Journal of Ethiopian Studies

The Administration of Ethiopian Däbr Estates in the 17th and 18th Centuries

2024-02-28T07:01:52+00:00

Royal land endowment to individuals and institutions is an old phenomenon in Ethiopia. The economic viability and profitability of large estates required that their administration be regulated. The Fətḥa Nägäśt (the Kings’ law) affirms guiding principles for donators; it was incumbent to founders of estates to define management rules without infringing on the religious power. The present article examines hundreds of seventeenth and eighteenth century legal acts (foundation documents, sales, and land transactions) collected from churches in the regions of Goğğam and Gondär. The documents reveal the emergence of an administrative structure, whereby kings prescribed regulations for the material administration of estates borrowing the style and assignment of function from court and monastic customs. They proceeded in abidance by a seventeenth century royal decree that reaffirmed the delimitation of power between state and church. The present article discusses the organisation of officers who supervised incomes and kept landholding deeds in church domains. Some administrators were assigned to control revenues and run the treasury while others ensured the registration of charters, the transfer of deeds, and eventually judgment of conflicts.

Trends in Personal Names of Šäwan Royal Family from Nǝguś Śahlä Śǝllase to Nǝguśä Nägäst Ḫaylä Śǝllase I, c.1810s-1970s

2024-02-28T07:08:43+00:00

This article is an attempt to analyse trends in the personal names of “Šäwan royal families” with a particular reference to the seven consecutive generations of Nǝguś Śahlä Śǝllase’s descendants to the period of Nǝguśä Nägäst Ḫaylä Śǝllase I, as one aspect of sociocultural history. The available literature on the issue gave more emphasis to the meaning, naming practices, classifications, and reasons of personal names and naming among different Ethiopian societies than trends. The data was obtained from both primary and secondary historical sources. The major primary source was “ኁልቁ፡ ትውልድ፡፡ ዘ ንጉሥ፡ ሣህለ፡ ሥላሴ፡፡”, “the number of Nǝgus Śahlä Śǝllase’s descendants,” collected by Mahtämä Śǝllase Wäldä Mäsqäl and published in 1965 EC. He organized the list in a sequential order from the first to the seventh generation. The personal names of about two thousand descendants were taken from the list and classified into five themes: place, religious, economic, hegemony, and “miscellaneous”. The finding reveals that more than sixty percent of the personal names of the descendants were associated with hegemony in the first half of the 19^th century and gradually declined to thirty percent in the second half of the 20^th century. Similarly, gradual changes took place in the other themes: places from Šäwa to Ethiopia, religion from prefix to direct Biblical, and economic from gold and silver to diamond. Finally, personal names identified as “miscellaneous” are also becoming “modern”.

Exploring the Psychosocial problems of people affected by armed conflict in Selected Woredas of Wollo: Implications for Intervention

2024-02-28T07:12:31+00:00

The main objective of this study was to explore how the armed conflict has affected the psychosocial wellbeing of people in selected areas of Wollo, Ethiopia. A sample of 38 people was purposely selected and interviewed about their psychosocial experiences related to armed conflict. The epistemological stance adopted for this study was the phenomenological approach of research that focuses on exploring the lived experiences of participants affected by armed conflict. The results indicated that there were feelings of insecurity, hopelessness, trauma, sexual and physical violence, displacement, and other social and psychological problems among people affected and threatened by armed conflict. The problems were more severe for vulnerable groups such as children, women, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Participants reported that they passed through a terrible, frustrating, and suffocating situation with no access to basic services when their areas were occupied by rebel groups. Thus, government and non-government organizations should design appropriate intervention mechanisms to support people affected by armed conflict. Along with the humanitarian help, psychosocial support has to be intensively provided to people affected by the conflict to mitigate the problems accordingly.

Analysis of Morphological Shifts of Active Participles in Arabic-Amharic Translation of the Holy Qur’an

2024-02-28T07:16:16+00:00

The main objective of this study is to analyze morphological shifts of Arabic active participles in the Arabic–Amharic translation of the Holy Qur’an. The study is a qualitative study with a descriptive and content analysis design. It relies on primary linguistic data. The data are obtained from the Holy Qur’an and its Amharic translation by co-translators Shaikh Sayyid Muhammadsadiq and Haji MuhammadThani Habib (1969). The data are extracted using purposive sampling technique. The findings of the study reveal that the Arabic active participle forms can be translated into Amharic as verbs, relativized verbs, converbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. One has to know the syntactic class to which a certain Arabic active participle form belongs so as to be able to choose its appropriate Amharic translation. The translators employed grammatical shifts as a strategy to translate Arabic active participles into Amharic.

Temporal deictics in the Arsi-Bale dialect of Oromo

2024-02-28T07:22:12+00:00

This study investigates how temporal deictics—expressions used for locating the time points of actions or states of being—are encoded in the Arsi-Bale dialect of Oromo in south east Ethiopia. The data were gathered from recorded interviews of native speakers, and field notes. Introspection was also employed for verification. The data collected were transcribed, analyzed, categorized and interpreted. The findings of the qualitative research show that the dialect encodes temporal deictics lexically, in a composite manner and grammatically. Lexical temporal deictics are either simple, restricted (specified with modifiers) or extended. In respect of composite encoding, time specifications and words of various classes are used in a syntactic structure. Grammatical encoding involves inflection and periphrasis for marking aspect/tense. Deriving names for new born babies from parts of the day at which those babies were born (appellative temporal deictics) and using some temporal deictics for metaphoric purposes are interesting features of the Arsi-Bale dialect.

Character Analysis on the Representation of People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Two Selected Ethiopian Amharic Films

2024-02-28T07:26:57+00:00

There is no denying the value of film in fostering social interaction, creating awareness, and developing the economy, culture, education, and language. The purpose of this paper is to assess and examine how people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are portrayed in two Amharic films. The study's findings were based on information obtained from six direct participants—film producers, directors, scriptwriters, and actors—who were carefully chosen through interviews and firsthand viewings of the two chosen films. It took advantage of media content analysis. The data from the interviews and the film video were then thematically examined for the study. Among other things, the study's findings showed that characters are portrayed in ways consistent with the behavioral characteristics of people with autism. Other concerns impacting films about ASD include the lack of awareness of ASD among film producers and writers, the lack of care among government officials for ASD and how it affects their ability to make high-quality films, and an overreliance on one individual for all roles. The two Amharic films that were chosen, "Tism" and "Bandaf," have their own strengths and limitations when it comes to portraying or expressing ASD characters or features. The study found that lack of understanding about ASD and misconceptions about people with ASD were the root causes of these strengths and limits.

The Phonology of Amharic Ideophones

2024-02-28T07:31:02+00:00

The paper aims at describing the phonology of Amharic ideophones. It shows some peculiar phonological and phonetic features of ideophones in the language. The data used in this study are collected from fieldwork. Amharic ideophones use the entire 30 consonant phonemes including labiovelar phonemes: /kʷ/, /ɡʷ/, and /k'ʷ/, labialized sounds such as [fʷ, tʷ, t'ʷ, dʷ, ʃʷ, ʒʷ, mʷ…] of the regular phonology and some click-like sounds such as ʘ, ǃ, ǁ, and ʞ, which are not found in the regular phonology of the language. These click-like sounds form ideophones like ɨmʘa adərrəg-ə ‘kissed’ ʞɨ- al-ə ‘disapproved’ ǁɨǁɨǁɨǁɨ al-ə ‘regretted’ ǃuǃuǃu al-ə 'urged the horse to trot’ and ǁuǁuǁu al-ə ‘called dog’. Moreover, the phonotactic of Amharic ideophones shows a C₁VC₂C₂ syllable structure that is specific to ideophones. Furthermore, Amharic has no long vowels, but the suprasegmental of ideophones illustrates expressive vowel lengthening in the word medial and final positions. However, these long vowels are only phonetic. In the same way, ideophones also apply the word final expressive consonant lengthening to show intensity, durativity, and distance. Some of these deviations from the regular phonology are well-attested universal phonological features of ideophones (Bodomo 2006:204 and Franck2014:17).

የሀድያ ብሔረሰብ የሀዘን ሥነ ሥርዓት

2024-02-28T07:36:56+00:00

ይህ “የሀድያ ብሔረሰብ የሀዘን ሥነ ሥርዓት” ጥናት በሀድያ ብሔረሰብ ባህል ከዕለተ ሞት አንስቶ እስከ ሀዘን ማብቂያ ባሉ መዋቅራዊ ሂደቶች የሚከወኑ ልዩ ልዩ ሥርዓተ ከበራዎችን በመተንተን የሀገረሰቡን ልማድ፣ እሴቶችና ማህበራዊ ግንኙነቶች ለመግለጽ ያለመ ነው፡፡ ከሰው ልጆች የሕይወት ዘመን ሽግግር ሥነ ሥርዓቶች አንዱ የሆነውን ሞት ምክንያት በማድረግ የሚከወኑ የሀዘን ሥርዓቶች በባህሉ የተደነገጉ ሥርዓቶችንና ሂደቶችን የተከተሉ ናቸው፡፡ የዚህ ጥናት አቢይ የምርምር ጥያቄም በሀድያ ብሔረሰብ ከሞት ጋር በተያያዘ የሚከወኑ የሀዘን ሥነ ሥርዓቶች ምን ምን ናቸው? እንዴትና ለምንስ ይከናወናሉ? የሚል ነው፡፡ ለእነዚሁ ምላሽ ለመስጠት ስነሰብዓዊ ፈለግን መሠረት ካደረጉ የባህል ጥናት ንድፈ ሀሳቦች ውስጥ ክዋኔያዊ እና ዐውዳዊ ንድፈ ሀሳቦች አገልግለዋል፡፡ የጥናቱ መረጃዎች “የሀድያ ብሔረሰብ የሕይወት ዘመን ሽግግር ሥርዓተ ከበራዎች” ላይ እየተካሄደ ለሚገኝ ምርምር ከ2012 እስከ 2014 ዓ/ም በአካባቢው በሀድያ ዞን በተከናወነ የመስክ ሥራ በተሳታፊ ምልከታና በቃለ መጠይቅ ዘዴዎች የተሰበሰቡ ናቸው፡፡ ከመስክ የተሰበሰቡ ቀዳማይ መረጃዎችን በተዛማጅ ጽሑፎች በማጠናከር በገላጭና ፍካሬያዊ ዘዴዎች ተተንትነዋል፡፡ በትንተናው እንደተመለከተው የሀድያ ብሔረሰብ የሀዘን ሥነ ሥርዓት ክዋኔ ሞትን ማወጅ/የለቅሶ ጥሪ (አረዲማ)፣ ቀብር፣ የማጽናናት/የማስተዛዘን ሥርዓት (በካሪማ) እና የሀዘን ማብቂያ (ጋባ) የሚባሉ ሂደቶችንና ሥርዓቶችን ያካትታል፡፡ በእነዚህ ሂደቶች የሚፈጸሙ ሥርዓቶች ከሟቾች እድሜ፣ ፆታና ማህበራዊ ደረጃዎች አንጻር እንደሚለያዩ ታይቷል፡፡ የጥናቱ ግኝት እንደሚያመለክተው በሀድያ ብሔረሰብ የሚከወነው የሀዘን ሥነ ሥርዓት የዘወትር/የተራ ሰው እና የታዋቂ ሰው በሚል በሁለት ይከፈላል፡፡ የዘወትር ሞት በበኩሉ የህጻንና የወጣትና የጎልማሳ በሚል ይፈረጃል፡፡ የታዋቂ ሰው ሞት በጦርነት፣ በልማት፣ በበጎነት በመሳሰሉት በአርዓያነት የሚጠቀሱ ጀግኖች፣ የጀግና ሚስቶች እና የእድሜ ባለጸጎች ሞትን የሚመለከት ሲሆን በባህሉ የተደነገጉ ልዩ የሀዘን ሥነ ሥርዓቶች የሚፈጸምላቸው ናቸው፡፡ በሀድያ ብሔረሰብ ለማህበራዊ ሕይወት መጠናከር ጉልህ ፋይዳ ካላቸው ባህላዊ ሥነ ሥርዓቶች አንዱ የሀዘን ሥነ ሥርዓት ሲሆን በእያንዳንዱ ሂደት በስነቃል፣ በቁስና በክዋኔ የሚተላለፉ መልዕክቶች የሀገረሰቡን ባህልና ታሪክ ለትውልድ የማሸጋገር እና ባህላዊ እሴቶች እንዲጠበቁ የማጠናከር፣ የማስተማርና የመቆጣጠር ተግባር እንዳላቸው ተመልክቷል፡፡

ዕርቀሰላም፡- የቱለማ ኦሮሞ ሀገር በቀል የግጭት አፈታት ስልት መቋጫ

2024-02-28T07:41:26+00:00

የዚህ ጥናት ዓብይ ዓላማ የቱለማ ኦሮሞን ሀገር በቀል የግጭት አፈታት ስልት መተንተን ነው፡፡ በዚህ መሰሉ የሰላም ፍኖት አቀራረብ እራሱን ችሎ የተሰራ ጥናት አላገኘንም፡፡ ይኸውም አነሳሽ ምክንያት ሆኗል፡፡ ለጥናቱ ስኬት አስፈላጊ የሆኑ ቀዳማይ እና ካልዓይ የሆኑ መረጃዎች ተሰብስበው ተተንትነዋል፡፡ ቀዳማይ መረጃዎቹ በምልከታ፣ ቃለመጠይቅ እና የቡድን ውይይትን የተሰበሰቡ ናቸው፡፡ ጥናቱ ዓይነታዊ የምርምር ዘዴን ተግባራዊ ያደረገ ሲሆን በገላጭ ስልት የተቃኘ ነው፡፡ የተጠቀሱትን ስነዘዴዎች ለጥናቱ መመልከቻነት ከመረጥናቸው ፅንሰ ሃሳባዊ እና ንድፈ ሃሳባዊ ማዕቀፎች ጋር በማቀናጀት የጥናታችንን ዓላማ ከግብ አድርሰናል፡፡ በዚሁ መሠረት በኅብረተሰቡ ዘንድ ዕርቅ እና ሰላም (Araara fi naga’a) ለማስፈን ባህላዊ የሽምግልና፣ ሸነቻ፣ ቂጤ (Qixxee) እና የጉማ ሥርዓት ከፍተኛ ሚና እንዳላቸው በዚህ ጥናት ተመላክቷል፡፡ እነዚህን የግጭት አፈታት ስልቶች ውጤታማ ለማድረግ እንደ “ቦኩ፣ ከለቻ እና ጫጩ” ያሉ የከበሩ ንዋያት የማይተካ ሚና አላቸው፡፡ በተለይም የጉማ ሥርዓትን ካለ ከለቻ እና ጫጩ ማሰብ አስቸጋሪ ነው፡፡ የሀገር በቀል እውቀት ውጤት የሆኑት እነዚህ የኦሮሞ ባህላዊ የግጭት አፈታት ስልቶች ዋና ማጠንጠኛቸው እውነት፣ ግባቸውም ዘላቂ ሰላምን ማስፈን ስለሆነ ከዕርቅ በኋላ የጥላቻ እና የበቀል ስሜትን አጥፍቶ በፍቅር እና በሰላም አብሮ ለመኖር ጉልህ ድርሻ እንዳላቸውም የጥናቱ ማጠቃለያ ያሳያል፡፡ ከጥናቱ የመነጨ ይሁንታም ቀርቧል፡፡