Onesimoos Nasiib

Place: Hurumu

Biography:

Onesimos Nesib was born around 1856 near Hurumu in today’s Illu Abbaboora, Ethiopia. His original name was Hika, an Oromo name meaning ‘translator.’ His father died when he was four years old. Raiding tribesmen stole Hika from his mother and sold him as a slave, giving him a new name, Nesib. Nesib was again stolen again from his owners and sold four times before Werner Munzinger, the vice-consul of the French Consulate, liberated him at Massawa on the Red Sea coast. Here, Nesib was given to Mr. W. Ahlborg as a servant in October 1870 and become one of the students of the Swedish Evangelical Mission (SEM) boys’ school headed by Rev. Bengt Peter Lundahl. He was baptized on Easter Sunday (March 31, 1872), taking the Christian name Onesimus. He was a bright student and led a life of Christian service. He is known to be the pioneer of modern Oromo literature and commemorated in the American Lutheran Book of Worship as a saint on 21 June. The Mekane Yesus Church honored him by naming their seminary in Addis Ababa for him.