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Notes from the Hyena's Belly
Notes from the Hyena's Belly: An Ethiopian Boyhood | Nega Mezlekia
10 posts | 4 read | 4 to read
In this acclaimed memoir, Mezlekia recalls his boyhood in the arid city of Jijiga, Ethiopia, and his journey to manhood during the 1970s and 1980s. He traces his personal evolution from child to soldier--forced at the age of eighteen to join a guerrilla army. And he describes the hardships that consumed Ethiopia after the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie and the rise to power of the communist junta, in whose terror thousands of Ethiopians died. Part autobiography and part social history, Notes from the Hyena's Belly offers an unforgettable portrait of Ethiopia, and of Africa, during the defining and turbulent years of the last century.
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Texreader
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It may be well over 100 degrees (and under an excessive heat advisory) but daughter and I really wanted to go on a picnic so we went to a nearby park where the zoo‘s train chugs through. Then we went to HPB and I got these two books, on the left for #Botswana and the right for #Ethiopia. #readingafrica2022 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

BarbaraBB Wow! 2y
Bookzombie Wow! It‘s so hot here in SA I hardly want to leave the house. I hope you had a great picnic! 🙂 2y
Texreader @Bookzombie It was scary hot but we were in the shade and we didn‘t linger. But it was good to get out however briefly. We do have a break this week though. It‘s going down to 99. 🥵😉 2y
41 likes3 comments
review
Butterfinger
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Pickpick

I'm gasping for breath. Every word is deliberate to evoke raw emotions from the readers. This was not YA as I thought. It was Nega's memoir. There are moments when he seems to just lay the bald facts down - too much history, not enough heart, but in reality he's pushing himself to get through the dark memories. What a read!!!

#FoodandLit @Texreader @Catsandbooks

Everyone should learn about Ethiopian history.

Bookworm54 I‘m reading one of his fiction books this month :) I need to check this one out too some time though! 4y
40 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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Butterfinger

There they stood in line to settle their bill at the cash register. They had to pay twenty-five birr for the bullet that the junta had advanced them to dispatch their loved one. Only then would they get the remains.

#FoodandLit @Texreader @Catsandbooks

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Butterfinger
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#FoodandLit @Texreader @Catsandbooks Will you transcribe @Tamra The script is gorgeous, but I don't see it translated.

Tamra The script is “Fidel” and is used as the written script for a couple of languages spoken in the region. I don‘t read or speak Amharic, but my husband studies it so I‘ve asked him to translate it. I‘ll let you know. 😄 4y
Tamra It may not be Amharic, it may be Tigrinya, so he had difficulty translating. Or it‘s some kind of proverb type phrase so it doesn‘t make a lot of sense in direct translation - something about evening and a closed door, but then it opened. It‘s a mystery! 😆 4y
Butterfinger ❤️ @Tamra thanks. The author explained the type of poetry - Dual layers - It could have different meanings for each layer. Such an interesting thing to learn. 4y
34 likes3 comments
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Butterfinger
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It is pure immersion of Ethiopia in my house today. My husband made the Berbere spice to make the Doro Wat (recipe found on @Texreader pinterest board). He says he still needs to boil the eggs. I'm reading this YA book, and I am going to find the Ethiopian radio station that @Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick shared.

Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick Radio.garden online. You'll need to know where Erhiopia is on the map to pull it up. 4y
Butterfinger I'm glad you responded. I was going through the backlog of #FoodandLit. @Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick 4y
Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick Happy to have saved you time 💙 4y
Butterfinger @Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick I found it. Addis Ababa radio station. How incredibly cool. Thank you. 4y
Tamra 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 4y
37 likes1 stack add5 comments
review
trueisa4letterword
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Pickpick

So I found this in my library network's catalog back in November while trying to find books about Ethiopians to read and checked it out before my library closed in March. I was going read this regardless. But I was pleased to discover it was also engaging and darkly humorous. I laughed a lot and I also cried a lot. And I read entirely while walking on my treadmill!

#ethiopia #ethopians #redterror #history #memoir #nonfiction #plaguebreak

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trueisa4letterword
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Good for her! Almaz is more like a rough diamond than a diamond in the rough.

#bilingualpuns #ethopia #memoir

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trueisa4letterword
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This has been an excellent treadmill read, except when I have to stop walking because I laughed too hard at passages like this one.

#ethiopia #late1960s #memoir

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Simona
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Mehso-so

The author's personal memories of growing up in #Ethiopia are interwoven with everyday life - traditions, rituals, tales, as well as political events. The authors' general tone of narration is playful, which, with a change in the regime, changes into a serious, tragic (both at the personal and national level) narrative that offers a fairly general insight into the recent history of Ethiopia. Not bad, but also not great. #readaroundtheworld

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Currey
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Pickpick

#Ethiopia #readaroundtheworld Finished this unique book which although autobiographical also had a great deal of Ethiopian myths and tales in it. At the beginning of the book the author is a wild boy who needs to be treated for his demons. However as the civil war escalated the tales of lions, monkeys and hyenas give way to the horrors of war. Always told from a personal perspective, nevertheless I learned a lot about the country.

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