Gebru Desta

Gebru DestaIn various sources spelled as Gebru Desta,

He was subsequently patronized by Samuel Gobat; an influential missionary of the Church Mission Society (CMS). Gobat enrolled Gebru, and other Ethiopians in a mission school at Jerusalem. After a period of adaptation and overcoming his cultural bias towards handicraft, Gebru successfully adjusted to the new environment. He (among selected students) moved to St. Chrischona (another CMS outpost) near Basel, in 1872. (Gebru noted in his autobiography that he met a few Ethiopians students at the institution in St.) Chrischona, but many of them died of illness.

Unable to return to Ethiopia after he finished his studies because of the Ethio-Egyptian hostilities, Gebru went to Württemberg to assist Dr. Johann Ludwig Krapf in the translation and revision of the Amharic bible. About two years later, Martin Flad and his colleagues, suggested that Gebru could return to Ethiopia and do missionary work among the Beta Israel. During the many years he spent abroad, Gebru became a Protestant convert and learned German, French, English and Arabic languages.

Career Return to Ethiopia In 1879 Gebru sailed to Massawa with Engeda-Esat. (Engeda-Esat was his fellow countrymen and friend, they knew each other from their time at St.) Chrischona. Engeda-Esat was of mixed Ethiopian and German parentage, his father was Georg Wilhelm Schimper, a botanist, who lived in Ethiopia since 1837. Engeda-Esat studied languages, medicine and engineering in Europe. He first served the Italians in Eritrea and then, after 1905, Emperor Menelik II.