history 2

• Historiography of Ethiopia and the Horn has changed enormously during the past hundred years in ways that merit fuller treatment than can be afforded here
• This section is devoted to exploring significant transformations in historical writing
• The earliest known reference that we have on history of Ethiopia and the Horn is the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, written in the first century A.D by an anonymous author
• Another document describing Aksum's trade and the then Aksumite king's campaigns on both sides of the sea is the Christian Topography composed by Cosmas Indicopleustes, a Greek sailor, in the sixth century A.D
• The earliest written Ethiopian material dates from the seventh century A.D. The document was found in Abba Gerima monastery in Yeha
• The manuscript cited above contains the list of medieval kings and their history in brief
• The largest groups of sources available for medieval Ethiopian history are hagiographies originating from Ethiopian Orthodox Church
• A parallel hagiographical tradition existed among Muslim communities of the country
• One such account offers tremendous insight into the life of a Muslim saint, Shaykh Ja'far Bukko of Gattira, in present day Wollo, in the late nineteenth century
• Chronicles in the ancient Ethiopian Ge'ez tongue first appeared in the fourteenth century and continue (sometimes in Amharic) into the early twentieth century
• Chronicles incorporate both legends and facts-past and contemporary about the monarch's genealogy, upbringing, military exploits, piety and statesmanship
• Chronicles are known for their factual detail and strong chronological framework, even if it would require considerable labor to convert their relative chronology to an absolute one
• Chronicles explain historical events mainly in religious terms; they offer little by way of social and economic developments even in the environs of the palace
• Written accounts of Arabic-speaking visitors to the coast also provide useful information on various aspects of the region's history
• Abba Bahrey's Geez script on the Oromo written in 1593 provides first-hand information about the Oromo population movement including the Gadaa System
• The contribution of European missionaries and travelers to the development of Ethiopian historiography is also significant
• Hiob Ludolf was the founder of Ethiopian studies in Europe in the seventeenth century
• August Dillman published two studies on ancient Ethiopian history in the nineteenth century and demonstrated all markers of objectivity in his historical research endeavors
• The earliest group of traditional Ethiopian writers who made conscious efforts to distance themselves from chroniclers include Aleqa Taye Gebre-Mariam, Aleqa Asme Giorgis and Debtera Fisseha-Giorgis Abyezgi
• Negadrases Afework Gebre-Iyesus and Gebre-Hiwot Baykedagn later joined the group of traditional Ethiopian writers
• The most prolific writer of the early twentieth century Ethiopia was Blatten Geta Hiruy Wolde-Selassie
• Tekle-Tsadik Mekuria formed a bridge between writers in pre-1935 and Ethiopia professional historians who came after him
• Yilma Deressa's Ye Ityopiya Tarik Be'asra Sidistegnaw Kifle Zemen addresses the Oromo population movement and the wars between the Christian kingdom and the Muslim sultanates
• Blatten Geta Mahteme-Selassie Wolde-Meskel wrote Zikre Neger, a comprehensive account of Ethiopia's prewar land tenure systems and taxation
• Dejazmach Kebede Tesema wrote his memoir of the imperial period, published as Yetarik Mastawesha in 1962 E.C
• The 1960s was a crucial decade in the development of Ethiopian historiography as history emerged as an academic discipline with the opening of the Department of History in 1963 at the then Haile Selassie I University (HSIU)
• The Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) is the other institutional home of professional historiography of Ethiopia, founded in 1963
• The professionalization of history in other parts of the Horn is a post-colonial phenomenon
• The decolonization of African historiography required new methodological approach (tools of investigation) to the study of the past that involved a critical use of oral data and tapping the percepts of ancillary disciplines like archeology, anthropology and linguistics
• Foundational research was done at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London and the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
• African universities have, despite the instabilities of politics and civil war in many areas, trained their own scholars and sent many others overseas for training who eventually published numerous works on different aspects of the region's history