Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
Oromay, a 1983 political satire about Ethiopia’s civil war, has finally been translated into English.
The novel, an instant hit upon publication, follows a television journalist thrust into the Ethiopian military’s Red Star Campaign against an insurgent group in Eritrea.
The Baobab newsletter describes it as “both a masterpiece and a tragedy” that likely cost the author his life: Baalu Girma, (below) a reporter-turned-government insider, disappeared months after the book’s publication as the regime moved to confiscate copies and arrest readers.
“The characters, though fictionalized, mirror real-life figures with unnerving accuracy,” Baobab noted. “This authenticity, combined with the novel’s relentless pacing, transforms it into a historical document disguised as an adventure story.”
