TSEHAI Publishers is an independent, academic press based at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. The press focuses on the diverse knowledge production of various cultures and human experiences, and exists with the purpose of giving a voice to otherwise voiceless writers, cultures, peoples, histories, nations, and regions. TSEHAI also serves as a platform for indigenous African knowledge production by creating an alternative, honest, homegrown narrative of Africa divorced from the cultural bias, value judgments, and historical interpretation and misinformation pervading Western media. It has various imprints, and is run by its founder, exiled Ethiopian journalist and publisher Elias Wondimu.
History
Wondimu founded TSEHAI Publishers in 1997. Their first book was published in 1998 and from then to 2001, he ran the company while also working full-time, as managing editor of the Ethiopian Review and for UCLA-based Chicano journal Aztlán. In 2001, Elias left Aztlán to run TSEHAI full-time. Since then, TSEHAI has published over one hundred books, started academic journals available on JSTOR, and founded five imprints. In 2002, TSEHAI launched its first imprint, the African Academic Press, to fill the void left when Heinemann ceased publishing its famous African Writers Series. In 2007, TSEHAI moved its headquarters to Marymount Institute, at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. Together, Wondimu and Marymount Institute Director founded Marymount Institute Press, an imprint dedicated to upholding the tenets of the Marian tradition, and has a particular commitment to issues that concern women and spirituality of all traditions. In August 2013, TSEHAI Publishers launched a new venture, Tsehai Films, a production company through which it plans to release documentary films exploring subjects such as media bias and perceptions of Africa. Tsehai Films released two short films on Vimeo in 2013, one exploring photographer Robert Radin's philosophies on art and life, the other looking at the way in which English scholars Richard and Pankhurst made Ethiopia their home. Since then, Tsehai Films has made nearly ten short films available on their Vimeo page - . In 2015, TSEHAI launched its third and fourth imprints, Chereka Books, which focuses on publishing literature for children, and Fanos Books which is for self-sponsored books. In 2016, the Harriet Tubman Press was created as an imprint intended to celebrate Black voices in the academic and literary world by showcasing the strength, tenacity, and perseverance of the African American experience in the hopes of empowering the next generation of creatives, leaders, and thinkers.
Imprints
TSEHAI Publishers has five imprints which each publishes books on distinct perspectives of the human experience and cater to specific audiences. The African Academic Press, Marymount Institute Press, Harriet Tubman Press, and Chereka Books are their four most predominant imprints.
African Academic Press
In 2002, Heinemann, the leading publisher of African literature, ceased to publish its famous African Writers Series. In a time when the publishing industry was consolidating, TSEHAI stepped up to fill this void in a small way through its imprint. In the past several years, TSEHAI and the AAP have published Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, Paul Zeleza, :fr:Bahru Zewde|Bahru Zewde, Richard Pankhurst, as well as many leading scholars. The IJES and EJRS are published under the AAP imprint.
Marymount Institute Press
In 2001, TSEHAI founder Elias Wondimu left the UCLA-based journal of Chicano studies Aztlán to run TSEHAI full-time. A few years later, in 2007, TSEHAI relocated to Loyola Marymount University and the . In his work with the Marymount Institute, Elias and the Marymount Institute's Director Professor Theresia de Vroom co-founded Loyola Marymount's first academic press, the , an imprint of TSEHAI. The press has published a number of books, collections, and plays since its inception and has helped to facilitate the institute's mission of earnest dialogue between faith, culture, and the arts.
Harriet Tubman Press
is the newest imprint for TSEHAI and celebrates Black voices in the academic and literary world. HTP publishes introspective academic and creative work to uncover hidden narratives and provide a platform for the historical, current, and future issues that African-Americans face in the U.S. and across the globe. By showcasing the strength, tenacity, and perseverance of the African American experience, HTP hopes to empower the next generation of creatives, leaders, and thinkers.
Chereka Books
As Tsehai is the Sun, Chereka is the Moon. It reflects the sun's teachings and watches over the world once the sun goes down, like future generations will do. This imprint of TSEHAI focuses on publishing literature for children and is dedicated to bringing accessible, joyful, and child-friendly illustrated books to children and young readers. The press hopes to offer children a link to their roots through publications such as the "Read with me A to Z: English-Amharic" book series, and aims to develop children's knowledge of the world and of how we learn to love through fictional stories such as "Tigers of Sumatra."
TSEHAI Publishers’ International Journal of Ethiopian Studies is a bi-annual publication containing scholarship on Ethiopian history, culture, politics, and more. The journal contains new scholarship in English and Amharic, as well as newly translated pieces, poetry, important government documents, and other relevant pieces. IJES was the first academic journal to be started by an Ethiopian institution outside of Ethiopia, and, with the help of leading scholars in the field, has created a cultivating environment where academics could publish scholarly, theoretical, and empirical studies and their research findings on Ethiopian social, political, economic, cultural, and historical issues.
Ethiopian Journal of Religious Studies
An imprint of TSEHAI Publishers, the African Academic Press publishes the Ethiopian Journal of Religious Studies yearly, with 2017 being its inaugural issue. Launched in 2013, the EJRS is committed to multidisciplinary scholarly studies of Ethiopian religious practices, beliefs and institutions, their relations with each other, their roles in Ethiopian history past and present, their interactions with their milieu, their contributions to Ethiopia's cultural life and creativity, and their part in the development of Ethiopia. Although Ethiopia houses some of the major religions of the world, there has been no previous forum to study or document its development. EJRS is Ethiopia's first religious journal and is breaking ground on this significant topic.
Publications
TSEHAI Publishers releases new books and re-publishes rare, out-of-print, and hard-to-find volumes of some significance. The press publishes a few new volumes each year, ranging in nature from biographies to history, political volumes, and memoirs. Additionally, TSEHAI publishes books in categories such as arts & photography, literature & fiction, public health, poetry, religion & spirituality, and travel. The press and its subsequent imprints continue to publish new books that appear on its website when available. The press has also republished numerous out-of-print or hard-to-find books of some importance to Ethiopian or African studies, including but not limited to Richard Pankhurst's canonical Economic History of Ethiopia and Donald N. Levine's Wax & Gold: Tradition and Innovation in Ethiopian Culture.
