The Art of Gabre Kristos Desta: an Important Offer that Should be Accepted! Gabre Kristos Desta, who studied in Germany, was one post-World War II Ethiopia’s best known artists. He was also a prominent teacher at Ethiopia’s School of Fine Arts. When he died, in Oklahoma, in the United States in 1981, it was his wish that those of his paintings which were still in his possession should be returned to his beloved Ethiopia. That this was his ardent wish…

Almost thirty years ago, in what some people like to call the Good Old Days, Dr Walter Harrelson, Dean of the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, visited Ethiopia in search of manuscripts of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. While in Addis Ababa, he met His Holiness Abuna Theophilus, the then Acting Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, who suggested to his American visitor that funds might be sought to microfilm all manuscripts in Ethiopia, thus enabling scholars with varied interests to…

Ethiopia posseses, as we have more than once urged in these pages, a vast historical heritage, which, we would insist, has up to now been insufficiently studied, and exploited. The Gadl This week we turn our attention to one particular Ethiopian historical source: the Gadl, or Saint’s Life. Ethiopia, over the centuries, had numerous holy men (and also a few women!), who lived what were considered holy lives, founded monasteries, and were remembered with affection, devotion and/or admiration by their disciples…

Addis Ababa has many missing statues! Such is our theme for our essay today. Tewodros Look, to start with, at Addis Ababa’s Tewodros Square. You drive up Churchill Road, past the Post Office, and the French school, both of them on the right; and you come to Tewodros “square”, or, if you like “circle”, and what do you see? Nothing! The plan, never implemented, was to erect a statue there in memory of Emperor Tewodros II. A first drawing for…

Ethiopia is in many ways remarkable in possessing lands of greatly varying altitude, and hence of widely differing climate. Traditionally the areas of differing altitude in which these lands were situated were known as Qolla, or Lowlands, Dega, or Lands of Considerable Elevation, and Wayna Dega, literally “Grape Highlands”, or lands of intermediary elevation. Temperature, Rainfall and Climate Temperature and rainfall also varied very greatly. The country thus included cold mountains, in some places at times covered with snow, and…

Addis Ababa – Almost thirty years ago, in what some people like to call the Good Old Days, Dr Walter Harrelson, Dean of the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, visited Ethiopia in search of manuscripts of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. While in Addis Ababa, he met His Holiness Abuna Theophilus, the then Acting Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, who suggested to his American visitor that funds might be sought to microfilm all manuscripts in Ethiopia, thus enabling scholars with…

We have had occasion in previous articles to draw attention to the sapling trees, and other vegetation, which have been allowed to grow in Ethiopian historic buildings, in many parts of the country, thereby endangering their future existence. A case in point is the vegetation in and around the historic temple of Yeha, a building discussed, and described at some length, in previous issues of “Addis Tribune” – where allusion has also been made to the question of the trees!…

Professor Richard Pankhurst writes: Mr Thomas Lampton, of Queensland, Australia, commenting on our recent article on Ethiopian National Archives(Addis Tribune, 7 May), says: “Why trouble yourself, Professor: You should take a more optimistic view of life: if they muddle together Ethiopia’s National Archives and Ethiopia’s National Library, and thus make a mess of both institutions, it may be an unmitigated disaster to the cause of Ethiopian studies, but it will not be without some little interest as a bibligraphical folly. The…

Last week we drew attention to the deplorable state of the former palace and royal church at Danqaz, one of Ethiopia’s principal early seventeenth century capitals. Today we turn to the unique church of Bahrey Gemb, some thirty kilometres south of Gondar, just off the highway to Bahr Dar. This remarkable building, which dates back perhaps to the late eighteenth century, has long interested scholars. It is a structure of considerable importance for the reconstruction of Ethiopian history, and could…