A corridor in the building of the Education Ministry, which is entrusted with a mammoth value and mission, once witnessed a strenuous debate between two friends. They were university students working there during their summer breaks. The sage Education Minister observed the unceasing wrangle that ensued over lunch and came out of his office to learn what was going on between the students.

Then, unusual for its day as it is now, he joined the two friends for an open dialogue. He realised that they were arguing about a past historical event, the revolution of 1974, which unseated Emperor Haileselassie and ended the monarchy. He instantly referred them to the library, where they would have all the answers, as a book about the historical event was put aside there.

The episode came to my mind when I went to the only book store in our neighbourhood. I bought some works of fiction written in Amharic by the day’s writers. I was motivated to buy some of them as I noticed changes in character development, pacing and writing techniques. Yet, as I was lamenting about the dire absence of quality editors and creative “lying” in written fiction with creative inspirations for every walk of life, I found books on many fields, say science or technology, with more biographical flavours. It is to be expected. People have an easier time reading a biography about Karl Marx, which also helps them learn about socialism, than diving into Das Kapital. The former is more relatable as it would be less academic.

This is all the more critical as it is hard to conserve history about a particular time. Many books are deficient in their sharp portrayals of the day’s society that is laced with brilliant observation. Many fail to survive current political temperatures and are too biased to serve more than as a complement to history learned from somewhere, thus not worth putting in a library.