Notes from the Hyena's Belly
Page 29
* * *
THOSE EARLY DAYS were filled with surprises about life in a democracy, which, as a transient, I hadn’t paid much attention to in Europe. The most memorable of these was an article I read in a newspaper a few days after my arrival. A man who had tortured his cat was sentenced to a three-month jail term, it shouted. This was obviously a bad joke that had found its way onto the front page through some editorial error, and I clipped the column to laugh over with some Canadian acquaintances.
It was not a joke at all.
I realized the real joke was how anyone could sanction a system that terrorized its citizens, accepted torture as a form of fact-finding and hailed murder as an effective method of exorcising government opponents. Perhaps the biggest joke of all (though some may call it an irony) was the fact that just such a government had been underpinned by a people who placed such emphasis on the rights of cats. After all, the military junta I’d left behind had received a substantial amount of financial assistance from Pierre Trudeau’s administration.
Canada has been good to me from my earliest days here as a political refugee, when I spent many sweaty nights haunted by harrowing experiences from the past and often avoided human contact during the daylight hours. I have nothing but good things to say about the Canadian people. I have only wished that they, like much of the Western world, could be more considerate of the welfare of those who live in distant places.
* * *
AS IT SEEMED unlikely I would return home any time soon, I started preparing myself for the job market. In 1986 I registered for a graduate course in structural engineering at the University of Waterloo. Late in 1988, I earned my degree and was offered a position with an engineering consulting firm in Toronto.
Since leaving the Netherlands, I’d severed all contact with my friends and relations in Ethiopia, but in 1989 I made an attempt to mend fences with my siblings. I wrote a very long letter to Meselu, apologizing for my inexcusable behaviour and promising to be of help from my new station in life. Months passed without any acknowledgment, so I sent her another letter. Alas, I’d lost contact with her.
A year of frantic effort would be spent, including a great deal of footwork here in Toronto as I attempted to find an Ethiopian with relations in Dire Dawa, before I found out the status of my siblings. Meselu had thrown all four kids out when she realized I was not coming back. Henok spent months living in the streets, spending the nights at a bus terminal, before he was rescued by the “Save the Children” charity and given shelter. It was the most devastating news given to me since the death of Mam.
Henok was retrieved from the shelter by the youngest of my four sisters, who, after getting a job with an international agency in Jijiga, gathered her siblings. He’d spent years out of school, and hadn’t even completed his elementary education. I urged him to make some progress in his studies before I brought him to Canada. In May 1996 I applied for him to immigrate.
Almaz had gone on to have two more kids out of wedlock. She and her children had moved to our residence in Jijiga. In 1997, Meselu and Almaz went to court, fighting over the family real estate and creating a huge scandal.
* * *
IN 1991, THE military junta that had ruled Ethiopia for over a decade was finally deposed by one of the guerrilla movements. I did not break open a bottle of champagne to celebrate the occasion, because by then I’d realized that what had happened in Ethiopia was not exceptional. To varying degrees, it had happened all over sunny Africa, and still does.
Acknowledgments
To Alicia Brooks, my editor at Picador USA, and Michelle Blankenship, my publicist, for their indomitable efforts.
READING GROUP GUIDE
1. Jana disrupted a number of relationships with her wanton behavior. Was it entirely her fault for luring the men away or should the men share the blame equally?
2. If you had proof positive that the man you loved cheated with another man/woman, could you forgive and forget? Would you give him another chance or pack your bags? How difficult would it be to trust him again?
3. A woman’s sexual history is judged more harshly than a man’s. Why is this and do you think it’s fair?
4. Many men have loved women despite their dubious sexual pasts. Would you feel threatened if such a woman was around your significant other a great deal? If so, how would you handle those feelings?
5. Jana started on the difficult road to redemption when she hit rock bottom and finally saw what her self-centered life had cost her. However, there were those who weren’t ready to forgive or forget her past. Could you have been as forgiving as Tyler and Olivia?
6. If the unthinkable happened and a woman somehow persuaded your man to stray, and years later you met the now-reformed woman, could you forgive her or would she need a hair transplant?
St. Martin’s Griffin
Praise for Nega Mezlekia’s Notes from the Hyena’s Belly
“His book is as much a survivor’s tale as it is a painstaking record of a country devouring itself.”
—Jabari Asim, The Washington Post
“With a prose style that is as aesthetically poetic as it is objectively journalistic, Mezlekia delivers a bitter portrayal of his own personal history and its inexplicable link with the Ethiopian civil war using the rhythmic language of a balladeer.”
—Pittsburgh Weekly
“Notes from the Hyena’s Belly is not only a memoir, it is also a vital political and social commentary about the state of affairs in Ethiopia.”
—African Sun Times
“Spirited … a very welcome and much-needed contribution to the literature of the continent.”
—Michael Maren, Newsday
“His memoir tells us much about Ethiopia and much more about the human capacity to survive, even to thrive, in the midst of calamity.”
—Alfred Alcorn, Boston Sunday Herald
“Topical, moving, and fascinating. Nega Mezlekia concentrates his mind on his nation’s history as he tells his own tale in prose imbued with a sense of commitment to truth. It is the best memoir by an Ethiopian that I’ve ever read.”
—Nuruddin Farah, author of Maps and Secrets
“Full of adventure, political struggle, and intrigue, his memoir works as a coming-of-age story as well as a glimpse into a world of political corruption and change that Westerners rarely get to know so intimately. He honors us with telling us this rich story.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“A story of high drama told with aplomb, a story of the kind that allows readers to put their woes into perspective.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“He treats the chaos and famine that enveloped his country with seriousness and style.… Even while recounting famine and war, he never loses the wit that no doubt helped him to survive some of the worst humanity has to offer.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A stunning depiction of Ethiopia’s current culture and conflict.”
—Booklist
NOTES FROM THE HYENA’S BELLY. Copyright © 2000 by Nega Mezlekia. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address Picador USA, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
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First published in Canada by Penguin Books under the title Notes from the Hyena’s Belly: Memories of My Ethiopian Boyhood
eISBN 9781466893245
First eBook edition: February 2015