Mental Disability and Power Relation In Ibdu

Getachew Tesfa
Department of Amharic Literature and Folklore, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Kibour Engidawork
Department of Sociology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Although disability has existed as a thematic concern in modern Amharic literature for at least sixty years, it has received disproportionately little critical attention relative to the overall volume of literary production. This study addresses this knowledge gap within Ethiopian literary scholarship. Grounded in the understanding that disability encompasses physical, sensory, and cognitive dimensions, this study examines the portrayal of mental disability in Awgichew Terefe’s 2008 novel, Ibidu. Utilizing a first-person narrative point of view, the novel effectively exposes the protagonist's internal psyche and emotional state. Framed within Critical Disability Studies—a theoretical framework that remains largely underutilized in the Ethiopian literary tradition—this qualitative inquiry analyzes the complex relationship between identity and power relations. Through textual and thematic content analysis, the study demonstrates that mental disability is fundamentally represented as a form of acute powerlessness. The findings reveal that characters with mental illnesses are depicted as uniquely susceptible to discrimination, stigma, systemic abuse, and violence, often finding them pushed to the absolute margins of society and stripped of human dignity.

Keywords: Disability, Impairment, schizophrenia, Identity, Power relations