About the Author

Abebe Zegeye is an Ethiopian academic, currently resident in South Africa. He holds a D. Phil (Oxford) and is the Primedia Chair and Professor of Sociology at the University of South Africa. He has published widely as author and co-editor of many books and of journals such as Culturelink and Social Identities, among others. Meskerem Assegued was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She went to the United States to study psychology and obtained a master's degree in cultural anthropology but did anthropological field research in Ethiopia, where she focused specifically on an ancient pre-Christian indigenous religion called Erecha. She has curated several anthropological exhibitions, one of which was entitled Min Neber? ("What was it?" in Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia) and which focussed on an annual thunder ritual in south-central Ethiopia. In the last five years, she has published several articles on art and culture and one children's book.