Ethiopia a Century and a Half Ago We saw last week that foreign medicines had long been in great demand in Ethiopia. We saw also that, by the middle of the nineteenth century, such medicines were relatively well known, and relatively much used, at the country’s more important towns, particularly in governing and related circles. …
The Medical Activities in the Early 19th Century Successors We saw last week that the rulers and people of Ethiopia had long been interested in foreign medical practice of all kinds. Valuable evidence of this is to be found in the writings of foreign travellers, who were frequently approached by Ethiopians of all classes requiring …
The Medical Activities of James Bruce, and his 19th Century Successors The rulers of Ethiopia, as we saw last week, had long been interested in foreign medicines, and foreign medical practice of all kinds. This was, as we have already suggested, no less apparent in the eighteenth century, at the time of the visit to …
Medical Activities in Early Times Though Ethiopia long had its own system of medical lore, and a remarkably extensive local traditional pharmacopoeia, the people of the country were for centuries deeply interested in foreign medical practices of all kinds. The Sixteenth Century Evidence of Ethiopia’s historic thirst for foreign medicine can be traced back to …
Ethiopian students over many years have often asked why the British, after defeating Emperor Tewodros at Maqdala, in 1868, did not stay on in the country, and make it a “colony”, “protectorate”, “condominium” or “sphere of influence”. I always gave three answers: 1. That the British had promised from the outset that they would leave …
In recent issues we have been examining various innovations of Menilek’s time. Other innovations of this period, in the cultural field, included the founding of the first Amharic newspaper Aimro in 1902 and the establishment of a Government printing press in 1911. The Russian Red Cross Hospital There were also innovations to chronicle on the …
“Very Difficult Precedent” Later that same day, 11 July, one of the Foreign Office officials, Mr. J. Murray, duly reported on the visit to Sir Amherst Selby Bigge, of the Board of Education, and what he had learnt from him. He noted: “It appears that there are two crowns, the first a highly ornate …
The Fall of Maqdala The British capture of Maqdala, Emperor Tewodros’s mountain capital in north-west Ethiopia, took place on 13 1868, immediately after the Ethiopian monarch committed suicide to avoid falling into the hands of his enemies. The fall of the citadel was described by an Ethiopian royal chronicler, Alaqa Walda Mariam, who, looking at …
The question of the return to Greece of the Elgin Marbles has recently re-erupted in the British press, with an article by one Philip Hensher in support of restitution, which appeared in the “Independent” newspaper, in London.. On that occasion the “Independent, on 31 August, published a letter from Professor Richard and Mrs Rita Pankhurst …
During the Italian fascist occupation of Ethiopia, 1936-1941, the invaders looted not only the Aksum obelisk (which should have been returned in 1947-8, in accordance with the United Nations-Italian Peace, and in 1997, in accordance with the more recent Italian agreement with the present Ethiopian Government). The Italians also carried off an indeterminate quantity of …