Slum City Africa

“Slum City Africa: ‘A Very Bad Place with Good Teachings’ provides a travailing expose of an Ethiopian family’s harrowing and haunting experience as they journeyed to Kenya in search of new lives. This book comprehensively and relentlessly burnishes the vulnerable slum life through the eyes of a mother and a son and how Mahret, the lead woman character in the novel, seeks to cope and necessarily overcome the gender challenges African women face in shantytowns. Through the lens of the kids in the book, we are exposed to the power of communities, the concept of solidarity, and the necessity of hospitality in vulnerable spaces, which ultimately provides us significant insights into the nexus linking home, community, and identity together.” —Toyin Falola, Jacob and Frances Sanger Chair in the Humanities, and author of A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt.

“With a deep understanding of history, Weyessa and Elofson present a captivating story of creativity, resilience, and survival, and of African womanhood, motherhood, and friendship as an Oromo, Ethiopian family transitions from a rural agrarian community decimated by drought, famine, and ethnic persecution to transnational refugee camps and massive urban shantytown infested with diseases, crimes, and economic hardships. A profoundly moving narrative.” —Gloria Chuku, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; author of Igbo Women and Economic Transformation in Southeastern Nigeria, 1900–1960.

“This captivating story explores the impact of war and displacement on an ordinary Ethiopian family focusing on the resilience of a mother trying to create a better life for her children amid the poverty and violence of one of Africa’s largest slums. A particularly topical account given the persistence of conflict and drought in the Horn of Africa and the increasing number of refugees and internally displaced people across the globe.” —Timothy Stapleton, University of Calgary; author of Africa: War and Conflict in the Twentieth Century.