This is a book by a founding member of Yessera, Negesse Gutema.
“ትንሽ በካርታ፤ ትልቅ በዓለም” (Tinish Bekarta: Tiliq Bealem”) is a history of a small town in Arsi Zone known as Bekoji and its educational progress written by one of the co-founders of YESSERA.
Bekoji is well known in the world through her world class runners. But the history of Bekoji is much bigger and deeper than these world class athletes. The book investigates Bekoji’s history in a socio-anthropological way. It is an amalgamation of interviews performed with various local elders for hundreds of hours, data and documents gathered from the town, research, and references from all over the world. The basic premises is that Bekoji’s history is an Ethiopia history in a microcosm – a melting pot of various peoples, religions, and social backgrounds.
Here is an outstanding praise of the book by the well known Dr. Solomon Gashaw
Two facts make this book unique. First, from what I know, this is the only book that provides a
comprehensive account of Becojii. It is written with a broad interdisciplinary perspective.
Because of this, I would have liked the book’s title to be. A Socio-Historical Perspective of
Beccojji and its People.
Engineer Negese’s book is an excellent resource for the general non-academic readers of society,
and it is also a superior teaching resource material for different level academic institutions. The
book is an embodiment of an interdisciplinary perspective. It integrated different disciplinary
approaches such as history, sociology, and social anthropology. For instance, his documentation
of the Italian colonial administration and their social interaction with the various segments of
society is an excellent example of a socio-historical method. In addition, it integrated and
blended interviews and oral tradition.
Finally, the inclusion of an amazing collection of photographs presents images of the places that no longer exist.
Another significant contribution of this work is that Engineer Negesse uncovered and used several local government documents and corroborated them with the community’s oral tradition and interviews with knowledgeable people.
Moreover, individual biographical information and the growth of institutions, schools, and municipal administration are good for teaching the evolution of urbanization. For example, the first Becojji school’s growth from two-room tukuls into several modern buildings is important historical documentation.
Overall, the book provides a good picture of the demographic changes of the people of Becojji and its vicinity.
The stories the author collected from former students provide the individuals’ success, but it is
also a great tribute to all the teachers. The testimony of the former students about their teachers
provided fascinating biographies of the former teachers. It is an excellent tribute to the collective
works of all the teachers of Becojji.
The book provided me a perfect opportunity to reflect on the positive influence on me by the pioneer teachers. I vividly remember my first-day class experience with the tall, charismatic teacher Seyoum Mengesha. It is a mesmerizing experience to this day. Beyond the classroom, their overall positive influence remained ingrained in me.
The encouragement and advice of teacher Mengestu, teacher Mesfin, teacher Bekele, and the two directors’ teachers, Mulugeta and teacher Moges left a lasting positive influence.
In my opinion, the book gives the growth of the town of Beccojji and the institutional development of the school from two-room tukuls to complex modern higher institutions.
Engineer Negesse collected the histories of different professionals, the teachers, athletes’
medical doctors, etc. It rekindled and immortalized the life of many people of Becojji.
I hope others will continue to follow the pioneering work of Engineer Negesse Gutema.
Where to find the book:
Other links to learn about Negesse, our team member, and his book:
ከኢንጅነር ነገሰ ጉተማ ጋር በህይወታቸው እና በስራቸው ዙርያ የተደርገ ቆይታ
– https://youtu.be/CiFSRQMmqbc
በካርታ ላይ ትንሽ ሆና በዓለም ትልቅ ስም እና ዝና ያላቸውን ያፈራችው በቆጂ!Ethiopia |Sheger info |Meseret Bezu
– https://youtu.be/U965jKNWjio
በቆጂ እና የተማሪ ቤት ትዝታዎቿ /ትዝታችን በኢቢኤስ/
– https://youtu.be/OoY2HtuV3Jw
Deeggarsa– OBN
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