Velde-Giergis

(also Velde-Johannes). Date of birth unknown. Twentieth-century Ethiopian author writing in the Amharic language.

Velde-Giergis edits the patriotic newspapers Addis zemen and Sandek alamtchin. His works were first published in the 1940’s after the liberation of Ethiopia from the Italian occupation. He is the author of the narrative poems The Glory of the Kings (1946), based on the well-known literary masterpiece Kebra Nagast; the children’s verses Path of Peace (1947); the collection of fables for young people After Work (1951); and the novel Agazi (1953), which is about a young Ethiopian’s journey to Europe on the eve of Italian fascist aggression. The novel is imbued with patriotic sentiment and concern for Ethiopia’s economic and cultural progress.