Reminiscences of My Life (review)

This insightful and important text consists of the remembrances of the life of a leading figure of both Emperor Haile Selasse’s court and the Mekane Yesus Ethiopian Evangelical Church—His Excellency Ato Emmanuel Abraham. This volume is an English translation of the Amharic text published in 1995. The text is split into two sections, entitled “In the Service of the Government” and “In the Service of the Church.” In the first, Emmanuel Abraham outlines his various contributions to the Ethiopian empire before the coup d’état in 1974 and is divided into 14 parts. The second section outlines his role in the establishment of the Mekane Yesus Church in Ethiopia in the latter part of the twentieth century, is split into nine parts, and includes an appendix that contains excerpts from three All-Africa Lutheran Conferences.

The text begins with Emmanuel Abraham’s birth in Boji, Wälläga, in 1901 as the son of two Oromo Protestant Christians and follows his journey to Addis Ababa for his education (chapters 1 and 2). The text continues with his rise through the ranks of the national administration under Ras Tafari Makonnen (chapters 3–6), his experiences as a foreign dignitary in India, Italy, and London (chapters 7–10), memories of his time as a minister in various posts in Ethiopia, and his detention following Haile Selasse’s exit from authority (chapters 11–14).

Section 1 provides invaluable information on internal Wällägan politics during the early twentieth century. Emmanuel Abraham, who was not born of noble parents, was not an Orthodox Christian and was not initially given a place among the children of the multiethnic elite brought to Addis Ababa for education. The section also reveals the importance of language in early twentieth-century Ethiopian education. The author taught himself written Amharic at his father’s home and, within a year, spoke it so well that, according to the author, “my Amharic teacher used to wonder and tell me that I must be an Amhara. But I used to assure [him] that I was 100 percent Oromo. (In later years, some persons argued and wagered on several occasions on this point and came to me to help them decide the matter)!” (5) Later, his proficiency in English also provided him with additional momentum in reaching his educational goals. Also, his experiences of unemployment after graduation foreshadowed the frustrations of generations of intellectuals during Haile Selasse’s reign.

In connection with this, Emmanuel Abraham relates a very interesting story, in which he is accused of educating only “Gallas” when he was serving as minister of education (56). In response, he and the emperor created a list of all the students enrolled in schools in Addis Ababa, and found that more than 70 percent defined themselves as Amhara. Haile Selasse desired to publish the report of these results as a way to silence his detractors, but Ato Emmanuel did not want it to be published, as “it was not suited to his [Haile Selasse’s] government’s policy” (57). His majesty gave the order for the report to be published, but the same detractors begged for it not to be published, as it could be dangerous. The report remained unpublished, and many people may hear of this event for the first time when reading Emmanuel Abraham’s account.

This story is a perfect example of both the strengths and the weaknesses of this work. Its strengths lie in the presentation of previously little-known events that took place during the twentieth century, and its weaknesses lie in the limitations of the presentation of these stories. While it is very important that the ministers were concerned with the ethnicity of the student population, the question of the rationale behind this concern is left unanswered. Similarly, why was educating mostly Amharas not suited to the government’s policies and why would publicizing Amhara dominance in education be dangerous? The reader could surmise that the government’s policy would...