This map is by the Nations Online Project (click here for a bigger map and more information). The Tigray province is in the North, bordering Eritrea. Addis Ababa is in the middle.
Why is Ethiopia at war?
On 4 November 2020 the Ethiopian government’s federal army led an assault on a group of militias in the Tigray province after numerous, apparently unprovoked, attacks on the official army. A year later the war seems to be escalating, with politicians and diplomats scrambling to stop what could become yet another civil war.
- What is the role of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, in all of this?
- Why does Eritrea seem to be fuelling the flames after Ahmed has done so much to stop the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea?
- Is this a repeat of 1974, when the people of Tigray led a revolt on Addis Ababa to overthrow the aging Emperor Haile Selassie?
Caroline Kurtz grew up in Ethiopia.
- She was a schoolgirl in Addis Ababa when Mengistu Neway led his failed coup against the government of Emperor Haile Selassie.
- In 1974 she was in Addis Ababa when Mengistu Haile Mariam successfully led a coup on Haile Selassie.
- Then, in 1991, when the guerrilla coalition from Tigray marched into Addis Ababa to overthrow Mengistu Haile Mariam, Caroline was also there.
Kurtz is still a regular visitor to Ethiopia and is still actively involved in improving lives in the remote region where she grew up. She and her sister Jane founded Ready Set Go Books, a publishing company that produces books for young readers in English and three Ethiopian languages.
She is the author of A road called Down on both sides: Growing up in Ethiopia and America. It was published by Catalyst Press and is available in South Africa and the USA. In South Africa it is distributed by Protea. It can be bought at or ordered from any bookshop.
In 2020 the Presbyterian Writers Guild awarded the Best First Book Award to Caroline and the 2020 Distinguished Writer Award to Jane. In a rather funny video the two sisters shed some light on growing up in Ethiopia.
Click here for a photo gallery of Kurtz's early life in Ethiopia.
A road called down on both sides: Growing up in Ethiopia and America
Caroline Kurtz
Catalyst Press
9781946395153
See also:
African Library: The Case of the Socialist Witchdoctor and Other Stories by Hama Tuma
African Library: Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Ethiopian author Maaza Mengiste
African library: Silence is my mother tongue by Sulaiman Addonia
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