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| Title: | Contemporary Ethiopian discourse on Islamic history: the politics of historical representation |
| Author: | Carmichael, Tim |
| Year: | 1996 |
| Periodical: | Islam et sociétés au Sud du Sahara |
| Issue: | 10 |
| Pages: | 169-186 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Ethiopia |
| Subjects: | documents Islam Muslim-Christian relations |
| Abstract: | In this article the author discusses historical accounts, written anonymously by and for Muslims, which treat the history of Islam in Ethiopia and relations between Muslims and Christians in the country. The first document, an Arabic typescript, was circulating in Harer in early 1994. The second text comprises a series of articles written in Amharic and published in late 1992/early 1993 in 'Bilal', the first Islamic magazine of Ethiopia, produced in Addis Abeba. These histories provide examples of two contradictory approaches to representing the past. The first seeks to exacerbate Ethiopian social and religious differences and appeals most strongly to those who live in the provinces. The second encourages national unity and is embraced most warmly by residents of the capital. The author is further concerned with the consequences of the oral transmission of the ideas advanced in the documents and the power of these ideas to shape social relations and daily interaction. He regards the texts as two sides of a discoursal struggle and draws on theoretic literature on orality and literacy to explore the relationship between this discourse and the cultures and ideologies it reflects and to demonstrate how political culture mediates historical representation. Notes, ref. |
