Guardians of the Tradition: Historians and Historical Writing in Ethiopia and Eritrea by James De Lorenzi (review)

This study, in which James De Lorenzi examines the nature and evolution of sub-Saharan Africa’s richest and oldest history writing, outlines how Ethiopian and Eritrean historians came to be “guardians of the tradition.” Mission-run schools, print technology, newspapers, and other forces of modernity that colonialism brought to Eritrea, as well as the glimmers of modernity that penetrated Ethiopia through the Djibouti-Addis railroad, left lasting imprints in the premodern Ethiopian and Eritrean social landscapes. In both Asmara and Addis Ababa, mission-educated Eritreans contributed significantly to a nascent literary milieu enjoyed by a budding reading public. Reminiscent of the nineteenth-century French reference to the newspaper as “the paper that speaks,” an early twentieth-century Ethiopian lauded it as “a foundation for the wisdom of the ages”(44).

Although de Lorenzi’s primary subjects of study are Gabra Krestos Takla Haymanot (1892–1932), Gabra Mikael Germu (1900–1969), and Heruy Walda Sellase (1878–1938), he traces the evolution of history writing from the ancient inscriptions of Axum to the rise after World War II of a cohort of Western-educated Ethiopian historians such as Merid Wolde Aregay and Taddesse Tamrat. These two, in particular, indigenized Ethiopian studies and trained a generation of historians, including this writer, who sorely miss and fondly remember them.

Ethiopia’s vernacular historiography is characterized by its focus on the praise of rulers in chronicles as well as other writings and oral traditions, which are believed to be inspired by the supernatural. The epic Kebra nagast (“Glory of Kings”), which legitimized the Solomonid Dynasty’s claim to power, exemplifies this approach. Writing in medieval Ethiopia flourished; chronicles containing rich historical details with supernatural allusions heralded the blossoming of Geez literature in the country. Writings outside of the tradition of royal biography, such as Abba Bahray’s sixteenth-century ethno-history of the Oromo, also started to appear. Not only did Abba Bahray explain the military successes of the Oromo, de Lorenzi argues, he also analyzed their social categories and institutions.

It is against this backdrop that Ethiopian and Eritrean historians in the early part of the twentieth century were thrust into a social milieu that was increasingly influenced by forces of modernity. The new social milieu changed the nature of historiography, when Tigrignya and Amharic literature flourished. Another mission-educated author in Addis Ababa, Gabra Krestos Takla Haymanot was not the typical traditionalist scholar who focused on dynasties and rulers but rather a creative synthesizer and social analyst who wrote about the world far beyond his comfort zone. In his popular history book, Short History of the World, he introduced new periodization dividing world history into three epochs of early–400 CE, 400 CE–1500 CE and 1500 CE–the present.

Another historian who exemplified the era of transition, was Gabra Mikael Germu, a product of the St. Michele Catholic mission school of Saganayti in the Eritrean highlands. By consulting with elders, church manuscripts and European publications, Gabra Mikael surveyed the history of imperialism in his History of Italy and Ethiopia, grappling with it as a novel historical phenomenon.

Next the author delves into the works of the prolific Shewan writer Heruy Walda Selassie, who fused traditional and modern approaches to answer key questions about the past, present, and future. Heruy referred to the Kabra negast as a historical document while at the same time engaging himself with wide-ranging issues such as foreign travels.

Although de Lorenzi primarily focuses on the works of Gabra Krestos, Gabra Mikael, and Heruy, he also makes appropriate references to the works of other notable writers such as Gabra Hiwot Baykadagne, effectively connecting their work to those of his three primary subjects. Further, beyond the central focus on historiography, de Lorenzi includes references to nuanced issues that are pertinent to the...