Tradition and change in Ethiopian social and cultural life as reflected in Amharic fictional literature (ca. 1930-74).

This thesis, based on the study of the fictional work of twelve well-known Ethiopian authors, describes Ethiopian social and cultural life in the period 1930-1974. It is divided into two parts, the first dealing with traditional culture, the second with recent changes in social life and with attitudes to these changes. Amharic literature deals mostly with life in the central highlands of Ethiopia. Part One starts with a description of the traditional classes and how they interrelate, both in situations of normal peaceful intercourse and in conflict. Next follows a section on common beliefs and principles of conduct in the country - a fairly long portion of the thesis, as religious and moral questions frequently come up in Amharic literature. Sickness and health are also looked upon from a metaphysical angle. Social life in a more limited local sense is treated next, with more stress on food and drink, and sex and marriage than on family life or village life, following the emphasis of Amharic literature. The life of women is also briefly discussed. Finally, a few remarks are made about national characteristics as Ethiopian authors see them. Part Two deals with change. After a discussion of internal and external influences for change, the different attitudes to present changes are outlined: some oppose or regret them, some think they happen too slowly, others try not to get involved. Then the actual changes in the social and cultural life are set out. These are seen partly as advances, partly as setbacks for the country. This part ends with a section on how Ethiopians regard the future of Ethiopia, and how authors want to influence the development of their country. The main conclusion is that Ethiopian writers are critical observers of society, supporting and opposing developments according to their moral stand

Refashioning the Ethiopian monarchy in the twentieth century: An intellectual history

This article traces the shift in the Ethiopian monarchical ideology from lineage as symbolic Christian filiation to dynasty as a political genealogy of sovereign power. From the end of the nineteenth century, and more prominently under Haylä Səllase, Ethiopian state sources started qualifying the Ethiopian ruling dynasty as ‘unbroken’ in history. A record of ‘uninterrupted’ power allowed the Ethiopian government to politically appropriate past glories and claim them as ‘ours’, thus compensating for the political weakness of the present with the political greatness of the past. The ideological rebranding of the Ethiopian monarchy in the 1930s brought Ethiopia closer to Japan, and the ‘eternalist clause’ of the Meiji constitution offered a powerful model of how to recodify dynasty in modern legal terms. An intellectual history of dynasty in the Ethiopian context sees the concept simultaneously associated with both hegemonic and counter-hegemonic political projects. The narratives of continuity enabled by the dynastisation of history were successful in invigorating the pro-Ethiopian front during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1936-1941), but served at the same time to reinforce domestic mechanisms of class, political and cultural domination