Missionary education in Ethiopia developed rapidly throughout the nineteenth century. One of the first missionary schools of the period was founded in Shawa, in the 1830s, by the London-based German Protestant missionaries Isenberg and Krapf. The language of instruction was Amharic. A generation later three other Protestant missionaries, Flad, Brandais and Staiger, operated small schools …
We saw last week that a number of young Ethiopians went abroad for study abroad, in the nineteenth century, some, but by no means all, under missionary auspices. Now read on: Mikael Aragawi One of several young Ethiopians educated by Protestant missionaries, in the second half of the nineteenth century, was, as we saw last …
A second missionary printing effort was made in the following decade at Keren, then under Egyptian suzerainty. The French Lazarists installed a small press there in 1879, and began printing missionary works. These included a Psalter and Hymn Book, in Amharic; a Ge’ez-Amharic grammar, and several religious works. Among the latter were books on Christian …
We saw last week that Ethiopia had a long established system of Church education, in which students advanced from one stage to the next. Now read on about specialised studies: Memorisation After the students had been read and studied the Psalms, the Qal Timhert, or oral lessons, would begin. The whole of Psalms would be …
Pre-war’s Ethiopia’s educational system began to take shape after the Emperor Haile Sellassie’s coronation in 1930. At that time a Ministry of Education and Fine Arts was established under Blattengetta Sahlu Sedalu, a former graduate of the Menilek School. The Ministry’s First Secretary was Ato Kidina Mariam Aberra. The Ministry, according to Zervos, was then …
The 1920s, as we saw last week, were a time when increasing numbers of young Ethiopians were despatched for study abroad. This policy was actively promoted by the then ruler, the Regent and Heir to the Throne, Ras Tafari Makonnen. His attitude to this educational enterprise is apparent from a speech which he made, on …
Having looked, in recent weeks, at photography in Ethiopia in the nineteenth century, we turn now to the twentieth century. The Opening Years of the Twentieth Century The opening years of the Twentieth Century witnessed the advent of increasing numbers of photographer-travellers. Hugues Le Roux A Frenchman Hugues Le Roux, who made his way westwards …
We saw last week that Ethiopian education advanced significantly in the 1920s, and that the then ruler, the Regent, Ras Tafari Makonnen, identified himself passionately with the idea of its modernisation. We must now turn to parallel – and no less important – developments in the field of printing. Prize-giving Before doing so, however, let …
The founding of the Tafari Makonnen School, mentioned in last week’s issue, was followed, in January 1926, by the introduction, by Regent Tafari, of an Education Tax. Based on a six per cent ad valorum tax on all imports and exports, it was expected to raise a revenue of 240,000 Maria Theresa dollars a year. …
Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the period under discussion in this series of articles, a small number of Ethiopian ecclesiastics visited Jerusalem, where there was an Ethiopian Convent. It seldom housed less than a score of Ethiopians, and sometimes at least twice as many. Most of the inmates knew only their own languages, but …