Oromay begins as it means to go on, at hurtling speed. A television journalist wakes late, with 20 minutes to catch a plane. And not just any plane: a plane carrying most of the leadership of Ethiopia. Tsegaye finds himself in first class, receiving orders. There is to be an all-out push to bring the northern province of Eritrea into line with the revolution. He is in charge of hearts and minds, which must be changed. At once.
Oromay is set in the first months of 1982, seven years after emperor Haile Selassie was killed by a military junta led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, who by then had eliminated almost all opposition. A security agent in Oromay describes Eritrea immediately after the coup: beatings, jailings, extra-judicial killings, “corpses in the…
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Guardian Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 17 January 2025