The History of Ethiopia (review)

This book on Ethiopia is part of a new series by Greenwood Press on country histories. This accounts for the ambitious title, the format and the nature of the information presented in this book, obviously intended for general, nonspecialist readers. The author is a US historian of Nigerian descent working at Seattle University and a relative newcomer to the subject of Ethiopian studies. He has written an original and interesting account which will stimulate readers to know more about Ethiopia, a complex country with a peculiar place in Africa due to its long tradition of independence in the political and religious domains, and its almost 1,700-year-old written literary tradition. After a brief introductory chapter, the book treats Ethiopia’s history mainly from the late nineteenth century onwards. The country’s symbolic role in Black diaspora liberation discourse and nationalism in colonial times is emphasized (‘Ethiopianism’) as well as Ethiopia’s slow and ambivalent encounter with ‘modernity’.

The book is the latest contribution to a series of general histories of Ethiopia published in the last decade or so (by Bahru Zewde, Berhanou Abebe, Teshale Tibebu, H. Marcus, R. Pankhurst and P. Henze); it is different in that its approach is geared more to modern concerns with globalization, transnational influences, the role of Ethiopia in US African-American discourse, and issues of cultural identity. This is the advantage of the book: the explicit framing of Ethiopia’s history in a wider context, away from the disciplinary perspective of ‘Ethiopian Studies’. The general survey of the historical patterns that shaped modern Ethiopia, from imperial rule through the Derg to today’s regime is conventional and adequate. The book also gives cultural information on Ethiopian customs, naming, dress, and on its art and literature, although sometimes in fragmentary fashion. All this makes it perhaps less interesting for specialized scholars and researchers in Ethiopian history. Some chapter headings are a bit puzzling: the one on the period 1884–1935 is entitled ‘Afromodern aspirations’, perhaps an anachronistic designation. The seventh and last chapter, ‘Globalization and other postmodern configurations: Ethiopia at home and abroad’, is the most interesting, discussing the recent political era as well as the important issues of international challenges and the emerging role of the Ethiopian diaspora.

However, I am afraid I must be critical of this book in that it contains too many generalities, inaccuracies, mistakes and omissions, revealing a certain lack of necessary first-hand familiarity with the country and of ongoing historiographical debates.

Some interpretations and judgements are questionable, such as the one on Lij Iyasu, the designated heir to the throne ‘ruling’ from 1913–16. The author writes: ‘Historians have described Iyasu’s reign as impressive . . .’ (p. 176). But rather the opposite is the case. Iyasu’s reign is largely seen as a failed project, if not a disaster. ‘Yasu’ (p. 52) was not a ‘regent’, either. Neither did Ethiopia see any effects of ‘Bantu migration from the South’ (p. 11). And to say that the current post-1991 regime is one of ‘social democracy’ (p. 134) is puzzling.

There are too many mistakes and inaccuracies throughout the book, such as the wrong birth year of Lij Iyasu (1895 not 1887), the wrong year of death of Menelik II (1913, not 1914) and the repeated mentions of Emperor ‘Selassie’ instead of ‘Haile Selassie’. On p. 26 Emperor Tewodros’s general is called ‘Dejazmatch’, but that is a title, not a name. To say that Ibede gudoled spirit mediumship (a local phenomenon in Käfa region) had adherence among the Ethiopian masses as against Christianity among the ruling classes (p. 25) is stretching the assertion beyond its reasonable limits. Old derogatory ethnonyms such as ‘Shankila’ (p. 3), ‘Janjaro’ and ‘Gimira’ (p. 7) cannot be used any more, while the ‘Maji’ ethnic group (p. 7) does not exist. And is it correct to say that Ethiopian Christianity ‘to this day remained Coptic’? The Oromo migration history summarized on p. 8 is rather...