The Production of Patriotic Spirituality: Ethiopian Orthodox Women's Experience of War and Social Crisis

When I arrived in Gondar the civil war was a memory, though a very real one; the independence of Eritrea, the new constitution of Ethiopia, and the ensuing concerns about the regions were current issues, having been decided in the very recent past. Memories and the effects of the decades-long civil war for Eritrean independence from Ethiopia were still felt keenly, and to some extent were unresolved. The civil war culminated in the overthrowing of the Derg and the installation of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia in 1991. A rancorous resignation towards the now independent Eritrea in the brief postwar period became transformed into a bellicose nationalism when the border conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia erupted into an international crisis in May 1998. The tense beginnings of this conflict and the major battles that ensued coincided with my fieldwork.¹

From Gondar, the Eritrean border is about a day's journey away. The droning of helicopters and fighter planes overhead was alarming the first time I heard them above Gondar, but, along with the rumbling of transport going north to the front, became regular acoustics. What gave the war a special resonance in Gondar was the stream of buses crossing Ethiopia and thundering through Gondar town and its environs. The buses, packed with young men chanting war slogans, continually sounded their horns as a statement of their heroic valediction, one redolent with cultural meaning since concerted noisemaking (hota) is an announcement of solidarity and signifies righteousness in religious contexts. The approach of the buses was heralded by popular music blaring. And then they zoomed past, speeding through town by day and night en route to the front.

The atmosphere in Gondar was tense and mixed emotions ran high. There was almost unanimous support for the war. Observing recruitment buses led to the realization that thousands of young men were being transported to their deaths, and also fueled the underlying sense of resignation related to the unstoppable forces of war and the power of the state to extract the life of a nation. There was a hiatus between the wars during which, though political issues were discussed with vitriol, every soul in Gondar let out an almost audible sigh of relief, since they had been pushed to the limits of endurance. After the defeat of the Derg, a policy of mass demilitarization brought sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers back to their impoverished communities. Men returned to their homes, battle-scarred, exhausted, and humiliated, but at least alive after years of national military service. Then, after a hiatus of barely more than five years, the state once again required the younger generation to defend Ethiopia; students were expected to attend lectures justifying the war and rumors of forced conscription began to circulate. Once again, the state was extracting life from the people.

All churchgoing orthodox Christians share palpable feelings of gratitude and trust for the security that the church provides. The church is best characterized as an institution that found itself on the fault line between tradition and modernity. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is an ancient institution with a long association with the Ethiopian state. The church, in modern times, has extended itself to the population as a refuge from the instability of politics and the inhumanity of totalitarian state power. It offered faith in the face of the terror of the Derg, and provided relief from the impact of modern warfare and the vulnerabilities caused by social disruption and poverty. The church survived the secular policy of the Derg that sought to dismantle it.² The historical symbiosis of church and state was ruptured during the revolution, and the church's wealth, privileges, and institutions were targeted. In spite of this prior governmental policy the church today is a repository of certainty and stability for Christians.

This article focuses on the experience of the female population in Gondar, an area that is predominantly Christian and is a notable center of the Orthodox Church. The lived experience of women is embedded in recent history; they endured the...