Maaza Mengiste

from the Library of Congress in Washington DC you okay good afternoon and welcome all to the African Middle East Division I'm mary-jane Deeb chief of the division and today I'm delighted to be able to welcome Massa Mangusta the writer whom you will be hearing about from Rob Casper in a minute but today the African section cooperation of the poetry and literature Center here at the library which is headed by Rob Casper and the Africa Society for the national summit on Africa who is president and CEO bernadette paulo will address you in a moment will be presenting the tenth interview in the serious conversations with african poets and writers this videotape series is meant to record for posterity the words and images of important african authors in addition to their works which the Library of Congress holds teachers scholars students and others interested in African culture will have a unique opportunity to view to view these authors speaking and reading from their works and speaking to interviewers the point of the series is not only to help them hear and to share them with you but also to provide a tool an educational tool for people doing research on Africa and on literature in Africa for students who want to learn more about the writings of the established order writers and also the new ones the young voices the people who are coming with new ideas who are speaking about the new Africa and certainly the works of the writers that we present to you have been already I have received awards have recognized in their field and as certainly as has Massa mangas this new book santa hunter on a the area specialists for ethiopia and eritrea in the africa middle east division will introduce today's exciting new writer he will introduce her and talk to her Robert Casper is going to do the introduction but he will be the one who's going to interview her and Fanta hoon is really a pillar of Ethiopian Studies here at the library it is through him that we have acquired this wonderful collection that we have today and it is he who brings so much of the so many patrons here for events that have arranged from having the grandfather the grandson of Haile Selassie and come here to to having programs on various aspects of Ethiopian society so before we begin the program will have Bernadette Paolo the dynamic CEO of the Africa society and our partner in this initiative who will say a few words Bernadette thank you thank you very much good evening ladies and gentlemen distinguished guests all thank you dr. mary-jane Deeb and dr. Robert Casper dr. angel Batista nee Ferguson and our distinguished ethiopian scholar the Africa Society of the National summit on Africa is so pleased to partner with the African section of the African and Middle East division in the poetry and literature center of the Library of Congress you know as this program continues we're in our third season I'm struck by the not only what we've accomplished so far but the potential impact this series can have in educating Americans and people throughout the world about poets and writers living on the continent as well as highlighting the contributions of writers and poets in the African Diaspora and this really fits in our mission the mission of the Africa society which is to educate Americans primarily together with our partners about the countries cultures economies and contributions emanating from the continent of Africa we tell a markedly different story from those conveyed in the media and we're proud to actually have staff members young staff members from Uganda Kenya Ghana and Ethiopia beginning with Patricia Bayne our program director and Sarah Caruso and Laila Samara and Kojo hazel miss samara who's from ethiopia has told everyone on facebook about you montgomery stay I mean she's taken such privilege you would think that you're her sister and so I have to acknowledge that but on a more serious is no you know Mazdas work is impacted by her life's experiences which is why she writes in such a profound manner it's refreshing to see someone who can turn what is try into literary masterpieces that she was named a new literary Idol by New York magazine is a tribute to her and it's an inspiration to potential art authors who are encountering similar situations in places around the world who can use their talent and energy and and the past no matter how turbulent as a positive gateway to the future we appreciate the participation of those of you who are attending this program at the library today and we also welcome you those of you who have the opportunity to view this program online in the future together we are growing we are experiencing new talent and traveling to different places through the eyes and experiences of our distinguished guests thank you very much and now I have the pleasure of introducing to you rob Kasper dr. Rob Casper who heads the poetry and literature division of the Library of Congress mr. Casper Thank You Bernadette and Thank You mary-jane Deeb for organizing this reading in series I'm thrilled to work with the national summit on Africa and the African and Middle Eastern division at the Library of Congress and celebrate African writers and poets I'm really excited that this is our tenth event and excited for what we can bring going forward to American audiences writers both as Burnett said writers both from the continent and Dysport writers as well before I introduce maza our reader today I want to tell you a little bit about the center we are the home to the poet laureate consultant and poetry and we run some 30 to 40 programs like this one every year to find out more about this series and other events like this at the Library of Congress you can visit our website WWL see gov slash poetry you can also find out about the library's African in Middle Eastern Division at WWll CoV /r r slash comedy meed slash finally if you want to watch some of the videos that have been produced as part of this series you can go to the library's homepage at WWll see gov and click on webcasts I should say that if you have cell phones please ask that you turn them off and also that there'll be a question and answer period at the end of this event and if you participate in that question-answer period you will give us permission to be able to use you on the on the webcast Burnett did a great job of introducing Mazda McGee stay but let me say a little bit about her as well first I want to say that she's a terrific writer but she's also a wonderful wonderful person and I'm personally thrilled to have her here today she was born in EDIUS Ababa Ethiopia and lived in Nigeria and Kenya before settling in the United States her debut novel beneath the Lions gaze which is for sale right in the back there was published by WW Norton & Company in 2010 received great accolades the Christian Science Monitor called the novel quote intelligent and moving and added quote beneath the lines gaze provides a window into a complex and ancient country well the New Yorker described it as a quote tender novel and said man G stays social intelligence and historical research allow her to write compassionately about emotions denatured by a brutal regime regime or calcified by conviction the novel was featured on a number of top lists for the year and was also selected by the Guardian as one of the ten best contemporary African books Mazda's work has also appeared in the New York Times BBC Radio 4 Granta and lettre International and among other places she is a Fulbright Scholar who has received fellowships from the Emily Harvey Foundation the Virginia center for the creative arts the Prague summer program and yatta a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at New York University Mozza currently lives in New York City please join me in welcoming Mazda Mangusta it is really a pleasure to be here and I've had the opportunity while getting lost outside and trying to find the library of bumping into a few other she'll who kindly directed me and and I see some faces that I saw outside so thank you to rob and everyone the Library of Congress for inviting me it really is a pleasure to be here and an honor I wanted to tell you a little bit about my book before the Q&A and give you some context to the sections that I will be reading my book is set during the early days of revolution in Ethiopia that began in 1974 my novel will take goes through the first three years of that and includes a part probably the bloodiest era the bloodiest years in in that period called the red terror and my main characters are a family headed by a doctor who works at one of the bigger hospitals in addis ababa and through them I was interested in examining and investigating what happens to people who love each other in conflict but suddenly realize that they have very different and opposing views of what should happen in their country I think the family unit for me was was very important because I'm interested in what happens when you are related to somebody and when you love someone but you don't like their ideology and so high loose family my my doctor in this was really a perfect vehicle for me to do this within Hylas family he has two sons yonas who is a university professor who's very pragmatic feels responsible for his wife and daughter and only wants to survive this revolution he wants to stay under the violence he wants to stay away from it as much as possible Dao it who is the younger brother in here is the one on the frontlines he's the one protesting he is in an underground in an underground group trying to overthrow what would become a military dictatorship and so with with those three characters I wanted to explore how each of them reacted not only to the possibility of change but what happens when that idea of change goes very wrong and and the new regime takes place and a very violent period begins in Ethiopia but also in my book which I think I will talk a little bit about later in and perhaps an in Q&A I have another character named Mickey and Mickey was da weights best friend growing up but Mickey was much poorer than Dao it was and Mickey somehow finds himself involved in the military and slowly begins to rise in regime and you see through this friendship with Miki and Dow it the way that politics can destroy a friendship but also begin to destroy what they thought they knew about each other and about themselves the part that I will read now I think one of the things that I questioned as I was writing this book and researching was how how was it possible how did it start how could it begin and this revolution was called the creeping revolution it just seemed to happen slowly gradually in steps and at first the dog the military regime promised initially promised a bloodless revolution it was a broken promise but this is what they said and I wondered in those early days what what were what were people thinking what were people imagining and in particular because I have one of my characters as a kind of a side character is Haile Selassie the Emperor I wondered what he thought as step by step these military officers are getting closer and closer into the palace and then into the palace and then into his office and slowly moving him further and further into jail into prison until they kill him and so I want to read just a very quick section of just my own imaginings of what Haile Selassie might have been thinking in those early days the emperor was wasn't sure how these soldiers had crept into this meetings somehow they've managed to crawl out of their barracks and into Menelik palace their distaste for educated and cultured men clear in their haughty glares they had been meeting at the fourth Division Headquarters when one day a few of their select had driven in their jeeps onto his grounds pushed past his startled guards and settled themselves around his table he'd become used by how many they were these men in dark green fatigues who now cradled his elbow and palace meetings and whispered that he must remember their demands he must remember his people he no longer knew their numbers didn't know how which of these earnest soldiers had taken control of his radio station and breathed words din to every home and restaurant in his city they had said we do not believe in an eye for an eye we will bring to trial all those who misuse their power there can be justice without bloodshed and was it only the wind or had his people sent joyous shouts into the night sky in the world and speed of so much happening so fast the bodies of these men had disintegrated into mere voices in his ear they seemed moulded out of the shadows that clung to dark corners of his palace drifting in and out of his line of vision leaving traces of smoke and the scent of burning wood in their wake they talked to him in his sleep their words nestling against his head and burrowing into his brain the emperor slid through his days shaking the noises loose from his ears trying to bat the prodding requests away let us help you lead the country you were old and we are young you are one we are many we will do everything you ask the pressure built in Emperor Haile Selassie's head drilling behind his eyes thoughts collapsed into a hundred scattered words floating in front of his face pinned onto pages that were that were shoved under his pen he found himself numbed by the smiles that cuss that sliced his resistance more than their hard sharp eyes your name here and here these officers he'd never known before said signed this and dissolve your ministry and the crown Council we have a new and better way for you to rule they were men simply men instructing God's chosen the monarch with blood that could be traced to wise King Solomon of the Bible soon the vote the voices floated from the radio and called his best men to submit to the wishes of all and go to jail there will be no bloodshed the radio said again only justice his Senators and judges cabinet members and ministers his noble men began to leave their posts and walk with grim confidence to turn themselves in sign here and here no time to read we must hurry trust us don't sit there is no rest we must show that change is coming don't you hear your people the emperor stood the emperor walked the emperor followed the backs of the uniformed men from one meeting into another what has become of us he asked himself when will angels lead us out of his three emperor haile selassie tried his best to become a mobile to stand rigid without following to sit without signing to watch without nodding without expression without revealing the panic that fluttered through him but things kept moving forward we must not be anything other than what we are he reminded himself we are and so we will be we are here in these days of locusts and noise but it has been written that this shall pass and so it will as the revolution is is beginning and going and inflicting chaos and havoc into the lives of many Ethiopians across the country my character Hailu who is the medical doctor has been introduced to a new patient in his hospital and it is a special patient who's under the custody of the military and he has been told that she is a special prisoner who's been very very roughly and violently interrogated he is to heal her so she can go back into custody and Allu who has been trying to keep his son Dow it desperately out of the fray of the violence and the protests finds himself confronted with the revolution and with choices that he never expected he makes a decision in what to do with this young girl that lands him in prison and he himself is then subjected to the same torture that she underwent and I will read you just a brief section of a moment of of Hailu in prison this is fear I know this taste of bile and sweat in my mouth I have run against Italian bullets with this taste thickened on my tongue I have raised a rifle and a scalpel and my hands with its familiar sting and stink I am no stranger to this this is fear hi Lou said but it didn't ease the tightening in his throat it didn't loosen the veins that swelled and throbbed from the pressure of a heart beating too fast there is nothing here that is not the sum of its most minut parts there is nothing here that logic and rational discourse cannot put back into place but each breath seemed to shove him deeper into the jail despite the fact that he hadn't moved from this solid chair and what felt like hours and maybe days so high Lou started counting and Hulett sauced a lot he couldn't understand why the colonel would be so interested in a small quiet girl who was fragile much too fragile to live in these times he would tell the colonel that she was brought to him already near dead how do you expect me to keep a dying body alive he'd ask I'm nothing but a simple doctor a mere man like you he'd remind the colonel we too are only men it is God we need to question to interrogate to beg for answers Hailu lifted his face to taste a fresh breeze the cane is tall in my fields so tall it blocks my vision closes off the Sun and curtains me in darkness he didn't listen to the heavy door that shut behind him he dug himself even deeper into the steadily increasing numbers instead he searched his pockets for for prayer beads he realized he'd forgotten at home he took his granddaughter to Zetas hand count with me tizzy quit praying a soldier ordered he shoved him out of the small room into a long hallway than into a wide reception area with fluorescent lights so bright not even sunlight could compete the air was weightless and chilly it burned his nose to inhale the jail was cleaner than his hospital lobby it held no smells there were no noises soldiers were attached to chairs hunched over documents that sat atop perfectly arranged desks rigid as statues not one looked up to take in this latest prisoner flanked by two of their Stern faced comrades highly faltered for a moment but a hand pushed him forward and he heard inside the Loy's the noiselessness that was making his head ache tiny telltale signs of life the scratch of pen on paper the deliberate thump of a stamp the opening of a freshly oil drawer the slow hush of a chair pushing across a concrete floor sit a voice ordered behind him highly slumped into the metal chair pushed under him the slant of light that pushed into the room from a strip of space and the curtains was crisp nearly bleached of all golden color it settled on a soldier carefully thumbing through a stack of papers with a back as straight as a ruler Hailu looked around him gone was his sugar cane field to zetas hand had evaporated the air bored down and all its coldness he hugged his suitcase to his chest begged his body to produce heat to replace the chill he already felt settling into his bowl the urge to run overtook him again but the very order of things the symmetry of motion and stillness in the dark gray office made even the thought of resistance illogical Thank You Martha I want to congratulate you on your success your first novel I must tell you that when I was reading this novel I was very emotional page by page because it reminded me of the turbulent tragic times that of the 1970s to mid-1970s that me and my generation had to shoulder so it's a pleasure to have you and I also want to thank you that you attempted to piece together all the essential elements of the revolution in this one normal I ever since I knew about the book and I found out about publishing the book I was intended to get hold of you for a long time and you know it has come to reality because of the thanks to Robert Caspar and we're glad to have you here so I have a few questions for you the first question is what inspired you to write such a historical political novel and how did you do the research on the 80 opium revolution um I I you know I came to the US when when I was very young um you can tell from my English and I had always wondered what brought me here and what raised my curiosity was the fact that I would keep asking my family and my family would not answer me they didn't want to talk about this period so I started looking back at the things that I did remember from the revolution I was born just before that but I was living in Ethiopia during the very very early days of the upheaval and I had only a child's memory of what happened but and for me they seemed very much like photographs you see an image but I didn't know what was happening before that I didn't know what happened afterwards I just had this picture and I didn't know the political context but I remember playing outside and we you know you we would hear gunshots that would come or sitting inside the house because we couldn't go outside anymore and seeing I would see the light when bullets are being shot they they have this light that goes into the night and I could see some of it sometimes soldiers broke into our house and that was when I knew that I think we were hiding somebody even though my parents didn't tell me at that time but instead of asking the adults they would come and ask me and I was three but they didn't think it's real could lie but I think that's what makes me right so so I remembered those things but no one would tell me about them and when I came here to the US I I wanted to know how I got here why am I here why am i not back home and so I was looking for as much information as I could find on Ethiopia but you have to remember this for me I was eight nine ten eleven at that time and I couldn't find many things for my age so I started reading children's books about World War two and I started reading books about revolutions in other countries books written by trainings about the the Cultural Revolution anything I could find that could try to explain to me what might have happened in Ethiopia and that interest stayed with me that that idea that I wasn't just reading or looking about myself but in stories that I was finding about Libya about about Nicaragua Guatemala Argentina I was seeing children who would like me and I was looking and finding people like my parents and my aunt's and my uncles so I kept reading but as I got older I I still had this story in my head and listening at dinner tables at parties at weddings by Nava Shaw when we all get together I started paying attention to the way to the stories that are being told and not only listening to the stories but listening to the silences in in those stories the moments when a story cuts off and you know there's more but they skip five six years and they continue the story or they won't tell you what happened in the middle they just stopped so I was listening to those moment and realizing that I think there's something here I think there's something more and I wasn't sure that I was the right person to tell this story because I've grown up here but there was a moment when I was living in Los Angeles and I was looking in the Sunday newspaper and it was the 25th anniversary of the fall of the military hooter in Argentina and the journalists in that newspaper had done a wonderful report but he included not just the historical aspect of the dirty wars but he included pictures of mothers holding the photographs of children who were disappeared or who had died they showed photographs of classmates from a high school and there were small numbers on those people who had survived and those who did not and looking at that I said you know maybe I could tell the human side of the story maybe I can tell about the people that I know if even if I don't fully know yet that historical the complicated historical reasons I know from my family and from my memories I know what happened to people I know what happened to my own family and this journalist gave me an inspiration to talk about talk about the mothers talk about the son was talk about the children because those women in Argentina who were holding up the pictures of their disappeared more than mothers in Ethiopia doing the same thing where the father's also and that gave me an inspiration to write in your novel we have used extensive metaphorical language and imagery and symbolism one of one of the symbols that you used is the line and what does the line signifies in your novel and if you would like to include with your answer why you divided your model into four sections or four books and the second question is really one of the best questions I've ever had this is no one no one has asked me this before and I really had to think I know why I did it but it's the first time I'm now I have to speak my answer but a stop-start let me start with the easy one the first one so the the lion in my book the imagery the time which is also part of the title here is in reference to Haile Selassie in one way the conquering line of Judah is is what he was called and so beneath the Lions gaze I had this image of the Emperor watching everything unfold in his city but also the many of the events in my book take place around at the side of our University and there is a statue in front of the University and if you look very closely there's a small lion there and someone didn't believe me who lives in under stop it but I had to drive in vibin but it's there and that this is where a lot of unrest was also around the university area so beneath the Lions Gate is also this small step this small line that's there but your second question which is fantastic is I divided the book into four sections and if you notice when you're reading it highly my doctor begins or ends each one of those sections he's my main character and you see through Hailu at each of those sections the slow disintegration of a human being under the pressure of war I was really interested in survivors and what remains after conflict and that you see through high loop how someone survives not not fully whole like they were before but still surviving and so he he's for me the marker in those and and the steps to both his resistance and also that that's slow wearing away thank you on my next questions focuses on your own the influences of the writers have on you and your connection with DES for African writers and your connection with writers and poets in Ethiopia and Africa in general you could discuss that yeah the first question was with diaspora writings I I read a lot and I read I read everything that I can find but I think for me I remember being in in college and and picking up the thirteenth son chuckle and saying wow this is is just it was a wonderful book and it was a wonderful for me of he was writing about Ethiopia about the modern about modernity and the struggle of tradition with with newer what a modern Ethiopia and I could see in that story kind of my own my own negotiations with being a different kind of Ethiopian but having family who were very traditional and that book really really spoke to me France phenom it wretched of the earth was really just it opened my world in so many ways and I Manta I do who wrote our sister killjoy a writer out of Ghana she was writing a book but writing it and breaking structure and I was reading this as a writer was just really incredible for me so I I keep reading a Christa Bonnie who a mock Jam could see a marine died is a new writer out of France I'm constantly reading these but what I'm interested in when I'm reading these writers from the Diaspora our ways that they negotiate being somewhere else while also being from a different place and I'm interested in the types of stories that they are telling in that way and hoping to learn but also hoping to expand my my own perspective in terms of writers who are in Ethiopia right now for me I am looking for books that are that are written by young up-and-coming writers live in Ethiopia in fact I'm working on an anthology right now I wonder when my next book is done I can't they won't let me start until them so but I'm actively looking for writers who are in Ethiopia now and writing in on the medic and I'd like to be a small kind of bridge to bring their work here to get it translated and so that anthology which will start I think in 2014 I'm already looking for writers and I found really really exciting work that's being done in Ethiopia and it's wonderful there's a great question here as to your feelings how you feel differently more or less connected to American writers that's an interesting question because I I think I read based on interest and so I am I'm looking for writers that are that are writing just not from the country they're in but the subject matter that might interest me or as a writer who is very interested in in the technical aspects of writing in the craft of writing and how to write a novel and how to how to work with structure and voice and tone all those things that I have to think about when I write I keep I go to across the globe but one of the most influential writers for me has been American writer by the name of Al dr. oh and he's written ragtime which i think is one of the most perfect books written the book of daniel it does some brave things with story and politics and again with structure that I have learned from perhaps more from reading everything that he's written than some of my graduate courses thank you well the next question is about the challenge of African Diaspora animators we can start with your own experience some tennis I think I think one of the biggest challenges one of the things that I hear when I am at literary festivals or I'm at readings and I'm around other writers who are born in different parts of Africa we we all get asked the question are you an African writer are you do you think of yourself as an African writer and I remember the first time I got asked this question my book had just come out I don't think it was Ali I think it was coming out the next week it was my first interview with a journalist and we met somewhere in Brooklyn and he asked me the first question are you an African writer and I was so I was in my Tevas I think and I was so shocked by the question because I never I'm just I'm just me I mean when I'm writing I'm not thinking of this is an African word is this an America i'ma show it I'm just writing writing and so I didn't think about that and I I was shocked I said what do you mean by African and he looked at me and he said I don't know so you know it's just and I think that's the struggle we face and what you will see with with writers who are continually put under this umbrella of African writer you start view what we are seeing it now you'll see the resistance you'll see these writers saying I'm not African I'm not African I'm a writer or I'm American or I'm French and they're resisting that tag and I think what our goal should be is not to say who is African or who is not but to begin to broaden our definition of what is American or what is French or what is Italian or what is German because that's the way that the world we are we are invading we are changing those definitions it's not those definitions should not be changing who we are my last question is already answered Oh the the books that you're going to write any major literary work that's forthcoming if you could just give us some clue we don't want you to discuss the whole book but just do it okay so you know about the anthology but before that the project I've been working now for about two years has been a new novel that said in 1935 and it's about Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia and the war that came as a result of that and I lived in Italy for a while looking in the archives and interviewing the children and the grandchildren of these Italian soldiers and I have been doing some extensive research on the Italian side as well my goal is to tell this story from both sides of the battle lines because I'm really interested in the way that that what I don't quite understand and when I don't understand something that's usually a good sign to write about it what I don't understand is those Italians who eventually sent it in in Ethiopia and and lived there but they were shooting at the people they made into neighbors and married into and that's for me a question that makes a book how is that what happened there and so I'm working on that but what's interesting to me also is the role of women in that war and I don't think we've explored that enough and I'm very excited about this so some of my main characters are the women who were on the front lines with the men when maza I should inform you that we have a rich collection I know I have to talk was talking at lunch so you're welcome to have a look and thank you so much for the very enlightening interview that you gave us and I want to remind all of you that her books are being sold over there and she can sign what happened I think that's an interesting question I feel like we're not done yet with what it's done the fact that you and I are here in this country were still going through the consequences of that what I think may be a very simple answer that it did do was was it tore families apart and it forced secrets into families where before there were not because there are things that are still very hard to speak about that would for me be the most the most immediate consequence my characters in an especially Dow eight in my book that begins to question religion begins to question why god is doing this why are we praying why don't we take action and I wonder if those questions are also still continuing to surface in Ethiopia I also want to say thank you very much my question is you have gone that historically for your first book in your next a phone book do you have plans to write your story I don't know if there's anything new I could say which is what stops me from when I have a question is when I start writing usually and I feel like my my line has gone the way that so many other immigrants that you know have gone I'm very interested in the history of my family and maybe I can connect myself to that continuum but I don't I'm I'm not that interesting to myself not enough hook I don't have plans yet it's a good question comments questions and what during the defender and even so how find in the moon because most of them are not going to taco so yeah that's right in small way yeah I want that and try to talk to the mother to the burgers and they don't wanna yeah I have been trying to find the stories by speaking to people by asking but it's been very hard it's been very hard that unfortunately especially during the era that I'm researching now 1935 so many of those women have passed away or they're old and so maybe I'm looking for their children right now and I'm finding just any information I can find online or through books and so I'm constantly looking know if anyone knows this is one thing I really am interested in these stories I have found living in Italy I found a an academic a scholar who was doing research on the era of these editor and women who were the Madonna of these Italian men and she did some interviews with them it was very difficult to get them to talk also but I've read some of those and that's been eye-opening to so little by little it's coming and so much I'm looking forward to reading your book very much huh I was wondering if you are all involved with the Diaspora ill-being diaspora here in terms of political activity trying to find a way forward in the current situation my main concern here is just as a it's really as a writer it's really and I'm because my parents are back in Ethiopia now I'm always aware of what's happening but I also understand that my role is a writer is to it's it's really to be to write the books that I am in terms of politics it's it's very complicated it gets so complicated and changes so much all the time but I'm aware of of what happens there and my my heart and my head is constantly there anything it is a sketch of what happens higher beginning I've heard you have to I can say very briefly and you will have to read the book because it's it's it's very complicated but he he's a changed man as a result of everything in a very broad sense my my question in this book that I was exploring through Hailu is it's what remains what is it that you have left after you go through everything what do you now hold dear that you may have taken for granted before and so Hailu is is a different person and I think his whole family is but he's changed as a result but you have to okay okay okay thank you all of you for coming thank you myself thank you very much presentation my urge you to buy her books this has been a presentation of the Library of Congress visit us at loc.gov

Channel: Library of Congress

Views: 22,812

Rating: 4.5774646 out of 5

Keywords: Africa, Literature, Maaza Mengiste

Id: 8Dw0MoM2FoM

Length: 53min 6sec (3186 seconds)

Published: Wed May 15 2013