A new book called Fikifaki, by Hiwot Emeshaw was inaugurated last week at Wabi Shebele Hotel and many of the author’s fans were present including and her honorable guests.
The emerging female writer’s second book has 220 pages and 39 short stories which she calls midway between reality and fiction. “As the reality becomes more shocking than the fiction I invite the readers to differentiate the category,” the preface reads.
The six page long short story Fikifaki, which narrates the mind of a helpless female student who was raped on her way back home from the library at night, was picked by the author to name her second book.
The story walks the reader through every pain and thought the girl feels and tries to reproach parents, the justice system and society against the plight of abused females and also the abuse itself.
Known for her first piece Baricho, Hiwot orchestrated her friend’s and her own life experience to write about the society’s categorization of a dark skin colored female.
Baricho, the author’s first book, was a character which represents a twelve year old female which was denied the chance to play the Virgin Mary character at a school Christmas festivity because of her color, but also surprised of her mother’s affirmation of the school’s decision when she has all the skills to do the acting.
Hiwot recalls her passion to express her thoughts through her scripts as an adult back when she was in the Addis Ababa University. “While I was on campus the culture and literature club was at its best time and writers like Bewketu Seyum were among the participants,” she said. “I was known to write a story about the females’ dormitory and love life in the campus.”
The feminist writer which is known to believe in the equality of men and women in all aspects expressed her disapproval of the society about gender. “But I don’t write an article just to promote female’s rights but I address the issue over my stories,” she told Capital.
Baricho, which was published three times, was able to sell 13,000 copies, where Fikifaki was inaugurated with 10,000 copies with expected additional copies.
“While I was publishing my previous book I face multiple difficulties, which I might say more than writing the book, getting it printed was difficult,” she remembered. “But now it was easier and also we pay extra attention for the word perfections and I also believe I appear with way better stories,” the author said.
Hiwot who is an international relations expert at one international organization can’t imagine her achievements as an author without social media, especially Facebook. “I stopped writing after I graduated and got engaged in my regular job. But when Facebook came it got reignited,” she said.
She believes that the interactive platform helped her to keep writing and of course when the opportunity to write was narrow and press was unavailable. After the completion of Fikifaki eight months ago, she wrote multiple short stories on her Facebook page and chose the best and published a collection. In the future she place to publish a completely fictional novel.
“The book which i dedicated to my mother, Elizabeth Negassa Sima, comes with the support of my husband Abere Shiferaw”.
