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Ethiopia

Editorial

Who is Dancing in the Shadow of Corona?

Who is Dancing in the Shadow of Corona? Perhaps I have never been so thoroughly reminded of my privileges as I have been...

Text: Casia Bromberg June 10 2020
Article

The Emperor’s New Clothes

Gezahegn Mekonnen is an Ethiopian journalist and filmmaker, and one of the founding members of PEN Ethiopia. He currently lives in exile in Toronto, Canada, where he edits the journal New Perspectives...

Text: Gezahegn Mekonnen May 03 2019
Article

Open letter to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia

Solomon Hailemariam, author and founder of PEN Ethiopia, had to leave his homeland Ethiopia in 2015, after repeated attacks on himself and the organization. He now lives in exile in Canada, and serves...

Text: Solomon Hailemariam May 03 2019
Article

The Unsung Heroes

It is now more than six years since Swedish journalist Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson returned home after 438 days in Ethiopian prison, accused of terrorism. Today, Martin Schibbye...

Text: Martin Schibbye May 03 2019
Editorial

Texts about Hope

In April 2015 PEN/Opp had texts about Eritrea and Ethiopia, and among the contributors was Reeyot Alemu, the much...

Text: Elnaz Baghlanian May 03 2019
Poetry

Poems from Exile

Sosina Ashenafi, author and journalist, was born and raised in Ethiopia, and is known for her sarcastic essay style, short story writing and her poetry. She now works and lives in Canada, where she...

Text: Sosina Ashenafi May 03 2019
Poetry

Let Me Hear Your Truth

Chaala Hailu Abata, an Ethiopian poet who was imprisoned and tortured in his country of origin for writing poetry critical of the regime, lives in safety in Sweden today. But his thoughts remain back...

Text: Chaala Hailu Abata May 03 2019
Poetry

Salt and Metal

The metallic taste of clotted blood, like the salt from a cold sweat, seems ubiquitous. Ineradicable. Liyou Libsekal was born in 1990 in Ethiopia and currently lives in Addis Ababa. She is an award...

Text: Liyou Libsekal May 03 2019
Fiction

The Booksellers on the Street

Mohammed Selman is a journalist and freelance writer, presently working for BBC Amharic. He was previously an editor at Littmann Books, one of the leading publishing houses in Ethiopia. In “The...

Text: Mohammed Selman May 03 2019
Article

The Dawn is Not Here

In 2011, award-winning Ethiopian journalist Reeyot Alemu was sentenced to fourteen years in prison for her writing, on an accusation of “terrorism”. Her crime was having written critical texts on...

Text: Reeyot Alemu May 03 2019
Article

Censorship and Hate Speech in Ethiopia

In this text, journalist and author Bisrat Woldemichael discusses the challenges that the freedom of expression is facing in the newly democratised Ethiopia. As hate speech is highly spreading in the...

Text: Bisrat Woldemichael May 03 2019
Article

Journalism in Ethiopia: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Woubshet Taye Abebe is an Ethiopian journalist and writer. Prior to being convicted, along with three other journalists, under the Ethiopian terror act in 2011, he served as editor-in-chief of the...

Text: Woubshet Taye Abebe May 03 2019
Fiction

There is Hope Now

Lena Bezawork Grönlund was born in 1975 in Addis Abeba and was raised in Northernmost Sweden. She is a librarian, and her first novel, Slag, was published in 2017. This issue contains a text in which...

Text: Lena Bezawork Grönlund May 03 2019
Article

Under the Ethiopian state

Without investigative journalists, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly how a dictatorship abuses the legal system and courts. Here, the well-known Ethiopian journalist Temesgen Desalegn describes such...

Text: Temesgen Desalegn April 08 2015

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