- ʿAlī Badr (?, Iraq) – La Tarkuḍ Warāʾ al-Thiʾāb ya ʿAzīzatī (‘Don’t run after the wolves my darling’, 2007). The Foreign Press Agency in New York sends one of its journalists to Addis Ababa to report on several Marxists Iraqi intellectuals who joined the army established by Ethiopia’s Marxist leader Mengistu Haile Mariam (reference). These Iraqi intellectuals participated in the destruction of the marshlands (al-Ahwār) in southern Iraq, in the 1960s before they fled. The journalist encounters revolution and narrates the story of Jabar, Aḥmad, Mūsūn, and their African fellow revolutionaries. The novel predicts the failure of future revolutions through the failure of the Ethiopian revolution.
- Ḥajī Jābir (1976-, Eritrea) – Raghwah Sawdāʾ (2018, English trans. Black Foam, 2023) and Rāmbū al-Ḥabashī (‘The Abyssinian Rimbaud’, 2021).
Raghwah Sawdāʾ follows a group of Ethiopian Jews, the Falash Mura who flee to Israel in search for a better life but are confronted with the racism existing in Israel against dark-skinned immigrants. Its main protagonist is Dāwīt, a young Eritrean man who changes his name and his religion to blend in with the Falash Mura. The novel not only brings to attention the discrimination of black Jews in Israel, but also the life of Ethiopian refugees who, if necessary, will change their identity if that means they will be safe, and their life will be stable (reference)(also in R: Religion and Sectarianism: Judaism and Arab-Jew relationships).
Rāmbū al-Ḥabashī tells the story of a woman from the Harari people, Almāz, who accompanied the 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud during his final years in Harar, Ethiopia. They embark on a romantic relationship and the novel describes how the two get to know each other and each others culture and language (reference) (also in L: Cultural and Literary Heritage: Philosophical heritage: French authors and philosophers).
- Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Walī (1939 – 1973, Ethiopia / Yemen) – Yamūtūn Ghurabāʾ (1971, English trans. They Die Strangers, 2001). This piece of literature contains a novella, the title story, and thirteen short stories that mainly reflect on the migrant experience, both from those who leave their home country and those that are left behind, such as family. The title story, for example, is that of a Yemeni who migrates to Addis Ababa to set up shop (reference). The novella reflects on his experience as a Yemeni in Ethiopia sending back money to his family, and the many relationships he has with Ethiopian women resulting in out of wedlock children who are in turn confronted with the fact that they are ‘half-blood’.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Suwīrāwī. 2008. “al-Rakḍ warāʾ al-Dhʾiāb: al-Rakḍ warāʾ man??.” www.ahewar.org July 29, 2008 https://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=139228 (last accessed 12 December 2021)
- Sulaymān Ḥājj Ibrāhīm. “‘Raghwah Sawdāʾ’ lil-Riwāʾī al-Irītriyyi Ḥajjī Jābir, Tʿariyyah al-Zayf al-Isrāʾīlī wa Faḍaḥ Usṭūratyahūd al-Falāshā.” www.alquds.co.uk, 18 November 2018, https://www.alquds.co.uk/%EF%BB%BF%D8%B1%D8%BA%D9%88%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%AD%D8%AC%D9%8A-%D8%AC%D8%A7/ (last accessed 5 November 2021)
- Youtube Channel: The Novelist – al-Riwāʾī. 2021. “Murājiʿa Riwāyat ‘Rāmbū al-Ḥabashī’ li-Ḥajjī Jābir”, 26 March 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvKK1u2xRGs (last accessed 12 January 2024)
- Fātin ʿAbd Allah Juʿīm. 2023. “ʿUtbatan al-Bidāyah fī Riwāyatay Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Walī.” Majallat Maqāmāt 7(1): 53-76, p. 57