Lucy's People: An Ethiopian Memoir (Yerada Lij,2021) is the inspiring story of a country and a life. Young engineer Mesfin grows up under Emperor Haile Selassie I in Ethiopia. She is mother to all her people. Under her sun and moon, women walk tall. Many are warriors, including his mother and grandmother. The boy comprehends the burden placed upon ethical military such as his colonel father. He defends Ethiopian borders and the socially marginalised. Like him, Mesfin defies those who thrive on brutality and treachery.

With the 1974 communist revolution, how do the humane thrive? At the warfront, the conscripted teenager must never compromise his love for motherland and the children of Lucy. The humanoid fossil has survived almost intact for 3.2 million years in the Rift Valley. At what cost to her people does Ethiopia endure?

In and out of prison, Mesfin nevertheless qualifies as a construction and civil engineer. An ancient Abyssinian role model is Saba (Queen Sheba), the engineering queen of Lake Tana. Her people pioneered agricultural water use. He specialises in water development and works all over the country.

Fresh disaster comes in 1991. Youth must choose: stay or flee?

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