Ethiopia, legendary home of the Queen of Sheba who travelled to Jerusalem to meet Solomon, resting-place of the Ark of the Covenant and battleground of the great emperors from Ezana in the 4th century AD to Haile Selassie in modern times, has inspired many travellers and writers since time immemorial. Recently few have journeyed there or, indeed, have any conception of the extraordinary cultural treasures that await visitors. Stuart Munro-Hay knows Ethiopia intimately, having lived and researched there over many years. He has produced the first truly comprehensive guide to the monuments of this beautiful, culture-steeped country, as well as offering a literary companion. Here is a guide to Ethiopia's architecture, geography, peoples, art and history, embracing all the major sites of the land over the ages. It will become the classic reference guide.
Ethiopia is clearly one of the most important countries in Africa. First of all, with about 75 million people, it is the third most populous country in Africa. Second, it is very strategically located, in the Horn of Africa and bordering Eritrea, Sudan, Kenya, and Somalia, with some of whom it has touchy and sometimes worse relations. Yet, its capital – Addis Ababa – is the headquarters of the African Union, the prime meeting place for Africa’s leaders. So, if things went poorly in Ethiopia, this would not be good for Africa, and for a long time this was the case, with internal disruption rife, until it was literally suppressed under the strong rule of the recently deceased Meles Zenawi. The Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia, Second Edition covers the history of Ethiopia through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has several hundred cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Ethiopia.
Following the very successful Ethiopia Engraved, an illustrated book of engravings by foreign travellers from 1681 to 1900, Ethiopia Photographed covers the period from the inception of photography in the country up to the Italian Fascist invasion in 1936. The people, terrain, buildings and rulers of Ethiopia - such as Emperor Melenik, Lej Iyasu and Emperor Haile Selassie - make it a highly photogenic country, as this lavishly illustrated book reveals. Situated in lofty, often inaccessible mountains between the Red Sea and the Blue Nile, and extending far into the Horn of Africa, it is a complex and mysterious country which as always exercised an extraordinary fascination for the outside world. The book begins with an introduction which gives a brief history of Ethiopia in this period, and describes the role of photography at this time. The richly captured images of Ethiopia Photographed bear witness to many personalities and places not previously seen and, in many cases, now lost for all time but for the photogenic memories recorded here.
"The last great work of the age of reason, the final instance when all human knowledge could be presented with a single point of view ... Unabashed optimism, and unabashed racism, pervades many entries in the 11th, and provide its defining characteristics ... Despite its occasional ugliness, the reputation of the 11th persists today because of the staggering depth of knowledge contained with its volumes. It is especially strong in its biographical entries. These delve deeply into the history of men and women prominent in their eras who have since been largely forgotten - except by the historians, scholars"-- The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/apr/10/encyclopedia-britannica-11th-edition.
In this fascinating story of colonial competition around Lake Rudolf, a remote body of water in northern Kenya, Pascal James Imperato examines the political and diplomatic aspects of colonial competition for the lake as well as the many expeditions that traveled there. Although the chief competitors for the lake included the British, Italians, the French, Russians, and Ethiopians, its colonial fate was decided by Great Britain and Ethiopia. The role of Ethiopia as a late nineteenth-century colonial power unfolds as Imperato provides unique insights and analyses of Ethiopian colonial policy and its effects on the peoples who inhabited the region of the lake. }The last of the major African lakes to be visited by European travelers in the late nineteenth century, Lake Rudolf lies in the eastern arm of the great Rift Valley in present-day northern Kenya, near the Ethiopian border. Also known as Lake Turkana, Lake Rudolf is a large saltwater body two hundred miles long and forty miles wide. Fed by the Omo River that flows south from the Ethiopian highlands, it is surrounded by an inhospitable landscape of extinct volcanoes, wind-driven semidesert, and old lava flows. Because of the greenish hue of its waters, it has long been called the Jade Sea. Quest for the Jade Sea examines the fascinating story of colonial competition around this remote lake. Pascal James Imperatos account yields important insights into European colonial policies in East Africa in the late nineteenth century and how these policies came into conflict with a powerful indigenous and independent African state, Ethiopia, which itself was engaged in imperial expansion.Although the chief competitors for the lake included the British, Italians, the French, Russians, and Ethiopians, its colonial fate was decided by Great Britain and Ethiopia. The role of Ethiopia as a late nineteenth-century colonial power unfolds as Imperato provides unique insights and analyses of Ethiopian colonial policy and its effects on the peoples who inhabited the region of the lake. As well as examining the political and diplomatic aspects of colonial competition for Lake Rudolf, Quest for the Jade Sea focuses on the expeditions that traveled there. Many of these were the field expressions of colonial policy; others were undertaken in the interest of scientific and geographical discovery. Whatever the impetus, their success required courage and much suffering on the part of those who led them. Whether as willing agents of larger colonial designs, soldiers intent on promoting their military careers, or explorers who wished to advance scientific knowledge, expedition leaders left behind not only fascinating chronicles of their experiences and discoveries but also parts of the larger story of colonial competition around an East African lake.
