{"id":9269,"date":"2015-01-01T11:30:47","date_gmt":"2015-01-01T16:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/?p=9269"},"modified":"2015-01-01T11:30:47","modified_gmt":"2015-01-01T16:30:47","slug":"the-many-hats-of-efrata-kasassa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/9269","title":{"rendered":"The many hats of Efrata Kasassa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Efrata<\/a>People making the journey from the Horn of Africa often come to Yemen to escape poverty, persecution, war and state violence. Efrata Kasassa, 22, came to Yemen from Ethiopia to be a writer. <\/p>\n

Her first book, which she hopes to self-publish, is also about an Ethiopian girl who migrates to Yemen. Hardly known as a land of opportunity, Yemen was Efrata\u2019s destination because of its proximity to Ethiopia. It\u2019s often a transit country for migrants seeking better employment prospects in the Gulf and elsewhere. <\/p>\n

But for Efrata, Yemen was the destination. She knew people who had migrated to Yemen, and was confident she could receive help from the Ethiopian embassy to publish her work. In order to raise funds, she has taken a number of jobs, mostly cleaning homes and offices. She is also the barista at the cafe of a cultural foundation in Sana\u2019a, the Basement. <\/p>\n

Her work schedule doesn\u2019t leave a lot of room for writing, but Efrata did not come all the way to Yemen to lose sight of her goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI write everyday, in the evenings. I will sacrifice sleep before I stop writing. I usually stay up until 3 or 3:30 a.m.\u201d <\/p>\n

Born in Addis Ababa, Efrata traded one poor, conflict-ridden country for another. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn Ethiopia, it was hard, but it\u2019s my country\u2014at the very least, I know my way around, I know how things work. In Yemen, things are hard, but I am a stranger. At least in Yemen, though things are difficult here, I can work. I can make money to publish my book,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Migrating to Yemen has given Efrata more than the opportunity to earn a little money. The journey of migration, building a life in a country that isn\u2019t hers, leaving university to clean houses, and all the interactions with people along the way have naturally become part of her story and are recurring themes in her writing. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen one immigrates, everything gets turned upside down,\u201d she said. \u201cI see everything differently now. Everything is new. I\u2019ve seen so much here, I write a lot more now.\u201d <\/p>\n

One of the issues Efrata faces in Yemen is rampant racism and classism. \u201cThey don\u2019t see us as people. There are nice, respectful Yemenis, but others see you only as cleaner, and think that\u2019s all you are and all you\u2019re ever going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Efrata left Ethiopia one and a half years ago\u2014making her a relatively new addition to the Ethiopian diaspora. Lacking in her writing is the sort of nostalgia familiar to those works produced by those who have more permanently put down roots outside their countries of origin. <\/p>\n

What does she miss in her homeland? <\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother and university. That\u2019s all.\u201d <\/p>\n

Efrata was studying civil engineering in Addis when she decided to throw herself into her writing and to pursue the money she needed to publish her book, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know any Arabic when I arrived, but at my first job cleaning a Yemeni family\u2019s home, I had to learn. I then worked at a restaurant, and everyone only spoke Arabic, so I pushed myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year and half after arriving, Efrata spoke fluent Arabic in an interview with the Yemen Times. <\/p>\n

She describes her book as a romance novel. Her protagonist, Sabella, is 16 years old. Sabella is smart\u2014so smart, that her family has high expectations for her future, and, by association, theirs. Efrata\u2019s book revolves heavily around overcoming hardships. <\/p>\n

A strong emphasis is placed on female empowerment, and there are many examples of marginalization. In Sabella\u2019s world, repression of women comes from the family, the state, lovers, smugglers, employers and others. <\/p>\n

Her story starts with a secret romance. At 16, Sabella falls in love with a boy, Zarhun. He only learns of Sabella\u2019s feelings two years later. Sabella and Zarhun begin living together, but when he discovers she is pregnant, Zarhun abandons her. At 17, she has a child, and soon after starts selling sex for money. The book describes the prostitution scene in Addis, and how very young girls, many of them teenagers, get caught up in it. <\/p>\n

The story is also about Sabella\u2019s migration to new a country as a migrant and single mother. It describes the harrowing sea voyage many refugees and migrants take to reach Yemen\u2019s shores, and the violations and hardships they endure once they arrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cA woman must not lose her self-worth and abandon her aspirations for a man, she must hold on to her dream and remain strong. This is the true path,\u201d says Efrata\u2019s narrator. <\/p>\n

Efrata has been writing non-fiction since she was ten years old. It wasn\u2019t until a classmate received a scholarship for a writing program in Switzerland that it occurred to her that she could pursue her craft as a profession, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201c[My friend] loved to write, and then the idea came into my head that I could be a writer too.\u201d <\/p>\n

Supporting oneself through writing\u2014even in the West, where the opportunities and privileges are a world away from those available in Ethiopia\u2014is a risky move. The percentage of writers who can make a living and sustain themselves based only on their writing is low. For most writers, a day job is a must. <\/p>\n

For now, Efrata is hoping to publish 100 copies of her book. <\/p>\n

But the publishing industry in Yemen leaves a lot to be desired, writers say. Unless supported by a sponsor or contracted through a publisher, writers pay the printing costs and distribute the works themselves. <\/p>\n

Nabeel Obadi, head of the Yemeni Publishers Union, an independent body established in 2007, told the Yemen Times in a previous interview that \u201cthe most a publisher can hope for in terms of book promotion is a good turnout at a book fair.\u201d <\/p>\n

Efrata says she will distribute the book herself, and is determined to also have it distributed in Ethiopia. <\/p>\n

She has a community of support here, though that support is not financial. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe embassy would have helped if they had the money, but they spend it on more urgent issues, like helping refugees. They support me in other ways, though. They invite me to read my writing at embassy events.\u201d <\/p>\n

She appreciates the support, but says she can only count on herself. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe state can\u2019t do anything for you. Ethiopia can\u2019t, Yemen can\u2019t. I make my own way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Yemen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People making the journey from the Horn of Africa often come to Yemen to escape poverty, persecution, war and state violence. Efrata Kasassa, 22, came to Yemen from Ethiopia to be a writer. Her first book, which she hopes to…<\/span> Read more ›<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4993],"tags":[4211],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9269"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}