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  • Women in Ethiopian History:Bibliographic Review
  • Belete Bizuneh

Introduction

One of the most important developments in African historiography over the past two decades has been the emergence of social history as a prominent field of inquiry. During these years, historians as well as social anthropologists gave better attention to the reconstruction and analysis of the lives of ordinary members of society. This reorientation is clearly illustrated, for example, by a series of excellent books that have come out under the Heinemann Social History of Africa series. The subjects of these works range from the gang culture of urban youth in South Africa to the social history of alcohol in Ghana.1 In addition to tackling subjects that have hitherto been neglected, these works differ from most previous African history in the attention they give to women and in particular to the issue of how gender relations were transformed and mediated by various historical processes such as the imposition of colonial and "customary" law; the abolition of slavery; migration; urbanization; the spread of Islam and Christianity; the introduction and spread of cash-cropping; and so forth. The shift from writing a history focused primarily on women to one that is gendered clearly demonstrates the conceptual and methodological advance that has been made in the writing of the history of women in the continent.

This revolution in historiography, however, does not seem to have affected historical scholarship about women in Ethiopia. This seems a paradox since the need to give more attention to social history was [End Page 7] recognized by professional historians at least some 30 years ago. Professor Sven Rubenson, the founder of the Department of History at Addis Ababa University (then called the Haile Sellassie I University), emphasized this point in a paper that reviewed the decade-long work of the department and the areas it should focus on in the future: "One clear priority, I think, is an analytical study of the social history of Ethiopia to provide a better historical background for people working on present social structures. . . ."2 Rubenson's call, however, seems not to have been taken up. Although some work has come out that deals with Ethiopian social structures and the lives of ordinary sections of the population since then, in comparison with other African countries the gap remains significant.

This disparity becomes particularly striking when one looks at works on women's history. In a paper published in 1982 that dealt with elite women of Bagemidir, Donald Crummey expressed his dismay at how "women have been shockingly neglected in Ethiopian social and historical studies."3 This statement holds true even after the passage of two decades. While in many African countries the stage has been reached where works of synthesis and more sophisticated gendered analyses are being carried out,4 the Ethiopian scholarly scene remains largely devoid of works that explore the historical experience of the country's women.5

Bibliographies can be used as one means of illustrating my argument. A 1994 special issue of the Journal of Ethiopian Studies contained a bibliography of works published in the Proceedings of the International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (vols. 1-9 and 11), as well as articles published in the Journal of Ethiopian Studies, the premier journal in Ethiopia that features works on anthropology, archaeology, history, linguistics, and literature.6 This bibliography indicates that out of a total of 494 papers published in the Proceedings, only 12 articles appeared in the index under "women." The majority of these works were produced by anthropologists or sociologists, and they dealt with such subjects as women's reproductive health and their roles and participation in crafts, education, and voluntary associations. The discussions were generally ahistorical. The bibliography of articles published in the Journal of Ethiopian Studies lists 311 entries, only three of which concerned women. Of these, one dealt with elite marriage at the Ethiopian court in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the second described [End Page 8] the position of Hadiya women in Southern Ethiopia, and the third was a review of a book about Empress Taytu.

The most obvious and serious question that would follow this illustration is why such neglect? Although complete...

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