The short story as a literary genre started in the United States in the late 19th century and its chief creator is considered by many critics as being Edgar Allen Poe who wrote his famous stories of mystery and imagination between 1832 and 1849. Poe is given the credit by some critics as the pioneer of the short story as a literary genre in its own rights.
There is disagreement as to who started the short story as there is deep difference as to the nature of the short story itself which is defined by as diverse specialist of the genre as the French Guy de Maupassant, who is himself considered the father of the short story form. Walter Scott’s story entitled “The Two Drovers”, the first short story in the history of Western literature. published in the Chronnicles of the Canongate in 1827.
The first Amahric language novel in Ethiopian literature was written by Afework Gebre Iyessus in 1908 and is entitled Tobia. According to one of the people involved in the translation of Tobia into English, the novel is written in deep idiom and “deals with the confrontation between so-identified “Christian” and “barbarian” peoples and nations and depicts the dynamics and stakes of ethno-racial, religious and territorial wars in the early African political geography. It also alarms about the dangers of misunderstanding and lack of reconciliation, a reminder important then as it is now.”
On the contrary, the first Amharic short story in the history of Ethiopian literature dealt with a less loftier or a more mundane concern by taking an imaginary drunkard called Tebeje, who lived in Gulele area, north of Addis Ababa, as its central character. The tale bears all the hallmarks of a conventional short story with a plot, characterization, setting adding even a touch of satire and moral teaching.
The theme of the drunkard who succumbs to his bad habit is a popular one. In many Ethiopian stories, novels and plays and poems, the drunkard is portrayed as someone whose addiction leads him to family crisis, crime and moral degeneration.
The drunkard is a popular folk ‘hero’. This was because drinking and the attending ills were real social problems in Ethiopian society and continues to be so even now. In real life, the drunkard is a house wrecker, an object of ridicule and an example of failure and death.
What Temesgen Gebre, the author of the tale, has done in his story is to elevate the drunkard to the status of a central character in his fictional narration that may be taken as a caricature of a real life character.
I translated Ye Gulelew Sekaram (The Drunkard of Gulele) into English a few years back and included it in an unpublished anthology of Ethiopian short stories in English. For our purpose here, were can see how the author is portraying the character right from the beginning of the narration as follows:
From Geferssa to Yegezu Sefer, whenever people inquired about the well-known hen dealer who lived in Gulele, they told them his name was Tebeje The Drunkard or Tebeje The Hen Dealer.
The story of his life is full of adventures. He is an old man with a beard. He never washed or cut his hair. He does not talk in the morning. After drinking a great deal in the evening, he throws insults left and right or sings war songs. His voice was stronger than a well-fed dog. In the evening, he greets everybody he meets, whether he is an acquaintance or not.
This is obviously an amazing way of introducing the central character of the story to the reader and we can see that the author has real talent in portraying people he observed. Tebeje is painted as a typical village drunkard and trouble maker.
The next incident in the story is Tebeje’s determination to quit the booze as he one evening realized that he might set his house on fire if he continued to come home drunk at night while lighting his kerosene lamp at the same time. Then comes the turning point as he decides to stop drinking.
The funny thing in this incident is that Tebeje changes his mind shortly after he decided to quit drinking. The author’s psychological portrait is also evident in the following passage that display a feat of great humor:
“ If I get drunk tonight and burn down my house, the entire residents of Gulele will certainly gather here tomorrow. They will look at the ashes and laugh their hear out at me!” He thought. What else do the residents of Gulele do other than indulging in gossip and empty talk? I’m sure people in Addis Ababa would laugh at me for a full six months!
The incident that drives the plot of the story forward is the struggle beteen Tebeje’s determination to quit drinking and the relapse of his bad habit or addiction. This goes on in a kind of cycle of determination and indetermination until it reaches a climax at the end of the story and Tebeje falls victim to his own indulgence.
He had thought many times about quitting drink. After every evening of a drinking spree, he vowed not to drink again. He drank more the next day and got even more drunk than the previous time. He drank in the belief that he would feel happier intoxicated than sober. He drank to overcome his feeling of anger and despondency. That was Tebeje’s habit.
At one point, Tebeje decides to build a new house and quit drinking at the same time. In fact he stops boozing for five months at he end of which he returns to the tavern where he found his old friends who warmly welcome him. Tebeje only needed a small push to find himself indulging in his old habit.
Tebeje had not drunk even a drop in the last five months since he built his house. He quitted drinking in honor of the new house. The bitter times he endured in the past horrified him. He had started to embrace the vision of himself rising from the ashes and improving his life….
He was not sure whether he was dreaming or awakened when he finally found himself in the drinking joint.
Now Tebeje gets so drunk that he forgot where he was and fell pray to an accident that claimed one of his limbs. When night fell he meets a pack of vultures devouring a dead donkey. He spent the night there because he was unable to get up. And when he woke up from his painful slumber, he realized that the wolves had eaten a chunk of one of his legs.
As he lifted his head, he saw vultures devouring a dead donkey nearby. His heart convulsed with anguish as he realized that his fate was worse than the dead donkey.
He spent four days sleeping in the pool of blood. His legs swell from the wound. Greenish fluid was oozing from his laceration. When an ambulance finally reached him, he had almost started to decompose.
Tebeje is taken to a doctor for treatment. He wounded leg is amputated and sent home to recover. At the end of the story, we find Tebeje in conversation with his servant and then comes his realization that his drinking habit was as bad as death.
It was however too late to change his ways since he is now one-legged and sick. The final conversation displays the morale of the story meaning that being a drunkard is like dying while alive. The servant’s answer at the end reflects Tebeje’s inexorable march towards death. It is both funny and instructive.
He jumped out of his bed and cried in terror. He asked his servant how many legs he had.
“How many legs did you have usually, sir?” His servant asked him.
“I Had two!” He repeated three times.
“Three times two are six!” The servant said.
“I’m serious!” Tebeje shouted again, shaking all over.
“You have two legs indeed, sir!” The servant said.
Tebeje tried to bend and kiss his leg but he could not reach it. He turned his eyes to the sky and lamented, “Drink for me is as bad as death!” He said. It was night time.
“This vow will also be forgotten!” His servant answered.
What a masterful combination of sarcasm, tragedy and moral lesson! Simply said. It means: a bad habit will end up killing you unless you kick it before it kicks you. And this is a lesson for all times and all places.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
The Ethiopian Herald April 28/2021
