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From: hbokure@aol.com
Date: Wed Mar 10 2010 - 18:14:52 EST
Dear friends,
I am hereby sending you the following article for your own reading pleasure. It was published last month in Hinckley Times. Hinckley is one of the small towns located in England.
AnAfrican man is calling for a monument to be erected in Hinckley to the novelist Charlotte M. Brame,who has inspired him so much.
Haile Bokure whowas born in Asmara, Eritrea, first came across her works atschool in 1962, when a teacher read for pupils BEYOND PARDON,under the pseudonym Bertha M. Clay.
Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, who had read the book during WWIIwhile exiled in England, ordered prolific writer KebedeMichael to translate it from English into Amharic. Then 1958 Mr. Tshehaye Abrhatranslated it into Tigrigna one of the main languages in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Mr. Bokure said, " A Victorian belles-letters such as this was unsuitablefor our age, and even so it was more readable and universal at best. That iswhy the story along with its beautiful names, remained vivid in our memory.
" In 1965 the book was reprinted in Eritrea. I was able to secure a copy unlike the penniless student of my earlier school years. My younger sister had almost learned the entire poems by heart.
" When I was in the eighth grade, I started to translate some Shakespeare tales by Charles and Mary Lamb into our lingua franca. In the process I found out the hidden poet inside me who was influenced by the works of Mrs. Brame during his tender years.
" No wonder, I had not read her original works in English. They were hard to find before the advent of the Internet revolutionizing the information system."
In 1980 Mr. Bokure received a scholarship to the USA to study at Gallaudet University, the only higher educational institution for the deaf in the world, and gained BA degrees in social work and sociology, and an MA in vocational rehabilitation counseling for the deaf.
In 1998 Dehai, the major Eritrean forum on the Internet, suggested he reprint Beyond Pardon, and he did so.
"Out of curiosity, some asked me the possibility of obtaining the English version, " he said. During the course of my bibliographical search I found out countless books written under he pen name, and learned how her pseudonym was abused at well as her brilliant works pirated simply for commercial purpose. It is contrary from the vantage point of her lowly, homely, pious and altruistic disposition. One can tell this from reading her books her books written with amazing literary skill, pathos, and love of nature.
"That is why some of her works have been translated into Spanish and Arabic. Not only that some have been filmed and adapted into plays. Unfortunately she is still an uncelebrated scriber because of her low profile and a breach of copyright laws."
Mr. Bokure has made the acquaintance of Charlotte's great, great, great niece Deborah McNally and been sent a copy of the short biography by Greg Drozdz and learned that there is a road in Hinckley named after her relative.
He added: " However due to her mammoth contribution coupled with her humble persona, I am hereby recommending the Government to build a monument to her in Hinckley."
Submitted by Haile Bokure
U.S.A.