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The Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) was officially established in 1963 to collect information on Ethiopian civilization, its history, cultures, and languages.^[1] The Institute includes a research and publication unit, a library, and a museum. It is located at Addis Ababa University, Sidist (6) Kilo campus, which was at the time of the IES's opening, named Haile Selassie I University after the last emperor of Abyssinia.

The current director of the Institute is Dr. Ahmed Hassen, an associate professor at the university.

History of the IES[edit]

The first director of the Institute was Richard Pankhurst (son of suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst), and the first librarian was Stanislaw Chojnacki. Other directors were Fäqadu Gadamu, Taddesse Tamrat, Tadesse Bayana, Bahru Zewde, Abdussamad Ahmad, Baye Yemam, and Elizabet Walde Giyorgis.^[1]

History of the building[edit]

The Institute is housed in what was formerly the Gännäta Le’ul or Princely Paradise Palace, which was constructed in 1934 as the principle palace building for Emperor Haile Selassie and his family. In 1936 when Italian forces occupied the city of Addis Ababa, the Fascist Viceroy, Rodolfo Graziani, made it his home and administrative center. The palace became the center of international attention when two Eritrean nationalists attempted to assassinate the viceroy, and Graziani responded by massacring the population of Addis Ababa (remembered as Yekatit 12).

Behind the flag is the spiral staircase was built during the Italian occupation. Each step marked a year of Mussolini's rule. It was meant to symbolize Fascist domination. Upon restoration of Haile Selassie to the throne, the Lion of Judah statue was placed atop the staircase.

Upon Italian liberation, Selassie was restored to the throne, and in 1950, the palace became the (unofficial) headquarters of the Empire.

The palace was also the site of the abortive coup d'etat of 1960, and though it failed, it marked the beginning of the Ethiopian student movement, which would publicly demonstrate against the government for political, economic, and social change.

The ground floor of the palace was originally a banquet hall, which is now the site of the library. The second floor held the Emperor's bedrooms and study, which is now a part of the Ethnological Museum.

Research and publication unit[edit]

This IES unit conducts and publishes research. The “research staff conducts research approved by the Research Committee and maintains affiliations with international scholars working on Ethiopia." It also "publishes papers in the form of proceedings of seminars and conferences, reports, reproduction of old manuscripts and the Journal of Ethiopian Studies (JES),”^[2] which has published off and on since 1963.^[3] The journal's articles focus on the country's history, culture, and it publishes articles in English and Amharic. The journal is edited with the support of the Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian Studies, part of the Asien-Afrika-Institut, at Hamburg University.^[4]

This unit also puts on the international conference once every nine years. There is also a monthly seminar held locally at the IES, for researchers to present their findings to each other and university staff and students.^[5]

In addition to the Journal of Ethiopian Studies, the research unit has been responsible for publishing a Dictionary of Ethiopian Biography, Register of Current Research on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, and Museum Catalogues.^[6] The IES also maintained a national bibliography for Ethiopia, collecting all materials published in and about Ethiopia, so the IES's annual acquisition list was used as the national bibliography until 1975 when the National Archives and Library of Ethiopia took over this responsibility.^[7]

Ethnological museum[edit]

This IES unit is the first university museum in Ethiopia. It is committed to preserving and showcasing the country's cultural tradition. The museum separates its items according to five fields of study: anthropology, art, ethnomusicology, numismatics (the study of coinage), and philately (the study of postage stamps). In addition to this permanent collection, the museum hosts temporary exhibitions, and it has participated in international exhibitions. ^[8]

The anthropology exhibit displays the lifecycle of an Ethiopia, tracing different ethno-religious groups practices from birth to death.

The art gallery displays religious manuscripts, crosses, icons, ceremonial items, and coins dating back to the early Aksumite period.^[9]

Being the former site of the palace, the museum displays the Emperor Haile Selassie's chambers. It also displays his embroidered robes and military uniform.

When the museum opened, it included a zoology species collection, but that is now housed at the Natural History Museum of Ethiopia at Arat (4) Kilo campus.

A Society of Friends of the IES was established in 1968 to raise financial support for the museum in order for the it to purchase historical and cultural artifacts.

Library[edit]

This IES unit is separate from both the National Archive and Library of Ethiopia and the Addis Ababa University libraries. The main objective of the IES Library is to support the field of Ethiopian Studies (in the humanities and social sciences) by preserving the country's intellectual and literary heritage/tradition. Containing both published and unpublished materials, the library offers access to books, manuscripts, periodicals, pamphlets, microfilms, photographs, and the university students’ theses and dissertations related to Ethiopian Studies.^[10][11]

The library contains six departments: the Foreign Languages Department, Ethiopian Languages and Periodicals, Manuscripts and Archives, the Woldämäskäl Memorial Research Center, Audiovisual Materials, and Automation and Digitization.^[12] Unlike the other departments, the Woldämäskäl Memorial Research Center is located at Arat (4) Kilo campus, near Saint Gabriel Church. The center holds most of the Institute's rare publications and manuscripts in Ge’ez, Amharic, Oromiffa, Tigrinya, and other Ethiopian languages.^[13] The library also has a manuscript restoration laboratory which works on conserving texts that date back to the fifteenth century.

The special collections of the library hold many primary and secondary sources, including biblical and theological texts, prayer books and hymns, biographies of saints, histories of different Ethiopian regions and peoples, land records, medical findings, divinatory writings, creative writing (prose and poetry collection), and the Encyclopedia Aethiopica,

Users of the library include Addis Ababa University's masters and PhD students and academic faculty. The university's graduate students and academic staff have free and open access to the library. Non-affiliated local and foreign researchers are allowed to use their collections upon a request letter and payment. The items are only available for on-site reference and not for lending.

References[edit]