Abe Gubegna

Abe Gubegna (1934–1980),[1] also spelled "Abbé" or "Abbie", (Amharic: አቤ ጉበኛ) was an Ethiopian novelist and playwright.[2]

Life & work

He was born in Achefer, Yismala Giorgis and attended the local church schools where he became acquainted with liturgical poetry and music. Actually he didn't attend a university, but he attended his secondary school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He became a journalist and, later, a civil servant. He eventually decided to devote all his time to writing, becoming Ethiopia's first full-time professional writer.[1] He was very outspoken on political issues and many of his books were banned. At one point, he was sentenced to three years of forced confinement to a small area surrounding his home.

During the "Red Terror – White Terror" days 1976–1979 he was one of the outspoken "Apostles" of change that nonetheless decried the blood shed others in the leftist movements believed were not only unavoidable but necessary. His vehemence against violence resulted in a newspaper article in which he suggested those thirsty for blood may be better served drinking their wive's menstrual flow. Though this comment garnered him the ill-will of those who urged bloodshed and violence there is no indication that it led to anything more than his being sidelined for his immodesty.

His most famous novel is Aliwalidim (I Will Not Be Born, 1962), a satire about a baby who refuses to emerge from his mother's womb because of the unjust world waiting outside.

In his later years, he participated in the International Writing Fellowship Program at the University of Iowa.

He is credited with the following well-known quote (c.1974):

"Every day in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better be running."

Works in English
  • Defiance, Oxford University Press (1975) ISBN 0-19-572420-8
  • The Savage Girl, Berhanena Selam (1964)

References
  1. Oxford University Press, brief biography from "Defiance"
  2. Gikandi, Simon (2003). Encyclopedia of African Literature. Taylor & Francis. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-134-58223-5. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
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