My Life, My Ethiopia
ISBN-13: 9781569027257
Contributor(s): Mary Tadesse
Subject: African Studies (Regional)
Publisher Imprint: Africa World Press
Publication Date: 04-05-2021
Format: Paperback
Availability: In stock
£34.95
About the book
Mary Tadesse was one of the highest-ranking women to serve in the government of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. Growing up in the 1930s and 40s in a small but influential Catholic family, her idyllic and privileged world unravelled as tumultuous political events, including the Italian Occupation and later the Marxist revolution, tore her family apart. One of a few girls sent abroad to study, first to Egypt and later post-war England, she was among the first generation of Western-educated Ethiopians to join the civil service to help rebuild and develop their war-ravaged country. Through diary entries we witness Mary's experiences and inner struggles, and learn how a woman, through fierce determination and faith, transcends traditional bounds of her gender. Eventually she is compelled to leave her country and embrace the life of an exile.