Course Title: HISTORY OF ETHIOPIA AND THE HORN (Hist.

1012)
UNIT 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. The Nature and Uses of History
A. Nature of History
The term history derived from the Greek word Istoria, meaning “inquiry” or “an account of
one’s inquiries.” The first use of the term is attributed to one of the ancient Greek historians,
Herodotus (c. 484–425 B.C.E.), who is often held to be the “father of history.” In ordinary
usage, history means all the things that have happened in the human past. Academically,
history can be defined as an organized and systematic study of the past. The study involves
the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events.
The major concern of history is the study of human society and its interaction with the natural
environment, which is also the subject of study by many other disciplines. What differentiates
history from other disciplines is that while the latter study the interaction between humans
and their environment in the present state, history studies the interaction between the two in
the past within the framework of the continuous process of change taking place in time.
History is conventionally divided into ancient, medieval and modern history. This is what we
call periodization in history; one of the key characteristics of the discipline.
B. Uses of History
History Helps Better Understand the Present
Knowledge of relevant historical background is essential for a balanced and in-depth
understanding of many current world situations.
History Provides a Sense of Identity
Knowledge of history is indispensable to understand who we are and where we fit in the
world. It is through sense of history that communities define their identity, orient themselves,
and understand their relationships with the past and with other societies.
History Provides the Basic Background for Other Disciplines
Historical knowledge is extremely valuable in the pursuit of other disciplines such as
literature, art, philosophy, religion, sociology, political science, anthropology, economics, etc.
History Teaches Critical Skills
Studying history helps students to develop key research skills. These include how to find and
evaluate sources; how to make coherent arguments based on various kinds of evidence and
present clearly in writing.
History Helps to Develop Tolerance and Open-Mindedness
1
By studying the past, students of history acquire broad perspectives that give them the range
and flexibility required in many life situations.
History Supplies Endless Source of Fascination
Exploring the ways people in distant ages constructed their lives offers a sense of beauty and
excitement, and ultimately another perspective on human life and society.
1.2. Sources and Methods of Historical Study
Historians are not creative writers like novelists. The work of historians must be supported by
evidence arising from sources. Sources are instruments that bring to life what appear to have
been dead. It is said that “where there are no sources, there is no history”. Sources are,
therefore, key to the study and writing of history.
Historical sources are broadly classified into two types: Primary and Secondary. Primary
sources are surviving traces of the past available to us in the present. They are original or first
hand in their proximity to the event both in time and in space. Examples of primary sources
are manuscripts (handwritten materials), diaries, letters, minutes, court records and
administrative files, travel documents, photographs, maps, video and audiovisual materials,
and artifacts such as coins, fossils, weapons, utensils, and buildings. Secondary sources, on
the other hand, are second-hand published accounts about past events. They are written long
after the event has occurred, providing an interpretation of what happened, why it happened,
and how it happened, often based on primary sources. Examples of secondary sources are
articles, books, textbooks, biographies, and published stories or movies about historical
events. Secondary materials give us what appear to be finished accounts of certain historical
periods and phenomena.
Oral data constitute the other category of historical sources. Oral sources are especially
valuable to study and document the history of non-literate societies. They can also be used to
fill missing gaps and corroborate written words. In many societies, people transmit
information from one generation to another, for example, through folk songs and folk
sayings. This type of oral data is called oral tradition. People can also provide oral
testimonies or personal recollections of lived experience. Such source material is known as
oral history.
1.3. Historiography of Ethiopia and the Horn
Historiography can be defined as the history of historical writing, studying how knowledge of
the past, either recent or distant, is obtained and transmitted. The organized study and
narration of the past was introduced by ancient Greek historians notably Herodotus (c. 484–
425 B.C.E.) and Thucydides (c.455-400 B.C.E.) The other major tradition of thinking and
2
writing about the past is the Chinese. The most important early figure in Chinese historical
thought and writing was the Han dynasty figure Sima Qian (145–86 B.C.E.).
Despite such early historiographical traditions, history emerged as an academic discipline in
the second half of the nineteenth century first in Europe and subsequently in other parts of the
world including the US. The German historian, Leopold Von Ranke (1795–1886), and his
colleagues established history as an independent discipline in Berlin with its own set of
methods and concepts by which historians collect evidence of past events, evaluate that
evidence, and present a meaningful discussion of the subject. Ranke’s greatest contribution to
the scientific study of the past is such that he is considered as the “father of modern
historiography.”
The earliest known reference that we have on history of Ethiopia and the Horn is the Periplus
of the Erythrean Sea, written in the first century A.D by an anonymous author. Another
document describing Aksum’s trade and the then Aksumite king’s campaigns on both sides
of the sea is the Christian Topography composed by Cosmas Indicopleustes, a Greek sailor,
in the sixth century A.D.
Inscriptions aside, the earliest written Ethiopian material dates from the seventh century A.D.
The document was found in Abba Gerima monastery in Yeha. This was followed by a
manuscript discovered in Haiq Istifanos monastery of present day Wollo in the thirteenth
century A.D.
The largest groups of sources available for medieval Ethiopian history are hagiographies
originating from Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Invariably written in Ge’ez, an important
function of hagiographies is enhancing the prestige of saints. Yet other related anecdotes are
also introduced, and often discussed in detail such as the development of the church and the
state including territorial conquests by reigning monarchs. A parallel hagiographical tradition
existed among Muslim communities of the country. One such account offers tremendous
insight into the life of a Muslim saint, Shaykh Ja’far Bukko of Gattira, in present day Wollo,
in the late nineteenth century. Besides the saint’s life, the development of indigenous Islam
and contacts between the region’s Muslim community and the outside world are some of the
issues discussed in this document.
Ethiopia had also an indigenous tradition of history writing called chronicles. Chronicles in
the ancient Ethiopian Ge’ez tongue first appeared in the fourteenth century and continue
(sometimes in Amharic) into the early twentieth century. The earliest and the last of such
surviving documents are the Glorious Victories of Amde-Tsion and the Chronicle of Abeto
Iyasu and Empress Zewditu respectively. Chronicles incorporate both legends and facts-past
3
and contemporary about the monarch’s genealogy, upbringing, military exploits, piety and
statesmanship.
Written accounts of Arabic-speaking visitors to the coast also provide useful information on
various aspects of the region’s history. For example, al-Masudi and Ibn Battuta described the
culture, language and import-export trade in the main central region of the east African coast
in the tenth and in the fourteenth centuries respectively. For the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries we have two documents composed by Yemeni writers who were eyewitnesses to
the events they described. The first document titled Futuh al Habesha was composed by
Shihab ad-Din, who recorded the conflict between the Christian kingdom and the Muslim
principalities in the sixteenth century. Besides the operation of the war including the conquest
of northern and central Ethiopia by Imam Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, the document
describes major towns and their inhabitants in the southeastern part of Ethiopia, although the
discussion abruptly ends in 1535. The other first-hand account was left to us by Al-Haymi,
who led a Yemeni delegation in 1647 to the court of Fasiledes (r. 1632-67).
Other materials that appeared in the sixteenth century include Abba Bahrey’s Geez script on
the Oromo written in 1593. Notwithstanding its limitations, the document provides us with
first-hand information about the Oromo population movement including the Gadaa System.
The contribution of European missionaries and travelers to the development of Ethiopian
historiography is also significant. From the early sixteenth until the late nineteenth centuries,
missionaries (Catholics and Protestants) came to the country with the intention of staying,
and who, nevertheless, maintained intimate links with Europe. An example of such account is
The Prester John of the Indies, composed by a Portuguese priest, Francisco Alvarez who
accompanied the Portuguese mission to the court of Lebne-Dengel in 1520. In addition to the
missionary sources, travel documents had important contribution to the development of
Ethiopian historiography. One example of travel documents is James Bruce’s Travels to
Discover the Source of the Nile. Like other sources, however, both the missionaries and
travelers’ materials can only be used with considerable reservations and with care for they are
socially and politically biased.
Foreign writers also developed interest in Ethiopian studies. One of these figures was a
German, Hiob Ludolf (1624-1704). Ludolf was the founder of Ethiopian studies in Europe in
the seventeenth century. He wrote Historia Aethiopica (translated into English as A New
History of Ethiopia). Ludolf never visited Ethiopia; he wrote the country’s history largely
based on information he collected from an Ethiopian priest named Abba Gorgorios (Abba
Gregory) who was in Europe at that time. In the nineteenth century, August Dillman
4
published two studies on ancient Ethiopian history. Compared to Ludolf, Dillman
demonstrated all markers of objectivity in his historical research endeavors.
Historical writing made some departures from the chronicle tradition in the early twentieth
century. This period saw the emergence of traditional Ethiopian writers who made conscious
efforts to distance themselves from chroniclers whom they criticized for adulatory tone when
writing about monarchs. The earliest group of these writers include Aleqa Taye Gebre-
Mariam, Aleqa Asme Giorgis and Debtera Fisseha-Giorgis Abyezgi.
Later, Negadrases Afework Gebre-Iyesus and Gebre-Hiwot Baykedagn joined them. Unlike
chroniclers, these writers dealt with a range of topics from social justice, administrative
reform and economic analysis to history. Taye and Fisseha-Giorgis wrote books on the
history of Ethiopia while Asme produced a similar work on the Oromo people.
Notwithstanding his other works, Afework wrote the first Amharic novel, Tobiya, in
Ethiopian history while Gebre-Hiwot has Atse Menilekna Ityopia (Emperor Menilek and
Ethiopia) and Mengistna Yehizb Astedader (Government and Public Administration) to his
name.
The most prolific writer of the early twentieth century Ethiopia was, however, Blatten Geta
Hiruy Wolde-Selassie. Hiruy published four major works namely Ethiopiana Metema
(Ethiopia and Metema), Wazema (Eve), Yehiwot Tarik (A Biographical Dictionary) and
Yeityopia Tarik (A History of Ethiopia). In contrast to their predecessors, Gebre-Hiwot and
Hiruy exhibited relative objectivity and methodological sophistication in their works.
Unfortunately, the Italian occupation of Ethiopia interrupted the early experiment in modern
history writing and publications.
After liberation, Tekle-Tsadik Mekuria formed a bridge between writers in pre-1935 and
Ethiopia professional historians who came after him. Tekle-Tsadik has published about eight
historical works. Tekle-Tsadik made better evaluation of his sources than his predecessors.
Another work of importance in this period is Yilma Deressa’s Ye Ityopiya Tarik Be’asra
Sidistegnaw Kifle Zemen(A History of Ethiopia in the Sixteenth Century). The book addresses
the Oromo population movement and the wars between the Christian kingdom and the
Muslim sultanates as its main subjects. Blatten Geta Mahteme-Selassie Wolde-Meskel also
contributed his share. Among others, he wrote Zikre Neger. Zikre Neger is a comprehensive
account of Ethiopia’s prewar land tenure systems and taxation. Another work dealing
specifically with aspects of land tenure is left to us by Gebre-Wold Engidawork. Another
writer of the same category was Dejazmach Kebede Tesema. Kebede wrote his memoir of the
imperial period, published as Yetarik Mastawesha in 1962 E.C.
5
The 1960s was a crucial decade in the development of Ethiopian historiography for it was in
this period that history emerged as an academic discipline. The pursuit of historical studies as
a full-time occupation began with the opening of the Department of History in 1963 at the
then Haile Selassie I University (HSIU). The Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) is the other
institutional home of professional historiography of Ethiopia. The IES was founded in 1963.
Since then the Institute housed a number of historians of whom the late Richard Pankhurst,
the first Director and founding member of the Institute is worthy of note here. Since its
foundation, the IES has been publishing the Journal of Ethiopian Studies for the
dissemination of historical research.
The professionalization of history in other parts of the Horn is a post-colonial phenomenon.
The decolonization of African historiography required new methodological approach (tools
of investigation) to the study of the past that involved a critical use of oral data and tapping
the percepts of ancillary disciplines like archeology, anthropology and linguistics. At the
same time, European intellectuals’ own discomfort with the Euro-centrism of previous
scholarship provided for the intensive academic study of African history. Foundational
research was done at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London and the
Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
1.4. The Geographical Context
The term “Ethiopia and the Horn” refers to that part of Northeast Africa, which now contains
the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia. The history of Ethiopia and the
Horn has been shaped by contacts with others through commerce, migrations, wars, slavery,
colonialism, and the waxing and waning of state systems.
Ethiopia and the Horn has five principal drainage systems. These are the Nile River,
Gibe/Omo–Gojeb, Genale/Jubba-Shebele, the Awash River, and the Ethiopian Rift Valley
Lake systems. Studying the drainage systems of Ethiopia and the Horn is crucial for proper
understanding of the relationships of the peoples living within the river basins mentioned
previously.
The countries of the Horn of Africa are, for the most part, linguistically and ethnically linked
together as far back as recorded history goes. Population movements had caused a continuous
process of interaction, creating a very complex picture of settlement patterns. The high
degree of interaction and the long common history of much of the population had weakened
ethnic dividing lines in large parts of the region.