Pioneers Of Change In Ethiopia: The Reformist Intellectuals of the Early Twentieth Century

by Bahru Zewde

In this exciting new study, Bahru Zewde, one of the foremost historians of modern Ethiopia, has constructed a collective biography of a remarkable group of men and women in a formative period of their country’s history. Ethiopia’s political independence at the end of the nineteenth century put this new African state in a position to determine its own levels of engagement with the West. Ethiopians went to study in universities around the world. They returned with the skills of their education acquired in Europe and America, and at home began to lay the foundations of a new literature and political philosophy. Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia describes the role of these men and women of ideas in the social and political transformation of the young nation and later in the administration of Haile Selassie.

Genres: Ethiopia, Africa

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Professor Bahru Zewde is a distinguished historian of Ethiopia and Africa. He received his B.A. with distinction from the Haile Selassie I University (1970) and his PhD from the University of London (1976). He has taught at the Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (USA), Hamburg University (Germany), and has served as director of the Institute of Ethiopia Studies at Addis Ababa University, editor of the Journal of Ethiopian Studies, the Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review, and Africa Review of Books and as member of the International Advisory Board of the Journal of African History, president of the Association of Ethiopian Historians, resident vice-president of the Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA), and first vice-president of the Association of African Historians. Currently, he serves as the executive director of the Forum for Social Studies (Ethiopia) and a board member of Trust Africa.

He authored widely acclaimed books (including A History of Modern Ethiopia 1855-1991 (2001) and Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia: The Reforming Intellectuals of the Early Twentieth Century (2002), edited a book entitled Between the Jaws of Hyenas: A Diplomatic History of Ethiopia 1876-1896 (2002), co-edited a book (Ethiopia: The Challenge of Democracy from Below (2002), and compiled A Short History of Ethiopia and the Horn (1998). He is also the author of more than 30 articles and book chapters.

Professor Bahru has received numerous awards and fellowships including the British Council Scholarship, British Academy Fellowship, a French Government research grant, and Japan Foundation fellowship. He was USIA/NEH visiting scholar at Boston University and visiting fellow at St. Cross College and St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University. He is also the recipient of the Golden Jubilee Award for “diligence, exemplary conduct and outstanding contribution” from Addis Ababa University.

Reviews

[Jared Donis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nobody in Ethiopian intellectual circle can write as eloquently as professor Bahru Zewde. The lucidity of his ideas is just impressive. I read ‘The Quest for Socialist Utopia’ a few years ago and I had similar impressions. Here, chapter one alone taught me a lot about the aspirations of modernization in many countries that were almost similar to Ethiopia’s social and political trajectory.

As you read through the chapters, you can’t help but feel the passion of our pioneer intellectuals. It is painfully regrettable that we lost and wasted the numerous opportunities to genuinely transform our country and escape humiliating poverty.

I was also surprised to discover that much of the disenchantment I feel about Ethiopia these days had been shared and articulated by many of the intellectuals that era. Salute to that generation!

Professor Bahru Zewde, you are a formidable intellectual and a born-historian with refined storytelling skills. Your rare intellect is deeply enviable.

As a final note, it took the professor decades to complete this book. You can just imagine the strength and resilience of the man! This alone is enough to award it 5 stars. Excellent work.

ይህንን መጽሐፍ አንብቤ ስጨርስ የተሰማኝን ስሜት ሎሬት ፀጋዬ ገብረመድኅን በግጥሙ አስታወሰኝ፦

ያለፈ ጥረታችንን፥ ሳስታምመው ትዝ ሲለኝ
ከሞከርነው ነገር ይልቅ፥ ያልሞከርነው ነው የሚቆጨኝ።

[Misterawi Bahatawi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed survey of the burgeoning intelligentsia of early modern Ethiopia. Professor Zewde offers great insight into the varying intellectual currents and impassioned reformers of Atse Menelik and Janhoys reign.


Professor Zewde presents the varying views of the clerically educated conservative liqawent and their more worldly foreign educated compatriots and their joint sometimes fraught attempt to bring modernity to the country in the form of technology and administrative reforms. With detailed accounts of the court politics and intrigue that often hindered such steps.
He provides much needed historical background to the development greatly yearned for by Ethiopia but which still eludes us.

[Kamran Sehgal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A view of Ethiopian history through the actions and views of its intellectuals. Too often are works on history based on the actions of kings and kingmakers; it is refreshing to find a book that gives insight into the intellectual history of a third world nation

Each writer is given due Creedence for his motivations in this trying period of Ethiopian history and the author displays little attempt at passing his own judgment.

I would recommend for anyone deeply interested in the intellectual and development of Ethiopia during the last century. A great read that helped me significantly for my research paper!

[Stephen Miletus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prior to the disastrous Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Ethiopia attempted to confront the challenge of a Western World that was far more technologically advanced, and had threatened the existence of that country. Part of that response was developing the physical infrastructure of that mountainous country, part was developing an educated elite. Bahru Zewde, Professor of History at Addis Ababa University describes the all-too-brief history of Ethiopia's intellectual response in this far-too-brief book.

One can divide this response into several different schools of thought. One school was the traditionalists, who defended the ideals of the peoples who had embraced Christianity as early as the 4th century AD, a largely oral tradition. Another was the Westerners, sent to Europe and North America to become doctors, engineers, and agricultural experts. And a third group, who deserve more attention from ferengi students of Ethiopia, were the Japanists, who looked to Japan as an example of a non-Western country that managed to rapidly modernize without losing its identity and critical elements of its culture.

Implicit in this book is a chronic tragedy of Ethiopian history--the periodic loss of their educated elite. This happened at least as early as the destructive jihad of Imam Ahmad Gragn in the 16th century, and as late as the Ethiopian Revolution in the last century. Following the Italians gained control of Ethiopia in 1936, every Ethiopian who had graduated from a Western college or university still in Ethiopia was murdered by the Fascist Italians.

One oversight, which I only noticed in retrospect, is a lack of attention to the Moslem members of Ethiopia. Obviously their members were aware of the threat the West had on their society, and obviously intellectuals emerged in their portion of the country, yet Bahru Zewde fails to mention as single name from their part of that country.

Nevertheless, anyone interested in reading about African history as written by an African can do far worse than any book Bahru Zewde has written.