Ethiopian Literature In English 673x5a

ETHIOPIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH Definition, Origin and Development

To be studied under this course A particular work has to be ‘literature’ in the first place • Literature – Literature is one of the greatest creative and universal means of communicating the emotional, spiritual or intellectual concerns of mankind • The sum total of creative writing plus the various oral literatures (Ethio oral lit in Eng?) • ‘Ethiopian’ - the issue of being Ethiopian is not as such simple to define

The Issue of Being Ethiopian • Geographical framework • Nationality of the writer • The language of composition - Written in one of Ethiopian

local languages or foreign language • The subject matter/content –the life portrayed through the work (reflecting Ethiopian culture, custom, attitude, value, ideology, etc.) • Characteristics- didacticism/group orientation, describing the general/the typical people and experiences vs. the special/the unusual/the extra ordinary

Delineation of Ethiopian Literature • Thematic Concerns • The setting – the place should be Ethiopian and time

• • • •

should be a certain significant moment in Ethiopian history Experiences originating in Ethiopia Genres – all literary genres or few basic ones? Should it be confined to great books – exclude the mediocre and shoddy works? The issue of translations - works translated into/from foreign languages

Origin and Development • Literature in European languages evolved in Ethiopia in • • • • •

early 1960s Colonialism as a cause for using the English language in many Anglophone African countries Ethiopian writers long used to write in their indigenous languages (a huge corpus of vernacular literature) Ethiopian literature in English appears to be suffering from stunted growth Vernacular literature has long established tradition traceable back to centuries Ethiopian literature in English is still in its infancy regardless of its age (beginning in the 1950s)

Origin. . . • Ethiopian literature falls into three broad categories:

classical literature, including historical narratives, heroic poetry, and works of philosophical reflection cast in an imaginative mode; romantic and political literature in Amharic, and, since the Second World War, the new literature in English. • The classical literature is expressed in Ge’ez, a Semitic language that is also the oldest written language in Africa, with its unique orthography going back nearly two thousand years. • The Holy Bible and all other Christian texts have been translated into Ge’ez, which survives today as the language of the Ethiopian clergy; in this respect, it has a status similar to Latin in the western world.

Origin . . . • Ordinary Ethiopians neither spoke nor wrote in Ge’ez.

Therefore, the texts written in that language did not seep into the soul of the people, and did not produce a national literary culture. • The classical literary texts, hymns, and songs circulate today only among the priestly class and highly specialized students and teachers of Ge’ez. • This is part of the reason that the modern Ethiopian state which emerged in the late nineteenth century had to forge a new language aimed at producing a popular national culture through the medium of Amharic.

Traditional Ethiopian Literature • Traditional Ethiopian Literature • In local languages • largely religious in nature • Much of it came from the traditions of Egypt’s Coptic Christian church • Geez continued to be the medium of literary expression until 1850 • Emperor Zara Ya’iqob (1434-1468) the most productive author of traditional Ethiopian literature • The 1300s to 1400s – the golden age of Geez literature

Classical Ethiopian Literature • This category comprises a substantial number of

devotional books, many of them works translated from foreign sources. • They include biblical scriptures, exegesis, service books of the Coptic church, texts detailing the lives of saints of the Universal Church who flourished before the schism at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 ce and of saints of the Coptic church, especially the Desert Fathers, and homilies by the early Church Fathers, such as John Chrysostom, Athanasius of Alexandria, Severus of Antioch, and Cyril of Alexandria (Haile 1995:40).

Traditional . . . • Ethiopian literature – was dominated by translations in the

beginning (creativity in those days translations is actually worth applauding) • Geez Poetry (though religious in subject matter) could be mentioned as the first original literary piece in the country.

Traditional . . . • It is only after Emperor Tewodros decreed Amharic to be

the official language of the country that Amharic widely became a literary medium • Even though some scholars arguably describe that Ethiopian literature is a bit more advanced than the literature of Sub-Saharan African • It didn’t develop as it should due to two reasons • The country being at war – defending the territory and internal strife • The domination of Geez (its limitation to religious and historical

aspects) • Geez was religious in intent and content starting from the earliest days.

Traditional . . . • Ethiopian literature didn’t get international attention

because it was mostly written in local languages • Ethiopian literature does not conform to the rest of Blank African literature. Discuss. •

Romantic and political literature • After the fall of the imperial regime and the rise of

socialism, in spite of censorship and restrictions in the two decades after the 1974 revolution – unprecedented outpouring of fictional literature in Amharic was witnessed in Ethiopia • With low prices, books reached a wide audience for the first time. • Since Amharic has gradually came to be the medium of instruction in Ethiopian schools, its literature has become easily accessible to people all over the country. • Some superficial love stories with political intentions have found readers in the country

• Haddis Alemayehu – Fikir Eske Mekabir • Bealu Girma – Ye key Kokeb Tiri, Oromay, Ke as

Bashager • Dagnachew Worku – Adefris

• As in other parts of Africa, Ethiopian literature has been

geared toward utilitarian value, to influence people and shape a better society.