age 12, along with her sister, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou.

[1][2][4] In 1933, she moved back to Ethiopia and took up a teaching post plays at Qidus Georgis (St. George) School in Addis Ababa and also acted as an interpreter for foreign journalists.

She taught writing and literature and also worked with playwright Yoftahe Negussie on staging school plays, having taken part in some herself while abroad.

[2] Senedu became politically active in the build up to the Italian invasion by making use of her contacts with foreign journalists who were writing about Ethiopia at the time.

Gebru moved back to Goré, where she joined the Black Lions and established a Red Cross Unit after receiving some medical training.

She continued to write plays, but after she left the school to pursue her political career interest rapidly declined as no other committed teacher followed her.

[5][7][9] During these years she advocated complete parity between men and women, including contesting articles in the 1960 Civil Code that provided the husband with the right to choose the place of residence.

In 2005 the University awarded her an honorary doctorate in recognition of her contribution 'as an early champion of the emancipation of Ethiopian women'.