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Tsega Yohannes is a young African writer who is on a mission to use the power of words to educate the African people.

Tsega was raised in Eastern Africa herself and is part of a large family. Her mother never wanted her to become a writer as she feared it would bring trouble upon the family and Tsega. As a result of this Tsega Yohannes is not her real name but a ‘pen name’ in order to protect herself and her family. She herself admits that she is happy with this decision as “I could not forgive myself if my writing activities put my family in danger”. A wise move, considering the contents of her books which criticize Africa’s largest media industry, Nolywood.

I met Tsega in a cafe in London. When she entered the room I was struck by her presence and beauty. She is a very humble and polite woman who does not realise the ability she has as a writer. In fact, she does not consider herself as a writer, rather a philosophical humanitarian.

To date Tsega has written three books all based around Eastern Africa. Her latest accomplishment, Yemichel’s Star, focuses on the African film industry and particularly a young African woman who is dedicated to succeeding no matter what the cost is to herself. This character is based on the many women who have lived this life and recounted it to Tsega. Through writing this book and making their voices heard she is, in fact, helping many helpless African women to understand their plight and realise that the industry is not all there is to strive towards. She realises that her books are used to motivate young women to better themselves through education and work towards a more meaningful existence.

It uncovers and criticizes the industry. A brave move in a continent that still harbours a lot of corruption. The book challenges many African traditions and cultures and aims to educate African women that this industry is not all glamour and riches but can also use and abuse women within it. As Tsega says herself “I know a book read in Africa is not forgotten when the last page is turned” thus showing that through her written work she reaches many women who will digest her words and learn from them. Furthermore, they will not all throw their souls away to make it in a business that, eventually, will discard them.

Tsega’s books are largely based on political and moral beliefs. She uses her own experiences of being raised in Africa as well as those of others to reflect current affairs in the African world that affect young women. When she speaks of Nolywood she acknowledges that it is a powerful and rich industry. However, she is the first to say that it is greatly influenced by the Western world as is the “common mans idea of the world”.

Having read her books and met the woman in person I can see that she puts a lot of research and time into creating her characters through travelling Eastern Africa and meeting many people. She creates an incredibly atmospheric setting for her books and her characters are very believable due to the fact that she has endeavoured to interview as many people as possible to draw from their experiences. This, in turn, helps her to educate African people through powerful and memorable stories. As she says herself “the book is a powerful commodity in Africa and even those who are illiterate will find a way to explore it in some way”. Tsega is a strong believer in the power of word of mouth and the importance of promoting literacy and the reading of books to help African people. How else would they be aware of the corruption that exists or the current situations in their own country? By reading Tsega’s books African people can become more aware of such issues and make an educated point of view, whether negative or positive, to discuss with family and friends. Perhaps in the future the power of her books could even help to end the corruption Africa currently faces and the exploitation of women in Nolywood.

In conclusion, Tsega Yohannes has dedicated her life to humanitarian work to help the people of her own country. She has dedicated her time, effort and soul to outwardly combat the problems within Africa. She has begun something that nobody else could or would not dare to try previously. She has single handily roamed Eastern Africa to record women’s stories and plights in order to document, and eventually write, beautifully written fictitious books based on them. This has now helped to start a revolution in tackling the illiteracy rates of Africa. In her own words books are a commodity and she is writing from the people to the people. As we all probably know, people love to hear a true story or about the lives of others. It gives us a sense of who the human race are and how fortunate or misfortunate we may be ourselves. It is probably this fact that attracts so many African people to her books thus interesting them to learn to read and better their lives. This will no doubt lead to them learning to write and passing these skills on to their children in the future until, in the end, there will be no illiteracy problem remaining in Africa.

In short, this woman has achieved an amazing thing which helps people now and will continue to do so for generations to come. She is beginning to change the face of Africa. It will be a face that the African people can be even more proud of than the one that currently exists. It will be a face of strong, well educated, literate women and men who can fight for what they believe in through what they know. Knowledge is what Tsega Yohannes has given her people and that is what they needed.

Who would have stopped to think that a book can do so much for a country and its people?

2011-05-09 13:56
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2022-04-02 14:47
Passchendaele
Genius, this one, simply genius.
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