Nature and Uses of History

Unit Objectives

• The unit aims to enable students to differentiate between past and history.
• Students are expected to identify categories of historical sources.
• Expected to use explain methods historians use to study the past.
• Students should be able to discern basic patterns of continuity and change.
• Understand the uses of history.
• Avoid judging the past solely in terms of present-day norms and values.
• Explain how history writing has evolved.

Nature of History and Historiography

• Definitions of history require brainstorming to establish a strong understanding of it.
• Crucially consider if stories and history are distinct concepts.

The Nature and Uses of History

• "History" comes from the Greek word Istoria, meaning inquiry or an account of inquiries.
• Herodotus (c. 484–c. 420 B.C.E.) is considered the "father of written history".

Meaning of History

• In general use, history encompasses all events in the human past.
• Academically, history is an organized, systematic study involving discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information.
• History forms a continuous link between past, present, and future in human society.
• History is a discipline that teaches present humans about their ancestors' actions.
• It is a field of knowledge focused on the interaction between humans and their environment over time.

Uses of History

• Aids in understanding of the present.
• Provides a sense of identity.
• Furnishes the foundational background for various other disciplines.
• Teaches critical thinking.
• Helps in developing tolerance and open-mindedness.
• Supplies a source of continuous fascination.
• Helps in avoiding repetition of past mistakes.

Sources and Methods of Historical Study

• Sources are crucial for historical study and writing.
• Historical sources are classified into primary and secondary types.

Primary Sources

• Original or first-hand accounts and materials.
• Include manuscripts, diaries, letters, minutes, court records, administrative files, travel documents, photographs, maps, videos, audiovisual materials, artifacts like coins, fossils, weapons and buildings.
• The originality and authenticity of primary sources must be verified, as some, like letters, can be forged.

Secondary Sources

• Second-hand published accounts of past events
• Examples : articles, books, textbooks, biographies, and published stories or movies about historical events.
• Provide an interpretation of events long after they occurred, explaining what happened, why, and how.
• Their reliability must be examined during reconstructions.

Oral sources

• Indispensable for studying and documenting the history of non-literate societies.
• Oral tradition is information passed down through generations without being recorded, such as folk songs and sayings.
• Oral traditions may lose originality and authenticity due to omission, exaggeration, and distortion.
• Historians use a combination of various sources.

Historiography of Ethiopia and the Horn (from 484 BC to 1960 AD)

• Historiography is the history of historical writing and accounts.
• It studies how knowledge of the past is obtained and transmitted.
• Organized study and narration of the past was introduced by figures like Herodotus (484-420 B.C.), Thucydides (455-400 B.C.), and Sima Qian (145-86 B.C.).
• History emerged as an academic discipline in Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century, spreading to other parts of the world, including the US.
• Leopold Von Ranke (1795–1886) established history as an independent discipline in Berlin (Bonn).
• Is considered the "father of modern historiography" for his contributions to the scientific study of the past.

Earlier Forms of Historiography in Ethiopia and the Horn

• Earliest known reference to the history of Ethiopia and the Horn is "The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea".
• Written in the 1st century A.D by an anonymous author.
• Christian Topography describes Aksum's trade and Aksumite King's campaigns by Cosmas Indicopleustes, a Greek Sailor, in the sixth century A.D.
• The earliest written Ethiopian material dates from the seventh century A.D. and can be found at Abba Gerima monastery in Yeha.

Manuscripts

• A manuscript was discovered in the Haiq Istifanos monastery of Wollo, dating back to the 13th century A.D.
• Has religious value, providing insights into the country's past for historians.
• It contains a list of medieval kings along with their brief histories.

Hagiographies

• Represent the largest source of information available for medieval Ethiopian history.
• Originating from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
• Invariably written in Ge'ez that enhances the prestige of saints.
• Discussed the development of the church and state of territorial conquests of reigning monarchs.
• A parallel hagiographical tradition of Muslim saints such as Shaykh Ja’far Bukko of Gattira in the late 19th.

Chronicles

• Represent an indigenous tradition of history writing, first emerging in the 14th century in Ge'ez.
• Continued in Amharic into the early 20th century.
• Earliest surviving document is the Glorious Victories of Amde-Tsion.
• Last document, the Chronicle of Abeto Iyasu and Empress Zewditu.
• Chronicles incorporate both legends and facts about the monarch’s genealogy, upbringing, military exploits, piety, and statesmanship, past and contemporary.

Arabic Accounts

• Written accounts of Arabic-speaking visitors offer useful insights into various aspects of the region's history.
• Al-Masudi and Ibn Battuta described the culture, language, and trade, al-Masudi in the tenth century and Ibn Battuta in the fourteenth century.
• Two documents, composed by Yemeni writers in the 16th and 17th centuries include Futuh al Habesha.

Futuh al Habesha (The Conquest of Abyssinia)

• An eye-witness account from the 16th century.
• Composed by Shihab al-Din, recorded the conflict between the Christian Kingdom and the Muslim principalities in the 16th century.

Al-Haymi

• An eye witness account from the 17thcentury.
• He led a Yemeni delegation in 1647 to the court of Fasiledes (r. 1632-67).

Aba Bahrey

• Wrote a Ge'ez script on the History of the Oromo.
• Written in 1593.
• Provides first-hand information about the Oromo population movement.

European Missionaries and Travelers

• They significantly contributed to the development of Ethiopian historiography.
• From the early sixteenth to the late nineteenth centuries missionaries (Catholics and Protestants) supplied sources of value.
• Some missionary sources covered religious and political developments, including the country's foreign relations.
• The Prester John of the Indies, composed by the Portuguese priest F. Alvarez.
• Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile by James Bruce is an example of travel documents.
• Hiob Ludolf (1.1624-1704), a German, established Ethiopian studies in Europe in the seventeenth century.
• He wrote Historia Aethiopica (A New History of ...).

August Dillman

• Published two studies on ancient Ethiopian history in the 19th century.
• Showed objectivity.
• Traditional Ethiopian writers consciously distanced themselves from chroniclers accused of adulatory tone when writing about monarchs.
• They discussed a range of topics, from social justice and administrative reform to economic analysis and history.

Early Group of Writers

• Includes Aleqa Taye Gebre-Mariam and his "Yeityopia Hizb Tarik".
• Aleqa Asme Giorgis and his "Ye Oromo Tarik".
• Onesmus Nasib translated the Bible into Afan Oromo.
• Debtera Fisseha-Giorgis Abyezgi wrote a history of Ethiopia.

Prominent Writers

• Negadrases Afework Gebre-Iyesus wrote the first Amharic novel, Tobiya.
• Gebre-Hiwot Baykedagn wrote Atse Menilekna Ityopia and Mengistna Yehizb Astedader.
• Blatten Geta Hiruy Wolde-Selassie was the most prolific writer of the early 20th century.
• Gebre-Hiwot and Hiruy showed relative objectivity and methodological sophistication.

Tekle-Tsadik Mekuria

• Bridged pre-1935 writers and later Ethiopian professional historians.
• He published approximately eight historical works.
• He made a better evaluation of historical sources than his predecessors.
• Yilma Deressa wrote A History of Ethiopia in the 16th century.
• His book addresses the Oromo population movement.

Blatten Geta Mahteme Selassie Wolde-Meskel

• Wrote Zikre Neger (Things Remembered).
• Is a comprehensive account of Ethiopia’s prewar land tenure systems and taxation.
• The book fails to capture localised circumstances, responses, and conflicts.
• Is silent on the impacts of government regulations on resource control.
• Gebre-Wold Engidawork wrote about land tenure.
• Dejazmach Kebede Tesema wrote Yetarik Mastawesha in 1962 E.C.

1960s

• Was a turning point in Ethiopian historiography through the academic discipline of history.
• Pursuit of historical studies as occupation opening Department of History at Haile Selassie I University (HSIU) in 1963.
• The Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) is another central institution for historiography in Ethiopia.
• Professionalization of history in Horn of Africa is a post-colonial events.
• Establishing independent nations led rapidly to interest in African populations.

Decolonization

• African historiography requires new research of historical past.
• Involve approach critical use of oral data.
• Use of supplementary disciplines archeology, anthropology and linguistics.
• Research was done at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.
• Also at the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Francophone scholars have been influential as Anglophones.
• African historiography included of Europeans.
• Despite and many Africans studied overseas for training.

Geographical Context

• Ethiopian history shaped others colonialism and systems.
• Evolution factors influence historical factors.
• From Danakil to Ras Dajan show geological diversities (4620m-(-116m)= 4736masl

Problems of Ethiopian Historiography

• Mainly concerns the elite with little mention about ordinary people.
• Focus on North Ethiopian regions.
• Consists of mere descriptions.
• Largely focuses on war history.
• Much of Ethiopian history foreign knowledge.
• Much of Ethiopian history was written knowledge.