Manyahlishal's Wedding, a short story.



By Ashenafi Kebede

It was a day in 1926, in the month of September, that the wedding took place. It was a bright Sunday which fell on the 22nd, an even number, a sign of good luck, to couple and children to-be-born. The bride was Manyahlishal, the 13-year-old daughter of a guard in Queen Zewditu's palace. The groom was Tekle Haymanot, a 30-year-old nobleman who had decided to divorce his "old fruitless wife" to marry this child-promising child—'Manyahlis­hal. Tekle had also another reason of great importance which prompted him to divorce. His 32-year-old wife's skin was very dark and her face ugly. She had nothing of the grace, nothing of that golden Ethiopian skin, nothing of those thin and attractive lips, and nothing of that slender nose and body, which he envisioned for the wife of a nobleman—himself.

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