Ethiopia, as is generally known, has a long history of drought, famine and epidemics. Such calamities, thanks to the Ethiopian Synaxarium, or Book of Saints, can be traced back to early medieval times, and can be identified for many centuries, through the Ethiopian royal chronicles, Lives of Saints and foreign travel literature. Detailed studies of recent famines can also be found in the recent classic “Rural Vulnerability to Famine in Ethiopia”, by Professor Mesfin Wolde Mariam. For a real understanding…

The renowned Japanese photographer, Kazuyoshi Nomachi who holds many photographic awards, has just produced a masterly photographic book on Ethiopia. Entitled “Bless Ethiopia”, it is published by Odyssey Publishers, of Hong Kong, and contains 160 stunning colour photographs of Ethiopia’s most beautiful scenery, historic sites, and varied highland and lowland people. The work, which is full of superb printed photographs, covers most of the country, is conceived with Japanese tenderness for Ethiopia, and comprises chapters on “Lalibela Pilgrimage”, “Life in…

Published by Blackwell Publishers, of Oxford, England, it forms one of their “Peoples of Africa” series. The volume, entitled “The Ethiopians”, covers the entire period of Ethiopian history from Lucy to the fall of Mengistu Haile Mariam. There are thus chapters on such subjects as “Punt, Pharaohs and Ptolemies, the Aksumite Kingdom, and the Coming of Christianity”; “The Rise and Fall of Gondar”; and ‘Beginnings of Modernisation: Menilek, Iyasu, Zawditu and Liberation”. The work also contains a wide range of…