The Conscript: A Novel of Libya's Anticolonial War

Biographical sketches

59 Gebreyesus Hailu (1906–1993) was a prominent and influential figure in the cultural and intellectual life of Eritrea during the Italian colonial period and in the post-Italian era in Africa. With a PhD in theology , he was vicar general of the Catholic Church in Eritrea and played several important roles in the Ethiopian government, including that of cultural attaché at the Ethiopian Embassy in Rome, member of the national academy of language, and advisor to the Ministry of Information of the Ethiopian government. Hailu’s novel, The Conscript, written in 1927, is based on a true story of Eritrean soldiers conscripted by the Italian colonial army to fight in Libya, whom Hailu met on his way to study in Italy. Ghirmai Negash, translator of The Conscript, is a professor of English and African literature at Ohio University. He is the author of A History of Tigrinya Literature in Eritrea and coeditor of Who Needs a Story? His recent publications include articles and essays on Eritrean and South African literatures. Laura Chrisman, author of the introduction to this English translation, is a professor of English at the University of Washington, where she holds the Nancy K. Ketcham Endowed Chair. She is the author or editor of several books, including, as coeditor , Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader. ...