I’m a student in Ethiopia. It is while doing research that I found your article. It has great value especially for students of history.

Just a note to say thank you a million for your contribution in preserving Ethiopian history!! You are a trooper!!! Thank you Tadias Magazine!!

The facts you stated about the Europeans writing about Ehtiopia is well taken. I want to ask though , haven’t Ethiopians themselves written about their history? While the English or foriegn language maybe be dominated by foriegn writers I am sure there are historians like you who have written. So, our library is not just about Europeans writers.

Just as much when we do reconginize the rich diveristy of Ethiopia and the lack of inclusiveness in our written history as you rightly point out, I belive the challenge now is to collaborate with those that are in Ethiopia and produce the product to teach the current and future generation. Your work and others points us towards the right direction.

Thank you and hope the Ethiopians living and working in Ethiopia have already embarked on this road as I am confident they have.

I enjoyed this piece and your other wrtings too. A departure from age old myth , fabele and fabrication which has forever been markated in the name of Ethiopian history. Since you mentioned the Revolution,I would like to brinigthe following to your attention:

1.Institute for the Study of the History of Nationalities in Ethiopia was by then Revoltutionay government of Ethiopia. It has conducted field as well as reasearch into historic documents. I know for sure that they have collected and accumulated a vast amount of material. The men involved in it were among the best the country has produced though there is , as usual ,few from the South. Some of them were my personal friends. Like anything else this fell into the hands of TPLF rebles. I am not sure whether it survived and kept as a voluable treasure or neglected and/or destroyed.

2. I am not sure whether it is the same Stella in your piece but a number of them showing burial sites were published in a magazine of the Minstry of calure probably in the late 1980s.The then minster of Calture was the lawyer, Major Girma Yilma . He was apart from being my friend, was aone of the very few Ethiopian that I admire . He now, if I am not mistaken,resides in Seattle, Washington.

That will be the day when , if not me , my children and my grand children will read ‘Fair and Balnaced ” History in this forever unfair and unbalnced country.

Please Hold the Torch High and come up with a book. At least that will open the way and you will considred Path Finder.

On the other the hand, the question is also whether there were constituted states at that time or simply a cluter of roving groups.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

It is splendid to see thnigs from different perspectives if it adds value to existing problems. There are umpteen problems as far as Ethiopian history is concerned, but the thing that we need to ponder is: does this alleviate or excerbate the existing challenges of the country? Is the problem of Ethiopia, the problem of history? You deserve appreciation for the way in which you are looking at our history, but I doubt whether the assumption is new or not.

Thank you!!

This is great information. It has always been clear to me that we certainly need a paradigm shift in the manner in which we both learn and teach Ethiopian History. There could be absolutely no debate that Ethiopian history has been been church and royal centric. But we all know that our nation (the size of Texas, California and New York combined) is much, much bigger than that. The history of a country must correctly reflect the history of all its peoples. hanks for digging deeper.