It was early morning.  A cool mist hung in dark air as a Land Rover penetrated the quiet with the hum of its engine, rocks crunching beneath its tires and a plume of dust following behind.  Belete Muturo was handcuffed and blindfolded, lying prostrate in the hatchback when he heard one of the soldiers say, “Let’s try Belete’s guns.”  The vehicle came to a quick halt, a door slammed and silence again enveloped the Ethiopian mountainside.

“This is when I knew they were going to shoot me,” Belete said. 

Earlier that day he had finally been captured after 16 months of armed resistance against Communist Dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.  Instead of executing him however, they only fired practice shots and then continued on their way towards Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.  Once there Belete was asked to support Mariam by going back to his homeland of Hadiya in support of the military.  Other members of his political party, the All Ethiopian Socialist Party had been through the same.  They had been asked to do three things to secure their freedom:  1.  Tell how many supporters they had within the government framework.  2.  Apologize for their conspiracy.  3.  Announce to their country that they would work for the military.  After three years of being asked everyday to submit to the government’s desires they had all finally been executed without trial.  Belete was sure he would meet the same fate.  But it wasn’t to be.

After five years of solitary confinement and many readings of classic communist text Das Kapital he was released.

“Das Kapital made me want to go into economics, to see it from the other side,” he said.

Two months after his release, at the insistence of former astronaut and then Sen. John Glenn, Belete and his wife were granted visas by the U.S. embassy in Ethiopia. 

“This is not something that usually happened,” Belete said. “It usually took a lot longer.”

A church he had attended in Hudson, Ohio, as an exchange student in high school, had been working on his behalf, eventually paying all costs for the two to resettle in the United States. 

As Belete boarded the plane he knew he would never return to his homeland.  His anger of being incarcerated for so long mixed with his perception of popular apathy.  He had tried his best to make things better, but nothing had progressed.  In fact, things had gotten worse due to a widespread famine afflicting the country at the time.  And as the plane climbed away from the earth he knew he was not safe yet and would not be until he passed through pro-Mengistu Italy.

“When we arrived in London, I knew that I was finally free, that I would never again be taken,” he said.

After touching down in Philadelphia, church members drove him to Hudson where he was eventually granted political asylum.  Belete, then on his way to becoming an American citizen, knew that he would need an education if he wanted to succeed.  A non-traditional student at the age of 31, he enrolled in economics courses at the University of Akron where he eventually received both his bachelor and master of arts degrees in economics.

Belete is now the director of the McNair Scholar’s Program at Southeast. In addition, he teaches a course in economics each semester. As head of McNair, he continues the work he has always done, that of helping his community.  The federal program’s goal is to provide economic and academic support for low-income and first generation college students intent on going to graduate school.

“When I came here, McNair didn’t exist,” he said.  “No office, no application, nothing but a funded project.”

He is a mentor both in professional and personal life as he has twin daughters who attend college in Ohio.  He treats scholars as he would his daughters, and it shows.  Three years after its inception, 30 students have graduated from the McNair Scholar’s Program of which 22 have gone onto graduate school.  His rate of success is almost twice the national average. 

In addition to his success in education, he has continued to take an active part in the advancement of his former tribe.  In March of 2005 he founded the Hadiya Development and Rehabilitation Network.  The network is a charitable organization that provides services and financial resources to the most disadvantaged residents among the Hadiya zone in Southern Ethiopia.  So far, they have succeeded in giving scholarships to twenty students as well as providing financial support to the families of victims of lion attacks.

After years of struggle, 2005 saw the first internationally sanctioned democratic elections in Ethiopia.  Two hundred electors from opposition parties, including some of Belete’s former peers, were sworn into office -- proof that although his story started off badly, the impact of his optimism has been felt wherever he has gone and will continue to be felt wherever he resides. McNair scholars are lucky to be mentored by a man such as he.

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