Читать книгу A Companion to African Literatures - Группа авторов - Страница 37

Modern Ethiopian nationalism and modern Amharic literature rose around the same period and grew together in the course of time. In modern Ethiopian history, it is difficult to find an incident like the battle of Adwa (1896) that has created an impact both locally and internationally. Since Adwa is the first major victory that African people had over white colonial power, it gave a shock to colonizers and was an evidence of black people’s power. It has inspired and strengthened anticolonial struggles and reinforced “Ethiopianism” – the black politico‐religious movement which is the archetype of pan‐Africanism. Having received international recognition, Emperor Menelik was able to consolidate his power following the aftermath of the victory. This put him on an equal level in matters of negotiations with the European colonizers where he managed to demarcate borders. Thus, Menelik united the disintegrated states, thereby creating the present modern Ethiopia. Ethiopia also embarked on improving its official diplomatic relationships with the great powers and opening its banks and rail line to engage in the global economy. The period was the genesis of modern Ethiopianism; modern Amharic literature is born from its milieu too.

The turn of the Ethiopian twentieth century (1907/8 Gregorian calendar) marked a remarkable concurrence of three socio‐politico‐cultural incidents. The first Ethiopian Council of Ministers and “modern” school were established, and Libb‐Wolled Tarik (the first novel, also known as T’obbiya) was published. T’obbiya (dialectal pronunciation of “Ethiopia” and the eponymous heroine of the work) was published in Rome by Afeworq Gebre‐Iyyesus, who was an Amharic teacher in Italy. Though this fiction was written at the time when Ethiopia was relatively in peace and gaining stability, it was filled with conflicts between Christians and non‐Christians. Growing up in a grotto covered with blood, T’obbiya, who is from the Christians and painted with magnificent beauty and virtue, serves as an agent of redemption. At the end of the story, the powerful King of the “infidels” asks for T’obbiya’s hand in marriage, compromising his status. Consequently, he has to convert to Christianity to marry her, leading to peace and unity among the two rivals. Hence, T’obbiya is a literary projection whereby a sovereign ideal Christian state is envisioned.

Before the Italian intervention (1936–1941), the monarch whose legitimacy rested on the Solomon–Sheba tradition that was supported by the Orthodox Church ruled the country with the notion of a “unified Ethiopia.” This period laid the foundation for Amharic creative literature and is known for its efforts in building modern society and maintaining sovereignty. Even if the period till the late 1950s was a fertile ground for the state‐led nationalism to flourish, it faced some challenges emanating from nonfictional literature. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a number of intellectuals, such as Taye Gebre‐Mariam, Gebre‐Hiwot Baykedagn, and Tamrat Amanuel, who received their education abroad and were exposed to European culture, raised serious challenges. Baykedagn’s engagement even extended to requesting the separation of the state and the national Orthodox Church. As Admassu, who studied the period, asserts, this kind of question to the then Ethiopia was received as just “utter madness!” (2010, 66). Hence, these efforts fell short of achieving their intended result due to a lack of institutional and societal support. The state‐led nationalism, however, was destabilized following the failed coup attempt in 1960 that led to the rise of the student movement.

The movement, which came with a better institutional character than the individual efforts that had come before it, went through different phases before it expanded to the Ethiopian students’ movement with a wider public acceptance (Zewde 2010). The reason behind the movement was the growing self‐awareness on the part of the students. This self‐awareness was driven by two external factors. The first dimension started in the early 1950s by sending “innocent” young Ethiopians, who were raised in a nation that upheld the romance of Ethiopia as God’s most favored nation after the fall of the Jews and as the cradle of civilization, to the West for education. As Rahmato has recounted, the Ethiopian students, who were proud of their ancient history and anticolonial struggle but had difficulty considering themselves as black, were “shocked to discover that, in the eyes of the American whites, they were every bit as ‘nigger’ as the African‐American residents” (Zewde 2010, 13).¹ Mengistu Lemma’s “Bass’Ashebbir B’Amerika” (“Bassha Ashebbir in America”) and Gebre‐Kirstos Desta’s “BeBaid Ager” (“In a Foreign Land”) are the popular dramatic verses that vividly portrayed this shock.

The second dimension came about following the establishment of the University College of Addis Ababa (UCAA) in 1950 and the interaction of the Ethiopian students with those African students who joined the University through scholarships. Starting 1959, UCAA provided full scholarships for 200 students from different African countries for four years, which was an opportunity that brought about new contacts and transformations in self‐definition. Those African students growing up in years of freedom struggles were able to empower young Ethiopians to build political consciousness and boost their confidence in sustaining a movement. Moreover, the University’s guest speakers such as the well‐known African politician and revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah, the leading specialist on international affairs Arnold Toynbee, and the popular politician Golda Meir made speeches inspiring students to question their country’s reality and become proponents of the reformist ideology.

Such discovery created a critical psycho‐social shock that destroyed the students’ erstwhile prevailing arrogance and distorted perception of Africa. It also replaced their national pride with national humility. Contrary to expectation, these realizations and changes were transformed into an opportunity. In this phase, young Ethiopians attempted to build an “African identity” both in action and in thought. To that effect, Girmamé Neway’s master’s thesis, “The Impact of the White Settlement Policy in Kenya” (Columbia University, 1954), which is said to be “painted with an elevated ‘Pan‐Africanism’ consciousness” (Greenfield 1965, 341–347), provides concrete evidence. Neway was an “intellectual leader” who was architect of the 1960 attempted coup that signaled the downfall of the Emperor and the emergence of the revolution.

In this way, young Ethiopians started to actively engage in matters of the continent. For instance, their united responses to inhumane activities taking place in Africa were testimonies to their new pan‐African consciousness and personality growth. Some of the literary manifestations of such collaborations include Berhanu Zerihun’s Dill KeMot Behuwala (1962) and Abbe Gubegna’s YePatrice Lumumba Asazagn Amuamuat (1962), which were inspired by Patrice Lumumba’s assassination (1961) and the Sharpeville massacre (1960). The shock not only gave young Ethiopians the chance to break the manacles of their romantic obsession but also injected an African element into their national imaginary, as seen in Yohannes Admassu’s apologetic verse “Africa” (1998 [1961]). The annual student poem recital competition in the University College Day Celebration was one of the activities that played a major role in deepening students’ socio‐political consciousness after the attempted coup. The first three poems in the ranking were awarded by the Emperor and read at the events. In 1961, because the Emperor was not happy with the poems’ messages that were politically engaged, he suspended the students from their studies. This caused tensions between the “palace” and the “campus.”

Despite such measures, the students proceeded with deconstructing the national romance. The movement questioned the divine right of the rule that was founded on the Solomon–Sheba legend. The students stirred a movement that wanted to replace the old nationalism that empowered a single religion, language, and culture with a new nationalism encompassing heterogeneous entities. This act of redefining nationalism took on the notion of extremism when it started using the same tone that promoted “Land to the Tiller” to raise questions such as “Who actually is the Ethiopian?” It later extended to the right of nations to self‐determination up to secession. As days went by, anarchy and nihilism took over. It tried to break with the past and subvert the Ethiopian ancient pedigree of nationhood. As the students continued to become detached from societal values, disintegration, confusion, and doubt expanded throughout the movement. The movement was not built on a defined set of values to abolish the foundation – common history, myths, and symbols of the past. Hence, as the students became immersed in this futile journey of trying to identify a set of values to replace the existing ones, the 1974 revolution took everyone by surprise and the organized military snatched their dreams away when it took over power.