[1] Born in Gondar the son of an Orthodox Christian Priest, Zerihun Mersa, as a child Berhanu was not interested in sacred texts and devoted much of his spare time to reading new Ethiopian "secular" books.

Among his first books were ●Hulet Yeemba Debdabewoch ("Two Letters of Tears" 1960) a collection of short stories dealing with Ethiopian political themes such as starvation.

●Del Kemot Behuala ("Victory after Death" 1963), which dealt with the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa.

The novels depicted the problems of Ethiopian society, the inequities of the old regime, and the prospects of socialist development.

[3][2] Berhanu also wrote plays, among them "Moresh" (Codename, Password), which was staged by the National Theatre, and "Tatennyaw Tewanay" ("The Troublesome Actor") in 1983.

[2] Berhanu began to suffer health problems in the early 1980s and died on 24 April 1987; he was buried in the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa.