Slum City Africa

Warren Elofson is a history professor at the University of Calgary. He has authored books in British constitutional history and western Canadian, western United States and northern Australian ranching frontier history. Jonah Weyessa is a founder of a new tech start-up based out of British Columbia, Canada. He has a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta. Slum City Africa: A "Very" Bad Place with Good Teachings is Jonah’s first novel.

“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.

• Introduction; Chapter 1 Ethiopia: A Fragile Life In The Countryside; Chapter 2 The Last Hurrah; Chapter 3 Fundamental Issues; Chapter 4 The Call Of Duty; Chapter 5 More Ways Than One?; Chapter 6 Saving The World?; Chapter 7 Only Little Fools; Chapter 8 Off To “War”; Chapter 9 Selling Out; Chapter 10 Living In Fear; Chapter 11 The Trip Of A Lifetime; Chapter 12 A Long Way from Home; Chapter 13 Moyale; Chapter 14 A Daunting New Life; Chapter 15 Life Friends; Chapter 16 The Facts of Life; Chapter 17 “Public Transport”; Chapter 18 Learning to Love: (Even the Hated); Chapter 19 The Evil Cousin; Chapter 20 Life In The Compound; Chapter 21 Settling In; Chapter 22 Survival; Chapter 23 Getting Straight; Chapter 24 A Place of Our Own; Chapter 25 Security; Chapter 26 A Kid’s Life; Chapter 27 Home and School; Chapter 28 Off to School; Chapter 29 Barisso; Chapter 30 A Slight Glimmer of Hope; Chapter 31 Nostalgia; Chapter 32 It Takes Guts; Chapter 33 Help Me or Kill Me; Chapter 34 Family Reunion; Chapter 35 Resetting the Mind; Chapter 36 Adjusting; Chapter 37 Still, We Gotta Get Out of This Place; Chapter 38 Hell Hath Staying Power; Chapter 39 More Of The Same; Chapter 40 Off to School Again; Chapter 41 Harmony Child Rescue Center; Chapter 42 Stepping Up; Chapter 43 Discipline: What’s That?; Chapter 44 Nice Club; Chapter 45 On the Mend; Chapter 46 Healing; Chapter 47 Attending to Business; Chapter 48 Thought to Action: Two Are Better than One; Chapter 49 Off We Go; Chapter 50 Down In The Dump; Chapter 51 Give Us a Break Please!; Chapter 52 The Last Straw; Chapter 53 The Last Last Straw; Chapter 54 The Final Last Straw; Chapter 55 A Very Bad Place with Good Teachings; Chapter 56 A Way Out for Good; Epilogue; Oromo Words and Phrases Used in the Text