Woleté The Story of an Enslaved Ethiopian Girl
by Aklilu Kidanu Woldegiorgis

Woleté is inspired by a true, contemporary story.

This is a story of suffering and resilience that needed to be told; a story of an “enslaved” lady called Woleté, a peculiar lady who I knew and lived with at my parents’ house for most of my first 30 years.

Woleté was “enslaved,” as opposed to a ‘slave.’ The latter, “slave,” refers to somebody born into slavery, without having to experience the actual trauma of suddenly becoming subservient to others. The former, “enslaved,” on the other hand, signifies “to enslave” or the process of making a free person a slave.

Woleté was enslaved at age 14. Her story is about her forced separation from her loved ones at a very early age, her subjugation to emotional and physical abuse, and her show of resilience and will to survive.

True, it may be too late to rectify what happened to Woleté. But it is never too late to tell her story, to admit to wrongdoing and guilt, and to apologize and compensate, while at the same time recognizing and appreciating her resilience and will to stay alive and sane. That is the main reason for this book.

It is also a very personal thing for me—there was a woman who raised me, with all the labor that involved, and, somehow, my family was the beneficiary of her forced enslavement. Now that she is no longer alive, and after having literally and unwillingly sacrificed a large part of her life for me and my siblings, it bothers me that she would just be forgotten, as if she had not existed at all.

This book attempts to tell the story in the form of a historical fiction—a fiction inspired and informed by social and historical facts. It uses real and fictional characters and well recognized popular cultural and historical phenomena and combines them with some imagined fictional elements in order to tell a story. The characters in this book, therefore, are mostly real although partly fictional and partly representations of actual people who may have lived at the time.

As a result, this book relies on imagination, incorporating some relevant historical data, but, most importantly, talking to people who are old enough to remember. It included four elderly ladies, one who lives in seclusion in a monastery, whose identity I will hold because of their advanced ages, but who were kind enough to share what they remembered about the lives and experiences of enslaved people they knew at the time.

This book is divided into seven parts, with multiple sub-parts.

• Part 1 deals with the main household characters with whom Woleté lived for her entire adult life.
• Part 2 is about the revelations and stories that caused major conflicts in a young boy’s mind.
• Part 3 marks the beginning of the storytelling after multiple attempts to get the story “straight from the horse’s mouth.”
• Part 4 deals with the unholy alliance between three restless young men who come from quite diverse backgrounds and coincidentally end up in a single rented room.
• Part 5 is about the catastrophe itself—the life-changing experience of a small, innocent girl; and her life as an enslaved woman “till death do us part.”
• Part 6 tells of the story of a young man who went after his sister’s abductors.
• And, finally, in Part 7, Woleté shares her thoughts, and a goodbye.

Finally, for me, it has been a bittersweet experience to write this delicate and challenging book. On the one hand, I am very happy that Woleté’s story, with all its shortcomings, is finally written and her accomplishment as well as her trauma and sufferings are recognized and respected.

On the other hand, it was also an emotionally taxing experience for me to learn about the dehumanization and injustice she faced, endured, and—almost miraculously—survived. It also pains me that Woleté passed away before I, both personally and on behalf of my family, apologized to her and acknowledged and appreciated her resilience.

Aklilu Kidanu Woldegiorgis

Praise for Woleté

A remarkably moving, personal and frontal unveiling of a practice that compels us to reflect on a painful legacy of the past. —Hiruy Amanuel Gebreselassie, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

A courageous and difficult story written with profound conviction, a deep sense of justice and an astounding level of honesty. The story also forces the reader to confront their deepest insecurities and the contradictions (hypocrisies) in the way they relate to others in their lives. It also reveals the extent to which human forgiveness and “understanding” can go when faced with the contradictions between individual responsibility and societal norms that often seem hard to live without and take time to evolve. — Ghion Shewangizaw Eguale, Toronto, Canada

This powerful easy-to-read story shines a light on the unspoken topic of slavery in Ethiopia while recognizing the humanity of slaves. It brings up the complex question, “Who is to blame?” challenging readers to confront the moral intricacies of complicity and social justice. — Mahelet Senbetta Ghenno, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

This is a profoundly moving story of an enslaved Ethiopian girl, whose life reflects both unimaginable suffering and unwavering strength. Through her journey, we witness the resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming hardship. —Kefale Gebregiorgis Agelelu, Virginia, USA

I applaud the author for bringing to light the grim reality of the past that has lingered in his mind since childhood. —Tedla Mulugeta Abebe, Toronto, Canada