The first time I heard about apartheid was back in elementary school in my history class when we were learning about African Colonization History. All we learned in class was more of a three-act story; how South Africa failed under the bores, how apartheid slowly and brutally diffused and in the end how South Africa was freed. On top of that, we were thought about the great leader Nelson Mandela and how he stayed in prison for more than 27 years fighting for his people’s freedom.

“A Long Way Gone” is a memoir of Sierra Leonean Ishmael Beah, published in 2007. It tells the intriguing story of the author’s journey, from a humble citizen and a boy solider to a rehabilitated adult, through the dark days of Sierra Leone when the decade long civil war tore the country.

Around 80 years ago, Ras Teferi visited an Armenian Monastery in Jerusalem and met 40 orphans who had escaped the genocidal atrocities they were subjected to in Turkey. Ras Tefari, who had a magnificent knack for art, obtained permission from the Armenian Patriarch to bring them all to Ethiopia. Then the “Arba Lijoch” (The 40 Orphans) became the Nation’s first official orchestra under Kevork Nalbandian who was Narses Nalbandian’s uncle.

1. Nelson Mandela wrote in his autobiography, “Ethiopia always has a special place in my imagination and the prospect of visiting Ethiopia attracted me more strongly than a trip to France, England, and America combined. I felt I would be visiting my own genesis, unearthing the roots of what made me an African.”

Biru Hudde, 43, is a traditional weaver from Southern Ethiopia. He toil all day in the com- pound in which he also lives in a rental house around Piassa, on the road from Ras Mekonnen terrace to Afincho Ber roundabout. He has been in the profession for the last 30 years.