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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Anthropology and Empire in Post-Italian Ethiopia: Makonnen Desta and the Imagination of an Ethiopian 'We-Race'
Author:Zitelmann, ThomasISNI
Year:2001
Periodical:Paideuma
Volume:47
Pages:161-179
Language:English
Geographic term:Ethiopia
Subjects:race relations
anthropology
Ethnic and Race Relations
Anthropology and Archaeology
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/40341813
Abstract:This article presents Makonnen Desta's ideas of an Ethiopian 'we-race'. Makonnen Desta (c. 1910/11-1966) was probably the first Western-trained anthropologist to come from Ethiopia. He became a member of the imperial government of Ethiopia after the liberation of the country from Italian colonialism (1936-1941). The article focuses on a meeting in 1943 between the social anthropologist Siegfried Nadel, then a British Military District Commissioner in Eritrea, and Makonnen Desta, Ethiopian Minister of Education. During that meeting Desta talked about his ideas of an Ethiopian 'we-race': The great racial diversity in Ethiopia cannot be explained by migrations. The Ethiopian is the generalized type of humanity, from which all other races have sprung and diversified themselves. Nadel later noted in his diary that Desta's theory 'is really too silly for serious consideration'. The meeting between Nadel and Desta was not just an encounter between different individuals, pursuing different political ends and interests. It was also an encounter between two 'agencies' with a background in different anthropological traditions. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum.
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