Ethiopian Person of the Year is an annual issue of the Ethiopian news portal Jimma Times, formerly the private Yeroo newspaper, which names and profiles the person(s) who was (were) the most influential and had the most impact on the Ethiopian people during the previous Ethiopian calendar year.

History

Jimma Times's tradition of selecting the "Ethiopian Person of the Year" honor began during the new Ethiopian millennium (year 2000, Western calendar 2007/2008) when the multi-Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele was selected. It established the multi-language (Afaan Oromo, Amharic and English) private newspaper Yeroo the following year. The word yeroo means "time" or times" in the Oromo language and its style was to mirror the American Time news magazine which also publishes its annual Person of the Year selections.[1] Yeroo newspaper stopped publication in Ethiopia after only a few months but Jimma Times website continues to operate.

Though many other Ethiopian media outlets make their own annual selections, Jimma Times's independent selection is the only one that often features interviews of the nominees and special report articles on the work of the winner(s).[2][3][4] The winner for the award during Ethiopian calendar year 2001 was the peace activist, founder of the first private bank Awash and leading politician Bulcha Demeksa while the CEO and founder of Ethiopia Commodity Exchange Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin won the honor in 2002.[5]


Persons of the Year list

Ethiopian year Choice Notes Runner up
2000  Ethiopia Kenenisa Bekele Inspirational multi-Olympic champion Teddy Afro
2001  Ethiopia Bulcha Demeksa Human rights and peace activist, private bank, OFDM Tirunesh Dibaba
2002  Ethiopia Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, "market revolution" Girma Wake

References

  1. ↑ "Ethiopian person of the year". Archived from the original on 13 October 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  2. ↑ "Interview with Ethiopia exchange CEO Dr Eleni". Jimma Times. Archived from the original on 13 October 2010. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  3. ↑ "Kenenisa: 'Person of the Year' as Millennium turns". Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  4. ↑ "Interview with Bulcha Demeksa". Archived from the original on 13 October 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  5. ↑ "Ethiopian Person of the Year timeline". Jimma Times. Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
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