Journal articles on the topic 'Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church'

Our study of contextualization must be basically descriptive, that is, to observe and describe how the gospel is understood and shapes practices in the context of a people. Especially we have to take into consideration different global church traditions in our discussion of contextualization. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (eotc) provides a compelling historical example of contextualization. It has developed its own unique tradition by weaving together elements from different sources of both internal and external traditions through dynamic interaction with other traditions. These include Ethiopian primal, Hebraic-Jewish, apostolic, Syriac and Egyptian Coptic. Ethiopian nationalism has functioned as the guiding principle underlying Ethiopian contextualization. The eotc will continue to display how a church with a long history and tradition copes with new challenging situations and establishes its distinctive tradition in a dynamic interaction of its local and global orientations.

For sixteen centuries, Christian faith has been interacting with Ethiopian culture. This setting offers rich resources for theological vocabulary insofar as it is embedded in African images and symbols, poems, hymns, and chants. Since the material world holds an important place in Ethiopian religious expressions, four dominant symbols found in nature—fire, water, soil, and oil—deserve particular attention. The reflections given in this article are predominantly drawn from study of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. We show that various values are discernable in the four symbols mentioned here, as well as in the cross, the central Christian symbol.

Abstract In the highlands of Ethiopia, the only remaining stands of native forest are around churches of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. Though hailed as community-conserved areas by environmentalists, we argue that the conservation of such forest is not intentional, but rather an indirect result of the religious norms, beliefs and practices surrounding the sites. In actuality, the religiosity surrounding church forests maintains the purity of the most holy space in the center of the shrine, the tabot, a replica of the Ark of the Covenant, which ensures that the church is a legitimate and effective portal to the divine. An underlying cultural logic of purity and pollution structures the spatial organization of the site outward into a series of concentric circles of diminishing purity and shapes the social order into an elegant hierarchy. This article seeks to understand the norms, beliefs and practices of this sacred geography in its social and religious context, arguing that ignorance of or inattention to these can undermine the conservation goals that have brought these forests, along with so many other sacred natural sites, to the attention of environmentalists around the world.

Research Highlights: Variations in species composition across church forests in northern Ethiopia were driven more by variations in human disturbance and community forest management than forest size. The degree of human disturbance acted as an environmental filter that selected for weedy, exotic, and wind-dispersed species regardless of forest size. Background and Objectives: Forest fragmentation can profoundly influence the long-term persistence of forests on the landscape. Habitat fragmentation can increase edge effects and limit dispersal between forest patches. In the South Gondar Administrative Zone in northern Ethiopia, many of the remaining forests are small sacred church forests governed by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. Materials and Methods: We examined the drivers of woody plant species composition across 46 church forests in this region, including the influence of elevation, forest size, distance between forests, human disturbance, the presence of a wall, and the importance of local/individual community forest management at the Woreda level. We also examined how dispersal syndromes are influenced by increasing distance between forests and the extent of human disturbance within forests. Results: We found that elevational zone, distance between forests, the degree of human disturbance and Woreda had the greatest effect on species composition. Forest size and the presence of a wall were not significant drivers of species composition in these forests. Conclusions: We propose connecting forests through corridors or scattered trees to increase dispersal between forests, and greater on-the-ground protection efforts to restrict people and cattle from leaving the main trails within sacred forests

When the Church recognizes the quantity of books as part of God's Word, it uses various standards for book collection. The Tewahedo Orthodox Church, which has 81 books, is one of the churches that got so many. The question of why this Church accepts so many books in its canon and how this Church interprets these books adds to the intricacy of the problem of the number of books in the Tewahedo Orthodox Church tradition. This research employs a content analysis to conduct a literature review. This research demonstrates the Tewahedo Orthodox Church's devotion to the works in its canon. Both in terms of apostles' and Church Fathers' traditions, the lengthy history of Social Culture, Councils and Synods, and the impact of ancient literature in Ethiopia.Although it is well known that writings outside the Hebrew protocanon are employed for ceremonial theology and people's education rather than construction, the Orthodox Tewahedo also believes these works to be vital as books worth reading and historical bridges. Abstrak indonesia Standar pengumpulan kitab yang digunakan oleh Gereja ketika menerima jumlah kitab-kitab sebagai bagian dari Alkitab yang dipegang menggunakan standar yang berbeda-beda. Salah satu gereja yang menerima begitu banyak kitab adalah Gereja Tewahedo Orthodox yang memiliki 81 kitab. Kompleksnya masalah jumlah kitab di dalam tradisi Gereja Tewahedo Orthodox ini, menjadi pertanyaan apa yang menyebabkan Gereja ini menerima begitu banyak kitab dalam kanonnya dan bagaimana Gereja ini memandang kitab-kitab tersebut. Penelitian ini menggunakan Kajian Kepustakaan berupa kajian isi. Dalam penelitian ini menunjukkan kompleksitas penerimaan Gereja Tewahedo Orthodox terhadap kitab-kitab dalam kanonnya. Baik karena pengaruh tradisi rasul-rasul dan Bapa Gereja, sejarah panjang dalam Social Budaya dan Konsili serta Sinode, maupun juga pengaruh dari Literatur kuno di Ethiopia. Dan diketahui bahwa kitab-kitab diluar protokanon Ibrani tidak digunakan dalam membangun doktrin namun digunakan untuk ritual-ritual dan pengajaran umat, Tewahedo Orthodox juga meganggap penting kitab-kitab ini sebagai kitab-kitab yang layak dibaca dan digunakan sebagai jembatan sejarah.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is a fascinating study in indigenization. Its deep rootage in the lives of the people is evidenced by the way in which the Church has been preserved since the fourth century in spite of repeated threats from enemies within and outside of Ethiopia. The church has Christianized important aspects of Old Testament and Hebrew culture as well as certain remnants of primal religion. It adapted beliefs and symbols which reflected and reinforced African traditions, and either absorbed or transfigured that which suited its purposes. The Ethiopian Church is an indigenous church, not an indigenized one. The process of its indigenization is described and important lessons from this rather natural development are identified that help in understanding the importance of critical contextualization. The successes and failures of the Ethiopian Church provide perspective for contemporary attempts at contextualization. This study is significant for understanding African Christianity but also has missiological implications for the wider world.

This essay examines the creation of places of worship by Ethiopian Orthodox congregations in North America, focusing primarily on the District of Columbia and adjacent areas in the states of Maryland and Virginia. Following a discussion of the historical background and development of church architecture in Ethiopia, the essay demonstrates that the shaping of the interior space of Ethiopian Orthodox churches in North America follows a modern model developed in Addis Ababa during the early 1960s. The study concludes with a brief analysis of painted decoration, a necessary component of the sacred space of an Ethiopian Orthodox church. (3 February 2009)

Abstract Aims Tropical forests are increasingly threatened by edge effects as forest degradation and deforestation continues, compromising soil integrity, seedling regeneration capacity, and ecosystem services. Ninety-three percent of the last remaining forests of northern Ethiopia, which number 1022 in the South Gondar region of our study, are <16 ha and are protected because they have a Tewahido Orthodox Christian church at their center. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of human disturbance, forest size, distance from population center and other factors on the soil properties and nutrient status of sacred church forests. We also compared forest soil physical and chemical properties across land cover types in these forests. Methods We assessed the soil physical (water content and bulk density) and chemical (total carbon and nitrogen, available phosphorus, ammonium) properties of 40 sacred church forests across three spatial scales: within individual forests; among forests; and across land cover type (forest, forest edge-exterior, Eucalyptus plantation). We used distance from the edge within each forest to examine edge effects on soil nutrients. Results We found that nutrients and carbon decreased significantly from the interior to the outer edge of these forests and with forest size. Further, the soil of Eucalyptus plantations and areas outside of the forest were largely indistinguishable; both had significantly lower nutrient concentrations than sacred church forest soil. Conclusion Our research highlights the insidious impacts of edge effects and human disturbance on forest soils and the need for an integrated soil management program in the region that balances local needs with forest conservation. The conservation of these sacred church forests is important for maintaining regional soil nutrient status relative to agricultural lands and Eucalyptus plantations.

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to survey the history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church with an emphasis on several features which are of significance for comparison to Syriac Orthodox Christianity. Although it focuses primarily on the period from 1270 during which 'Ethiopian' was a national rather than ethnic identity, it shares several themes with other papers in this volume. After considering the manner in which Christianity reached Ethiopia and in particular the central role played by the royal court in the acceptance and consolidation of the Church, attention is given to the claims of successive Ethiopian rulers and ethnic groups to be 'Israelites', that is, descendants of biblical figures most notably King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The paper next considers the manner in which monastic movements, which emerged in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, were associated with ethnically based resistance to the expansion of the Christian kingdom. Other themes include the development of a tradition of biblical interpretation and Christological controversies. The paper concludes with a discussion of ongoing research concerning the Ethiopian diaspora which has developed in the period since the Marxist revolution of 1974.

This article relates the concept of the tabot, the central symbol of divine presence in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to the European Diaspora experience. The tabot represents the arc of the covenant in Solomon's Temple, and is likewise associated with Noah's arc. Thus the Church is conceptualised as facilitating the traversing of the ‘ocean of troubles’ to reach the ‘safe haven’ of the divine presence. This is experienced in an especially intense way in the diaspora context. Beginning with the concept of diaspora the article gives an overview of the history of the establishment of Ethiopian Orthodox churches in Europe and explores related trajectories. The Church is experienced as a place of memories, and is also a place where the sojourner can feel at home and belong. It facilitates preserving identity and culture, re-creating morals and values, and through aesthetics creates a hermeneutic frame of experience, satisfying the ‘fourth hunger’.

In June 1959, Emperor Haile Sellassie of Ethiopia paid a visit to President Gamel Abdel Nasser of the United Arab Republic, during which the two leaders aired matters of acute strategic importance. Several issues, some touching the very heart of ancient Ethiopian–Egyptian relations, were in the stages of culmination. These included a bitter dispute over the Nile waters (some four-fifths of the water reaching Egypt originates in Ethiopia1), the emergence of an Arab-inspired Eritrean movement, Egyptian support of Somali irredentism, the Ethiopian alliance with Israel, the future of Pan-African diplomacy, and Soviet and American influences.2 Both leaders did their best to publicly ignore their conflicts. They were able to use a rich, though polarized, reservoir of mutual images in their speeches to emphasize the dimensions of old neighborliness and affinity.3 In a joint announcement issued during the farewell party of 28 June, they even underlined a common policy of non-alignment. Though they hinted at the issues mentioned earlier in all their public speeches, they refrained from referring to one culminating historical drama.4 On that very same day, in the main Coptic church of Cairo, the Egyptian Coptic Patriarch Kyrillos VI had ceremonially appointed the head of the Ethiopian church, Abuna Baselyos, as a patriarch in the presence of Haile Sellassie and Egyptian officials. In so doing, he declared the Orthodox Ethiopian church autocephalous, and for the first time since the early 4th century, the Ethiopian church had become independent of the Egyptian church.

AbstractThis article surveys the diasporic life and legacy of the Ethiopian ecclesiastic Täsfa Ṣeyon. After examining his origins in the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia and the circumstances of his arrival in mid-sixteenth-century Rome, the article outlines his contributions to the evolving Latin Catholic understanding of Ethiopia. Täsfa Ṣeyon was a librarian, copyist, teacher, translator, author, and community leader, as well as a prominent adviser to European humanist scholars and Church authorities concerned with orientalist philologia sacra as it pertained to Ethiopian Orthodox (täwaḥedo) Christianity. As such, he was a key extra-European agent in the Tridentine project of Ethiopianist and Eastern Christian knowledge production. The article also surveys the complex modern legacy of Täsfa Ṣeyon's career, documenting his posthumous influence in the fields of Ethiopianist Semitic studies and Ethiopian vernacular historiography.

Enoch disappeared centuries ago from the Jewish and the Christian world where it originated, and from where it spread widely gaining canonical authority. It survives in its entirety in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewhahedo Church (EOTC) to date. Hence, it is to be expected that traces of the book’s legacy can still be detected in the church. Evidently, the book has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention in the last hundred years, more specifically since the landmark discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, its legacy in the EOTC and its influence on the community that is credited with honouring it for many centuries, keeping its original authority and usage intact, have been largely omitted from the discussion. This article, therefore, asks what traces the influence of 1 Enoch has left in Ethiopia and in what its legacy consists. In its attempt to respond to these questions, the article focuses particularly on the literary influences the book has on Ethiopian literature. Though the influence and legacy of the book is not limited to the literary realm, the article limits itself to it alone. Subsequent discussions may go beyond this to consider ways.

Faithful of the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥǝdo Church gather sometimes into a religious association. We can distinguish two types of religious associations: the maḫbär and the sänbäte. These two types are organized on the same scheme and are led by the faithful themselves. Both are based on a fundamental concept, which is to gather faithful around a banquet for a commemoration. Maḫbär and sänbäte are a representation of a zǝkǝr, a crucial concept in the Ethiopian Christianity. The religious authority is shared by one priest who leads the liturgy of the ritual. The presence of a priest without an organizational role highlights the influence of the laymen to organize their own religious life outwards the cast-iron ecclesiastical organisation. The social and religious influence of these organizations is very important in towns and in the countryside. To be member of these associations is a sign of an important social status in the parish community and the reality of both maḫbär and sänbäte shows the existence of a way of dialogue between the Church and the faithful.

The article presents an old folio kept in the church of Däbrä Śaḥl (Gärˁalta, northern Ethiopia), one of a few other leaves, all originating from a codex dating to a period well before the mid–14thcentury. The codicological and palaeographical features reveal the antiquity of the fragment. The content of the folio is remarkable since it contains chants dedicated to St. Gärima (also known as Yǝsḥaq) which can be identified as the chants for the Saint from the Dǝggwa, the main Ethiopian chant book. In the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥǝdo Church the feast of Gärima is celebrated on the 17th of Säne. By means of the fragment of Däbrä Śaḥl, the composition of the liturgical chants for Gärima can be dated to a time much prior to the mid-14th century. Moreover, both the chants and the 15th-century Acts of Gärima by Bishop Yoḥannǝs refer to a famous miracle worked by the Saint. This fact proves that the miraculous account, in whatever form, was in circulation prior to the mid-14th century.

AbstractThis article is a critical appraisal of the Ethiopian conception(s) of covenant as a device for defining the human person, among other things. After analysing the conceptions of human person in three historical areas, I show their implications for development work. The first part is therefore devoted to the conception of the human person in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC), where the notion of covenant is shaped by political monism and philosophical/theological dualism. I explore the reason for such a conceptual enigma, before drawing out its implications for development. The second part explores the Marxist attempt at demystification of the human person at the expense of covenantal understanding. The third part explores the ethnic compartmentalization that was introduced by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Front (EPRDF) against the covenantal backdrops. In the final part, I argue that using the notion of covenant to understand the human person is essential in the Ethiopian context. Even then, I contend that that there is a need to employ a different epistemology (from the traditional one). Consequently, I argue that (re)conceptualization helps us to avoid repeating historical mistakes and allows us to have a better understanding of the human person with a more progressive approach to development.

Of all the musical traditions in the world among which fruitful comparisons with medieval European chant might be made, the chant tradition of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church promises to be especially informative. In Ethiopia one can actually witness many of the same processes of oral and written transmission as were or may have been active in medieval Europe. Music and literacy are taught in a single curriculum in ecclesiastical schools. Future singers begin to acquire the repertory by memorising chants that serve both as models for whole melodies and as the sources of the melodic phrases linked to individual notational signs. At a later stage of training each one copies out a complete notated manuscript on parchment using medieval scribal techniques. But these manuscripts are used primarily for study purposes; during liturgical celebrations the chants are performed from memory without books, as seems originally to have been the case also with Gregorian and Byzantine chant. Finally, singers learn to improvise sung liturgical poetry according to a structured system of rules. If one desired to imitate the example of Parry and Lord, who investigated the modern South Slavic epic for possible clues to Homeric poetry, it would be difficult to find a modern culture more similar to the one that spawned Gregorian chant.

Abstract Persecution has long constituted part of the spiritual repertoire of evangelical Christians in Ethiopia. Ever since its introduction by Western missionaries, the new Christian faith has provided an alternative model to the one that pre-existed it in the form of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (eoc). The new dimension of Christianity that is anchored in the doctrine of personal salvation and sanctification provided a somewhat different template of what it means to be a Christian by choice rather than belonging to a preset culture. This was antithetical to the conventional mode of culturally and historically situated Christianity, which strongly lays emphasis on adherence to certain prescribed rituals like fasting, the observances of saintly days, and devotions to saints. Its introduction by foreigners is often contrasted with an indigenous faith tradition which is considered to have a long history dating back to the apostolic times. The tendency of evangelical Christians to disassociate themselves from the local culture, as emblematic of holiness and separation from the world, viewed from the other optic, lent it the label mete, literally “imported” or “of foreign extraction”. The state support the established church had garnered for a long time, plus its massive influences, also accorded the eoc a privileged position to exercise a dominant role in the social, political, and cultural life of the country. This article explores the theme of persecution of Evangelical Christians in light of the above framework. It crucially examines the persecution of Pentecostals prior to the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974 and afterwards. Two reasons justify my choice. First, it lends the article a clear focus and secondly, Pentecostalism has been one of the potent vehicles for the expansion of evangelical Christianity in Ethiopia. I argue that the pre-revolutionary persecution stems from the fact that the Pentecostals presented some kind of spiritual shock waves to the familiar terrains of Christianity and that the main reason for their persecutions during the revolution was the fact that they countered hegemonic narratives that presented themselves in the form of Marxism, which became the doctrine of the state under the banner of “scientific socialism.”

It is axiomatic that historians should use all available sources. African historiography has been on the cutting edge of methodological innovation for the last three decades, utilizing written sources, oral traditions, archeology, linguistics, ethnography, musicology, botany, and other techniques to bring respect and maturity to the field.But the use of such a diverse methodology has brought controversy as well, particularly regarding oral traditions. Substantial criticisms have been raised concerning the problems of chronology and limited time depth, variations in different versions of the same events, and the problem of feedback between oral and written sources. A “structuralist” critique deriving from Claude Levi-Strauss's study of Amerindian mythology has provided a useful corrective to an overly-literal acceptance of oral traditions, but often went too far in throwing out the historical baby with the mythological bathwater, leading some historians to reject totally the use of oral data. A more balanced view has shown that a modified structural approach can be a useful tool in historical analysis. In Ethiopian historiography some preliminary speculations were made along structuralist lines,5 although in another sense such an approach was always implicit since the analysis of Ethiopie written hagiographies and royal chronicles required an awareness of the mythological or folk elements they contain.Two more difficult problems to overcome have been the Ethiopie written documents' centrist and elitist focus on the royal monarchy and Orthodox church. The old Western view that “history” required the existence of written documents and a state led to the paradigm of Ethiopia as an “outpost of Semitic civilization” and its historical and historiographical separation from the rest of Africa. The comparatively plentiful corpus of written documentation for Ethiopian history allowed such an approach, and the thousands of manuscripts made available to scholars on microfilm in the last fifteen years have demonstrated the wealth still to be found in written sources. However, such sources, although a starting point for research on Ethiopian history, no longer seem adequate in themselves because they focus primarily on political-military and religious events concerning the monarchy and church.

AbstractThis article explores the experience of one village in Ethiopia since the overthrow of the Marxist‐Leninist Derg regime in 1991. The new government introduced policies that have much in common with those dominating the international geopolitical scene in the 1990s and 2000s. These include an emphasis on democracy, grassroots participation and, to some extent, market liberalization. I report here on the manifestations of these policy shifts in Gamole village, in the district of Konso, once remote from the political centre in Addis Ababa but now expressing its identity through new federal political structures. Traditional power relations between traders and farmers in Gamole have been transformed since 1991 as the traders have exploited opportunities to extend trade links, obtain land and build regional alliances through participation in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. They have appropriated the discourse of democracy to challenge their traditional position of subordination to the farmers – and this, in turn, has led to conflict. While these changes reflect the postsocialist transition, they can also be seen as part of a continuing process of change brought about by policies of reform in land tenure, the church and the state, introduced during the Derg period. These observations at a local level in Ethiopia provide insights into the experiences of other states in postsocialist transition.

The article assesses the role of folklore in the form of verbal, ritual and material objects as a means of customary dispute prevention, transformation and resolution in selected ethnic groups in Ethiopia. Samples of oral narratives in the form of proverbs, myths and legends from the Amhara, Tigray, Oromo and Issa linguistic groups are found to have cohesive functions that reiterate harmony among the respective communities and individuals prior to conflicts; conciliatory and mediatory functions during inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic or personal conflicts; and lastly, compensatory functions after conflicts. The familiarity of the content in the narratives and the beauty of the language of the mediators, usually the elders, transform the state of enmity into the state of tolerance and recompense. The pre-reconciliation, reconciliation and post-reconciliation rituals usually accompanied by animal sacrifice, as well as the venues of the rituals (usually river banks and under trees), create a local colour that foreground a feeling of exoneration, absolution, communalism as well as commitment to discontinue blood feuds. The material objects mostly used during the reconciliation rituals, such as Tabots, crosses and other relics of the Orthodox Church, Kalacha, boku, Chachu, Siniqee and Hanfala of the Oromo have a frightening effect on the people who want to redress damages by force. The widest usage of folkloric elements for conflict prevention, resolution and transformation is found to have a consoling and therapeutic effect on the material and psychological dimensions of conflict. On the other hand, it is suggested that concerned bodies should preserve and make use of such rich folkloric heritage that conform with the constitution of the country and international human right conventions.

Abstract. Mekonen AB, Gebreegziabher BG, Wassie WA, Tsegay BA. 2019. Review: Church forests—the green spots of Ethiopian highlands. Asian J For 3: 45-53. In the central and northern highlands of Ethiopia, the diversity and biomass of native vegetation are almost restricted to church forests which are the only remnant natural forest in the region. The church forests are sacred because the church is believed to be the house of God and everything in its compound is sacred and respected. However, they are under severe threats by both anthropogenic and a few natural disturbances. This review paper summarizes the role of Ethiopian church forests in the boundaries of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Churches (EOTC), in biodiversity conservation, source of seed and seedling of native vegetation, ecological importance, ecosystem values and services to the community and to the globe in general. It also emphasizes the main challenges of these forests i.e., humans disturbance and natural disturbances. It states the conservation strategies of church forest. We conclude that the EOTCs besides its religious activities played a great role in conserving the forests. However, most church forests have no clear and documented demarcations which enhances disturbance. The churches are also cultivating fast-growing exotic species replacing native trees for their income. Finally, we recommend that the head priests should evoke and customize the conservation of sacred groves using religious thought. The government should acknowledge the church for conservation and decide to have a clear boundary for the church forest to minimize further encroachment. Forest genetic resources conservation program (in situ type), Participatory Forest Management (PFM), and rehabilitation activities have to be implemented in addition to the church conservation effort using religious thoughts, religious sanctions, and legal protection for the integrity of these remnant sacred groves. Further studies are recommended to fill the gap of sacred groves in addressing the cause of disturbance and to provide possible solutions for better conservation.

IntroductionThere are two types of Africa. The first is a place where people and cultures live. The second is the image of Africa that has been invented through colonial knowledge and power. The colonial image of Africa, as the Other of Europe, a land “enveloped in the dark mantle of night” was supported by western states as it justified their colonial practices (Hegel 91). Any evidence that challenged the myth of the Dark Continent was destroyed, removed or ignored. While the looting of African natural resources has been studied, the looting of African knowledges hasn’t received as much attention, partly based on the assumption that Africans did not produce knowledge that could be stolen. This article invalidates this myth by examining the legacy of Ethiopia’s indigenous Ge’ez literature, and its looting and abduction by powerful western agents. The article argues that this has resulted in epistemic violence, where students of the Ethiopian indigenous education system do not have access to their books, while European orientalists use them to interpret Ethiopian history and philosophy using a foreign lens. The analysis is based on interviews with teachers and students of ten Ge’ez schools in Ethiopia, and trips to the Ethiopian manuscript collections in The British Library, The Princeton Library, the Institute of Ethiopian Studies and The National Archives in Addis Ababa.The Context of Ethiopian Indigenous KnowledgesGe’ez is one of the ancient languages of Africa. According to Professor Ephraim Isaac, “about 10,000 years ago, one single nation or community of a single linguistic group existed in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the Horn of Africa” (The Habesha). The language of this group is known as Proto-Afroasiatic or Afrasian languages. It is the ancestor of the Semitic, Cushitic, Nilotic, Omotic and other languages that are currently spoken in Ethiopia by its 80 ethnic groups, and the neighbouring countries (Diakonoff). Ethiopians developed the Ge’ez language as their lingua franca with its own writing system some 2000 years ago. Currently, Ge’ez is the language of academic scholarship, studied through the traditional education system (Isaac, The Ethiopian). Since the fourth century, an estimated 1 million Ge’ez manuscripts have been written, covering religious, historical, mathematical, medicinal, and philosophical texts.One of the most famous Ge’ez manuscripts is the Kebra Nagast, a foundational text that embodied the indigenous conception of nationhood in Ethiopia. The philosophical, political and religious themes in this book, which craft Ethiopia as God’s country and the home of the Ark of the Covenant, contributed to the country’s success in defending itself from European colonialism. The production of books like the Kebra Nagast went hand in hand with a robust indigenous education system that trained poets, scribes, judges, artists, administrators and priests. Achieving the highest stages of learning requires about 30 years after which the scholar would be given the rare title Arat-Ayina, which means “four eyed”, a person with the ability to see the past as well as the future. Today, there are around 50,000 Ge’ez schools across the country, most of which are in rural villages and churches.Ge’ez manuscripts are important textbooks and reference materials for students. They are carefully prepared from vellum “to make them last forever” (interview, 3 Oct. 2019). Some of the religious books are regarded as “holy persons who breathe wisdom that gives light and food to the human soul”. Other manuscripts, often prepared as scrolls are used for medicinal purposes. Each manuscript is uniquely prepared reflecting inherited wisdom on contemporary lives using the method called Tirguamme, the act of giving meaning to sacred texts. Preparation of books is costly. Smaller manuscript require the skins of 50-70 goats/sheep and large manuscript needed 100-120 goats/sheep (Tefera).The Loss of Ethiopian ManuscriptsSince the 18th century, a large quantity of these manuscripts have been stolen, looted, or smuggled out of the country by travellers who came to the country as explorers, diplomats and scientists. The total number of Ethiopian manuscripts taken is still unknown. Amsalu Tefera counted 6928 Ethiopian manuscripts currently held in foreign libraries and museums. This figure does not include privately held or unofficial collections (41).Looting and smuggling were sponsored by western governments, institutions, and notable individuals. For example, in 1868, The British Museum Acting Director Richard Holms joined the British army which was sent to ‘rescue’ British hostages at Maqdala, the capital of Emperor Tewodros. Holms’ mission was to bring treasures for the Museum. Before the battle, Tewodros had established the Medhanialem library with more than 1000 manuscripts as part of Ethiopia’s “industrial revolution”. When Tewodros lost the war and committed suicide, British soldiers looted the capital, including the treasury and the library. They needed 200 mules and 15 elephants to transport the loot and “set fire to all buildings so that no trace was left of the edifices which once housed the manuscripts” (Rita Pankhurst 224). Richard Holmes collected 356 manuscripts for the Museum. A wealthy British woman called Lady Meux acquired some of the most illuminated manuscripts. In her will, she bequeathed them to be returned to Ethiopia. However, her will was reversed by court due to a campaign from the British press (Richard Pankhurst). In 2018, the V&A Museum in London displayed some of the treasures by incorporating Maqdala into the imperial narrative of Britain (Woldeyes, Reflections).Britain is by no means the only country to seek Ethiopian manuscripts for their collections. Smuggling occurred in the name of science, an act of collecting manuscripts for study. Looting involved local collaborators and powerful foreign sponsors from places like France, Germany and the Vatican. Like Maqdala, this was often sponsored by governments or powerful financers. For example, the French government sponsored the Dakar-Djibouti Mission led by Marcel Griaule, which “brought back about 350 manuscripts and scrolls from Gondar” (Wion 2). It was often claimed that these manuscripts were purchased, rather than looted. Johannes Flemming of Germany was said to have purchased 70 manuscripts and ten scrolls for the Royal Library of Berlin in 1905. However, there was no local market for buying manuscripts. Ge’ez manuscripts were, and still are, written to serve spiritual and secular life in Ethiopia, not for buying and selling. There are countless other examples, but space limits how many can be provided in this article. What is important to note is that museums and libraries have accrued impressive collections without emphasising how those collections were first obtained. The loss of the intellectual heritage of Ethiopians to western collectors has had an enormous impact on the country.Knowledge Grabbing: The Denial of Access to KnowledgeWith so many manuscripts lost, European collectors became the narrators of Ethiopian knowledge and history. Edward Ullendorff, a known orientalist in Ethiopian studies, refers to James Bruce as “the explorer of Abyssinia” (114). Ullendorff commented on the significance of Bruce’s travel to Ethiopia asperhaps the most important aspect of Bruce’s travels was the collection of Ethiopic manuscripts… . They opened up entirely new vistas for the study of Ethiopian languages and placed this branch of Oriental scholarship on a much more secure basis. It is not known how many MSS. reached Europe through his endeavours, but the present writer is aware of at least twenty-seven, all of which are exquisite examples of Ethiopian manuscript art. (133)This quote encompasses three major ways in which epistemic violence occurs: denial of access to knowledge, Eurocentric interpretation of Ethiopian manuscripts, and the handling of Ge’ez manuscripts as artefacts from the past. These will be discussed below.Western ‘travellers’, such as Bruce, did not fully disclose how many manuscripts they took or how they acquired them. The abundance of Ethiopian manuscripts in western institutions can be compared to the scarcity of such materials among traditional schools in Ethiopia. In this research, I have visited ten indigenous schools in Wollo (Lalibela, Neakutoleab, Asheten, Wadla), in Gondar (Bahita, Kuskwam, Menbere Mengist), and Gojam (Bahirdar, Selam Argiew Maryam, Giorgis). In all of the schools, there is lack of Ge’ez manuscripts. Students often come from rural villages and do not receive any government support. The scarcity of Ge’ez manuscripts, and the lack of funding which might allow for the purchasing of books, means the students depend mainly on memorising Ge’ez texts told to them from the mouth of their teacher. Although this method of learning is not new, it currently is the only way for passing indigenous knowledges across generations.The absence of manuscripts is most strongly felt in the advanced schools. For instance, in the school of Qene, poetic literature is created through an in-depth study of the vocabulary and grammar of Ge’ez. A Qene student is required to develop a deep knowledge of Ge’ez in order to understand ancient and medieval Ge’ez texts which are used to produce poetry with multiple meanings. Without Ge’ez manuscripts, students cannot draw their creative works from the broad intellectual tradition of their ancestors. When asked how students gain access to textbooks, one student commented:we don’t have access to Birana books (Ge’ez manuscripts written on vellum). We cannot learn the ancient wisdom of painting, writing, and computing developed by our ancestors. We simply buy paper books such as Dawit (Psalms), Sewasew (grammar) or Degwa (book of songs with notations) and depend on our teachers to teach us the rest. We also lend these books to each other as many students cannot afford to buy them. Without textbooks, we expect to spend double the amount of time it would take if we had textbooks. (Interview, 3 Sep. 2019)Many students interrupt their studies and work as labourers to save up and buy paper textbooks, but they still don’t have access to the finest works taken to Europe. Most Ge’ez manuscripts remaining in Ethiopia are locked away in monasteries, church stores or other places to prevent further looting. The manuscripts in Addis Ababa University and the National Archives are available for researchers but not to the students of the indigenous system, creating a condition of internal knowledge grabbing.While the absence of Ge’ez manuscripts denied, and continues to deny, Ethiopians the chance to enrich their indigenous education, it benefited western orientalists to garner intellectual authority on the field of Ethiopian studies. In 1981, British Museum Director John Wilson said, “our Abyssinian holdings are more important than our Indian collection” (Bell 231). In reaction, Richard Pankhurst, the Director of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa, responded that the collection was acquired through plunder. Defending the retaining of Maqdala manuscripts in Europe, Ullendorff wrote:neither Dr. Pankhurst nor the Ethiopian and western scholars who have worked on this collection (and indeed on others in Europe) could have contributed so significantly to the elucidation of Ethiopian history without the rich resources available in this country. Had they remained insitu, none of this would have been possible. (Qtd. in Bell 234)The manuscripts are therefore valued based on their contribution to western scholarship only. This is a continuation of epistemic violence whereby local knowledges are used as raw materials to produce Eurocentric knowledge, which in turn is used to teach Africans as though they had no prior knowledge. Scholars are defined as those western educated persons who can speak European languages and can travel to modern institutions to access the manuscripts. Knowledge grabbing regards previous owners as inexistent or irrelevant for the use of the grabbed knowledges.Knowledge grabbing also means indigenous scholars are deprived of critical resources to produce new knowledge based on their intellectual heritage. A Qene teacher commented: our students could not devote their time and energy to produce new knowledges in the same way our ancestors did. We have the tradition of Madeladel, Kimera, Kuteta, Mielad, Qene and tirguamme where students develop their own system of remembering, reinterpreting, practicing, and rewriting previous manuscripts and current ones. Without access to older manuscripts, we increasingly depend on preserving what is being taught orally by elders. (Interview, 4 Sep. 2019)This point is important as it relates to the common myth that indigenous knowledges are artefacts belonging to the past, not the present. There are millions of people who still use these knowledges, but the conditions necessary for their reproduction and improvement is denied through knowledge grabbing. The view of Ge’ez manuscripts as artefacts dismisses the Ethiopian view that Birana manuscripts are living persons. As a scholar told me in Gondar, “they are creations of Egziabher (God), like all of us. Keeping them in institutions is like keeping living bodies in graveyards” (interview, 5 Oct. 2019).Recently, the collection of Ethiopian manuscripts by western institutions has also been conducted digitally. Thousands of manuscripts have been microfilmed or digitised. For example, the EU funded Ethio-SPaRe project resulted in the digital collection of 2000 Ethiopian manuscripts (Nosnitsin). While digitisation promises better access for people who may not be able to visit institutions to see physical copies, online manuscripts are not accessible to indigenous school students in Ethiopia. They simply do not have computer or internet access and the manuscripts are catalogued in European languages. Both physical and digital knowledge grabbing results in the robbing of Ethiopian intellectual heritage, and denies the possibility of such manuscripts being used to inform local scholarship. Epistemic Violence: The European as ExpertWhen considered in relation to stolen or appropriated manuscripts, epistemic violence is the way in which local knowledge is interpreted using a foreign epistemology and gained dominance over indigenous worldviews. European scholars have monopolised the field of Ethiopian Studies by producing books, encyclopaedias and digital archives based on Ethiopian manuscripts, almost exclusively in European languages. The contributions of their work for western scholarship is undeniable. However, Kebede argues that one of the detrimental effects of this orientalist literature is the thesis of Semiticisation, the designation of the origin of Ethiopian civilisation to the arrival of Middle Eastern colonisers rather than indigenous sources.The thesis is invented to make the history of Ethiopia consistent with the Hegelian western view that Africa is a Dark Continent devoid of a civilisation of its own. “In light of the dominant belief that black peoples are incapable of great achievements, the existence of an early and highly advanced civilization constitutes a serious anomaly in the Eurocentric construction of the world” (Kebede 4). To address this anomaly, orientalists like Ludolph attributed the origin of Ethiopia’s writing system, agriculture, literature, and civilisation to the arrival of South Arabian settlers. For example, in his translation of the Kebra Nagast, Budge wrote: “the SEMITES found them [indigenous Ethiopians] negro savages, and taught them civilization and culture and the whole scriptures on which their whole literature is based” (x).In line with the above thesis, Dillman wrote that “the Abyssinians borrowed their Numerical Signs from the Greeks” (33). The views of these orientalist scholars have been challenged. For instance, leading scholar of Semitic languages Professor Ephraim Isaac considers the thesis of the Arabian origin of Ethiopian civilization “a Hegelian Eurocentric philosophical perspective of history” (2). Isaac shows that there is historical, archaeological, and linguistic evidence that suggest Ethiopia to be more advanced than South Arabia from pre-historic times. Various Ethiopian sources including the Kebra Nagast, the works of historian Asres Yenesew, and Ethiopian linguist Girma Demeke provide evidence for the indigenous origin of Ethiopian civilisation and languages.The epistemic violence of the Semeticisation thesis lies in how this Eurocentric ideological construction is the dominant narrative in the field of Ethiopian history and the education system. Unlike the indigenous view, the orientalist view is backed by strong institutional power both in Ethiopia and abroad. The orientalists control the field of Ethiopian studies and have access to Ge’ez manuscripts. Their publications are the only references for Ethiopian students. Due to Native Colonialism, a system of power run by native elites through the use of colonial ideas and practices (Woldeyes), the education system is the imitation of western curricula, including English as a medium of instruction from high school onwards. Students study the west more than Ethiopia. Indigenous sources are generally excluded as unscientific. Only the Eurocentric interpretation of Ethiopian manuscripts is regarded as scientific and objective.ConclusionEthiopia is the only African country never to be colonised. In its history it produced a large quantity of manuscripts in the Ge’ez language through an indigenous education system that involves the study of these manuscripts. Since the 19th century, there has been an ongoing loss of these manuscripts. European travellers who came to Ethiopia as discoverers, missionaries and scholars took a large number of manuscripts. The Battle of Maqdala involved the looting of the intellectual products of Ethiopia that were collected at the capital. With the introduction of western education and use of English as a medium of instruction, the state disregarded indigenous schools whose students have little access to the manuscripts. This article brings the issue of knowledge grapping, a situation whereby European institutions and scholars accumulate Ethiopia manuscripts without providing the students in Ethiopia to have access to those collections.Items such as manuscripts that are held in western institutions are not dead artefacts of the past to be preserved for prosperity. They are living sources of knowledge that should be put to use in their intended contexts. Local Ethiopian scholars cannot study ancient and medieval Ethiopia without travelling and gaining access to western institutions. This lack of access and resources has made European Ethiopianists almost the sole producers of knowledge about Ethiopian history and culture. For example, indigenous sources and critical research that challenge the Semeticisation thesis are rarely available to Ethiopian students. Here we see epistemic violence in action. Western control over knowledge production has the detrimental effect of inventing new identities, subjectivities and histories that translate into material effects in the lives of African people. In this way, Ethiopians and people all over Africa internalise western understandings of themselves and their history as primitive and in need of development or outside intervention. African’s intellectual and cultural heritage, these living bodies locked away in graveyards, must be put back into the hands of Africans.AcknowledgementThe author acknowledges the support of the Australian Academy of the Humanities' 2019 Humanities Travelling Fellowship Award in conducting this research.ReferencesBell, Stephen. “Cultural Treasures Looted from Maqdala: A Summary of Correspondence in British National Newspapers since 1981.” Kasa and Kasa. Eds. Tadesse Beyene, Richard Pankhurst, and Shifereraw Bekele. Addis Ababa: Ababa University Book Centre, 1990. 231-246.Budge, Wallis. 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