Introduction
This page is for praise for our blog and book. All constructive feedback is golden. When contacting us informally, readers usually gave us their names. We kept them anonymous to protect them.
1. Ethiopia Blog
Comments
“We Ethiopians really thank you for everything you do. Your information and news are trustworthy.” __Anon 2021
“Thank you so much Mr. Mesfin and Ianet for your good works for our country. Your blogs are really wonderful and very informative. Your profile is real awesome! How lucky am I to get in touch with a superhuman like you, and Ianet. Thanks for sharing the world your breathtaking history.”__Anon 2021
“Thank you for the wonderful knowledge you are sharing. Keep well and God bless.”__Anon 2021
2. Lucy’s People by Mesfin Tadesse, 2nd edition 2021
Book Reviews
Lucy’s People skilfully documents an intimate perspective on an ethically complex time and place.
“Humming with heartfelt energy, Mesfin Tadesse’s memoirs span a transformative and troubled era. Bright and charismatic, Mesfin cuts his teeth under the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I. In horror, he watches the communist Derg coup of 1974, and, alongside his compatriots, struggles to endure the ensuing atrocities. As a headstrong young man, Mesfin must not merely survive, but must do so without compromising his convictions, or his love of Ethiopia.
“Engaging to the last, Lucy’s People runs the gamut of human emotion. It strikes the tone of an affectionate elegy, such that it feels, at one moment, warmly descriptive, and at yet another, quietly indignant. In this manner, it weaves between the personal and the political: a feat widely accomplished with playful, acerbic wit. Readers can expect an appetising dose of flavourful detail, but without fear of excessive nostalgia or sentimentality. The storytelling remains consistently inventive, and rewards with gripping vignettes starring spirited personalities. These memoirs thereby tell the story of many – a story of resilient compassion and defiant pride. The result is compelling; Lucy’s People skilfully documents an intimate perspective on an ethically complex time and place. This review was based on a complimentary pre-release copy of ISBN 978-0-6488287-2-3.”___Ben Claessens
Ben is a PhD Philosophy candidate.
“This is rich material with great promise.” __blueink
LUCY’S PEOPLE is Mesfin Tadesse’s fascinating love letter to Ethiopia and looks at the turbulent history of the birthplace of humanity and how multiple leadership changes have resulted in little progress.
Lucy’s People: An Ethiopian Memoir by Mesfin Tadesse and Janet Bastyan
IR RATING: 4.3
LUCY’S PEOPLE is Mesfin Tadesse’s fascinating love letter to Ethiopia and looks at the turbulent history of the birthplace of humanity and how multiple leadership changes have resulted in little progress.
IR Approved
- Posted by Rob E
- October 6, 2023
A memoir about growing up Ethiopian in the 1970s and ‘80s.
History is written by the winners, which is why literary memoirs are so important. They often tell the other side of history experienced by those suffering under political and social upheaval. War memoirs like Night by Elie Wiesel, and The Diary of Anne Frank are taught in classrooms across the world. Mesfin Tadesse’s LUCY’S PEOPLE: AN ETHIOPIAN MEMOIR (co-authored by ianet Bastyan) is also a war memoir of sorts but it’s impossible to tell the story of modern Ethiopia without delving into the country’s violent past.
Ethiopia is the birthplace of mankind. The book’s title refers to “Lucy,” the world’s oldest hominid skeleton, discovered there. The country’s ancient civilizations rivaled those of Egypt in terms of technology and sophistication. Ethiopia was one of the first nations to adopt Christianity, even before Rome, which often put it at odds with the Islamic nations surrounding it. During WWII, the country was invaded by Italy, but the Ethiopian army fought hard to repel the fascists. From 1974 to 1991, the military-backed Derg took over, leading to decades of famine and conflict. When Ethiopia isn’t being invaded by neighboring countries, it’s divided by in-fighting. In 1993 the coastal section of Ethiopia broke off, leading to the formation of a new country, Eritrea, and leaving Ethiopia as the most populated landlocked nation on earth.
Author Tadesse lived through the years of Derg oppression, and longs for a strong, unifying Ethiopian leader, like Haile Selassie. Rising to power in 1916, Selassie is seen as an Ethiopian hero for resisting the Italian invasion and helping form the United Nations in 1945. Selassie was deposed by the Derg in 1974. “Throughout my youth, Ethiopia was the land of suffering,” Tadesse writes. Fighting is a way of life in Ethiopia and Tadesse is proud of his family’s “warrior” heritage. Father was a high-ranking military official, while Mother and Grandmother took up arms against fascist invaders. (“Mum was a crack-shot patriot.”) “Our family treasure was a patriot’s sword. During a raid, the Derg stole four. After 10 years Mum got one back.”
Indoctrination into violence started early for Tadesse. “When I was four, I took Dad’s service pistol. It was probably loaded. I refused to hand it over, loving the feel of it in my hand.” Violence, sex, and concepts of masculinity blend together. “At 16 he received the gun, his to keep. He could not obtain a wife without skill in using it. A mark of prowess was to shoot through the center of an orb-weaving spider’s web without breaking it. I did this before the age of nine. A general whispered, ‘You are ready for a woman now.’” It is not until Tadesse joins the military himself, battling Somalian invaders in the Rift Valley, home of Lucy, and soldiers from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, that he gets a firsthand glimpse of the visceral horrors of war. There’s nothing glamorous, glorious, or heroic about seeing friends die.
Military experience, combined with an engineering education, leaves Tadesse more contemplative. He discovers the true heart of Ethiopia in Konso, where systems of engineering, agriculture, and social equity mirror the values of ancient Ethiopia. At times LUCY’S PEOPLE veers toward tall-tale territory, and some of Tadesse’s prideful boasts may need fact-checking. But his claims about Ethiopia’s natural healers could prove beneficial to Western doctors. “Healers in the country found innovative ways to cure cancer without chemotherapy and invasive surgery.”
Is Ethiopia as progressive and forward-thinking as Tadesse portrays? Like many countries in the region, homosexuality is illegal in Ethiopia, and the country leads the world in kidnap marriages and female circumcisions. In 2024 Ethiopia is slotted to join the BRICS alliance of communist nations. Despite years of harassment under the Soviet-backed Derg, the nation’s leaders have chosen again to ally with Russia. Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Perhaps this is why Tadesse’s memoir ends with him leaving his homeland and walking to a refugee camp in Kenya. Ethiopia drives its best and brightest away; or gets them killed in endless military conflicts. Tadesse digs beneath the violence to find Ethiopia’s essence.
LUCY’S PEOPLE is Mesfin Tadesse’s fascinating love letter to Ethiopia and looks at the turbulent history of the birthplace of humanity and how multiple leadership changes have resulted in little progress.
~Rob Errera for IndieReader
3. Lucy’s People by Mesfin Tadesse, 1st edition 2020
It is genuine and tells the truth fearlessly.
Justice Magazine
Text Messages
“Dear sister Jani, I read your book Lucy’s People. I handed it over to my elderly father. He might not read another story like that unless you write another book.”__Anon 2020
“The best telling of a true story. We are completely challenged by your book. That is why we are jumping straight to another topic from outside your book. Sorry to do that, but we need to tell you this because it is urgent. Today, Ethiopia has developed effective medicine that cures infection and illness from the coronavirus. As you know, the world is close to having half a million people dead from COVID-19. Still, powerful individuals, leaders and nations are against the disbursement of effective medicine already developed in Ethiopia. Ethiopia made the medicine much earlier on, near the start of the fight against coronavirus. However, Ethiopia is up against the World Health Organization, and rich and powerful countries. Even when their own people are dying from coronavirus, they don’t care that it is still unavailable around the world. Above all, the rich countries don’t want this medicine to be available throughout the rest of Africa. They especially do not want it found in Ethiopia. Injustice continues against Ethiopia and Africa. Thank you to Ianet and Mesfin.”__Anon 2020
“Your book is real. The photos are real. The history in it injects the brain. When I finished reading it, I felt that I was a full human being. When I was on the last page, I felt angry because only one page was left in my hand. Thank you. The world deserves it.”__Anon 2020
News Media
Address to the Nation
“Read Lucy’s People. It will change you.”__Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in an Amharic national radio address, 2020. This followed the Senie 21 (June 29) riots. It was the year before he went rogue.
Book Review
“In 13 years, I have not read an Ethiopian book like this one. It is genuine and tells the truth fearlessly. Amazingly, this story has come to us from Australia. Because of this, they have a refreshing perspective on the treatment of Ethiopia by outsiders. Wake up world. Read this book.”__”Around the World.” Review of Lucy’s People: An Ethiopian Memoir, by Mesfin Tadesse & ianet Bastyan. Justice Magazine, May 1-2, 2020. Translated by Mesfin Tadesse.
Phone Conversation
“When I was photocopying Lucy’s People the machine ran out of ink and I missed the last 3 lines of Chapter 12 [sob].”__Anon 2020
Featured image photo: Pelicans over Lake Tana, Ethiopia © Mesfin Tadesse 2020
