An outdoor exhibition by Yves-Marie Stranger at the Alliance Ethio- Francis, the Abyssian Syllabary exhibition spells out the history of Ethiopia through a series of 33 biographical vignettes of emblematic Ethiopian lives, with each life corresponding to one of the main 33 symbols of the Abyssinian Syllabary.
The exhibition was inaugurated on February 28, 2020 with the support of the French Embassy.
The exhibition will be open for visitors with free entrance for the coming one month up to March 28, 2020. The opening was followed by a discussion with Yves-Marie. Each syllable is mounted on a 1.20 m x 0.90 panel, so that visitors can walk through the exhibition, taking it in visually, or choose to linger, and read one of the stories.
A French-English translator and writer, Yves-Marie Stranger was born in Exeter, Devon, and grew up shepherding goats on the family farm in the French Pyrenees. After living in Ethiopia for fifteen years, he is now based in France. Yves-Marie Stranger is the author of Ces pas qui trop vite s’effacent, The Abyssinian syllabary and Ethiopia through writers’ eyes.