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Telling Our Stories: Two New East African Writers
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"Maaza Mengiste delivers an important story from a part of Africa too long silent in the World Republic of Letters": words used to describe Mengiste's, Beneath The Lion's Gaze by Chris Abani, the Nigerian author of Graceland and The Virgin Flames. Publishers Weekly goes on to say, "Mengiste is as adept at crafting emotionally delicate moments as she is deft at portraying the tense and grim historical material."
Beneath The Lion's Gaze is an exceptionally accomplished debut novel which evokes colossal emotions about the Ethiopian revolution of 1974 through Dr Hailu and his family. We relive the troubled days with Hailu, his dying wife and two sons, daughter-in-law and grand-daughter, their friends and neighbours as they struggle to survive their personal challenges and live through the chaos in the country. Poetically written with vivid descriptions, Mengiste says the inspiration for her book stems from "Memories of living in Ethiopia during the start of the revolution, and hearing the stories of my family and friends about their own struggles during that time."
Together both novels are of epic proportion as they chart a course in history of two African nations that may not be as prominent in fiction as other African countries, like Nigeria or Kenya. Both books have been in the making for five years. Mengiste is an MFA graduate from New York University, while Mohamed is a graduate of Oxford University, where she studied Politics and History.
Mohamed's research took her on a journey. She started by recording her discussions with her father, which led her to travel to Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea to retrace his steps. She said, "My research spanned five centuries of Somali history, from the jihad against the Ethiopian Empire to the terrible war in the late 1980s. I went as far back as sixteenth-century texts. Most of the historical sources I used were from 1850-1945 when Europeans began to write about the region, and although they described the environment very well, they were pretty useless at describing Somalis as real people. Somali life has changed so drastically that some details have been lost as generations have disappeared, taking that knowledge with them, hopefully we can record more now."
Mengiste and Mohamed write with generous compassion for humanity which comes through in their characters, who have a varying depth of emotional facets. According to Mohamed, "With novels, you breathe life into a character, you make them whole and the reader can sink into their skin. We all feel grief, love, loneliness and every other emotion we can identify with in characters when we see them struggling with these feelings."
The stories both authors write about, they believe they needed to tell. Mengiste explains that by revisiting this period in the history of Ethiopia as a nation, she was compelled to tell a story that was indeed her own personal story. She said, "I wanted to tell this story because it was in part, the story of my family and my own story. The revolution was the reason so many Ethiopians fled and settled in other countries; it is the story of the Diaspora. I felt very close to this moment in Ethiopian history. I was compelled to tell this story because I wanted people to understand that there was a historical and socio-political context to this violence, it didn't just suddenly spring up. No group of people, Ethiopian or otherwise, are born violent or naturally predisposed to it." Hence, she says her aim was to reveal the human cost of the national tragedy that occurred, to humanise the victims of the violence, and to show their dignity and fallibility. "We talk about violence in Africa as if it's a spectacle to be observed from a distance and shrugged off because Africans are prone to violence. I wanted to break that stereotype and show people resisting that violence."
And so, they both hope their books stir up discussions that would make people talk openly about this period of Africa's history. "I'd like people to ask what has become of those who suffered, and I want them to ask what has been done about those who perpetuated this violence. Where is Mengistu Haile Mariam, the head of the military junta and why is he still free?" asks Mengiste. Mohamed says while she had a lot she wanted her book to evoke, the foremost thing was the issue of "Identity and how it is formed when you are not rooted to a particular place of family or family unit. The problems that arise when young people are left to look after themselves and how patterns of abuse continue unresolved in communities." Interestingly, both women say they hope the stories they have told in their novels evoke empathy, respect and wonder about how people survived. Mengiste sums up this point when she says, "I hope I've evoked a level of compassion about that period and in a broader sense, gratitude for the strength of the community and family."
Together, Black Mamba Boy and Beneath The Lion's Gaze reiterate the fact that no one incident,
occurrence or event in our lives happens in isolation. Different people and situations cross paths,
and they force us to make decisions and choose paths we may not have envisioned.
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