Negotiating a lion's share of freedom : adventures of an idealist caught up in Ethiopian civil war, a memoir

In 1977, while working as an attorney for a state bank in Ethiopia, Makonnen Araya is accused of being an enemy of a brutal military dictatorship. In a surprise night raid on his home, he narrowly escapes arrest and possible summary execution by government soldiers. He instantly becomes a fugitive with nowhere to live or hide, aimlessly wandering the slums and streets of Addis Ababa to save his life. After two months on this life-endangering journey, he makes it to a jungle in the remote part of northern Ethiopia where he joins a rebel group fighting the military junta. His story is a detailed account of the adventurous life he led as a fugitive, a rebel guerrilla fighter, and then a civil mediator among peasants living in the rugged region of the Semien Mountains. During this time, he interacts with many different Ethiopian ethnic cultures. He learns the ways of life of these people while living and working in their midst. In becoming a rebel, it was his intention to aid the Ethiopian masses in establishing real democracy and experiencing true political freedom. However, in the end, disillusioned and frustrated, he is forced to negotiate with the rebel group for his own individual freedom. Makonnen Araya was born in 1945 in Harar, Ethiopia. He attended Haile Selassie 1 University Liberal Arts College and Law School in Addis Ababa and the University of Illinois in Chicago. He immigrated to the United States in 1980. He has two daughters and lives in California. Acknowledgements Contents Introduction Chapter One: Living in the Shadow of Death Chapter Two: The Flight Chapter Three: At the Gate of Hell Chapter Four: A New Way of Life — The Threshold Chapter Five: The Initiation (Talim) Chapter Six: The Coming Out Chapter Seven: Confronting the Devil Chapter Eight: Bracing for a Battle Chapter Nine: The Trials and Tribulations Chapter Ten: Attack by the Militia and its Aftermath Chapter Eleven: The Fall Chapter Twelve: Organizing and Assisting Chapter Thirteen: Communal and Family Feuds Chapter Fourteen: Life on Top of the Roof of Africa Chapter Fifteen: The Turning Point and the Fall from Grace Chapter Sixteen: The Resignation and the Dangerous Journey Out Chapter Seventeen: Caught up in a Bottleneck Chapter Eighteen: The Rough Road to Exil Chapter Nineteen: The Final Exit Chapter Twenty: Life as a Refugee in Khartoum Glossary About the Author Afterword to the 2014 Edition Negotiating A Lion's Share of of an Idealist Caught up in Ethiopian Civil War by Makonnen Araya