Some Amharic Sources for Modern Ethiopian History, 1889-1935 Author(s): Peter P. Garretson and Richard Pankhurst Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 41, No. 2 (1978), pp. 283-296 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/615935 Accessed: 15-12-2015 09:20 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. School of Oriental and African Studies and Cambridge University Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:20:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SOMEA MHARICS OURCESF OR MODERN ETHIOPIAN HISTORY,1 889-19351 By PETER P. GARRETSON (WITHN OTESB Y RICHARDP ANKHURST) EmperorM enelik'sr eign (1889-1913)o pensa new era in the kind of sources that the historian has at his disposalf or the analysis of modern Ethiopian history. During his reign printing presses were set up in the country and spurreda gradualg rowthi n the more widespreadu se of Amharic,n ot just as the spokenb ut also the written languageo f the imperialc ourt. This is not to say that the Ga'azl iterary tradition in Ethiopia disappeareda ltogether,f or some chroniclesi n continuedt o be writtena fter 1935,o ften very similar in form and conteGnat 'tooz those which have survived for the Gondarinea nd earlierp eriodso f Ethiopianh istory. However,M enelik'sr eign,a nd the official chronicleo f it by Giibrii marka significantd eparturen, ot least because the chroniclew as writtenSi onl lAasme,h arica nd not in G'ez.2 Therea re a few earlier publishedl iteraryw orksi n Amharic,t he songs of the kings of the fourteenth centuryb eing the most significant,b ut it shouldb e emphasizedt hat the Ga'az traditionc ontinuedp arallelt o the Amharici n the form of tarikdn igast, i.e the historyo f kings. Someo f these are now preserveda t the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa, like the Gondarinet arika which belongedt o (cid:127)agast Nagus WaldSiG iyorgis,t he valuable biographyo f the grandsono f Emperor Tewodros( 1855-68),M aivaiiaa,n d a publishedb iographyo f Ras Makonnen.3 [Dr. Garretson'sv iew that Giibri Sallase'sc hronicle,a nd Menelik'sr eign in general,m ark a 'significant' point of historiographicadl eparturem ay not be accepted by all Ethiopicists. Gibra Sallase'sc hronicle,i t shouldb e noted, was not in fact the first such workt o be written in Amharic,f or all three knownc hronicleso f EmperorT ewodrosh ad been writteni n that language a generatione arlier. Evidenceo f Tewodros'sin teresti n Amharici s to be foundi n the beautifully written text in that languageo f the Gospelsa ccordingt o St. Matthewa nd St. Markw hich he had produceda nd which later found its way into the British Museum( Or. 733). Tewodros's role in the emergenceo f Amharicw as indeeds o significantt hat EdwardU llendorffh as observed that it was Tewodros' who gave the greateste ncouragementto Amharicl iteraturea s a plank in his general programmeo f Imperial unification' (E. Ullendorff,T he Ethiopians,L ondon, 1960, 155). Furthers upportf or the argumentt hat the reign of Tewodrosr athert han that of Menelik should be regardeda s the point of departurei s voiced by Joseph Tubiana, who, attemptingt he admittedlyd ifficultt ask of identifyingp eriodsi n Ethiopianh istory, observes, 'The reign of the EmperorT heodorosI I may be consideredt he openingo f... ModernT imes. But, on the otherh and,t he death of EmperorT heodorosin 1868m arkst he end of an important period' , fromw hichh e concluded', The reigno f Theodorosis in itself a longt urningi n Ethiopian history. We may consideri t as the transitionb etweent he traditionalA mharaK ingdom,a nd the ModernE thiopian Kingdom of today' (J. Tubiana, '" Turning points" in Ethiopian history ', Rassegna di Studi Ethiopici, xxI, 1965, 164, 166). R.P.] During the period 1889-1935, external sources also became more prolific. The trickle of foreign visitors to Ethiopia, until the last quarter of the nineteenth 1 For a more comprehensive and detailed list of Amharic source material for the period 1886-1910, see the bibliography in P. P. Garretson, A history of Addis Ababaf rom its foundation in 1886 to 1910, Ph.D. thesis, University of London, particularly pp. 393-7. 2 This paper will confine itself largely to Amharic sources and leave to one side material in Ga'az, Tagrafifia, and Oromo (or Galla). Written Tagrafifia and Oromo are basically a pheno- menon of nineteenth-century missionary involvement in Ethiopia. Also, I have not undertaken a survey of oral material. 3 See the manuscript and book catalogues of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies; Hayli Giyorgis, Zenahu ld-La'ul Ras Mdkonnan ' The History of His Royal Highness Ras Makonnen ', Addis Ababa, date not known. This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:20:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 284 PETERP . GARRETSON century, turned into a steady stream of travellers and sportsmen. Numerous foreigners came as permanent residents after the battle of Adwa in 1896. More important were the diplomatic representatives accredited to Ethiopia and appointed to provincial centres as well as to the capital. Their reports added substantially to the documentation of the country. [Garretson's observation that foreign literature in the Menelik period became ' more prolific ' than that produced by the ' trickle ' of earlier visitors should perhaps be qualified to take account of the spate of works produced by travellers in specific periods, notably the 1830's and 1840's, during the reign of Tewodros in general, and in particular at the time of the Magdala campaign which is as well documented as any of the reign of Menelik. The ' turning point' in respect of travel literature, as indeed of the innovations associated with that reign, would seem to have been, as Garretson so rightly explains, the battle of Adwa which was followed by the coming to Addis Ababa of numerous foreign diplomats and other travellers whose writings provide a rich store of documentation. R.P.] Bibliographies of published works on Ethiopia in Europe are readily available,4 but no single guide yet exists for the diplomatic and colonial archives of Britain, France, and Italy concerning Ethiopia. A brief comment on them may, therefore, be helpful. The British Foreign Office records 5 are accessible up to 1945; those of the French Foreign Ministry 6 until about 1930; and 4 e.g.: G. Fumagalli, Bibliografia etiopica, Milano, 1893; R. Pankhurst, Economic history of Ethiopia, 1800-1935, Addis Ababa, 1968, has a useful up-to-date bibliography; D. H. Varley, A bibliography of Italian colonisation in Africa with a section on Abyssinia, London, 1970. See also S. Zanutto, Bibliografia etiopica, Roma, 1936. H. G. Marcus, The modern history of Ethiopia: a select and annotatedb ibliography,S tanford, 1972, deals only with articles in geographical journals published before the first World War and held by the Library of Congress. [Fumagalli's pioneer bibliography provides remarkably comprehensive, well-arranged, and annotated coverage of works on Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the Horn of Africa produced up to 1891. For the subsequent period the bibliographic record is, however, poorer. Besides the works mentioned by Garretson reference should be made to the extensive bibliographies in J. Duchesne- Fournet, Mission en ?thiopie (1901-1903), Paris, 1909; E. A. W. Budge, A history of Ethiopia, London, 1928; GuebrB Sellasie, Chroniqued u regne de Mindlik II, Paris, 1930-1; M. Perham, The government of Ethiopia, London, 1948; and, published more recently, A. Bartnicki and J. Mantel-Nie~ko, Historia Etiopii, Warsaw, 1971. Reports on books published in Amharic, as well as on literature on Ethiopia in general, are to be found in numerous issues of the Rivista degli Studi Orientale and Oriente Moderno. Italian scholars walking in Fumagalli's footsteps also compiled a series of valuable annotated bibliographies, notably C. Conti Rossini, 'Etiopia (1915-1927) ', Aevum, I, 1927, 459-520, and ' Bibliografia etiopica (1927-guigno 1936) ', Aevum, x, 1936, 467-587. Other bibliographies include C. F. Black, Ethiopica and Amharica; a list of works in the New York Public Library, New York, 1928; C. Ohlrich, ' Schrifttum iiber Abessinien, 1850-1935 ', Afrika Rundschau, I, 1935, 209-12, and II, 1936, 268-72; Africa Orientale Italiana, Catalogo bibliograficad ella Biblioteca del GovernoG enerale AOI. I. Africa-Islam, Addis Ababa, 1940. Eritrea is well covered in G. Dainelli, O. Marinelli, and A. Mori, 'Bibliografia geografia della Colonia Eritrea. I. 1891-1906 ', Rivista Geografia Italiana, xrv, 2, 1907, 1-72, which may be supplemented, particularly for the later period, by A. Pollera, Piccola bibliografia dell'Africa Orientalec on speciale riguardoa ll'Eritrea e paesi confianti, Asmara, 1933 ; G. H. Fuller, A list of references on the Italian colonies in Africa, Washington, D.C., 1942; and Kassahun Checole, 'Eritrea: a preliminary bibliography', Africana Journal, vI, 4, 1975, 303-14. The latter years of Garretson's period are dealt with bibliographically in D. C. Haskell, Ethiopia and the Italo-Ethiopian conflict, 1928-1935; a selected list of references,N ew York, 1936; S. Zanutto, Libri sull' Etiopia e sul conflitto italo-ethiopico, Roma, 1937; and E. Migliorini, ' Elenco di scritti d'interesse geografico relativi all'Africa Orientale pubblicati negli anni 1935 e 1936 ', Bollettino della R Societd GeograficaI taliana, II, 1937, 661-97. Also of interest are the bibliographies in two recent studies of Menelik, R. H. Kofi Darkwah, Shewa, Menilek and the Ethiopian empire, 1889-1913, London, 1975, and H. G. Marcus, The life and times of Menelik II : Ethiopia 1844- 1913, Oxford, 1975, as well as in S. Rubenson, The survival of Ethiopian independence,L ondon, 1976, and various specialist bibliographies, such as that on economic, political and legal matters in Berhanou Abbebe, tvolution de la propritedf oncigre au Choa (Ethiopie), Paris, 1971, and, on the medical side, in M. Rodinson, Magie, mddecine et possession d Gondar, Paris, 1967, and S. Strelcyn, Mddecine et planteds' 8tthiopie, I, Warsaw, 1968. R.P.] 6S ee, however, N. Matthews and M. D. Wainwright, A guide to manuscripts and documents in the British Isles relating to Africa, London, 1971. 6 International Council on Archives, Guide to the sources of the history of Africa. Vol. 3. Sources de l'histoire de l'Afrique au sud du Sahara dans les archives et bibliothkquesf rangaises, Zug, 1971. This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:20:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SOME AMHARIC SOURCES FOR MODERN ETHIOPIAN HISTORY, 1889-1935 285 those of the Italian Ministero degli Affari Esteri,7 until 1922. The British reporting tended to concentrate on the south and the west of Ethiopia, particu- larly on Gambela, the Kenya border, and lake Tana. The French were pre- occupied with matters concerning the railway and the Harar and Aussa hinter- land of their colony in Jibuti. The Italians devoted much of their energy to gathering information about Tigre, Begemdir, and Dessie in the north and about the provinces of Arusi and Bale in the south and east. In addition to these three collections, there are missionary archives in several countries and a variety of other archives scattered throughout the world. The missionary archives are largely beyond the scope of my knowledge, and I shall not deal with them.8 There is diplomatic material in the U.S. Department of State and in the German and Turkish Foreign Ministries. The last is of particular interest for the 1911-16 period when Laj Iyasu, the uncrowned emperor of Ethiopia, was in power. Belgium has interesting material, particularly for the period covering her military mission to Ethiopia in the 1930's. [Earlier Belgian material in published form by H. Henin occurs in the Recueil Consulaire Belge of 1907. R.P.] Jibuti may have material bearing on Ethiopia, but the records of the Franco- Ethiopian railway have yet to be discovered.9 Egypt, with its long history of contact with Ethiopia, is another possible but as yet not fully exploited mine of information, especially as regards the contacts of the Coptic church with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Egyptian control over the Bank of Abyssinia. [The Bank, it should be explained, had been established by the National Bank of Egypt, and was closely linked thereto. R.P.] The Central Records Officei n Khartoum has a good deal of material on Ethiopia which is well catalogued. Much can be found on the following subjects: the issue of lake Tana and the Nile river, delimitation of borders (including Eritrea and the Sudan Ethiopian border down to Lake Rudolf), Ethiopian relations with the Mahdiyya, consular reports from southern and western Ethiopia, and reports of Ethiopian 'raiding' activities in northern and southern Sudan.10 Finally, the League of Nations' archives in Geneva contain a great deal of material on the problems of slavery and background on the Italian intervention and subsequent invasion of Ethiopia.11 [Though foreign diplomatic archives relating to Ethiopia are largely uncatalogued-and from the Ethiopian point of view dispersed in capitals throughout the world-it should be mentioned that a fairly extensive collection of microfilms of such materials is to be found at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, and that Professor Sven Rubenson, who arranged for much of the original filming, has recently catalogued them. R.P.] SInternational Council on Archives, Guida dellef onti per la storia dell'Africa a sud del Sahara esistenti in Italia, Zug, 1973. 8 For an indication of missionary sources for the mid-nineteenth century in Ethiopia, see D. Crummey, Priests and politicians, London, 1972. 9 Neither Willi Loepfe working at Zurich on Alfred Ilg and the Jibuti railway, nor Richard Caulk of the University at Addis Ababa have been able to locate this material. 10 An over-all catalogue of this material has yet to be published and provincial and district archives have yet to be fully explored and catalogued. 11 H. Aufricht, Guide to League of Nations publications, New York, 1951. [The vast literature on the Italo-Ethiopian dispute also contains many useful references to League of Nations documents. See inter alia A. E. Highley, The actions of the states memberso f the League of Nations in applications of 8anctions against Italy 1935-1935, Geneva, 1938, and the bibliographic data in F. D. Laurens, France and the Italo-Ethiopian crisis 1935-1936, The Hague, 1967, and J. Brice Harris, Jr., The United States and the Italo-Ethiopian crisis, Stanford, 1964. R.P.] This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:20:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 286 PETERP . GARRETSON The main thrust of this paper will not be directed towards European sources but will aim at Amharic sources in Ethiopia, accessible or otherwise, for the study of modern Ethiopian history. There is a good deal more material available in Amharic than I had foreseen when I went to Ethiopia in 1971-2, but much of it is very scattered, and even certain published material is at times hard to locate, since Ethiopia as yet has no law of deposit. Thus the historian has reason to be grateful for the collections at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies and J. F. Kennedy Library, both housed in Addis Ababa University, and for the efforts that they have made to assemble newly published material, un- systematic though it might be at times.'2 Endeavours to collect unpublished material continue, for it must not be forgotten that Ethiopia is one of the few areas in Africa where there is at least the potential of tax and trade receipts for internal and external trade, instructions to governors, and instructions to and reports from boundary commissions. [Despite ceaseless efforts by the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, and others, to press for a law of deposit for the preservation of printed books no such legislation was enacted until after the 1974 revolution when the Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia enacted a proclamation 'for the deposit of printed materials in the Ministry of Culture and Youth'. This decree, however, to the University's chagrin, granted the privilege of deposit only to the National Library of Ethiopia instead of, as the Institute had always proposed, to both the National and University libraries. The creation of more than one depository library had seemed to us essential in view of danger of fire, etc. R.P.] [Notwithstanding the absence of any law of deposit the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at its inception in 1963 began issuing two bibliographical series: Ethiopian Publications, an annual listing by subject of' books, pamphlets, annuals and periodical articles' published in Ethiopia, edited by Professor S. Chojnacki and others (and more recently by Ato Dag~fe Gabri Sadaq), and a list of Current Periodical Publications in Ethiopia, under the same editorship, which has appeared every other year. The former work was later supplemented by Christianne H6jer's Ethiopian publications (Addis Ababa, 1974) which covers the years from 1942 to 1962. A fairly comprehensive bibliographic record is thus available for works published in the country for the entire period since the liberation. Taken with Stephen Wright's catalogue (see below) this means that the only major bibliographic lacuna is for the five years of the Italian Fascist occupation (1935-41). R.P.] Material published in Amharic. Indispensable for the historian working on the period before the Italian invasion of 1935 is Wright's bibliography of works published in Ethiopia before 1935.13 Organized according to presses publishing during the period, it is cross-referencedf or easy checking either by author or by date of publication. Unfortunately, the list is not exhaustive and the entries catalogued are not always easily obtainable. [In Stephen Wright's defence it should be noted that this bibliography, as stated on its title- page and preface, was confined to books in the National Library of Ethiopia and the Haile Sellassie I University. The work is complete within its own terms of reference and makes no claim to cover publications not then included in the said collections. Also of interest for the student of early Amharic printed literature is Haruy Wilddi Sallase, Catalogue des livres ridiges en langue gueeze et amharique, Addis Ababa, 1928, and Pierre Comba's Inventaire des livres dans la collection dthiopiennea la bibliothe'qued e l' Universite'C ollege d'Addis Ababa, avril 1959, Addis Ababa, 1961. R.P.] The first printing press was established in Addis Ababa in 1893 but encountered many technical difficulties. Better ones were later imported but periodically broke down and for lack of spare parts do not seem to have been in use for extended periods. Some imperial proclamations are said to have been printed on these machines, but none seems to have survived. [Valuable material on the beginnings of printing in Amharic is to be found in M. Cohen, 'La naissance d'une littirature imprim6 en amharique', Journal Asiatique, ccvI, avril-juin 1925, 348-63, as well as in J. I. Eadie, An Amharic reader, Cambridge, 1924, which contains S12See below. The postal address of both these institutions is P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Both, unlike the National Library, have relatively efficient xerox facilities. 13 S. Wright, Ethiopian incunabula, Addis Ababa, 1967. This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:20:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SOME AMHARIC SOURCES FOR MODERN ETHIOPIAN HISTORY, 1889-1935 287 Amharic texts and English translations of a number of early proclamations, poems, and advertisements. Also of interest is S. Gaselee, 'The beginnings of printing in Abyssinia', The Library, xI, 1931, 93-6. Bibliographical and other references to the subject are given in A. D. Roberts, 'Documentation on Ethiopia and Eritrea', Journal of Documentation, I, 4, 1946, 185-93, and in R. Pankhurst, 'The foundations of education, printing, newspapers, book pro- duction, libraries and literacy in Ethiopia', Ethiopia Observer,v I, 3, 1962, 241-90. R.P.] One important entry Wright missed was Le docteur nouvellementv enu,14 a fascinating pamphlet which gives us the first example of an Ethiopian press being used as an instrument of propaganda on behalf of the government. In this case it is a justification of Empress Taytu's actions in 1910 when she was unjustly accused by a German doctor of having poisoned her husband, the Emperor Menelik. Also published during the period 1916-35 but not covered by Wright's Ethiopian incunabula are two newspapers, Aamaro1 5 and Barhananna Sdlam.16 The first appeared in various forms during the years 1911-35 and the second from 1925 up to the Italian invasion. Both are a mine of information for government proclamations, trade statistics, background information, and obituaries. BarhanannaS dlam particularly reflects the late Emperor Haile Sellassie's views, since he was the founder of the newspaper. It has more coverage of internal Ethiopian affairs, while Aamaroc oncentrated on foreign news; unfortunately neither has an index. Meanwhile in Eritrea Gibrii Haywait Baykaidafi published an article on Menelik in Barhan Yahun in 1912.17 [Surveys of the Ethiopian press in this period are available in S. Zanutto, 'La stamlpa periodica ethiopica', Rivista delle Colonie, Ix, 1935, 478-84; A. Zervos, L'empire d'Ethiopie. Le miroir de l'Ethiopie moderne,1 905-1935, Alexandria, 1936; and Pankhurst, ' The foundations of education ', cited above. R.P.] Mentioned in Wright's Incunabula and written shortly after the events of 1916, when Ras Tafari, later Emperor Haile Sellassie I, was made Regent, and Menelik's daughter, Ziiwditu, became Empress, is a fascinating work by Niiggadras Gibri Haywiit Baykiidafi called MaIngastannay d-hazba stddadar1 8 'Government and administration of the people '. It is an important work, since it is virtually the only critique of the policies and administrative machinery set up by Menelik from the point of view of one of the few foreign educated Ethiopians, a group known at the time as the 'progressives'. Unfortunately, he died while still relatively young. [Reference may here also be made to Af&W arq Giibri Iyisus, Guide du voyageur en Abyssinie, Rome, 1908, a work in Amharic and French, which, despite its title, contains interesting social criticism by an educated Ethiopian. R.P.] Published after the Italian occupation but containing a wealth of selected documents from Menelik'sr eign is the Zakran agiir edited by MahtiimiiS ollase ; 19 14 Addis yd-rmdi.tuht akimoc [sic], Dare Dawa, 1909/1916-17. This pamphlet is also to be found in the Quai d'Orsay, N.S. Ethiopie, 10, pp. 43-52. 15P arts of Aamarof or 1911-16 are available in microfilm at the IES but parts for later years are also at the National Library. 16P arts of Barhananna Sdlam are available at SOAS and the British Library, but a few of the missing copies can be found at the IES and National Library in Addis Ababa. A third possibility is the religious newspaper Goha However, I have been unable to obtain detailed information concerning it. .dbah. 17 A translation of this can be found in L. Fusella, ' Menelik e l'Etiopia in un testo amarico del Bdykaddfi ', AION, NS, iv, 1952, 119-43. 18 Addis Ababa, 1916/1923-4. 19 Blatten Geta Mahtiimi Sallase Wiildii Misqal, Zakrd niigdr 'Things remembered', Addis Ababa, 1942/1949-50. A second edition was published in Addis Ababa in 1962/1969-70. [It is to be regretted that, despite efforts in several countries, no translation is yet available. An English rendering of much of Mahtiimii Sallase's material on land tenure is nevertheless published in' The land system of Ethiopia ', Ethiopia ObserverI, , 1957, 283-301, while the author's tabulated information on different types of landholdings is translated in full in R. Pankhurst, State and land in Ethiopian history, Addis Ababa, 1966. R.P.] This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:20:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 288 PETER P. GARRETSON as a source it must be treated with some caution, one of its main aims being to extol the achievements of the reigns of Menelik and especially Haile Sellassie, and to point out how numerous the modernization and improvements of the latter era have been. Documents are often undated or wrongly dated, especially those of Menelik's period. Yet it is one of the very few sources of published Amharic documentation of Ethiopian history, and the new edition of 1962/ 1969-70 has a voluminous index, even if many of the errors of the earlier edition have not been corrected. Another work dealing specifically with aspects of land tenure is by Gibri Wild JngodaW airq2 0a nd has been translated into English.21 At the end of a long imperial tradition lies Giibra Sollase's chronicle of Menelik's reign which has at last been published in Amharic,22a lthough it has been available in a French translation since 1932.23 The lavish effort put into the French edition does not seem to have been emulated by Blatta Miirs'e Haziin, and there are a few typographical errors. Another genre, with a history going back for centuries, consists of eulogistic poems or accounts of the royal family or important nobles. Many of these have been published in the post- Menelik period of Ethiopian history.24 One of the most striking of this kind of work was Dagmawi Manilak by AfSiW rq GaibraIiy Ssus, extolling Menelik's reign and similar to the memoirs and autobiographies which were written later.25 The most prominent of the published autobiographies is that of the late Emperor Haile Sellassie. Vol. I covers his life up to his arrival in Geneva in 1936,26 and vol. 11d eals largely with the Italian occupation period, but the last chapter concerns the post-liberation negotiations with the British.27 One of the most interesting parts of the autobiography deals at some length with the uncrowned Emperor of Ethiopia, Loj Iyasu. [An English edition of the first volume, translated and extensively annotated by Edward Ullendorff, has recently appeared under the title The autobiographyo f Emperor Haile Sellassie I: ' My life and Ethiopia's progress ', 1892-1937, OUP, 1976. Also significant for any study of the late monarch's thinking prior to the war is an article attributed by Marcel Griaule to the Emperor and entitled, ' La verit6 sur la guerre italo-6thiopienne. Une victoire de la " Civilisation " par le N6gous', supplement to Vu, juillet 1936. R.P.] 20 The Amharic edition is GibraiW ld angoda Warq, Y-.Ityopya mdretannag abar sam, Addis Ababa, 1948/1955-6. 21 A translation can be found under Gebre-Wold Ingida Work, 'Ethiopia's traditional system of land tenure and taxation', Ethiopia Observer,v , 4, 1962, 302-39. 2S2 2hafe Ta'azaz Gibra Sallase, Tarikd zdmdn zd-dagmawi Manilak nagusd ndgdst zd-Ityoj5ya, Addis Ababa, 1959/1966-7. 23 M. de Coppet, Chroniqued u regne de Menelik, Paris, 1930-2. 24Makabab Dista, Yato Mdsanbdt Balanjdranndt, tarikanna yd-masgana gatttm 'A history and praise songs (in memory of) Ato Masanbit Balanjaranndit', Addis Ababa, 1926/1933-4. See also the unpublished collection at IES and n. 25 below. One particular type gave accounts of royal journeys. See Blatten Geta Haruy Wildi Sallase, Yd-La'alt Wdyzdro Mdndn mdngdd bd-Iydrusalemanna bdi-Masr 'Her Royal Highness Princess Minin's trip to Jerusalem and Egypt ', Addis Ababa, 1915/1922-3. Also Afa Wirq Gibrii Iyisus, Yd-Ityoliya miingast Alga Wdrasanna EEnddraseL a'ul Tdifdri Mdkonnan yd-Addn mdngidaMdw akwahwan 'The heir and Regent of the kingdom of Ethiopia: a description of Prince TafdiriM ikonnan's trip to Aden', Addis Ababa, 1918/1925-6. 25 Rome, 1901, reprinted in Asmara in 1967. A translation is available by L. Fusella, 'I1 Dtgmtwi Menilek di Afawarq Gabra Iyasus', Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, xvii, 1961, 11-44; xrx, 1963, 119-49. 26Qddamawi Nagusd Ndgdst, Hayla Sallase, Haywdtenna yd-Ityopya armajja. Anddiiia miishaf 'My life and Ethiopia's progress ', Addis Ababa, 1965/1973. See also, Imperial Ethiopian Ministry of Information, Selected speeches of His Imperial Majesty Haile-Selassie I (1918-1967), Addis Ababa, 1967, or Press and Information Department, An anthology of some of the public utterances of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Addis Ababa, 1949. However, the Amharic editions are more complete. Fare klinafar zd-QddamawiH ayld Sallase Nagusd Ngdlist zi-Ityojya, Addis Ababa, 1944-55/1951-2-1962-3. 27 Qddamawi Nagusd Ndgdst, Haylai Sallase, Haywdtenna yd-Ityofiya armajja. HulittdiAha mdishaf,A ddis Ababa, 1966/1973. This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:20:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SOME AMHARIC SOURCES FOR MODERN ETHIOPIAN HISTORY, 1889-1935 289 One other autobiographical work should perhaps be mentioned, Malkam betasabod,b y Ethiopia's former Prime Minister, Miikonnon 1ndalka55iw.28 Unlike the late Emperor's autobiography, it stresses more frankly and strongly themes central to success in traditional Ethiopian politics, the family, attendance at court, intrigue, and the ups and downs of political life in the capital. It is one of the few books available through which, with careful reading between the lines, one can begin to understand more clearly the role of women in political life, chiefly through the manipulation of marriage alliances. Short but uneven biographical sketches of the period can be found in Haruy Wiild Sallase's Ya-haywatt arik which includes most prominent figures in Ethiopian life from the 1890's to the early 1920's.29 It can be supplemented by Mahtiim Sallase's Oe baldiw,30a much more recent and accessible work. (Also useful in this context are foreign diplomatic personality reports of contemporary figures.) 31 Much less frequently employed as a source are the elegies or tazkar published on the anniversaries of the death of many important Ethiopians.32 Invariably eulogistic, they are generally longer than obituaries and often contain some nuggets of fact. [A collection of some 70 of the above-mentioned pamphlets is to be found at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies. Other holdings of that Institution include a sizeable collection of awaj, or proclamations, in Amharic dating from 1916 onwards, numerous pre-war wedding invitations, theatre and racing club programmes, commercial advertisements, etc. of value to the social historian of the times. Also of possible assistance to scholars are some 500 unpublished biographies for the period covered by Garretson written for the Dictionary of Ethiopian biography, only the first volume of which, covering the period up to 1270, has thus far appeared (Addis Ababa, 1975). Several score biographies of the period also appeared in the first volume of Encyclopedia Africana published in New York in 1977. R.P.] Although they largely fall outside the scope of this article, mention must be made of the voluminous corpus of material concerning the arbdaiiiio6o r patriots of the Italian occupation period.33 More has been published in Amharic on this five-year period than on the 47 years that preceded it. However, most of it must be carefully handled, taking into account provincial bias and the still highly charged political controversies that surround the events of those 28 Ras Bitwiddi~d Mikonnan Hndalkai55w, MIlkam betisdbod' Excellent families ', ?Asmara, 1949/1956-7. Another but less interesting autobiographical work is his Yd-halm ' Running of a dream ', 1949/1956-7. ru..a 29 Addis Ababa, 1915/1922-3. 30 Mahtimi Sallase Wildai Misqil, Ce bildw, Addis Ababa, 1961/1968-9. See also Journal of Ethiopian Studies, vii, 2, 1969, 1-31. There are other biographies and autobiographies of interest by Mahtamii Sallase of his father Sam kd-mdiqabarb ilay: yd-Sdhafe Ta'azaz WdlddiM disqil tariku, Addis Ababa, 1957/1964-5, and Mdngastu Lamma (ed.), Alldqa Ldmma Haylu, mdshafd tazzataz d-Aliqa Ldmma, Addis Ababa, 1959/1966-7. [A more recent autobiographical work to which reference may also be made is Haywit Hadaru, YaEMqi dn tdrdssaa, Addis Ababa, 1967/ 1974-5. R.P.] 31 One example of many is in FO 371/20940/6140 for May 1937, on pp. 198-210. 32 A few examples are: Sali kabur Ras BitwldddddM dkonnan tndalkad'iw ardft ' Concerning the death of his Excellency Ras Bitwiddid Mdkonnan Hndalka55w ', Addis Ababa, 1955/ 1962-3; Sali wdt(atu miisfan La'ul Mikonnan Hayld Sallase stilastifa qdin mdttasdbiya 'Con- cerning the youth of His Royal Highness Mikonnan Hayli Sallase, a memorial (held) on the thirtieth day of his death ', Addis Ababa, 1949/1956-7; La'ul Ras Kasa Haylu arsa5diw mdttasdbiya 'A memorial concerning His Highness Ras Kassa Haylu ', Addis Asbaal(cid:127) ba, 1949/ 1956-7. 33 See for instance: Sayfu Abba Willo, Yd-tarik qars 1928 amdtd mahrdt yd-ddbub Ityopya yd-Sidamo foranndt 'A history of 1935-6; the war in south Ethiopia, Sidamo', Addis Ababa, 1953/1960-1; Mizmur Haylu, Yd-kabur Ddjazmac Balea Aba Nifso a6Ear yd-haywdt tarik 'A short biography of Ddjazma5 Balia, Aba Nifso ', Addis Ababa, 1956/1963-4; Mdkonnan Wirq Agififiihu, Ydi-Basu Abundi Petros Pafas zd-Masraq Ityopya addar zena 'A short account of His Holiness Abuni Petros, Patriarch of Eastern Ethiopia', Addis Ababa, 1938/1945-6. This only has a very short section on his life. Ta'azazu Haylu, Hayld Maryam Mammo, Addis Ababa, 1949/1956-7. This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:20:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 290 PETER P. GARRETSON years. Furthermore there is uncertainty of the degree to which such works, in the general absence of references, are based on documentation, memory, or interviews. The introductory years, however, of some of the biographies can be useful. For instance Kiibbdii Tisiimma's Ya-tarik mastawwala, although mostly concerned with the occupation period, begins with several chapters covering the years 1916-35.34 Of particular interest are his charts comparing the hierarchy of the court during Menelik's and Ziwditu's reigns. These reveal surprising changes that took place in the nobility of the court and in particular the status of women in its hierarchy. Before passing on to unpublished works one should mention that there are various popular and eulogistic works that were published before and after the Italian occupation. The most widespread in Ethiopia is by Tiiklii Sadoq Maikuriya, which is a general history of Ethiopia and the basic text of the secondary school history courses.35 [Work is currently in progress on the reinterpretation of Ethiopian history (see below), and it may be presumed that Tdkli Sadaq Miikuriya's works, with their emphasis on kings, may be replaced or rewritten in ' socialist ' terms. R.P.] [Besides the strictly historical writings listed by Garretson above, reference may be made to the country's creative literature which often contains material of no small interest to the historian. Useful guides and bibliographies are available in E. Cerulli, 'Nuove pubblicazioni in lingua amarica ', Oriente Moderno, xri, 6, 1932, 306-10; S. Wright, 'Amharic literature', Some- thing, I, 1963, 11-23; A. G. Gerard, ' Amharic creative literature: the early phase ', Journal of Ethiopian Studies, vi, 2, 1968, 39-60; idem, Four African literatures, Berkeley, 1971; and T. L. Kane, Ethiopian literature in Amharic, Wiesbaden, 1975. R.P.] [It may be of interest to scholars outside Ethiopia to note that, as a result of an agreement between the then Haile Sellassie I University and Syracuse University in the United States, a large part of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies Library was microfilmed in the early 1970's. Items filmed, and thus available at both institutions, include the entire collection of Amharic publications printed prior to 1935, virtually all Ethiopian periodicals (excluding propaganda publications of foreign embassies in Addis Ababa) up to the date of filming, and a number of foreign works on Ethiopia deemed to be particularly rare. R.P.] [Besides the libraries in the country students of the period covered by Garretson have to take into account the by no means insignificant libraries of Ethiopica abroad, notably in Italy, and at the Faitlovitch Library, a part of Tel-Aviv University Central Library in Israel. For pre- war Ethiopian publications identified in these libraries by Professor Strelcyn see S. Strelcyn, '" Incunables" 6thiopiens des principales bibliothbques romaines,' Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, xxv, 1971-2, pub. 1974, 456-519, and idem '" Incunables" 6thiopiens de la Collection Faitlovitch (Universit6 de Tel-Aviv) et de l'Istituto Orientale di Napoli,' RSE, in press. R.P.] Unpublishedm aterial. Unpublished material in Ethiopia is scattered in private hands or sometimes in archives that are inaccessible. The most tantalizing and inaccessible of all the archives is that of the Ministry of the Pen or, as the holder of the office was called, the To'ozaz.38 Few have been allowed S.ihafe 34 Djazma6 Kibbaid Tisamma, Ya-tarik mastawwdha,A ddis Ababa, 1962. a5T tklh Sadaq Mikuriya, Yd-Ityogfya tarik, kd-Afe Tewodros aski Qddamawi Hayld Sallase 'A history of Ethiopia from Emperor Tewodros to Hayli Sallase I ', Addis Ababa, 1938/1945-6. Others that might be mentioned are: Dimasse Walda Ammanu'el, Yd-GarmawiQ ddamawi Ase Hayld Sallase Nagusd Ndigdst Makar Bet 'The Parliament of Emperor Hayla Sallase I, King of Kings', Addis Ababa, 1948/1955-6; Ya-Gazetanna MastawwAqiya Masriya Bet, Yd-Ityojiya Betd Krastiyan adgdtannan isanndt 'The growth and freedom of the Ethiopian Church', Addis Ababa, 1944/1951-2; also published by the same organization, Zena mitat zd-baherdE ratra 'The recovery of Eritrea', Addis Ababa, 1943/1950-1; Af& Warq Adafre, Zakrd nagdst zd-Ityof3ya 'Memories of the kings of Ethiopia', Addis Ababa, 1948/1955-6 (this is one of a very traditional mould); Yared Gibri Mika'el, Yamtu bd-zanna Addis Abdba 'Let those (who have heard her) fame, come to Addis Ababa', Addis Ababa, 1958/1965-6; Gazaw Hayla Maryam, Dagmawi Manilak, kd-tarikaeaiiwanna 'Menelik II, his history and deeds', Addis Ababa, 1956/1963-4; Bogala Walkadlu-m, uYyda-cW(cid:127)dwdl amo hazb tarik baranndtama ndet tdwdggddd' A history of the people of Walamo and how slavery was eradicated', Addis Ababa, 1956/1963-4. 36 I shall deal with the possibility of local and provincial archives in the next section when looking at each province individually. This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:20:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SOME AMHARIC SOURCES FOR MODERN ETHIOPIAN HISTORY, 1889-1935 291 access to its files, and it is often claimed that they no longer exist, but were, in the common phrase 'destroyed during the Italian occupation'. Much has been destroyed or has decayed over the years, but at least some of Menelik's correspondence and proclamations remain, and the chances are that more has survived from the period of Ras Tiifiiri's Regency (1916-30) and the early years of his reign as emperor (1930-5). It appears that the material that survived the Italian occupation was passed to the Ministry of the Pen after the war and then to the Prime Minister's office. MahtaimaSi ollase probably only published a fraction of the total material that survived in the Zakrain g*gar. [Report that the Ministry of the Pen archives were moved to the Prime Minister's office would seem to be unfounded. These archives are still, as of 1976, in fact at the Menelik palace, efforts by three successive Presidents of Haile Sellassie I University to have them transferred to the latter institution having proved fruitless. At the time of annotation there is, however, renewed talk of the establishment of a department of national antiquities under the newly established Ministry of Culture and Youth. R.P.] The second major archival source is, of course, the records of the church, those of the central administration of the church at the Patriarchate in Addis Ababa, and those at each individual local church. There is a good deal of speculation as to what these archives might actually contain. Recently com- piled lists of churches, their location, founders, and foundation dates certainly exist.37 Belletu Mengestu, a recent graduate of the University at Addis Ababa, was also allowed to see a carefully selected series of letters to and from Abuni Mattewos, the Egyptian head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church from 1881 to 1926. The correspondence appended to her fourth-year B.A. paper 38 was only a very small fraction of the total material dealing with Mattewos, and one hopes that further material of this nature may be accessible in the future. [Some indication of data to be found in Ethiopian churches is to be gleaned from an un- published catalogue of manuscript holdings in Addis Ababa churches compiled some 10 years ago by Dr. Hayla Gabra'el Dafi in the possession of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, IES MSS 421, a, b, and c. Valuable information on church holdings is also provided in the Bulletin of Ethiopian Manuscripts, a 'trimester publication' of the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, P.O. Box 30274, founded and edited, since 1974, by Dr. Sargaw Habla Sallase. R.P.] Unpublished material is also found at the National Library in Addis Ababa. In the past it contained more of interest, like the chronicle of Lqj Iyasu's reign,39 but what has happened to it and some other documents is unclear. The National Library does, however, still have one of the original copies of Gibrii Sllase's chronicle of Menelik's reign. A fourth but growing depository is the Institute of Ethiopian Studies of Addis Ababa University, which among other manuscripts possesses a photocopy of Asme Giyorgis's Ya-Galla tarik.40 Written just after the turn of the century, this source by a Roman Catholic educated Ethiopian, is of great interest for the years of Menelik's reign which it covers until shortly after the turn of the century. [An English translation by Bayru Tdfla and Balaynai' Mika'el, both of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, is thus far unpublished. R.P.] 31 Volker Stitz and Donald Crummey both pointed these out to me, but I was unable to see any of them personally. 38 See Belletu Mengestu's 1972 fourth-year history paper at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies entitled ' A short biography of Abune MIt6wos [sic] (1881-1926) '. 9 I have this information from several different sources in the History Department at the University at Addis Ababa; see particularly Aby Demissie's fourth-year paper of 1964, 'Lij Iyasu : a perspective study of his short reign '. 40 The original is at the Bibliothbque Nationale, MSS Ithiopiens No. 302. This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:20:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions