Oromay

A lost classic - a thrilling political satire, and a turbulent tale of love and war. In early 1982, the Ethiopian government launched an audacious effort to subdue the long-running Eritrean insurgency. All the top Ethiopian officials, including Baalu Girma himself, were ordered to Asmara, the capital of the Eritrean province, to carry out the "Operation Red Star"-three months of economic, propaganda, and military initiatives intended to crush the insurgency and impose socialism on Eritrea. It did not go as planned, derailed by the increasing corruption, brutality, and ineptness of the regime. Girma, as head of propaganda, had a front-row seat for this, and used the Red Star Campaign as the basis of his sixth novel, Oromay. Oromay, a political satire, was published in Ethiopia in the summer of 1983, became an instant sensation, and is today generally considered the most famous Ethiopian novel. While the romantic and thriller elements drew a large readership, its unflinching portrayal of the regime, the Red Star campaign and its missteps was unprecedented in the highly censored literature under the Derg. Within days of its publication, the regime realized that Girma had gone rogue. They immediately fired him, banned Oromay, and sent soldiers into bookstores and markets to confiscate copies. Six months later, on February 14, 1984, Baalu Girma vanished in suspicious circumstances - his car was found at the side of a road. His fate continues to be the subject of intense speculation and investigation, but no definitive evidence has emerged. However, the consensus (including that of PEN International) is that he was kidnapped and murdered by the regime in retaliation for Oromay. Translated from Amharic by David DeGusta