Update – HEINEKEN confirms – Bedele Brewery cancels Teddy Afro’s “Journey of Love” Concert [Awramba Times]

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Ethiopia Official statement – HEINEKEN, the parent company of Bedele Beer, canceled their sponsorship of Teddy Afro’s concert.

Statement from HEINEKEN’s website reads.

Ethiopia music sponsorship update
On 20 December 2013, HEINEKEN Ethiopia announced a sponsorship agreement between the Bedele Special brand and the Ethiopian artist Teddy Afro. HEINEKEN Ethiopia regrets that they will disappoint those who were looking forward to the concert tour; however it has been decided not to pursue the sponsorship of the concert tour.

Awramba Times (Addis Ababa) –  Confidential sources close to Awramba Times disclosed that Bedele brewery, Heineken NV’s subsidiary in Ethiopia has cancelled Teddy Afro’s nationwide “Journey of Love”  Concert.

Oromo Activists called on Bedele brewery to stop sponsoring Tewodros Kassahun’s nationwide tour that was scheduled across different cities of Ethiopia?

Two weeks ago, Ethiopian singer Tewodros Kassahun (aka Teddy Afro) told the local  Enqu magazine that he considered emperor Minelik’s imperial expansion a “holy war”.  This remark deeply offended thousands of Oromos as an ethnically-motivated “remark” against Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group.

Oromo activists all over the world had campaigned beer drinkers in Ethiopia to ditch Bedele products and also pressure regional officers to withdraw the sponsorship.