Kumsa shares her story
CordWeekly.com - February 1, 2008

Journalist and Wilfrid Laurier professor in the Faculty of Social Work, Martha Kuwee Kumsa, tells a packed audience of her 10 years spent in an Ethiopian prison, where she was jailed for defying the government-imposed free-speech restrictions.

It was a full house at the Registry Theatre on Thursday, January 24, as nearly 100 people were given the opportunity to hear Ethiopian journalist Martha Kuwee Kumsa tell her story. Dr. Kumsa is also an associate professor in Laurier’s Faculty of Social Work.

The spotlight shone on the soft-spoken African woman as she told the attentive audience of the ten years she spent being tortured in an Ethiopian prison.

In January of 1980, Kumsa was unjustly torn away from her husband and three children, as members of the communist regime dragged her from work one day to a prison holding approximately 10,000 other highly-educated, outspoken, independent thinkers.

Kumsa recalled that morning as vividly as if it had happened yesterday. She described the long drive to her unknown destination. When Kumsa finally reached the prison, she was “thrown into a room on the floor.” She continued, “There were bodies all over the floor. It was hell" ...