''Yayne Abäba'' is a

short novel A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) fact ...

by the

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

n writer, politician, and onetime

Prime Minister of Ethiopia The Prime Minister of Ethiopia is the head of government and Chief executive (gubernatorial), Chief Executive of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a parliamentary republic with a Prime Minister as head of the government and the Commander-in-Chief of the Et ...

, Makonnen Endelkachew. The story features the adventures of a young girl named Yayne Abäba, which means "flower of my eye". It is one of the earliest modern works of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

Islamic literature Islamic literature is literature written by Muslim people, influenced by an Islamic cultural perspective, or literature that portrays Islam. It can be written in any language and portray any country or region. It includes many literary forms in ...

, and is considered a seminal work in

black science fiction Black science fiction or black speculative fiction is an umbrella term that covers a variety of activities within the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres where people of the African diaspora take part or are depicted. Some of its defining ...

. It is sometimes described as containing elements of a cosmic,

Lovecraftian horror Lovecraftian horror, sometimes used interchangeably with "cosmic horror", is a subgenre of horror fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock. It is named a ...

Publication history

The story first appeared as the eponymously titled "Yayne Abäba". In later publications, this story came to be known as "Aläm Wärätäna", variously translated into English as "The Inconsistent World", "Fickle World", or "Unstable People". There is not scholarly consensus on when the story was first published, and its first publication date is variously reported as 1945, 1947, 1948, or 1955. Likewise, there are several disagreeing accounts of when the story was first written, in 1948 or 1917. Endelkachew himself was once quoted as saying he'd written it (or some version of it) in 1909 as an anti-slavery story, when he would have been 19 years old. The story was originally published in a collection titled ''Bitwoded: Three Plays''. It was translated into English in 2007 by K.M. Simon, and published under the title ''The City of the Poor''.

Plot

In the story, Abäba, an adolescent girl of the

Amhara people Amharas ( am, አማራ, Āmara; gez, ዐምሐራ, ʾÄməḥära) are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group which is indigenous to Ethiopia, traditionally inhabiting parts of the northwest Highlands of Ethiopia, particularly inhabiting the Amhara ...

, is trafficked into

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. After she escapes her captors, she goes on numerous adventures until finally reuniting with her family. There is a fantastical dream sequence in which she employs a microscope to look behind the superficialities of the world to see the frightening true realities that lie beneath.

References

{{reflist, 30em 1955 science fiction novels Ethiopian novels Novels set in Ethiopia