Foreign Drinks – and Drunkenness We saw last week that foreign alcoholic drinks gained increasing popularity in Menilek’s day. This impression, based on the reports of foreign travellers, is fully confirmed in the subsequent writings of Alaqa Lamma Haylu’s son, Maaza Lamma. Discussing this development as a temperance advocate, he recalls that this was a time when a brisk trade in spirits, particularly araki, or brandy, was carried out by Greeks, who were also the first distillers on a commercial…

A Conservative Period in Ethiopian History Despite the very significant reforms, and innovations, of the reign of Yohannes discussed last week, his years were on the whole a conservative period. This, as we have seen, was at least partially due to the series of invasions, by Egyptians, Italians, and Dervishes. These made it impossible for Ethiopia to contemplate peaceful progress. The Emperor’s conservative influence seems to have extended beyond the lands directly under his rule, and was felt in far-off…

We saw last week how Emperors Tewodros and Yohannes were both, in identical or different ways, concerned with the question of modernisation. Now read on:”Do Not Wear Shoes!” Emperor Yohannes’s dislike of European-sponsored innovation, the subject of last week’s article, was further manifested when two young Ethiopians, Mika’el Aragawi and Ageje Sachlu, who had been educated abroad by missionaries, arrived at his court, wearing shoes. He is reported to have dismissed them from his presence with the words, “If you…

We saw last week that Tewodros, anxious to obtain foreign craftsmen from the British Government, succeeded in getting some employed, and sent as far as the port of Massawa. The Emperor’s continued imprisonment of the British however, led to a break-down of friendly relations. Now read on: The Craftsmen Return to Britain Because of this break-down the British Government arranged for the craftsmen at Massawa to sail home on May 11, 1867, and plans were soon made to send an…

We saw last week that Tewodros was not only a cannonmaker, but also a road-builder. Now read on: Strategic Importance The strategic significance of Tewodros’s roads is apparent from the chronicle of Alaqa Walda Maryam, which contains several revealing passages. It records that when the Emperor’s big locally-made cannon was carried to Chachaho, some 60 miles south of Gafat, it became necessary to undertake considerable blasting of the road to enable it to proceed. The quaint, but detailed, description of…

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 medical side. A Russian Red Cross hospital, operated in Addis Ababa from 1897 to 1907, but was later succeeded, in 1910, by the Menilek II…

We saw last week that Ethiopian imports, in the 1920s and 1930s, were both growing and becoming more diversified. Railway Statistics This development may be further illustrated by a comparison between the statistics compiled by the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway company for 1916, the year of Lej Iyasu’s overthrow, and 1930, the year of Ras Tafari Makonnen’s coronation as Emperor Haile Sellassie. The import of textiles, a traditional item of consumption, rose substantially from 3,573 tons to 5,901, while that of…

We saw last week that the first decades of the twentieth century witnessed many innovations in Ethiopia. Such developments, we may now observe, were particularly noticeable around 1930, the year which witnessed Emperor Haile Sellassie’s highly publicised coronation. Addis Ababa Addis Ababa, ever the site of change, underwent several important developments at this time, when, as the British journalist George Steer says, it acquired “a certain polish and in some parts a mask”. His compatriot Fan C. Dunckley, who resided…

We saw last week that the 1920s and 1930 witnessed many innovations. For others, now please read on: Radio Telegraphy The foundations of radio telegraphy, in Ethiopia, were laidin the early 1930’s. Though some of the foreign legations had earlier imported radio equipment for their own use, the Ethiopian Government did not enter the field until after Emperor Haile Sellassie’s coronation in 1930. Orders were given soon afterwards for the establishment of a temporary station, which went into operation in…

We saw last week that the innovative policies inaugurated by Emperor Menilek were continued, to some extent, during the brief reign of his grandson, Lej Iyasu. Progress suffered, however, from the many power struggles of this period. These were only partially resolved when the prince was deposed, in 1916, and replaced by a system of dual government, with Menilek’s daughter as Empress, and Ras Makonnen’s son Tafari (the future Emperor Haile Sellassie) as Heir to the Throne, and, before long,…

Last week we caught a glimpse of reformist ideas in Menilek’s Ethiopia, and quoted a little from Afawarq Gabra Iyasu’s Amharic textbook, published in Rome in 1908, which bore the innocuous title “Guide du Voyageur en Abyssinie”. Let us now look further at that work, in which a European-educated Ethiopian and a foreigner are supposedly in conversation. The foreigner now starts up a new conversation, by provocatively observing to his friend: “You who understands many things concerning Europe must be…

Difficulties with Menilek’s Currency The issue of the Menilek currency, which was initiated in 1894, was especially difficult in view of the fact that even the Maria Theresa dollar – an innovation then already three-quarters of a century old – was still not circulating well. The British ethnographer Percy Powell-Cotton recorded at the turn of the century that it was often very difficult to get the old dollar accepted. Describing a journey from Addis Ababa to Asmara, he observed: “Every…

We saw last week that Menilek’s court had very different ideas on the question of technological innovation. One such view was expressed by Ras Makonnen to the French traveller Hugues Le Roux, who suggests that the Ras was alarmed by the possible dangers of European contacts. According to the Frenchman, the Ras observed: “The Emperor welcomes (the railway) with undiluted joy. The Emperor has not seen the Kingdoms of Europe like me. He has not shuddered at the contact of…

Menilek’s reign witnessed the taking of a number of important steps to ameliorate the country’s difficult communications, as well as to reduce its isolation from the rest of the world. Bridge-Building on the Awash River, and the Tamchi The first of these innovations was the erection of a bridge over the Awash river, in 1886, by Menilek’s Swiss engineer, Alfred Ilg. This, however, was not the first such edifice built in nineteenth century Ethiopia. A couple of years earlier, in…

Emperor Menilek’s Conservative Courtiers Though Menilek was reputedly a firm friend of progress, most of his courtiers are said to have been old-fashioned in attitude. Thus a British scientist, J. I. Craig, reporting on a visit to Ethiopia, said of the Emperor, “He is highly intelligent, and … ready enough to avail himself of the advantages of western civilisation to such an extent that he is probably the most liberal statesman in his country and has frequently much difficulty in…