About Through Metaphor and Memory: An Ethiopian Story- Maaza Mengiste

An evening with Maaza Mengiste, author of Beneath the Lion's Gaze - an historical fiction account of the 1974 youth revolution in Ethiopia.

Beneath the Lion's Gaze follows a family when confrontation between traditional and modern forces erupt and change the political, economic, and social nature of the Ethiopian state. Mengiste herself was a refugee as a result of that revolution – her mother brought her to a small town in Colorado to live in a home for refugees. Her mother left her after a few days and Mengiste grew up with a group Libyan students who had fled the rule of Muammar Gaddafi. Mengiste has written several articles on how Ethiopia’s revolution relates to the current events in Libya and Egypt.