Happy New Year, Ethiopia!

In the past year (2015), I have found myself reading many beautiful fiction and non-fiction books. In celebration of the Ethiopian New Year 2016, I want to share some of my favs.

Reading through my notes, I realized Strength of Women was the highlight of the books I read last year. For example, in A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini, I learned about two generations of women in Afghanistan, Laila, and Mariam, and how their paths crossed in Kabul during a difficult period in the country’s history. These two women endured the abusive shared husband and the Taliban’s oppressive rules, especially towards the women. In a different context, in The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta, I learned about Nnu Ego in traditional society in Nigeria before colonization. From arranged marriage to divorce and then getting married again to a guy who worked in a city administration. This led her to leave behind her life in the traditional society for urban life in Lagos, where she has a different role in being the hustler of the family because she became a mother and her husband either was not working or was taken by the military to serve in the British wars. On top of this, she had to raise her kids and look after her family back home. One of the highlights of this book is the understanding that womanhood is not only about motherhood. If it is, when all the kids are grown-ups and have their own family and lives, what would the mother do? Nnu Ego finds herself in this position, and it was such a decisive moment. In another entirely different context, in The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, which is set in India in 1900 and spans over seven decades, I learned about Big Amachi. Starting at 12 years old and getting married to a 40-year-old widower, Big Amachi became this magnificent power, mother, grandmother, and community change agent. She endured many hardships, loneliness, and losing loved ones but maintained her sanity and went beyond to help her community. While all the books above are fictional works, they taught me about the reality of each context and the world in some ways. They teach history along with the characters' daily lives. Another fantastic work is the novel Women at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi, based on a true story about an Egyptian woman named Firdaus. This woman suffered throughout her life while all she wanted to become was self-sufficient. She finally killed a man and was sentenced to prison and later died. It was short and painful and showed how a woman navigates an oppressive patriarchal society in the most cruel ways.

Another theme in the books was Wellness and health, obviously. Anyone who knows me knows I’m obsessed with personal health and wellness. In the book Why We Sleep, a Standford Neuroscientist(I forgot his name and I’m not going to google it) taught me about the importance of sleep in this whole wellness era. I have a good amount of sleep every night but didn’t know how essential sleep was to our entire health. Sleep is the number one factor contributing to our overall health before diet and exercise. Having a consistent and quality sleep every night could change our health and long-term quality of life. This book cites several resources and references to support this and other arguments, so it is well-researched. Similarly, researcher Brene Brown taught me about emotional health in Atlas of The Heart. I didn’t even know these many words and phrases exist to describe one’s emotions. At the end of reading the book, I wrote all the words on a spreadsheet, and I tried to translate each into Amharic, but there were few words to describe each in Amharic.

Another theme is Psychology — No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, is a novel that speaks to my inner thoughts when thinking about the expectations of my community. These thoughts sometimes become alienating and lead to existential crises. We all have dark sides and inner demons that we mask with cheerfulness and social behaviors. If these things are not regulated (in some way), they may lead to insanity and mental disease. So, it is always balancing the good and the bad and navigating the in-between. The Courage to be Disliked and The Courage to be Happy are novels by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. Both books focus on teaching the psychology of Alfred Adler, a German psychologist/philosopher who lived the same time as Freud but was less famous. In both books, two characters were depicted by an elderly philosopher and a young adult. The dialogues between the two emphasize life choices, vertical relationships, and overcoming the need for approval and validation by others. While The Courage to be Disliked emphasizes how individuals have the power to change their lives no matter their circumstances, The Courage to be Happy continues the discussion on how to become happy through living a meaningful life every day. It goes deeper into Adlerian psychology with concepts such as life tasks, building meaningful relationships, and the need to change how we see the world. Both are packed with essential ideas, and the dialogue format makes it clear and engaging. I blogged about this in a different post so more thoughts can be found there.

World Politics and History — All the Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer is a history book about Iran. It is also the story of Mohammed Mossadegh, who is an elected leader of Iran, loved by the people but hated by oil-loving British colonizers of the time. It illustrates in great detail the 1953 Iranian coup d’état initiated by Britain and backed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It was mind-blowing how the Western world controls the rest and how they destroy anyone who comes between them and the resources. Although this is a history book, this cycle of oppression still continues in our world. Continuing about world history and oppression, The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James is a history book like no other. It explores the Haitian Revolution in the late 18th and 19th centuries in the then-French colony Saint-Domingo (now Haiti). I didn’t know about the transatlantic slave trade and its connection to Europe. The book focuses on a fantastic leader by the name of Toussaint Louverture, who, with other enslaved Africans, rose against their oppressors. It talks about the layers of class within that society and how African slaves were the lower class but the most hardworking. This is a significant fight for freedom in the global history of the slave trade and fighting against it. C.L.R. James wrote this while he was working in France and Britain. Another seminal work is The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. I think he is an Algerian/French psychiatrist and philosopher. This is one huge essay about oppression, class, and freedom, especially in the context of Africa. He argues how colonization dehumanizes everyone who is involved in it. And how it impacts social life, individual psychology, and culture even after decolonization. Fanon is honest and sometimes uses very strong, jaw-dropping words (at least for me) when discussing these concepts. After finishing these two books, I constantly think about how we can overcome the cycle of violence and oppression in our current world? And it looks like I am finding the answer in another great author’s work that I’m currently reading, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paul Freire.

Happy Ethiopian New Year! May 2016 be a year of peace, freedom, and more reading!