Professor andreas eshete full name

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Despite the philosopher’s undoubted talents and achievements, his staunch support for ethnic federalism is a stain on his career.

Professor Andreas Eshehe has been a controversial public intellectual in contemporary Ethiopia. Some admire him so highly while others consider him a morally corrupt person who should not be recognized as an intellectual.

Those who condemn Andreas as a corrupt intellectual who does not deserve to be recognized as an intellectual offer a standard for public intellectuals which Andreas, in their view, has failed to live up to.

According to these critics, frequently, the standard public intellectuals need to meet is expressed in moral terms such that to be a public intellectual one has to be morally upstanding, especially displaying some integrity. The idea is that if a person lacks integrity in choosing personal benefits over a service to the public, that disqualifies that person as a public intellectual. Hence, the charge is that Andreas does not deserve to be recognized as a public intellectual as he has failed the test of personal integrity.

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Africa has lost one of its most brilliant minds and one of its most compassionate souls. Andreas Esheté, philosopher, public intellectual and mentor to many, passed away on the 29^th of August 2024 and was laid to rest in Addis Ababa on Sunday the 8^th of September 2024. His death deprives us of a towering African intellectual and an extraordinarily humane person.

The news of Andreas’s passing engulfed me in a wave of shock and sorrow. I was not alone. In the following days, tributes were paid to him from across the globe, their extent clearly demonstrating how many lives have been touched through Andreas’s life and accomplishments. Andreas was not only a philosopher and a prominent advocate for the betterment of the human condition in Africa and beyond; to me he was the mentor who played a crucial role in my life. Hence, this personal reflection on the life and influence of a man who was supererogatory, consistently going above what was required and beyond the limits of academia and public service to leave a lasting legacy with those fortunate enough to know him.

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By Ezekiel Gebissa

Addis Abeba – The passing of Andreas Eshete, a philosopher and former president of Addis Abeba University, has brought to light the significant life he lived as an intellectual giant and a very humble man.

I met professor Andreas in 2018 at a meeting in Addis Abeba. I never got a chance to get to know him better. Some friends promised to arrange for me to meet him on many occasions. One such promise occurred last June. But fate and time never converged for me to meet the scholar and the man my friends hold with great affection and gratitude. Now, he belongs to the ages.

In my view, Andreas Eshete was a leading edge of the Ethiopian Left, whose ideas and work defined and continue to shape contemporary Ethiopia. He is not considered one of the “radicals” of the 1960s generation. He was among the deeply erudite and cerebral cohort known for their perspicacious minds and idealist aspirations. His passing marks the passing of the “greatest generation,” whose brilliance, idealism, and sacrifice have no parallel in Ethiopia’s recent history.