Unit One

Introduction

The Nature and Uses of History

• History:
o Is an organized and systematic study of the past
o Comes from the Greek word Istoria: ‘inquiry’ or ‘an account of one’s inquiries’
o Herodotus: Greek historian or the ‘father of history’
o It studies the past b/n humans and their envt within the framework of
continuous change that takes place in time
o Historians divide the past into discrete periods and give labels to each period
that shows the key characteristics of that era this is called Periodization. History
is conventionally divided into:
▪ Ancient
▪ Medieval
▪ Modern
o The continuities and persistence in these eras don’t imply that humans haven’t
changed in these times, but that the basic fabric of the society in regards to
religion, language, agricultural or pastoral way of life have more or less stayed
the same
o History is useful for:
▪ Better understanding the present
▪ Provides a sense of identity: a society without history is like an individual
without memory it would be difficult to orient themselves and know who
they are as a community
▪ Provides the basic background for other disciplines
▪ Teaches critical thinking: going through sources and different
perspectives on a historical event to make an informed decision can help
us grow our critical thinking skills
▪ Teaches tolerance and open-mindedness: seeing how other people in
the past used to do things can give us a wider perspective and helps us
accept differences in our world
▪ Supplies endless sources of fascination

Sources and Methods of Historical Study

• Sources are key to the writing of history
 • New sources make possible for new interpretations or entirely new historical
reconstructions
• There are two types of sources:
o Primary sources: sources that have proximity to the event both in space and
time. Ex: fossils, weapons, documents, photographs, video
o Secondary sources: second-hand published accounts of past events. Ex: articles,
textbooks, biographies. They provide an interpretation of what happened
• Oral sources are also valuable to study the history of non-literate society. They fill
missing gaps and support written words. Ex: folk songs or sayings which are called oral
traditions. Oral testimonies of lived experience which are called Oral history are
provided as sources.
• These sources are subjected to critical evaluation before being used as evidence.

Historiography of Ethiopia and the Horn

• Historiography: studying how knowledge of the past, either recent or distant, is
obtained and transmitted
• The organized study of the past was introduced by:
o Herodotus and Thucydides
o Also, the Chinese; most importantly the Sima Qian (from the Hans dynasty)
• History emerged as an academic discipline in the second half of the 19th C first in Europe
and then in other parts of the world
• Leopold Van Ranke (father of modern historiography) and his colleagues est. history as
an independent discipline in Berlin, Germany.
• The historiography of Ethiopia and the Horn has changed enormously during the past
100 years. To appreciate 20th C historiography, it’s necessary to examine its earliest
form.
1. There were written accounts of travelers like:
o Periplus of the Erythrean Sea:
▪ Is the earliest known reference to the history of Ethiopia and the Horn
▪ It’s written in the 1st C AD
▪ Its author is anonymous
o Christian Topography:
▪ A document describing Aksum’s trade and then the Aksumite king’s
campaigns on both sides of the sea
▪ Composed by Cosmas Indicopleustes, a Greek sailor in the 6th C AD
2. The earliest Ethiopian material dates from the 7th C AD founded by Abba Gerima in the
monastery in Yeha
o This was followed by a manuscript discovered in Haiq Istifanos monastery in
present-day Wollo in the 13th C AD
 o They are mostly religious but historians use them to provide insights into the
country’s past. Ex: the above manuscripts contain lists of medieval kings and
their brief history
3. Hagiography: writing of the lives of saints. They comprise most of Ethiopia’s medieval
history. Ethiopia’s hagiographies are written in Geez and originate from Ethiopian
Orthodox Church.
o Their main function is to enhance the prestige of saints, but other anecdotes
about the devt of the church and territorial conquests by reigning monarchs are
discussed sometimes
o The same thing existed in the Muslim community. Ex: there is a hagiography
about a Muslim Saint, Shaykh Ja’far Bukko of Gattira, in present-day Wollo.
Besides his life, it offered insight into the devt of indigenous Islam and contact
b/n regions of the Muslim community and the outside world
4. Chronicles: a factual written account of important or historical events in the order of
their occurrence. They were first written in Ethiopian Ge’ez in the 14th C and continued
(sometimes in Amharic) into the 20th C.
o They were written by clergymen or court scribes that had clerical training and
calligraphic skills
o The earliest and the last were:
▪ Victories of Amde-Tsion
▪ Chronicle of Abeto Iyasu and Empress Zewditu respectively
o They incorporate both legends and facts about the monarch’s genealogy,
upbringing military exploits, etc.
o They explain events in religious terms and show little social and economic devt
o Compared to hagiography and travelers' accounts, chronicles provide us with
insights into the characters and lives of the kings and a little bit into the
evolution of the Ethiopian state and society
5. There were also writings of Arabic-speaking visitors that provide useful info. about the
region’s history. For ex:
o Al-Masudi and Ibn Battuta described the culture, language, and import-export
trade in the main central region of the east African coast in the 10th and 14th
respectively
o Two Yemeni writers in the 16th and 17th C
o Futuh al Habesha (the first document)
▪ Written by Shihab ad-Din in the 16th C
▪ Recorded the conflict b/n the Christian kingdom and Muslim sultanates
▪ It included the conquest of Imam Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Ahmed
Gragn) and described the inhabitants of the southeastern part of
Ethiopia, but it abruptly ended in 1535
o Al-Haymi’s first-hand account, who led a Yemeni delegation in 1647 to the court
of Fasiledes
 o Abba Bahrey’s Geez script on the Oromo written in 1593. It provides first-hand
info. about Oromo popn. movt and Gadaa System
6. European missionaries and travelers have had a significant impact on Ethiopian
historiography. The missionaries’ sources covered the religious and political devts within
the country and its foreign r/ns. For ex:
o The Prester John of the Indies:
▪ Written by Francisco Alvarez a Portuguese priest who accompanied the
Portuguese mission to the court of Lebne-Dengel in 1520
o James Bruce’s Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile
o These sources are used with reservation as they are socially and politically biased
7. There were also foreign writers. Some of them were:
o Hiob Ludolf:
▪ Founder of Ethiopian studies in Europe in 17th C
▪ Wrote Historia Aethiopica (A New History of Ethiopia)
▪ He never visited Ethiopia but wrote it from the info. he collected from
Abba Gorgorios (Abba Gregory) who was in Europe at the time
o August Dillman
▪ Published the “Book of Enoch” and the “Book of Jubilees” in the 19th C
▪ Demonstrated objectivity in his historical research compared to Ludolf
8. In the 20th C historiography (historical writing) took a departure from chronicles. Then
there was an emergence of traditional Ethiopian writers who made a conscious effort to
distance themselves from chroniclers and criticized them for adulatory tone when
writing about monarchs. They dealt with social justice, administrative reform, and
economic analysis of history. These were
o Aleqa Taye Gebre-Mariam and Debtera Fisseha-Giorgis Abyezgi who wrote
books on Ethiopian history
o Aleqa Asme Giorgis wrote books on the history of the Oromo people
o Negadras Afework Gebre-Iyesus (wrote Tobiya the first Amharic novel) and
Gebre-Hiwot Baykedagn (wrote Atse Menilek ena Ityopia and Mengistna
Yehizb Astedader) joined later
o Blatten Geta Hiruy Wolde-Selassie was the most prolific writer of the 20th C. He
wrote Ethiopia ena Metema, Wazema, Yehiwot Tarik, and Yeityopia Tarik
o In contrast to their predecessors, Gebre-Hiwot and Hiruy had more objectivity
and sophisticated methodology in their works. But this was interrupted by the
Italian occupation
9. After liberation from the Italian occupation, historiography continued
o Tekle-Tsadik Mekuria formed a bridge b/n writers in pre-1935 and Ethiopian
professional historians who came after him. He published 8 historical works. He
made a better evaluation of his source than his predecessors
 o Yilma Deressa wrote an impo. book named Ye Ityopiya Tarik Be’asra
Sidistegnaw Kifle Zemen which addresses the Oromo popn and Christian
kingdom and Muslim sultanates as its main subjects
o Blatten Geta Mahteme-Selassie Wolde-Meskel wrote Zikre Neger which is
about prewar land tenure systems and taxation
o Gebre-Wold Engidawork wrote a book specifically dealing with aspects of land
tenure
o Dejazmach Kebede Tesema wrote Yetarik Mastawesha a memoir of the
imperial period in 1962 E.C.
10. In the 1960s, history emerged as an academic discipline. In 1963 the Department of
History opened at the Haile Selassie I University (HSIU). Although a research org, the
Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) was founded in 1963.
o Richard Pankhurst
▪ was the first director and founding member of the IES
▪ authored and co-authored 22 books and produced several hundred
articles
o IES has been publishing the Journal of Ethiopian Studies to spread historical
research widely
11. The professionalization of history in other parts of the Horn is a post-colonial
phenomenon. The decolonization of African historiography required a new
methodological approach and the study of the past that involved disciplines like
archeology, anthropology, and linguistics.

The Geographical Context

• Ethiopia and the Horn consist of Northeast Africa, which are: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
and Somalia
• The history of Ethiopia and the Horn owes much to geographical factors like location,
landforms, resource endowment, climate, and drainage system. This impacts the movt
of people and good in the region
• Spatial location is a geographical factor that has significance in the way history unfolds.
Ethiopia and the Horn lie b/n the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean on one
hand (which linked it with the Eastern Mediterranean, the Near and Middle East, India,
and the Far East) and Sudan and Kenya on the other.
• Drainage System is another geographical factor. Ethiopia and the Horn have five
principal drainage systems. These are: the Nile River, Gibe/Omo-Gojeb, Genale/Jubba-
Shebele, the Awash River, and the Ethiopian rift valley lake system
• The drainage system is impo not only in providing livelihood, but also facilitating movt of
goods and people across diverse envt which results in exchange of idea, tech,
knowledge, belief, and cultural expansion
• Ethiopia and the horn can be divided into three major environmental zones. These are:
 o Eastern lowland
o Eastern highland massif
o Western highland massif
• Despite the varied physical envt the Horn for the most part is linguistically and ethnically
linked together as far back as recorded history goes. The high degree of interaction and
the long common history of much of the population had weakened ethnic dividing lines
in large parts of the region. Linguistic and cultural affinities are therefore as important
as ethnic origin in the grouping of the population.