Understanding history: uses and sources

• History is derived from the Greek word "Istoria," meaning "inquiry".
• Academically, history involves the organized and systematic study, discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events.
• A major concern of history is the study of human society and its interaction with the natural environment.
• History studies the interaction between humans and their environment in the past.

Uses of Studying History

• History helps understand the present.
• History provides a sense of identity.
• Studying history develops key research skills like finding, evaluating sources, arguing with evidence, and clear writing.
• History helps develop tolerance and open-mindedness.
• History supplies an endless source of fascination.

Historical Sources

• Primary sources are original traces of the past available in the present, like manuscripts, diaries, letters, minutes, files, documents, photographs, maps, videos, artifacts, coins, fossils, weapons, utensils, and buildings.
• Secondary sources are second-hand published accounts about past events, written long after they occurred, providing interpretations based on primary sources.
• Examples of secondary sources include articles, books, textbooks, biographies, and published stories or movies about historical events.
• Primary information should be critically assessed before it is used as evidence.

Historiography

• Historiography is defined as the history of historical writing, studying how knowledge of the past is obtained and transmitted.
• Ancient Greek historians like Herodotus and Thucydides were the first to organize the study and narration of the past.
• Chinese historical thought's early figure was Sima Qian of the Han dynasty (145–86 B.C.E.).
• History became an academic discipline in Europe and the US in the second half of the nineteenth century.
• Leopold Von Ranke (1795–1886), a German historian, established history as an independent discipline in Berlin.
• Leopold Von Ranke is known as the "father of modern historiography" due to his contribution to the scientific study of the past.
• The earliest known reference to the history of Ethiopia and the Horn is the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, a 1st-century A.D. work by an anonymous author.
• Cosmas Indicopleustes, a Greek sailor, wrote Christian Topography in the sixth century A.D., documenting Aksum's trade and Aksumite campaigns.

Ethiopian Sources

• Abba Gerima monastery in Yeha contains the earliest written Ethiopian material from the seventh century A.D.
• A thirteenth-century A.D. manuscript was discovered in Haiq Istifanos monastery in Wollo.
• Hagiographies originating from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church are the largest group of sources available for medieval Ethiopian history.
• Hagiographies are written in Ge'ez and seek to enhance the prestige of saints.
• Muslim communities had their parallel form of hagiographies.
• Shaykh Ja’far Bukko of Gattira's life in Wollo during the late nineteenth century is documented in an account that offers insight into the development of indigenous Islam and contacts between the region’s Muslim community and the outside world.
• Chronicles are an indigenous tradition of history writing in Ethiopia.
• Chronicles first appeared in the Ethiopian Ge'ez tongue in the fourteenth century and continued in Amharic into the early twentieth.
• "The Glorious Victories of Amde-Tsion" and "The Chronicle of Abeto Iyasu and Empress Zewditu" are the earliest and latest surviving documents.
• Chronicles include legends, facts, monarchy genealogy, military exploits, statements and character details.
• Al-Masudi and Ibn Battuta described the culture, language, and trade of the east African coast in the tenth and fourteenth centuries, respectively.
• Futuh al Habesha was written by Shihab al-Din, about the conflict between the Christian kingdom and the Muslim principalities in the sixteenth century.
• Al-Haymi, who led a Yemeni delegation in 1647 to the court of Fasiledas (r. 1632-67), left a first-hand account.
• Missionaries helped in the development of Ethiopian historiography
• Missionaries maintained links with Europe.
• The sources of missionaries provided information covering religious and political developments, including foreign relations.
• Francisco Alvarez, a Portuguese priest accompanying a mission to Lebne-Dengel in 1520, wrote The Prester John of the Indies.
• James Bruce’s Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile is an example of travel documents.
• Missionary and traveler materials can be socially and politically biased.

Professionalization

• The professionalization of history in other parts of the Horn is a post-colonial phenomenon.
• Decolonizing African historiography required new methods.

Geographical Context

• "Ethiopia and the Horn" consists of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
• The region mainly consists of mountains from the Great Rift Valley.
• The physiographic makeup includes highlands, plateaus, the Great Rift Valley, lowlands, semi-deserts, deserts, and tropical forests.
• The physical and climate diversity led to variations in vegetation, soil, and settlement patterns.
• The people of the region speak many languages and practice various religions.
• The history of Ethiopia and the Horn is shaped by contacts through commerce, migrations, wars, slavery, colonialism, and state systems.
• Human history evolved through location, landforms, resources, climate, and drainage.
• The drainage systems of Ethiopia and the Horn are the Nile River, Gibe/Omo-Gojeb, Genale/Jubba-Shebele, the Awash River, and the Ethiopian Rift Valley Lakesystems.

Peoples and Cultures in Ethiopia and the Horn

• Early societies, including those that engaged in food production, tool-making, and religious practices, originated in Ethiopia and the Horn.
• East African Rift Valley is considered the origin for the evolution of humanity,
• Lower Omo and Middle Awash River valleys are where evidence has been discovered.
• Chororapithecus, fossils dating back ten million years B. P. , was found in Anchar (West Hararghe) in 2007.
• Ardipithicus Ramiduskadabba (5.8-5.2 million years BP) was discovered in Middle Awash.
• Ardipithicus ramidus (4.2 million B.P.) was discovered at Aramis in Afar in 1994.
• Australopithecines were uncovered at Belohdelie (3.6 million years B. P.) in Middle Awash.
• Australopithecus afarensis (Selam) dated to 3.3 million years B.P. was also discovered at Dikika, Mille, Afar in 2000.
• An Australopithecus afarnesis (Lucy/Dinkinesh, 3.18 million years B. P.) fossil was discovered at Hadar in Afar in 1974 A. D.
• Lake Turkana is where the fossil Australopithecus Anamensis was discovered.
• Australopithecus Garhi was discovered at Bouri, Middle Awash, between 1996 and 1999, dating back 2.5 million years B.P.
• Genus Homo marked the next stage of human brain evolution, believed to emerged 2-2.5 million years B.P.
• The Lower Omo yielded a partial skull of Homo habilis, dating back 1.9 million years B. P.
• Homo erectus (1. 6 million years B. P.) was discovered at Melka Kunture, Konso Gardula and Gadeb.
• Homo erectus seems to have originated in Africa and then spread out to the rest of the world
• Bodo (400, 000 years B.P.) with a brain size of 1300-1400cc was discovered in Middle Awash.
• Fossils of Homo sapiens sapiens (100, 000 years B.P.) were discovered at Porc Epic near Dire Dawa, and Kibish around Lower Omo (in 1967).
• Kibish fossils were re-dated to 195, 000 B. P. in 2004.
• Homo sapiens Idaltu, found in Middle Awash in 1997, lived about 160, 000 years B.P
• Cultural evolution is related to technological changes that brought socio-economic transformation to human life, it can be conventionally grouped in to Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age.
• Stone tools were the first technologies developed by human beings.
• Stone tools include Mode I (Olduwan), Mode II (Acheulean), and Mode III (Sangoon).
• Mode I stone tools are characterized by crude and mono-facial styles, produced via direct percussion.
• Mode II stone tools are characterized by bifacial, pointed and convex features, produced via indirect percussion, using hand-ax or hammer.
• Obsidian is used in Mode III stone tools.
• Mobile to sedentary life was a radical shift.
• Humans domesticated plants and animals during the Neolithic.
• Domestication took place independently.
• People cultivated plants including Teff (Eragrotis teff), dagussa (Eleusine coracana), nug (Guzotia abyssinica), enset (Ensete ventricosum), etc.
• Enset domestication reduced shifting cultivation and slowing soil exhaustion.
• Emba-Fakeda, Aqordat, and Barentu evince Neolithic material culture.
• Agricultural stone tools have been discovered at the Gobodara rock shelter near Aksum and at Lalibela Cave, on the southeastern shore of Lake Tana
• Stone tools have been found at Laga Oda rock shelter near Charchar.
• Lake Basaqa is an example of the region from which domesticated cattle comes from.
• Populations include the Sudan, Cyrenaica in Libya, Futajalon etc.
• Evidence for domesticated cattle includes Nidamawa and Zebu (Bos indicus) cattle.
• Ethiopia and the Horn show ethnic and linguistic diversity.
• There are about 90 languages and 200 dialects.
• Languages are classified into Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan.
• The Afro-Asiatic super family is divided into Cusitic, Semitic, and Omotic.
• Cusitic is further linguistically divided into four branches: Northern, Central, Eastern, and Southern.
• Semitic is divided into North: Ge'ez, Rashaida Tigre, Tigrigna and South: Amharic, Argoba, Harari, Silte, Wolane and Zay, Gafat, plus Gurage and Mesmes.
• Omotic include: Anfillo, Ari, Bambasi, Banna, Basketo, Bench, Boro-Shinasha, Chara, Dawuro, Dime, Dizi, Dorze, Gamo, Ganza, Gayil, Gofa, Hamer, Hozo, KachamaGanjule, Karo, Keficho, Konta, Korete, Male, Melo, Nayi, Oyda, Sezo, Shekkacho, Sheko, Wolayta, Yem,Zayse etc.
• Nilo-Saharan includes: Anywa, Berta, Gumuz, Kacipo-Balesi, Komo, Kunama, Kwama, Kwegu,Majang, Mi'en, Murle, Mursi, Nara, Nu'er, Nyangatom, Opo, Shabo, Suri and Uduk.
• Linguistic migrations, warfare, trade, religion and urbanization have affected language classification.
• In Northeast Africa, long historical happenings have resulted in the distribution of peoples across the landscape.
• Highlands and lowlands are populated by different groups.
• Linguistic and historical factors, combined with environmental, socio-economic, and political processes, have shaped peoples spatial distribution in the Northeast.
• The domestication of plants and animals led humanity to agriculture and pastoralism.
• Farming and herding are interrelated
• Ethiopia's terrain and climatic conditions greatly influenced its economic activity.
• Plateau have sustained plough agriculture for thousands of years.
• Cushites, Semites and Omotic groups began in 10,000 years B. P.
• The Omotic groups’ agricultural and commerce activities took place in northern Omo, while the southern Omo practiced pastoralism and fishing.
• metallurgy, weaving , and other crafts were developed by Omotic groups.
• The eastern lowland economy relied on pastoralism.
• The Afar, Saho and Somali as well as Karayu and Borana Oromo herd camel, goat, and cattle.
• Reliance on rivers such as Awash, Wabi Shebelle and Genale.
• The western lowland economy was sparsley populated.
• Economic activities include pastoralism, shifting agriculture, fishing, apiculture and hunting.
• Sorghum, millet, and cotton were actively cultivated, especially along Ethio-Sudanese.
• Along the Blue Nile and Baro-Akobo Rivers, the Nilotes depended on sorghum because it was their staple food.
• Higher values are attached to cattle.
• Trade took place between Berta, Nilotes, and northern Sudan.
• There are four main religious dynamics in Ethiopia and the Horn: Indegenious Religion, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.