The New Ethiopian Millennium, and the New IES Library

We historians (I can at least speak for myself) are not interested in Champagne and Fire-works. We would not say No to a tasty dish of Kitfo (or raw meat), and might look with favour at something like the Tour Eiffel in Paris or the London Eye which would permanently modify Addis Ababa’s landscape.
But what we really want is a building – or buildings, and/or an institution – or institutions – that will transform Ethiopia: so that people tomorrow, next year or in a century’s time will say ”That building (or institution) was established for Ethiopia’s New Millennium!
Which brings us to our most urgent issue for today: the launching of Addis Ababa University’s New Library Project.

A Little History

The Institute of Ethiopian Studies was founded in 1963 as a research wing of Haile Sellassie I (later Addis Ababa) University. The Institute’s task since its inception was to run the country’s principal specialist Library on Ethiopian affairs; to develop a specialized Ethiopian Ethnographic Museum, and a Gallery of Traditional Ethiopian Art; to serve as a Centre for Ethiopian Research - and to facilitate the work of Ethiopian and foreign scholars and research workers involved in Ethiopian studies; and to foster Ethiopian studies in every way: by publishing a Journal of Ethiopian Studies as well as conference proceedings; and by holding conferences, seminars and lectures and the like.
The Institute has been located since its inception in Emperor Haile Sellassie’s former Palace, which he generously presented to the University in 1961.

The Library

The IES Library, which has long since become an institution in Ethiopia, contains the largest collection of books, newspapers, magazines and articles on Ethiopia in the world. The Library’s holdings include no less than 100,000 books, over 2,000 BA, MA and PhD theses, 3.000 Ge’ez, Amharic, Arabic and Adare manuscripts, 4,000 medico-magical scrolls, over 14,000 archival records, 290 photographic, 38,000 individual photographs, 1,000 photographic slides, 1,000 reels of microfilm, and 129 boxes of microfiche, besides numerous leaflets, pamphlets and maps.
The Library’s objective, I should explain to readers unfamiliar with the institution, is to collect everything published in Ethiopia as well as everything written about Ethiopia, however unimportant, or important.
The Institute Library thus has files of Ethiopian newspapers/, or microfilms of them, dating back to the inception of printing in this country in the early twentieth century.
The Library has microfilms of internal government documents on Ethiopia produced by the Foreign Ministries of the principal European Powers, including Britain, France, Germany. Italy, and Russia, as well as the United States of America. It is thus not necessary to go to Rome, Paris or London to see such papers, many of them formerly Secret,– you can see them all almost simultaneously at the IES.
The Library also contains Ethiopian manuscripts of every considerable kind. These include the original drafts of many Ethiopian works of literature written by such illustrious authors as Haddis Alemayehu; ecclesiastical manuscripts essential for the study of Ethiopian religion and philosophy; medico-magical texts, many of them in the form of amulets, crucially important for our understanding of traditional Ethiopian medical practices, and attitudes to health. Other manuscripts are copiously illustrated and contain pictures which reveal the evolution of Ethiopian art from its Byzantine roots –not of few of these pictures serve to illustrate Ethiopian life of the past, hair-styles, jewellery, horse and mule decorations, and the like. Some of these illustrations also show us visually the weapons in use in the past – such as a painting depicting the assassination, by rifle-fire in the early eighteenth century of the Emperor Iyasu I.
Besides its own Ethiopian manuscripts the Institute has literally thousands of microfilms of manuscripts in churches all over the country. No less important are the Institute’s microfilms of Ethiopian manuscripts all over the world: manuscripts in the British Library, for example, generously microfilmed for the Institute by the British Council – or the Ethiopian manuscripts in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin no less generously supplied by the Irish Government. Similar gifts of microfilms were received by the institute Library = from the former Soviet Union, as well as from Yale University in the United States, the University of Uppsala in Sweden, the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, and elsewhere.
Mention should be made of the huge collection of foreign books on Ethiopia, written, over the last half millennium, in a Babel of different languages, including Portuguese and Spanish, French and Italian, German and Russian, and many other tongues. One of the Library’s rarest treasures is the original report on Ethiopia written in the early nineteenth century by the Blondeel, the Belgian Consul in Egypt. The Institute Library is always in quest of books on Ethiopia in other languages, be they Czech, Hungarian, or Romanian, Chinese, or Japanese.
Many of the Institute’s collection of foreign books contain invaluable engravings, which depict Ethiopian rulers of the past – from Emperor Tewodros onwards, as well as historic sites –Aksum, Lalibala, Harar, Gondar and elsewhere, as well as innumerable aspects of economic, social and religious life. In one we may see the traditional Ethiopian plough, and in another a mule attempting to cross a tall mountain – and crashing to the ground.
Then, likewise of crucial importance, is the collection of early printed books in Amharic and other Ethiopian languages – including Tigrinya and Tigre, spoken in the North of the country, Oromifa in much of the Centre, Adare and Somali in the East, and Anuak in the south-west.
And then the early foreign dictionaries and grammars of Ethiopian languages, including the illustrious Germans linguist Hiob Ludolf’s seventeenth century works on Ge’ez and Amharic, and the pioneering nineteenth century dictionary and grammar by Carl Tutchek of what he termed the Galla language. And then the dictionaries of Gurage and other Semitic languages produced by our prolific old friend Wolf Leaslau, whose death only a few weeks ago we mourn,
Another strong point of the Institute Library is its collection of press-cuttings. This includes an extensive collection of British – and other European newspaper articles on the Napier expedition of 1867-8 against Emperor Tewodros. and Italian and other articles written at the time of the Adwa war of 1895-6, as well as the subsequent Italian Fascist invasion and occupation of 1935-6.
Then there is the Institute Library’s immense photographic collection. There we see often very posed photographs of Emperor Menilek’s nobles, photographs of the uncrowned Emperor Lij Iyasu, and the youthful modernizer Ras Tafari Makonnen; Emperor Haile Sellassie mobilising his armies to withstand the Fascist invasion; the subsequent Fascist occupation – with \ Fascist atrocities, as well as photos of Italian road-building, and urbanisation,. Another set of photographs, designed to popularize Mussolini’s African adventure among the Italian troops (largely conscripts), shows the beauty of Ethiopian womanhood. There are also innumerable photos of the Ethiopia’s post-war modernization; the opening of schools and hospitals, Ethiopian Federation and the like.
No less interesting is the collection of maps. In one we see the Africa dotted with representations of lions, tigers, giraffes and elephants; and in another with the word “Ethiopia” covering almost half the continent.

The Museum

The Institute’s Museum, like the Library, is the finest institution of its kind in the world. A place to be visited by every student of Ethiopia, as well as by less informed tourists and travallers, it contains a uniquely arranged ethnographic collection, as well as - a particularly important point - the largest and most comprehensive collection of Ethiopian icons in the world.
The Ethnographic section is unusual in that it illustrates the life of the Ethiopian people from birth and childhood – with children’s games, old and new, through coming of age ceremonies, to death and burial: with grave-stones from Konso, the Rift Valley. and elsewhere.
The Art Gallery contains early fifteenth century icons deeply set in Byzantine tradition, as well as seventeenth and eighteenth century paintings of the so-called Gondarine period which begin to be “Ethiopianized” with representations of contemporary Ethiopian scenes - which makes such paintings not only beautiful works of art, bur also invaluable social documents depicting Ethiopian life of yesteryear, Of particular interest is a painting by the Italian artist Brancaleone, who was attached to the Ethiopian court of Emperor Lebna Dengel, known to the Portuguese as Prester John. This artist lived in the country for several decades in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
And take a step further, and you come to early twentieth century popular paintings: of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon, of Emperor Tewodros dispensing justice –and committing suicide, of the Battle of Adwa – and sundry pictures of agricultural production and social life.
Go on further again, dear reader, and you come to the Music Centre, where you can see - and hear – a wide variety of Ethiopian musical instruments: neatly arranged as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. And Queen of them all, perhaps, is the Ethiopian Bagana, sometimes described as the Harp of David, which is often depicted in traditional Ethiopian manuscripts.
One last feature of the Museum should not be forgotten: the Emperor’s bedroom, where visitors can inspect his uniforms and medals, as well as many of the gifts he received from foreign countries.

The New Library - and the Future of the Museum.

The Institute’s Library was established – I know because I was its first Director – when there were only a handful of students of Ethiopian studies. The Library now has to cater for hundreds, not only of Addis Ababa University, but also of Universities throughout the country – and, by Internet, throughout the world.
The vast expansion of the Library over the year has reached breaking point: there is virtually no room to place new acquisitions – but the Institute has the bounden duty to continue acquiring new Library and Museum acquisitions. Many valuable items currently on offer - and will be lost for Ethiopia – and for scholarship – if we do not acquire them.
That is the background to the Institute’s plan to build a New Library – which will hold the entire current Library – and free the former Palace building for a dramatic expansion of the Museum – which will then take over the entire building.
The project has the full support of SOFIES – the Society of Friends of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies

The Millennium

And that’s my appeal, dear reader, for the Millennium: to erect the New Institute of Ethiopian Studies Library as a permanent and very worthy contribution to the Ethiopian Millennium.
Addis Ababa University has allocated the necessary land; architect Fasil Ghiorgis has drawn up the plans; the Head of State, President Girma, has laid the Foundation Stone. The New Library Project is thus ready for the New Ethiopian Millennium.
And in the meantime don’t forget, dear reader, that you can join SOFIES for only 100 birr a year, or 1,000 birr for life membership – and attend our series of fascinating monthly lectures.
And we are, I would repeat, in urgent need of financial help to purchase treasures for the Museum, which will otherwise be lost
We also need voluntary help: volunteers should ‘phone me at 0113 71 29 01.
Thanks and Good bye,
Richard