Visualizing Marriage in Northern EthiopiaThe Production and Consumption of Gama

all photos by the author, unless otherwise noted

Visitors to private homes in Aksum, Ethiopia may notice a genre of painting that remains relatively unknown outside of the Tigrai Regional State (Fig. 1). Known as gama, which is also the Tigrinya word for “wedding,” the paintings depict a bride and groom, often with attendants, and key iconic images of Aksum, the birthplace of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOC).¹ Produced by church-trained artists and their apprentices, gama stylistically resemble paintings found in Ethiopian Orthodox churches, in bars, restaurants, and hotels, and in the artwork carried home by foreign visitors as souvenirs. While Aksum’s tourist shops are full of paintings on board and canvas depicting secular and religious themes, gama are much less visible to tourists, as they are either produced on commission or sold in small suqs² (neighborhood stores) into which few foreign visitors venture (Fig. 2). Found in Ethiopian Orthodox households in Aksum and in Tigraian communities throughout Ethiopia, their prominent display in communal living spaces signifies that a family’s daughter is married, and properly so, as her husband followed tradition by giving his bride’s family a gama. This article explores the history of gama and their contemporary consumption and production and argues that they remain a prominent element of Aksumite expressive culture, even as photography has become a widespread and increasingly affordable means of documenting weddings.

Aksum as an artistic center

Aksum and its surrounding region have long been a historic center for the production of painting traditions associated with the EOC (Biasio 1993, 2009; Chojnacki 1964; Sobania and Silverman 2006, 2009, forthcoming) as well as for gold- and silver-smithing. While many painters from the Aksum area have moved to the regional capital Mekelle or the national capital Addis Ababa, the number of artists working in and around the city remains high. Many of these are priest-painters who hold offices within the city’s churches in addition to their work as artists. They are active members of Aksum’s ecclesiastical community and carry titles such as Mergeta (choir master) and Haleqa (chief priest) as well as honorary titles beginning with the Ge’ez³ word Liq (arch or chief), such as Liq Berhanat (Chief of the Light). They also work as teachers in a centuries-old apprenticeship system that remains strong in the region (Sobania and Silverman 2009: 29). Adult male painters train younger male relatives—most often sons, but also nephews, younger brothers, and even grandsons—as well as other boys and young men (Fig. 3). A few painters even train their daughters (Fig. 4), although work as a painter, particularly one focused on creating artwork for the EOC, remains an unusual occupation for women (Teklemichael 2009).

The consumption of painting—both active and passive—pervades daily life for Aksum’s Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. In addition to the wedding paintings that are the focus of this article, they encounter hand-painted images on the walls of their churches, in the pages of manuscripts held by their clergy, and on the surface of takafatch (icons) used for public religious services and private prayer in the home. Representations of religious narratives, famous battles, and scenes from daily life appear on an ever-changing variety of wooden and metal crosses, icons, and other objects offered for sale in Aksum’s tourist shops (Silverman and Sobania 2009, forthcoming). Canvas paintings of scenes from Aksumite history—including the erection of the famous Aksum stelae and the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon—are prominently framed and mounted on the walls of bars, hotels, and restaurants throughout the city, and indeed, similar images are found in hotels, bars, and restaurants throughout Ethiopia and its diaspora.

In addition, painted representations of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, other saints, and religious scenes are reproduced on chromolithographs manufactured in Ethiopia or imported from China and India (Simmons 2009; Silverman 2009). These mechanically produced images appear in churches taped to walls or framed and placed

on altars alongside hand-painted works. … Chromolithographs are also used individually to offer personal...