Martha Kumsa, a writer and journalist, was arrested in 1980 at the newspaper offices where she worked in her home country of Ethiopia after writing an article calling for ethnic-Oromo women to defy current power systems and reclaim their cultural heritage. She was imprisoned without charge and tortured. Despite these harsh conditions, she was able to teach in a prison school established by inmates. She was released in September 1989 after receiving that year’s PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. PEN America and other organizations also campaigned for her freedom. Faced with forced military conscription upon her release, she moved to Canada, where she currently resides.
