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A few of you have contacted me letting me know that a commenter on Ethioplanet, where the identity of Count de Lesseps’ “other woman” was revealed claimed that there was no royalty with the last name of “Abajifar.”The editor of ethioplanet has responded in the comments saying:
“[Editor's response: It is a confirmed and verified fact. As for your doubt in the veracity of such a name, please refer to Ethiopian history (specifically the Kingdom of Jimmaa), common Oromo names from that region and the name of a founding member of the OLF, Ababiya Abajobir Abajifar, the uncle of the young lady in question]
A Google search of the name in question brings up only results leading to the story of the Count and Countess LuAnn, which makes this story even trickier. There is one spammy looking blog called “The Ethiopian Review” which has a supposed picture of the princess’ uncle,but the blog looks extremely sketchy and like it stole its content from EthioPlanet and just found a random picture of someone to put up. Making it sketchier is that there are no photos of the princess anywhere. The Oromo Liberation Front, the Ethiopian guerilla organization the Princess’s family is tied to, is unfortunately very, very real.
What do you think? Is this legit or are we being scammed by a good trickster who wanted to put a special twist on the story by making it look like LuAnn was being left for actual royalty?
[Image:Newscom]
Actually, the original source of the photo with a higher quality is here:
http://www.ethioplanet.com/news/?p=2514
Hmm, I’m not sure how you ascertained that I’ve never spoken to an African person from a post which states that I was unable to find information on Google on a particular person. Much of the story just didn’t add up to me when I first heard of it, and Wikipedia is not a reliable source.
Admittedly, I don’t know much about Ethiopian royalty, but the whole thing seemed very convenient, especially given the Countess’s pretension over her title and the fact that the Count was heavily involved in micro-finance. I’m not saying it is a scam, if you read my post, you can see I’m just speculating out lout.
I’m reserving any further judgement until we hear more, perhaps straight from the Princess herself.
Before you go pouncing on her being a scam, perhaps you should research the history of the region. It is a rich one –and the struggles there have always been fierce. The powerplay involves resources and survival. Given the Count’s background in microfinancing (you should look this up) it’s not surprising he found someone who understands and cares deeply about what he does for development third world nations.
From your comments, it would appear you probably have not looked into the history, let along ever talked to an Ethiopian or daresay, an African.
that woman is a real princess and there is a picture of her here
http://www.realfauxhousewives.com/?p=2741
I think this was the verification you were looking for: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba_Jifar_II
Lily, I did not know that. Thanks for clarifying!
Mark,
EthiopianReview.com happens to be the #1 most visited Ethiopian web site.