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Rebellion and repression: Oromay, by Baalu Girma, reviewed

Girma’s semi-autobiographical thriller follows the efforts of the Marxist Mengistu to crush secessionist Eritrea in the bloody aftermath of Haile Selassie’s downfall

11 January 2025

9:00 AM

11 January 2025

9:00 AM

Oromay Baalu Girma, translated by David DeGusta and Mesfin Felleke Yirgu

MacLehose Press, pp.389, 20

‘We don’t want a James Bond adventure here,’ warns a jumpy spymaster as he grapples with an anti-state conspiracy in Oromay. Among other strands, that’s precisely what this fabled Ethiopian novel of 1983 delivers. Which is remarkable, given that Baalu Girma’s semi-autobiographical thriller of rebellion and repression, love and war, has been translated from Amharic.

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