IN my experience, historical novels are rarely ever historically accurate. “Notes from the Hyena’s Belly” by Nega Mezlekia is a historical novel on Mezlekia’s life in Ethiopia and it is one of the few books I have read that depicts past events correctly. In fact, this book was so riveting that I felt compelled to read it a second time.
“Notes from the Hyena’s Belly” is a story which captures the reality of life in Ethiopia and the struggles many young Ethiopians had to endure after the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie and the rise of the malicious communist Junta in 1974. It is a tale of Ethiopian social history that touches upon different aspects of Ethiopia from family and friend relations to social, religious and ethnic prejudices and the political struggle occurring during that period. Themes such as the role of religion in Ethiopia, the relationship of different ethnic groups, and the relationship between state and society are repeatedly touched upon in the novel. Together, these aspects give the reader a complete look at life in Ethiopia.
Through the world of prose, imagination and symbolism, Mezlekia is able to create a tale that follows his story while touching upon crucial aspects of Ethiopian society. The novel follows the main character, Mezlekia; however, the book is actually following more than one storyline. The book is the personal story of one man’s struggle for a better life, a historical tale of Ethiopia, a story of a young Ethiopian fighting for political freedom, a man’s triumph over tyrannical forces, and it is also a story of a young man’s relationship with his family, friends, surroundings, and country.
He begins the book with his birth in the Ethiopian city of Jijiga in 1958 and goes on to describe his first years in school. All of these occurred during a relatively stable time in Ethiopia. Times changed for young Maezlekia when he befriended Fekadu, a university friend, who introduced him to a not-so-perfect image of the government. This is when young Mezlekia, and many like him, became politically active and began fighting the already unstable Ethiopian government.
The tale moves to 1972 when a drought hit Ethiopia causing there to be no harvest, and as a result, famine slowly spread across the country. That set events in motion which led to the outsing of the emperor and to the communist Junta. At this point, Mezlekia was going in and out of political prison, enduring torture and finally, being part of a rebel force until the time came for him to escape that too. The account goes on with more tragedies and hardships and the book ends with Mezlekia finding peace in a place not to be revealed so that first-time readers can have something to look forward to.
Through this book, I learned how ethnically and religiously diverse Ethiopia is. The reader is almost immediately told of the clear divide between religions in terms of people’s settlement. Mezlekia talks about a “common, though unspoken” agreement that Muslims had to live in the southern part of his town while the Christians lived in the northern. This insight can be interpreted even more if the reader has a historical background on Ethiopia. Ethiopia, historically, has been seen as a great Christian nation, from the time of the great Axum Kingdom and its adoption of Christianity, to the fourteenth century and the emergence of Kebra Nagast, the book which links Ethiopian Kings to the House of Israel. It was not until 1527 that the tide changed as the great Christian Kingdom was defeated by Muslim forces. Throughout Ethiopian history, there have been such struggles between Christian and Muslim forces which created mistrust and tension between the two groups. And it is interesting to read how people adjust to and live with past events.
Ethnic relations also play an important role in this novel. Readers learn some of the myths each ethnic group creates about the other. For example, the belief that Budas can transform themselves into hyenas (a widely feared animal in Ethiopia) and thus, Amharas, who are the main ethnic group, must stay away from them. Mezlekia skillfully portrayed the ethnic conflicts between many of the groups such as the Oromo, the Somalis and the Amharas and showed how each group had established a region, religion, language and custom that is distinct. Even though there is the wider fact of everyone being Ethiopian, readers learned, that all people in Ethiopia first identify themselves on ethnic lines and then in terms of nationality.
Another theme of the book is the political instability in Ethiopia. Mezlekia goes into great detail when describing the factors that led to the military coup. The first factor was the drought which caused more than a hundred thousand people to die from malnutrition, starvation and disease. Mezlekia writes that the response of the government to this crisis was “to do nothing, in order to avoid embarrassment to the Emperor.” A second factor outlined by Mezlekia was the economic problems facing the country at the time. These were things such as high unemployment, the increase in prices, the Arab oil embargo and food shortages. As a result, the military decided to take matters into their own hands and take over. A series of mutinies by the military finally led to a coup which allowed the socialist Junta to take control and create a government based on “scientific socialism.” Under the Junta, Ethiopia became a state in which most people’s liberties were taken away in pursuit of the ideals and visions of the organization of the state.
Indeed, the book touches on many different aspects of Ethiopian life. Mezlekia paints a somewhat bleak picture for us, which made me, as a reader, feel somewhat sad that he holds such a negative image of his home — even though it is justified. Overall, the book is a great source for getting a personal view of life in Ethiopia during a very unstable period. The facts are accurate and in perfect context, which makes the read all the more chilling. Mezlekia does not hold anything back and at times his honesty takes the reader aback. These qualities make the novel a compelling and hard-to-put- down read. You may actually want to read it twice to make sure you absorbed all that is being said.