Mamuye describes his family tree, his village, and its local history. As a child, he was a shepherd. He talks about the games he played. He tells about the longing for Jerusalem and the stories he heard about it.

When he was six years old, he was sent to study in the Jewish school his uncle ran in Ambover. He was a hardworking pupil and completed all six grades of elementary school within three years. He describes the studies, the social life, and the school schedule.

He passed the governmental exam between sixth and seventh grades. Afterwards, he went to study in the school in the village of Azezo. Mamuye left his family and rented an apartment in the village with friends. Their only food was the bread they brought from their parents’ houses on the weekends. They had no mattresses, so they slept on the floor. The house was often infested with lice. Mamuye talks about his studies and his impressions of life outside the village. Despite the challenges, he successfully graduated from middle school.

He started tenth grade in the school in the city of Gondar. He would meet his parents, who took care of his needs whenever they shopped at the market in Gondar. He studied in the same high school as his cousins. Mamuye describes the apartments and living conditions he experienced during his school years.

The revolution against Emperor Haile Selassie began when the matriculation exams were scheduled to be held. Mamuye relates that due to the revolution, some of the students refused to sit the matriculation exams. They had to sit the exams surrounded by soldiers with drawn weapons. Mamuye sat two exams: the matriculation exam and an entrance exam to study teaching. He needed money to continue his education, and while awaiting the results of the examinations, he worked in a hotel. When the results were published, he was pleased to discover that he had passed the entrance examination to study teaching.

The teaching course was in Asmara. He rented an apartment in the city. He supported himself while studying by working in a restaurant next to his apartment. Mamuye talks about the revolution, the political situation, and the hostile attitude of the Eritrean students. When the fighting reached the city, he and the other Amhara students were taken to live in a makeshift military base up to protect civilians from outside the region. On the day of the revolution, when the Derg party rose to power, Mamuye was taken to the celebrations accompanied by armed soldiers. They ensured his safety while also forcing him to celebrate.

Mamuye relates that the violent treatment of the Amharas worsened when the Derg party rose to power. The studies were stopped. The students were sent to live in the police station outside of Asmara in Daka-Mari. There had no food or anything to occupy their time. Diseases began to spread among the students. Mamuye and another seven people were selected to represent the students before the commander of the Asmara district. They asked him to appoint soldiers to protect them, and allow them to leave the area and return home. Permission was granted, but every time the buses and soldiers arrived, fighting broke out in the area and the soldiers were called to the battlefield. The students remained in this situation for a long time, until they decided to rebel and set out on foot toward Asmara, even at the risk of being killed by the rebels. After a short walk, soldiers of the regime threatened them and forced them to return to the camp. After several months, they left the camp by bus accompanied by soldiers.

The buses let them off in Jamengent. From there, they travelled to Addis Ababa. When they arrived in Addis Ababa, the ministry of education housed them in a teacher training camp named “Kotova”. As they could not be sent back to Asmara, they were sent home until further notice. Mamuye returned to his family. They were overjoyed to discover that he was alive and hadn’t been killed in the war. He stayed at home until he received a position as a teacher and moved to the province of Welega.

Mamuye worked as a substitute teacher in several villages. In the Jima-Ganet area where he taught, disputes broke out between local parents who were members of the Oromo tribe and the teachers from Addis Ababa who belonged to the Amhara tribe. For Mamuye, the year he taught was one of the happiest of his life. During this period he joined the rebel organization against the Derg regime – the EHAPA.

When he heard that a teaching course had opened in Gondar, he moved there. He completed his studies and was appointed as headmaster of a school in the province of Armachiho. When he arrived at the school, he discovered it had been burned down by a rebel organization named UDO. He went to the local church and persuaded the residents to build a new school so that he and the other teachers could educate their children. The school was re-established, but a short time later the UDO rebel organization began to threaten their lives. Mamuye and the entire teaching staff returned to the ministry of education in Gondar. He finished that year as a teacher in another school in the village of Teda.

Mamuye was again sent to the province of Armachiho, but this time to the northern side of the province. He talks about his work in the school. He also describes the secret educational-training activities he performed as a member of the underground EHAPA organization. He was wanted by representatives of the regime and ran away to the forest with another two teachers. They reached the head camp of the organization in order to be re-stationed. Mamuye was stationed in the province of Armachihoo, in the village of Sanki-Mikael. There he taught the residents about the ideology of the EHAPA movement. He gradually persuaded the local residents to join the organization. Together with the organization’s military forces, they took control of the province.

After two years, there was a leadership crisis in the underground organization. Mamuye had three options: to join the organization’s military branch, to ask for forgiveness from the Derg regime and hope he would be acquitted, or to go to Sudan and seek political asylum there. Mamuye chose to travel to Sudan. He describes the difficult conditions on the way there.

In Sudan, Mamuye was sent to a Red Cross refugee camp, Amark-Wah. The conditions in the camp were poor. Hunger and illnesses were rife. When he heard the rumor that Jews had begun to immigrate from Sudan to Israel, he ran away to the city of Gadaref. There he joined the work of the activist Zimna Berhani and the Israeli Mossad, who were working to arrange the clandestine immigration of Ethiopian Jewry. One day, a large group arrived and Mamuye was chosen to join them as a translator and to immigrate to the Land of Israel with them.