Biruktawit Tasew's fingers glide over the strings of the begena, producing a deep, hypnotic sound. The begena "is medicine ...

One of Ethiopia’s oldest instruments, the begena was once reserved for the elite — and effectively banned during the Marxist Derg regime between 1974 and 1991. But it is experiencing a ...

Legend has it that the instrument was brought over from Israel in the 10th century BC by Menelik I, Ethiopia's first emperor, who received it from King David. For centuries, the instrument's music ...

The begena "is medicine for the soul," said Biruktawit, 23, who has been playing the instrument for about a year. A frame depicting the image of the Ethiopian Orthodox iconography of Archangel St ...