From Wemezekir Shelves: Reviews of two recently Ethiopia related published books

Bloggers Note: Followers of this blog would notice that from time to time we provide reviews of books related to Ethiopia. Today, we are presenting you reviews of two books which are related to  two major events that I have participated recently.  One event was local and the other far from where I reside currently.

The first one was a book release event for " እንዘጭ እንቦጭ የኢትዮጵያ ጉዞ"  the latest book by Professor Mesfin Woldemariam. The event that I helped to organize was very successful as you can see from this live videocast by Abbay Media. For those who would buy this book I strongly suggest you watch this video after you read the book. The presentations from three panelists (Dr. Semahagn Gashu, Ato Geletaw Zeleqe & Ato Zelalem Kibret) who volunteered to read the book just few days before the book release event and prepare salient points for discussion were very informative especially in tackling head-on the main themes of the book. The highlight of the event for me was, the brief introductory speech by Dr. Deresse Getachew accompanied by a multimedia  show highlighting Professor Mesfin's contributions as an intellectual and as a citizen. The young scholar explained very eloquently, the role of a true public intellectual in a nation and how Professor Mesfin play this role in Ethiopian context.  This was followed by Professor Mesfin's speech and a Q&A session in which Professor Mesfin answered questions raised by the three panelists as well as those raised by members of the audience.
With kind permission of Dr. Semahagn Goshu, a redacted version of his presentation in the form of book review will be posted below.
The second event was the Annual African Studies Association that I attended in Chicago. As you can see from this program there were several panel presentations related to Ethiopia or the Horn of Africa region. The presentations were in various subjects or disciplines and topics. The anthropology & sociology panels discussed topics ranging from  'Ethiopian Coffee ceremony', to diaspora returnees as well as Second generation Ethiopian-Americans in DC metropolitan area. In History & Contemporary Politics, the topics ranged from Price Alemayehu Tewodros; nationalist thoughts of the Ethiopian Student Movement to geopolitics of the Horn of Africa region in Trump Era. There were also interdisciplinary discussion of the Oromo culture & institutions as well as reflections on intellectual contributions of the late Donald Levine. As is the case in many huge conventions such as the Annual ASA conference with parallel sessions going on at the same time, it is impossible to  not to miss panels that could be interesting. I was able to attend some Ethiopia related ones while I missed some other interesting ones. I would reserve remarks on individual sessions that I have attended for another time. Just in general, I would say I enjoyed the presentations and discussions on the 1.5 or 2nd generation Ethiopian Americans or the returnee diasporas with all their Lamie Bora, Jofe Amora etc..variations.
Lots of publishers of books on Africa and whole-sale book distributors of books and films from Africa had booths in the Exhibition hall.
Among them were Red Sea Press /Afrca World Press and Tsehai Publishers. Both publishers based in North America are known for publishing books on Ethiopia or Eritrea including some scholarly
journals. The book I am reviewing is published by Tsehai Publisher