History of Ethiopia and the Horn (Hist.

1012)
Unit 1: Introduction

UNIT ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Nature and Uses of History

1.1.1. Nature of History

 The term history is derived from the Greek word istoria, which means “learning through
inquiry” or “an account of one’s inquiries.” The first writer to systematically investigate and
document historical events was the Greek historian Herodotus (c.484–425 BC). For this
reason, he is regarded as the “father of history.”

 In ordinary usage, history means all the things that have happened in the human past. The
past signifies all the events that have taken place and the facts of the past. The distinction is
between what actually happened in the past or that part which exists independently of the
historian and still awaits to be recorded, and the accounts of the past reconstructed by
historians. Historians apply their expertise to use surviving records and write history in the
form of accounts of the past.

 History can be thus defined as a systematic study and organized knowledge of the past. The
study involves the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about
past events. The purpose is not simply to produce a mere chronology of events and deeds of
human beings in the past, but to find patterns and establish meaning through a rigorous study
and interpretation of sources.

 Evidently, what actually happened in the past is infinite. Historians, like natural scientists,
select the topics and problems they wish to study. The major concern of history is the
interaction between human society and the environment, which is also a subject of study in
other social science 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 their interaction in the past within the frame work of the continuous
process of change taking place in time.

 Due to the longevity of that time, historians organize and divide the human past into discrete
periods after identifying significant developments through a careful study of documents and
artifacts left by those who lived in the past. They then assign a label to each period to convey
the key characteristics and developments of that era. This is called Periodization. In this
regard, history is conventionally divided into ancient, medieval and modern.

 When historians talk about continuities or persisting patterns, they do not imply that a
particular to everyone in the World or even to a particular country or region. Nor are they
claiming that absolutely nothing changes in the pattern they describe. All aspects of human life-
social, cultural, economic, and political in the past have been changing from time to time;

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 History of Ethiopia and the Horn (Hist.1012) Unit 1: Introduction

and none of them were practiced in exactly the same way in the life time of our ancestors.
Nevertheless, some things remain more or less the same for long periods since few things
ever change completely. In the same vein, the basic fabric of society in Ethiopia and the Horn
of Africa remains similar and continues to have distinctive characteristics

1.1.2. Uses of History

 Peoples live in the present and plan for and worry about the future.
History, however, is the study of the past. So, why do we bother about the
past?

.
 History Helps Us Understand the Present

 History is the only storehouse of information available for the examination and analysis of
how people behaved and acted in the past. People need to produce some sort of account of
their past because it is difficult to understand problems that face humanity and society today
without tracing their origins in the past.

 History Provides a Sense of Identity

 Knowledge of history is indispensable for understanding who we are and where we fit in the
world. As memory is to the individual, history is to the society. An individual without
memory finds great difficulty in relating to others and making intelligent decisions. A society
without history would be in a similar condition. It is only through sense of history that
communities define their identity, orient themselves, and understand their relationships with
other societies.

 History Helps Develop Tolerance and Open-Mindedness

 Most of us tend to regard our own cultural practices, styles, and values as the only ones that
are right and proper. Studying different societies in the past is like going to a foreign
country, which contributes to freeing ourselves from some of our inherent cultural
provincialism. By studying the past, students of history acquire broad perspectives that give
them the broad- mindedness and flexibility required in many life situations.

 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 shreds of evidence
and present them clearly in writing. These analytical and communication skills are highly
useful in other academic pursuits as well. Gaining skills in sorting through diverse
interpretations is also essential for making informed decisions in our day-to-day life.

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 History of Ethiopia and the Horn (Hist.1012) Unit 1: Introduction

 History Provides a Basic Background for Other Disciplines

 Historical knowledge is valuable in the pursuit of other disciplines such as literature, art,
philosophy, religion, sociology, political science, anthropology, economics, etc. With regard
to the last four, it can be argued that history is a mother discipline because they arose out of
historical investigation or formed part of historical writing.

 History Provides Endless Source of Fascination

 Exploring the ways people in distant ages managed their lives offers a sense of wonder and
excitement, and ultimately another perspective on human life and society.

 To conclude, history should be studied because it is essential to the individual and society.
Only through studying history we can grasp how and why things change and only through
history we can understand what elements of a society persist despite change. Aesthetic and
humanistic goals also inspire people to study the past, which broaden the understanding of the
present reality.

 Nevertheless, just as history can be useful, it can also be abused. Such abuses come mainly
from deliberate manipulation of the past to fit current political agenda. In such cases, history
is written backwards; the past is described and interpreted to justify the present. History is the
study of the past and should not be written to justify actions at the present. While personal
biases are not always avoidable, historians are different from propagandists in that the
former take care to document their ideas about the past so that they can be subjected to
independent and external verification. Yet how do historians study and interpret the past and
the changes that occurred in periods during which they have not lived? This takes us to the
discussion of sources and historical methodology.

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 History of Ethiopia and the Horn (Hist.1012) Unit 1: Introduction

1.2. Sources and Methods of Historical Study

 Historians are not creative writers like novelists. Unlike the latter, the work of historians must be
supported by evidence arising from sources. Sources bring to life what appears to have been dead.
Therefore, Sources are vital 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 space.

 Examples of Primary sources include: Manuscripts (handwritten materials), diaries, letters,

minutes, inscriptions, chronicles, hagiographies, court records and administrative files, travel
documents, photos, maps, audio-visual materials, coins, fossils, weapons, utensils, and buildings.

Secondary Sources:

 Are second-hand published and unpublished accounts about past events.

 They are written 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 include: articles, books, textbooks, biographies, theses,

dissertations, reports and stories or movies about historical events.

 Secondary materials give us what appear to be finished accounts of certain historical periods
and phenomena. Nevertheless, no history work can be taken as final, as new sources keep
coming to light. New sources make possible new historical interpretations or entirely new
historical reconstructions.

Oral Data

 Oral data constitute the other category of historical sources. Oral sources are especially
valuable for studying and documenting the history of non-literate societies. In many societies,
people transmit information from one generation to another through folk songs, folk sayings,
etc. This type of oral data is called oral tradition. People can also provide oral testimonies of
their lived experiences. Such source material is known as oral history and serves as primary
source.

 For the history of Ethiopia and the Horn, historians use a combination of the sources described
above. However, regardless of the source of information- primary or secondary, written or oral-

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 History of Ethiopia and the Horn (Hist.1012) Unit 1: Introduction

the data should be subjected to critical evaluation before it is used as evidence. Primary
sources must be verified for their originality and authenticity because sometimes primary
sources like letters may be forged. Secondary sources must be examined for the reliability of
their reconstructions. Oral data may lose originality and authenticity because of distortion over
time and should be cross-checked with other sources to determine credibility.

 To conclude, historians must find evidence about the past, ask questions of that evidence, and
come up with explanations that make sense of what the evidence says about the people, events,
places and time periods they study. Such a scientific examination of evidence is a crucial aspect
of the historical research method.

1.3. Historiography of Ethiopia and the Horn

 Historiography: refers to the history of historical writing. It studies how knowledge of the past
is obtained and transmitted and how it has changed over time.

 The organized study and narration of the past was introduced by ancient Greek historians,
notably Herodotus and Thucydides (c.455-400 BC). The other major tradition of thinking and
writing about the past is that of the Chinese, of the most important early figure was Sima Qian
(145–86 BC).

 History emerged as an academic discipline in the second half of the 19th century, first in
Europe and subsequently in other parts of the world. The German historian, Leopold Von
Ranke (1795–1886), and his colleagues established history as an independent discipline in
Berlin with its own set of research methods. Ranke’s greatest contribution to the scientific study
of the past is such that he is considered as the “father of modern historiography.”

 Historiography of Ethiopia and the Horn:

 Historiography of Ethiopia and the Horn has changed enormously during the past century in
ways that merit fuller treatment than can be afforded here. This explores significant
transformations in the historiography of the region in the 20th century. This is preceded by a
brief account of earlier forms of historical writing to situate the discussion in context.

o The earliest known written source for the history of the region is the Periplus of the Erythrean
Sea, written in the first century by an anonymous author. The Periplus was followed by the
Christian Topography written by Cosmas Indicopleustes, a Greek sailor, in the 6th century.

o The earliest written Ethiopian material, excluding inscriptions, dates from the 7th century. The
document, which is in the form of an illustrated manuscript, was found in Abba Gerima
monastery near the town of Adwa. Next in line is a manuscript discovered in Haiq Estifanos
monastery of present-day Wollo in the 13th century. The value of manuscripts is essentially
religious, but they also provide insights into the country’s past.

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 History of Ethiopia and the Horn (Hist.1012) Unit 1: Introduction

o The largest groups of sources available for medieval Ethiopian history are hagiographies
originating from Ethiopian Orthodox Church. An important function of hagiographies is to
enhance the prestige of the saints. Yet, other related anecdotes of historical importance are also
included, often in the form of what are known as marginalia. A parallel hagiographical tradition
exists among Muslim communities. One such account offers tremendous insight into the life of
a Muslim saint, Shaykh Ja’far Bukko of Gattira, in Wollo in the late 19th century. In addition
to the saint’s life, the document discusses the development of indigenous Islam and contacts
between the region’s Muslim community and the outside world.

o Furthermore, Ethiopia had also an indigenous tradition of history writing called chronicles,
composed by Court Scribes or Clergymen with recognized clerical training and calligraphic
skills. The earliest of these chronicles is The Glorious Victories of Amde-Tsion and, the last is
Chronicle of Abeto Iyasu and Empress Zewditu. Chronicles incorporate both legends and
facts-past and contemporary about the monarch. Notwithstanding their limitations, chronicles,
in conjunction with other sources, a glimpse into the character and lives of kings, their
preoccupations and relations with subordinate officials, to some extent, and, the evolution of
the Ethiopian state and society.

o 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 of the East African coast in the 10th and 14th centuries,
respectively. For the 16th and 17th centuries, we have eyewitness accounts of Yemeni writers.
Shihab ad-Din’s Futuh al-Habasha ( the Conquest of Abyssinia) recounts the wars an
between the Christian kingdom and Adal Sultanate in the 16th century while Al-Haymi
documented the experience of Yemeni delegation to the court of Fasiledas (r. 1632-67) in
1647.
Another vital contemporary material is Abba Bahrey’s Ge’ez account of the socio-political
organization and movement of the Oromo people written in 1593.

o European missionaries and travelers also contributed to the development of Ethiopian

historiography. Examples of such accounts are The Prester John of the Indies, written by the
Portuguese chaplain, Francisco Alvarez in the 16th century, and James Bruce’s Travels to
Discover the Source of the Nile ( in five volumes), written in the 18th century.

 Meanwhile, a German orientalist, Hiob Ludolf (1624-1704), who is regarded as the

founder of Ethiopian studies as an academic discipline in Europe wrote, Historia
Aethiopica (translated into English as A New History of Ethiopia). The book was
largely based on information he collected from an Ethiopian priest Abba Gorgorios
(Abba Gregory), who was in Europe at that time.

o Historical writing made some departures from the chronicle tradition in the early 20th century.
This period saw the emergence of Ethiopian writers who made conscious efforts to distance

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themselves from chroniclers whom they criticized for their adulatory tone when writing about
monarchs. The earliest group includes;

 Aleqa Taye Gebre Mariam, Aleqa Asme Giorgis Gebre Mesih and, Debtera Fisseha-
Giorgis Abyezgi.
 Later, Negadrases Afework Gebre-Iyesus, Gebre-Hiwot Baykedagn and Blatten
Geta Hiruy Wolde-Selassie joined them. Unlike chroniclers, these writers dealt with a
range of topics from social justice, administrative reform and economic analysis to
history. Unfortunately, the Italian occupation of Ethiopia interrupted the this experiment
in modern history writing.

o After liberation, Tekle-Tsadik Mekuria served as a bridge between writers of the pre-1935
period and the subsequent generation of Ethiopian professional historians. He has published
about eight historical works. Another work of importance in the post-Liberation period is
Yilma Deressa’s Ye Ityopiya Tarik Be’asra Sidistegnaw Kifle Zemen (A History of Ethiopia
in the Sixteenth Century). Blatten Geta Mahteme-Selassie Wolde-Meskel, among others,
wrote Zikre Neger, which is a comprehensive account of Ethiopia’s pre-war administration,
including the land tenure system and taxation. Another writer in the same category is
Dejazmach Kebede Tesema, whose memoir of the imperial period was published as Yetarik
Mastawesha in 1962 E.C.

o The 1960s was a crucial decade in the development of Ethiopian historiography because for it
was in this period that history emerged as an academic discipline. In the 1960s, the modern
Ethiopian historiography originated with establishment of the Department of History in 1963
at Haile Selassie I University (HSIU).Since then researches by faculty members and students
have been produced on various topics. The Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES), the other
institutional home of professional historiography of Ethiopia was founded in the same year.
The Institute housed a number of historians, of whom the late Richard Pankhurst, the first
Director of the Institute, is worthy of note. Pankhurst’s prolific publication record remains
unmatched. The IES disseminates the results of research findings from diverse disciplines
through its journal called the Journal of Ethiopian Studies, which became the main platform
of Ethiopian studies in the following decades.

o The professionalization of history in other parts of the Horn is a post-colonial phenomenon.

With the establishment of independent nations, a deeper interest in exploring their own past
quickly emerged among Africans. At the same time, European intellectuals’ own discomfort
with the Euro-centrism of previous scholarship provided for the intensive academic study of
African history, an innovation that developed in both Europe and North America in the 1960s.
Foundational research was conducted at the School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS) in London and the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Francophone scholars were as influential as Anglophone ones. Yet African historiography was
not the creation solely of interested Europeans. African universities trained their own scholars
and sent many others overseas for training, eventually publishing numerous works on different
aspects of the continent’s history.

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 History of Ethiopia and the Horn (Hist.1012) Unit 1: Introduction

1.4. Geographical Context

o The term “Ethiopia and the Horn” refers to that part of Northeast Africa, which now
constitutes the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia. The region’s has been
shaped by contacts with others through commerce, migrations, wars, slavery, colonialism, and
the waxing and waning of state systems.

o Yet, to a considerable extent, the evolution of human history also owed to geographical factors,
notably drainage systems, topography, and climate. This section briefly describes the impact of
these factors on the way people live and organize themselves.

o The region has five principal drainage systems:

 Flowing from Uganda in the south to the Sudan in the north, the White Nile meets the Blue
Nile (or Abay, as it is known in Ethiopia, that starts from the environs of Tana Lake) in
Khartoum and drains Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea.

 The Awash River System is an entirely Ethiopia system that links the cool rich highlands of
Central Ethiopia with the hot, dry lowlands of the Danakil Depression.

 The Ethiopian Rift Valley Lakes System is a self-contained basin that includes a string of
lakes stretching from Lake Ziway in the north to Lake Turkana (formerly known as Rudolf)
on the Ethio-Kenyan border.

 The Gibe /Omo–Gojeb River System links southern western Ethiopia to the semi desert
lowlands of northern Kenya.

 The Shebele and Genale rivers originate in the Eastern highlands and flow southeast toward
Somalia and the Indian Ocean. Only the Genale (known as the Jubba in Somalia) flows into
the Indian Ocean; the Shebele disappears in sand just inside the coastline. These watersheds
are crucial in the life and history of the peoples inhabiting the region. Besides providing
people with a source of their livelihood, the drainage systems facilitated the movement of
peoples and goods across diverse environments, resulting in the exchange of ideas,
technology, knowledge, cultural expressions, and beliefs.

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 History of Ethiopia and the Horn (Hist.1012) Unit 1: Introduction

 Another element of geography that has a profound impact on human history is topography.
The major physiographic features of the region are a massive highland complex of
mountains and plateaus created through the formation of the Great Rift Valley and surrounded
by lowlands, semi-desert, deserts and tropical forests along the periphery. The diversity of
the terrain led to regional variations in climate, natural vegetation, soil composition, and
settlement patterns. Accordingly, Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa can be divided into three
major environment zones:

 The Vast Eastern Lowland covers the narrow coastal strip of north-eastern Eritrea,
widens gradually and descends southwards to include much of lowland Eritrea, the Sahel,
the Danakil Depression, the lower Awash valley, and the arid terrain in northeast of the
Republic of Djibouti. It then extends to the Ogaden, the lower parts of Hararghe, Bale,
Borana, Sidama and the whole territory of the Republic of Somalia. There is little
seasonal variation in climatic condition in this zone. Hot and dry conditions prevail year-
round along with periodic monsoon winds and irregular (little) rainfall, except in limited
areas along the rivers Awash, Wabe-Shebele and Genale (Jubba) that traverse the region
and a few offshore islands in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean that are
inhabited by people closely related to those of immediate mainland districts. Shrub and
bush cover much of the lowland territories.

 Immediately to the west of and opposite to the eastern lowland region forms the highland
massif that starts from northern Eritrea and continues all the way to southern Ethiopia.
The major divide between the western and eastern parts of this zone is the Rift Valley.

 Further to the West, along the western foothills or on the periphery of the plateau and on
borderlands of the Sudan stretching from north to south are hot lowlands that were
characterized in earlier times by thick forests chiefly on the banks of the Nile and its
tributaries.

 Yet, peoples of the region were never isolated; they interacted from various locations as
far back as recorded history goes. Thus, as much as there are factors that make people
of a certain region distinct from the others, there are also commonalities which people
shared in the past.

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History of Ethiopia and the Horn (Hist.1012) Unit 1: Introduction

Learning Activities

 Discuss the similarities and differences between the two perceptions history.
 Why is history a subject worth studying?
 What are the different sources of history? How do you evaluate them?
 What is the difference between history and historiography?
 Illustrate how geographical factors shaped human history with examples from the Horn.

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 History of Ethiopia and the Horn (Hist.1012) Unit 1: Introduction

Review Questions: Unit 1

1. Which one of the following is incorrect about History?

A. History is an organized and systematic study of the past

B. What distinguishes history from other many disciplines is that it studies the interaction
between humans and their environment in the present state
C. As a discipline history needs objectivity rather than subjectivity
D. As an academic discipline, history studies past human events based on verifiable evidences

2. Which of the following is not associated with the values and benefits of Studying history?

A. To learn from past failures and successes

B. To know about the past, understand the present and foresee future developments
C. To develop the necessary skill for collecting and analysing information to reach
conclusions
D. To Repeat past mistakes and recount the past adventures

3. All are categorized under primary sources of history, except:-

A. Incriptions C. administrative files
B. Coins D. Theses

4. Who wrote a book entitled Historia Aethiopica?

A. Shihab al-Din C. Hiob Ludolf

B. Cosmas Indicopleustes D. Francisco Alvarez

5. An Arab scholar who visited the East African coast in the 10th century was:
A. Shihab ad-Din C. Al-Masudi
B. Ibn Battuta D. Al-Haymi

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