Maaza Mengiste

Maaza Mengiste is the author of The Shadow King, which was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize.

Diary: Ethiopia’s Long War

Maaza Mengiste, 4 February 2021

Ihave​ a hazy childhood memory of soldiers breaking into our house. They had come to question my grandfather, who they believed was hiding someone they wanted to arrest. It was not long after the start of the 1974 revolution in Ethiopia that would depose Emperor Haile Selassie and install a military junta led by Mengistu Haile Mariam. The new regime, which called itself the Derg, was hunting...

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