Book Title: Kedist’s Writings and Crafts
Author: Kedist Girma
Printing press: Jajaw printers
Page: 133
Kedist Girma is an Ethiopian –American author, poet, and entrepreneur. She was born in Ethiopia in the 1980s G.C, spending much of her childhood with her grand-mother. At about the age of seven, she immigrated to America, to reunite with her family in Washington, D.C.
Her autobiographical sketch entitled I remember my name, gives a brief account of her life experiences, which educates readers on various topics such as immigration, education, employment, equal employment opportunity commission, mental health, national security among others, along with providing add itional information about her current and future writings, arts and crafts.
Although her writings are geared towards children, teenagers and young adults, age does not place a restriction on enjoying her writings. She touches a lot of issues on her book entitled Kedist’s writings and crafts. She philosophizes about the day-to-day activities of human society. She has a talent in crafting literary pieces with light words through expressive ways.
She is good at writing short stories and poems with catchy phrases. She keeps in tactile with childhood adventures, love sentiments, spirituality tendency, school vacations, racism and discrimination, freedom, humanitarian e x p e r i m e n t a t i o n through national security, self-identity, sorcery and divine messages through dreams, children’s story and so on.
She lays bare the flip side of things in the so called land of opportunity and freedom-America. She throws light on the fact that everything in the new world is under sophisticated and subtle calculation.
She also captured the blessings of her country.
Her writing style is inconsonance with a poetic prose. Let us see an excerpt from her creative writing about the anticipation of love. She wrote in her book about love as “somewhere in paradise, I see my lover’s eyes. Where is he? His spirit is near me. Perhaps, he will hear me. Oh lover, the ages that passed us by without a sage to bring us together has left me alone with no one to claim. But, who is it to blame? The cosmos sang for me, the heavens waited on me. But, you seemed ever farther away from me. Your existence is anticipated with persistence. Then, it was when the moon smiled on me and the sun penetrated my skin that your touch went beneath my skin to play a fiddle with my inner organs. Tell me, this is not a delusion, rather a solution to this anticipation on love.”
She tried to find the exact whereabouts of love. She still searched to find the dwelling place of the spirit of love. Regarding identity, she reflected in her book as “as there are many selves in the world. One must distinguish her/his self through identity. No self is identical, not even twins. There are three major forced forms of identity: origin of nationality, gender identity and racial identity. To accompany these identities, there are a couple voluntary or forced identities that one choice. Those are: spiritual and political identities”
She also wrote about employment oppo rtunity, racism and discrimination, and the existence of sorcery and illusion that lead to mental illness of the majority people of immigrants.
She raised a critical agenda regarding the unequal employment opportunity present in America. She remarked as “the internship and clerkship division of the US state department were segregated based on race and origin of nationality. The clerkship program, in which the overwhelming placed in the program being African- Americans and other different origin of nationality, received less pay and educational, work benefits than the interns that were dominantly white- Americans”
Responding about what initiated her to author a book, she noted that she have had interest in books since her childhood. She also attributed that to her also been intrigued by books throughout her life. While her educational studies were in the fields of History and Political Science, literature proved a hidden attraction that motivated her academic exper iences.
Then, she decided to write a book during a challenging time in her life. Years back, she was perusing a path within her educational field in Political Science, until she gained an employment within the US State Department as a summer clerk during a Republican administration.
While at work, she became subject to victimization, such as systematic discrimination based on race and origin of nationality. According to a personal research that she conducted, the US State Department Internship/ Clerkship Program had been for over ten years and perhaps even today continues to practice racial segregation within their program.
She then filled an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint of discrimination based on origin of nationality. She is of the opinion that she had been retaliated against for filling an EEOC and hence having to overcome various obstacles in her life. Since then, while she rarely ever complained, she felt that it was a just thing to do to stand up against injustice. Her personal life experiences coupled with her creativity have encouraged her short stories, poems, and children’s stories.
In responding to what sort of other issues she raised in the book, she indicated that while she is not currently a famous author, she tries not to imitate current trends. She attempts to be a leader and touch on whatever issues that she believes of significance. The eclectic genre of her writings raises various issues. Moreover, her writings are both educational and entertaining to her readers. They cater to the interest of children, teenagers, young adults and perhaps seniors.
Regarding the overview of the book, she mentioned that she does not want to tell much about the book, since the back’s cover prelude is self-explanatory. She wants others to read and see things for themselves.
Kedist Writings and Crafts are named after her self-employed tax registered business.Her self-employed company promotes her writings, arts and crafts. This book comprises simply a few of her sample works – her writings and completed pieces. Her clients and customers have assisted in keeping her in business. She is still in the process of writing more and more. Since, she is self-funded and relies on her customers for financial support to publish additional books, she has been budgeting her income by herself. It is when she completes selling her books she plans to publish her additional writings.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 1 December 2019
BY MEHARI BEYENE
