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Hailu Mergia

CTL-P-0208 · Person

STRONG EVIDENCE evidence grade — master store (canonical CSV)

Combined Graph record U-01227 · provenance: canonical master store (CSV), record CTL-P-0208. Master record source: CTL seed 2026-10-16 — UNVERIFIED, verify before public citation.

Hailu Mergia, born in 1946 in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia, is a keyboardist, arranger, accordionist and bandleader who played with the Walias Band (their instrumental LP Tche Belew was released in 1977); after settling in Washington DC he was rediscovered by the Awesome Tapes From Africa label, whose re-releases in the 2010s powered a late-career comeback including the 2018 album Lala Belu (per South African History Online biography).

Answer summary · this record in brief, from its own record text

Hailu Mergia, born in 1946 in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia, is a keyboardist, arranger, accordionist and bandleader who played with the Walias Band (their instrumental LP Tche Belew was released in 1977); after settling in Washington DC he was rediscovered by the Awesome Tapes From Africa label, whose re-releases in the 2010s powered a late-career comeback including the 2018 album Lala Belu (per South African History Online biography).

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Evidence note (master store)

Hailu Mergia, born in 1946 in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia, is a keyboardist, arranger, accordionist and bandleader who played with the Walias Band (their instrumental LP Tche Belew was released in 1977); after settling in Washington DC he was rediscovered by the Awesome Tapes From Africa label, whose re-releases in the 2010s powered a late-career comeback including the 2018 album Lala Belu (per South African History Online biography).

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Record CTL-P-0208 · Combined Graph record U-01227 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 1 source.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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Cite as: CultureTechLens, “Hailu Mergia (CTL-P-0208),” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-p-0208/

Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Hailu Mergia (CTL-P-0208).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-p-0208/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Hailu Mergia (CTL-P-0208) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Combined Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-p-0208/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Hailu Mergia (CTL-P-0208).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-p-0208/

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Children asleep in a kitchenette apartment, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLens
Children asleep in a kitchenette apartment, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLensPhoto: Russell Lee, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress
Children at a meal, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLens
Children at a meal, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLensPhoto: Russell Lee, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress
Children playing in vacant lot in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLens
Children playing in vacant lot in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLensPhoto: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

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