Worku, Daniachew

▪ Ethiopian writer

born 1936, Addis Ababa, Eth.

died 1994/95

      Ethiopian writer of drama, fiction, poetry, and literary history, best known outside Ethiopia for his novel in English, The Thirteenth Sun (1973).

      In part, The Thirteenth Sun reflects Worku's own long record of political activism, which cost him his academic position at Haile Selassie I University in Addis Ababa, where he specialized in Amharic language and literature. The Thirteenth Sun (a reference to the last month of the 13-month Ethiopian calendar) is an allegory of Ethiopia under the reactionary rule of Haile Selassie, but this allegory is submerged in an extraordinarily concrete, vivid, and poetic portrayal of Ethiopian society in the microcosm of a pilgrimage to a mountain shrine. Ethiopian society and culture and the country's diverse national character are all dealt with in an often sardonic but compassionate narrative.

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