Sahle Sellassie Berhane Mariam

Warrior King is an historical novel based on the early life of Emperor Tewodros, from his origins as a commoner to his ascension to the throne following the defeat of Ras Ali. The events take place during the Zemene Mesafint, a period in Ethiopian history between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries when the country had no effective central authority.

A series of articles appeared in the Ethiopia magazine Yekatit between June 1981 and June 1983 that opened up a debate about language use between Sahle Sellassie, Asfaw Damte, and Mengistu Lemma. The debate began with the publication of the first two instalments of Asfaw's 'Modern Amharic Literature' series, which was intended to run to four essays. After the second essay, Sahle Sellassie published a strongly worded response, which led to further debate between the two. This was only concluded after Mengistu Lemma intervened.

Sahle Sellassie has translated five novels into Amharic, including Charles Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities', Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, and Pearl S. Buck's The Mother. His own use of English has been discussed a number of times, with his very first novel, Shinega's Village, being described as a compromise in the debate on whether authors should write in an African language or a European language. The author himself made it clear in the early 1980s that he intended to only write in English, translating some of his novels into Amharic if needed.

Tewodros’ life was a common theme for Ethiopian novelists, and Sahle Sellassie’s novel followed three previous Amharic novels on the same theme by Makonnen Endelkachew, Berhanu Zerihun and Abe Gubegna. An English play also appeared in 1965 by Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin

He later moved to the University of California, Los Angeles from where he earned a master's degree in 1963. This move was supported by Wolf Leslau. Leslau had met Sahle Sellassie when he was doing fieldwork at the mission school in Emdibir. Sahle Sellassie provided Chacha texts for one of Leslau's books. Leslau published this as Ethiopia Speaks: Studies in Cultural Background. Leslau then commissioned him to write a novel in Chaha during a summer fellowship. This became Shinega's Village.

Sahle Sellassie wrote the first novel in the Chaha language in the mid-1960s. In 1969 Heinemann published his first English-language novel in their African Writers Series. He continued to write novels into the 1980s. Sahle Sellassie also translated books into Amharic. This included novels by Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo and others.

The novel is a series of related scenes. These show the life of a village boy from his birth in the 1940s to the birth of his first child in the 1960s. Over these years the modern world creeps into his life. First he wants to own a pair of khaki shorts. Then he takes a trip to the nearest town, which has a benzine station. Finally he makes his way to Addis Ababa. These scenes explore what it was like growing up in a rural Gurage community. They show the increasing influence of urban Ethiopian life and European technology. For some the pull of the city is great, but for others it is a place to resent.

Sahle Sellassie Berhane Mariam (Amharic: ሣህለ ሥላሴ ብርሃነ ማርያም; born 1936) is an Ethiopian novelist and translator.