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With a focus on the city of Adaama (formerly: Nazret), the biggest urban agglomeration in Oromia Regional State, the paper addresses the “linguistic landscape” which is indicative of the overall sociolinguistic situation of a polity. Language use in the public space has not only practical-instrumental, but also historical, political, juridical, and most of all psycho-sociological dimensions, the latter relating to the symbolic value of written language use. The paper deals with multilingual graphic representations on public commercial and private sign-boards, advertisements, and notices in Adaama city, with an additional focus on the situation on the campus of Adama Science and Technology University. Under the chosen theoretical framework, it analyses language visibility in terms of language legitimisation, both in terms of peoples’ attitudes and based on official documents regarding language status and language use in present-day Ethiopia, such as the Education and Training Policy (1994), the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (1995), the Revised Constitution of Oromia Regional State (2001/2006), and the Higher Education Proclamation (2009). The primary focus of the paper is on the status, functions, and representations of Afan Oromo, including a review of the major historico-political changes affecting this language from Imperial Ethiopa (before 1974), the Därg period (until 1991), and under the new Constitution of the FDRE (since 1995). The paper also deals with linguistic and graphic issues concerning the “orthographic” representations of the four languages used: Afan Oromo, Amharic, Arabic, and English, involving three different graphic systems: Fidäl (Abugida), Arabic, and Roman.

This paper explores some of the issues of cultural epistemology which underlie the relations between Ethiopia and Europe. It briefly explores the origins of modern diplomatic contacts, arguing that the appropriation of modernity increasingly became a central concern of Ethiopia’s rulers in their relations with Europe. It then raises the question, if Europeanized modernity has increasingly marked Ethiopia in the twentieth century, how are we to discern Ethiopia’s contribution to this process? To what extent, in its modernization, has Ethiopia’s educated elite lost contact with an indigenous point of view? The paper argues that a critical appreciation of modernity in Ethiopia must be made against a background which historicizes the process whereby it came about, which takes fully into account the modes of reasoning embodied in Gǝʿǝz texts, and which privileges the views of those rural Ethiopians so lightly touched by modernity.

As proposed by several scholars, among the many modern on-lookers depicted on the walls of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, foreign diplomats are also portrayed: e.g., the Portuguese ambassador and the Florentine emissaries. In the present paper it is suggested that portraits of four of the six members of the momentous Ethiopian delegation – which was headed by Antonio, chaplain of aṣe Ǝskǝndǝr, and arrived at Rome in the first half of November 1481 – may be identified in two scenes, i.e. the Temptation of Moses by Sandro Botticelli and the Crossing of the Red Sea by Biagio d’Antonio Tucci. The paper focuses on the relationship between the visual representation of these four men – Antonio being most probably included – and two contemporary literary works: the treatise by Paride de Grassi on the ambassadors to the Roman curia and the writing by Andreas Trapezuntius on the Roman political situation at the end of 1481 respectively. Such topics as the genuflexion of the Ethiopians and the content of Sixtus IV with the Ethiopian embassy are dealt with. The importance of the suggested identifications for the problematic chronology of the frescoes is also discussed, and so a few other aspects of the two narrative scenes.

The paper traces various extra–biblical strains of tradition concerning the Magi (MT 2,1–12) in Geʿez literature. The Magi (mäsäggǝlan, säbʾa sägäl) are present in various Ethiopic compositions, both translated from other languages and original. The compositions discussed include inter alia apocryphal literature (The life of Adam and Eve, The Miracles of Jesus, The Book of the Birth of Mary, The Miracles of Mary), homiliaries (that for the feasts of Mary, and that for the feasts of the Archangel Raguel), and two commentaries on the Gospel. The tradition, as seen in the texts reviewed, is not consistent, and various stories, sometimes contradicting each other, are told about the Magi. Those strains of tradition which are not of local origin (as are the names of the Magi), come from a number of external sources with roots in early Christian literature. Some elements of this tradition (the Virgin with the Child visible in the star, the origin of the gifts from the Cave of Treasures, Zärädäšt as the ancestor of the Magi, and many thousand men forming their retinue) can be traced back to Syriac apocryphal and exegetical literature.

The article develops some reflections on present-day Eritrea in the light of the colonial past and in the context of modern Ethiopia. If we consider Eritrea and its path towards independence, some differences and analogies emerge in comparison with other African colonies. The Eritrean independence is taking place today in a very specific context in post-colonial Africa. It is not a simple case of delayed decolonization, postponed by 30 years with respect to other former African colonies. The history of Eritrea must be studied within the colonial context: colonialism created a national identity, but Eritrea is a colony that did not become an independent state. This phenomenon can be attributed to various causes which I will try to underline. The process of state formation in Eritrea raises some problems for historians. The construction of a new political legitimacy is strictly connected to the birth of a national historiography in the country. I would like to examine in a critical way the process of writing history in contemporary Eritrea. Reconstructing the history of the past goes beyond the reconstruction of the history of the Eritrean state today. We have to consider the entire area – the Horn of Africa – in the pre-colonial period. The paper discusses the interrelation between the creation of the state and the national historiography.

With reference to Marco Bonechi’s article in this issue of Aethiopica, the present paper briefly surveys the evidence for the 1481 Ethiopian “embassy” to Pope Sixtus IV and then explores the possibility of identifying Anthony, head of that embassy, with “Fra Antonio Abissino” portrayed, most likely before 1527 by a painter called Schizzone, on the now lost tramezzo (‘choir screen’) of the Vatican church of Santo Stefano dei Mori.

In this paper I analyse the reasons that lead Portugual to send a Jesuit Patriarch to Ethiopia. Such a mission represented a radical break from the tolerant attitude the Lusitans had been showing vis à vis this African Church; the embassies that for decades flowed between Ethiopia and Portugal were suddenly replaced by a one-way attempt of conversion that deeply affected Ethiopian Christian society for more than a century. This mission is placed at the crossroads of both a process of spiritualization that the Portuguese court, under the influence of the Jesuit fathers and the cardinal infantes, endured, and of the political stagnation of the Indian colonial project. But the Catholic Patriarchate would only come to the fore, I contend, at the outcome of the Bermudez affair. This episode, which has largely been underestimated by historiography, was crucial for pushing forward the King João III, the Pope and the Jesuits in the Patriarchal adventure.

In 1997 the president of the Italian Republic visited Ethiopia and Eritrea to acknowledge the mistakes of Italian colonialism toward the people of the Horn of Africa. The theme of Italian colonialism in Ethiopia has long been an emotional one. However, in the last few years new archival resources have become available. The literature on the Italian occupation has become more objective and reliable. Hence there is a better appreciation of the Italian presence in Ethiopia, and the new generation is ready to admit Italy’s positive contribution. There are statistics on Italian investments in Ethiopia that show that Italy made the largest financial investment that Africa has ever seen. Considering those and other facts, the author of the paper attempts to reassess the issue of the Italian presence in Ethiopia, in all objectivity and on its own merits. ATTENTION: Due to copy-right no online publication is provided.

Students of African studies have reported a variety of religious movements under the rubric of independent churches. These include the Cherubim and Seraphim, the Church of the Lord, the Church of Simon Kimbangu, the Zionist and Ethiopianist’s independent churches in southern Africa. Most of these churches emerged in those countries that were under European colonial domination. Ethiopia did not experience European colonialism. Indeed, imperial Ethiopia conquered militarily less powerful kingdoms and chiefdoms that were located to the south and south-western of the then Abyssinia. The conquest of formerly independent populations in southern Ethiopia during the late nineteenth century introduced unequal power relations between the indigenous people and the new settlers. This paper examines the evolution of a religious movement referred to as ak’aat k’aal among the Aari people of south-west Ethiopia in the context of the indigenous forms of domination. Although the movement was short-lived, it was meant to enable the Aari to cope with the social psychological stress that the serfdom system generated. The Aari were not able to practice their traditional religion because of the serfdom. Therefore, they had to abandon their religion. However, doing this without finding a substitute was incompatible with Aari religious ideology. The ak’aat k’aal was a substitute just for a short period. ATTENTION: Due to copy-right no online publication is provided.

The Jesuit mission in Ethiopia was an episode of great importance in the history of Ethiopia and the Portuguese expansion. However, despite the number of studies dedicated to it a bibliography was still missing. This paper tries to fill the gap; it discusses the historiography of the mission, outlines the main themes treated and provides a comprehensive list of secondary literature.

Ethiopia is a country of a centuries-old tradition and history of writing. It possessed its own unique system for gathering materials of historical importance and a pecular library system. Throughout the years manuscripts were kept under the custody of Ethiopian Church monks. In the 20th century Ethiopia’s succesive rulers attached great importance to the building of a European style central repository of all written materials. They established and gradually developed the National Archives and Library of Ethiopia (NALE). The paper outlines the history of NALE from its beginnings up to now.