MERRY MEDEMER

Mar 6 , 2021.

On a warm and sunny Saturday, inside the lush and picturesque Unity Park, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) shares in a moment of light-heartedness during the release of his new book, Ye’medemer Menged. With a bright blue cover, the book was inaugurated more modestly than its prequel, Medemer, in 2019. Nonetheless, it was done in the presence of high-ranking public officials, Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, and Shimelis Abdisa, administrator of Oromia Regional State.

The launch of Ye’medemer Menged, “The Path of Medemer,” comes four months after war broke out in Tigray Regional State. The conflict has become notorious internationally as an adverse humanitarian crisis and for human rights violations, the reports of which have been hard to fathom. In the months ahead, there will also be national elections for which candidates are currently campaigning under tense political situations.

When the first Medemer book, roughly translated to "positive-sum," was launched at Millennium Hall two years ago, it was under dissimilar, if not ominous, situations in the country. It was a nearly 300-page book with about a million copies initially printed and has since been presented in audiobook form. It called for indigenous political knowledge production and emphasised centrism to left or right-leaning social and economic organisation.

With a cover price of 350 Br, Abiy pledges to donate the proceeds from the new book to the construction of schools. It promises to discuss in 11 chapters and over 400 pages the genealogy of the "reform" process, its challenges, and the opportunities the author sees. It is published in Afaan Oromo and Amharic languages and took about two years to complete, according to the Prime Minister.

“A society that lacks a big ‘heart’ struggles to build a nation,” he told 10,000 trainees of the National Community Based Voluntary Service Programme earlier in the day. It was launched by the government for volunteers to travel to different parts of the country to promote development and, many hope, peace.

PUBLISHED ON Mar 06,2021 [ VOL 21 , NO 1088]