Notes from the Hyena's Belly: An Ethiopian Boyhood

This is a memoir of the author's boyhood and young manhood in Ethiopia. Born in 1958 to a middle-class family in the city of Jijiga, Mr. Mezlekia left Ethiopia in 1980 and is now a professional engineer living in Toronto. Narrated with a light touch and a mixture of myth and fantasy, he opens a world for the western reader that has too long been influenced by nothing more than photos of skeletal images of starving children and grinding poverty.This story, however, is much more than that. From the start, there's a wide variety of interesting characters and a rich warm family life. There's Mustafa, the swindler, who boards at his home; there's Mr. Alula, the teacher, whose severe forms of discipline call for retribution by boyhood pranks; there's Wondwossen, his childhood companion, who joins a guerilla army with him; there are his sisters who never stop feuding. But most memorable of all is his mother, who holds her family together during the extreme hardships which inevitably come to this violent and war-torn land.He was 14 yeas old in 1972, a time when idealism and student protests were sweeping the globe. In Ethiopia, however, students were gunned down and murdered. Young Nega was jailed often and regularly, and always tortured, but somehow his descriptions of this time in his life are told with a touch of lightness. Years later, in 1977, when over 100,000 people are murdered in seven months during the "Red Terror" and bodies laid out over the streets, he yearns for the time when they were all just simply tortured. Throughout the book, I couldn't help shuddering at the all the cruelty. From the brutality of the schools, to scenes in the hospital where patients were beaten, to the way that monkeys were slaughtered, I found it disturbing how easily such things were taken for granted.Although Mr. Mezlekia does his best to describe the political situation, I found it hard to follow the various juntas and guerillas and political parties. The fantasies and myths, which I usually don't care for in literature, seemed very right for this book however. It was a constant reminder to me that this story did not come from a western author. Mr. Mezlekia is truly a witness to his times. He has certainly widened my understanding of his world.

Notes from the Hyena's Belly is a memoir that often reads like a novel. It depicts Nega's relatively calm childhood in sharp contrast to the growing unrest, civil strife and government corruption that dominated his adolescence and early adulthood. The book gives insight into a piece of Ethiopia's history, which is peppered with scenes from Nega's growing up years and folk tales that his mother told. Nega successfully speaks to the impact of civil war, government corruption and the too frequent global indifference to such issues in Africa, while at the same time maintaining a wry sense of humor that makes his story all the more human and real. This combination gives it a unique flavor and certainly makes it memorable.

Mr. Mezlekia has written a fast-paced autobiography that will draw the reader in and give a glimpse of life in a very different time and place. My only wish is that he had been more descriptive of his family, so that the reader would feel as much for them as for the author.

A delightful read whose storyline captures the reader’s attention while revealing the complex post-WWII history of this important African country.

I enjoyed the folk and cultural strands weaved into the narrative. Nega’s journey through one critical period in his country’s history provides a soulful window to a painful manmade experience with lessons to be drawn from

You have showed what really happen during that time. I read the book with full disappointment to what really happen to the young people of that generation.

Good quality, good story, arrived a week after purchase with standard shipping.

The story gripped me from the start. To see Ethiopian culture and history in such a clear way was so interesting. I learned so much watching the rise of Communism in Ethiopia through the author's eyes.

The book is great for understanding more about Ethiopian culture and the human effect of the political turmoil the country went through with the fall of Hallie Salasie. It's easy to read and the writer has a beautiful way with words. That said, it jumps about a lot making it disjointed at times and perhaps dedicates too much time to the authors child hood and not enough to you his life as young adult.

all as promised

product came as described. hard to get book but you came thru. many thanks! good condition and well packaged for air post.