The Sons and Daughters of Sisaye / Latitude and Longitude (Ye'Sisaye Lijoch / Kekros'na Kentros)

Ye’Sisaye Lijoch/Kekros’na Kentros

(The Sons and Daughters of Sisay / Latitude and Longitude)

O’Tam Pulto (Sinkneh Eshetu), September 2012, OLand Books, Addis Ababa
Cover Photograph: Samuel Taye and Mulugeta G/Kidan
Cover Design: Mulugeta G/Kidan

Ye’Sisaye Lijoch/Kekrosna Kentros, similar to Ellan Fillega, is a story of search, but adds another dimension to the individual quest shown in the later, entertaining the notion of quest at the level of societies or nations, and how that might have a bearing on the quest of individuals. At all these levels, it takes the reader to the infinite and the ungraspable, that made people like Carl Jung say, “the unexpected and the incredible belong to this world. Only then is life whole.”

The novel presents three sub-stories: 1) Asire (The Corporal), 2) A’nd Birabiro’na Hulet Birabirowoch (One Butterfly and Two Butterflies), and 3) Chama Sefiw (The Cobbler). (Ellan Fillega/Searching for Ella was conceived as the fourth aspect or dimension to the above stories to complete what the author calls a circular narration. However, because of inconveniencies in printing, the later is published as a separate book.) Even though each of these stories can stand and be read independently, they are presented entangled to one another chapter by chapter, to make use of the narrative form to embodying some philosophical or scientific concepts such as chaos theory, quantum mechanics, fractal geometry, unity in diversity, and the like.

The characters in the three stories rarely interact in the conscious dimension and yet readers can see how they influence one another even if they do not connect in space and time. This mutual influence of characters and events at a non/spatial and non/temporal distance is an attempt to show the interconnectedness of all created things and the phenomenon of non-locality (Quantum Mechanics). One of the concepts that run through the stories is the sensitive dependence of dynamic systems to initial conditions. It is implied in the story that human history as a whole as well as the history of nations and even of individuals might to a degree be in the category of dynamic systems such as weather. Incidences in sub-stories seem to randomly jump from one to another. However, the apparently chaotic events gradually form a harmonious and comprehensive pattern that signifies more things than the sum of the individual incidences (Chaos Theory). Bigger forms, bigger narrations, bigger dreams, seem to repeat themselves in smaller forms, smaller narrations, and smaller dreams. Narrations, spaces-time, dimensions, even the personality of characters, is found folded into one another. There seems to be no detectable or measurable boundary among all the elements of the story, and by implication, of life, including the identity of individuals and their experiences. Only the readers’ imagination is called for to carry the limits to infinities (Fractal Geometry).

The narrative form also gives the readers the choice to go through the stories their own preferred way (readers have at least six choices of beginning and ending the stories), coming up with different experiences and interpretations, the same way the setup of some experiments might affect the outcome.

One might ask why the book is given two titles. The simple reason is that the title may not shackle the readers’ imagination and that they may have a say in how they may want to call the story. They are also free to think of their own title other than the given two. (Same reason for Ellan Fillega/Ye’Azo Kollage).

Explaining the two titles might give some insight into one of the major themes of the novel:  

Title One: The Sons and Daughters of Sisay – Sisaye is a character (an ox) in Sibhat Gebre’egziabiher’s story, Amist, Sidist, Sebat.  This main character, Bersufikad (a poor farmer), brought this ox up with love just like one of the members of his family. Because of the famines that stroke the land and threatened the lives of his children, the helpless Bersufikad slaughters his beloved ox Sisaye, and, as a consequence, suffers and dies with regret (for betraying his beloved just like Judas Iscariot did with Jesus Christ). This symbolizes the deep love that ties Ethiopian families and the sacrifice of one to the other. It can be said that each of us are the begotten of such love and sacrifice. We are therefore, in one way or another, the sons and daughters of Sisaye. In the current novel, this love expresses itself particularly in the loving relationship among the members of Asire’s family and of the cobbler and his mysterious friend. The question is, can such love be a hindrance to individual freedom and societal transformation? That is the key question the story attempts to deal with.

Title Two: Kekros and Kentros (Latitude and Longitude) – A character in one of the stories (The Cobbler) conceives that people and their ideas and feelings anywhere in the world are interconnected through dream lines, the same way latitudes and longitudes connect points in space. This seems to suggest the existence of subtle threads that entangle individuals, people, cultures and nations, in and across space and time, to a degree beyond the ken of mortal mind. Through the coming to Ethiopia of famous characters from fictional stories around the world, it is symbolically suggested that this entanglement and mutual influence among cultures and nations might be through direct but subtle influences by, for example, stories from other cultures that people internalize growing up. The novel also explores the possibility that a significant, deeply felt, cultural or historical phenomenon at a corner of the world (for example, a revolution, a religious movement or revelation, and even a tyrannical oppression such as the slavery in the Americas) might affect other peoples and cultures without any direct intercourse, in what might be said other-dimensional linkages or mind-to-mind communications, not only among individuals but also among communities (suggesting by implication that a civilization, a community or a nation might have a shared mind or soul). As a nation, the novel might make us wonder, at the face of such universal influences, who the author of our dream and who the writer of our destiny might be. And, the same question as in family tie, surfaces: can such a borderless influence be a hindrance to a nation’s freedom and progress? 

Obviously, this is not a manual on science. Its “science” aspect is not written in bold, clear lines as one might presume from the above explanation. And, the inspiration is not only from science. The author employs what he calls “practical fantasy,” inspired by both science and folktales, to try to convey meanings and experiences. It is up to the reader to interpret the ideas in one way or another. This is the age of participation. Participatory reading is therefore called for.

Among the visible influences of traditional knowledge on both the form and content of the story, the symbolism of the bead (cover picture) can be a good example. Form-wise, the three stories are arranged as independent pebbles on a bead that have their own individuality, but connected to one another by subtle and yet strong thread for more-than-the-sum-of-the-whole effect and purpose. Content-wise the same symbolism is employed to convey the central idea of the book: that material things, events and experiences in life are intricately, and inseparably, linked to one another. Even the concept of the human soul takes on a new meaning with the same symbolism.

Readers of this introductory note as well as the novel might presume, correctly, that the writer’s implicit and explicit intent in trying to forge marriage between modern thoughts and traditional knowledge this old, tale-making, way might be to show that truths about existence can be embodied in a narrative form, that the conventions of a story can reflect different existential paradigms, and that parallels to modern scientific conceptions can be found in traditional thoughts, which, as a practical benefit, can be used to popularize complex scientific and technological conceptions, and which he will continue to explore in his upcoming book Ubuntu ‘n Pulto. 

The book invites readers to a slow but rewarding reading. One may have to return to the stories, or parts thereof, again and again to appreciate their beauty, breadth and depth. The style of the writing is poetic, sometimes appearing to breach the boundary between poems and prose as traditionally definition in Ethiopian literature.