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Reconstructing Haberland Reconstructing the Wolaitta: Writing the History and Society of a Former Ethiopian Kingdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Jon Abbink
Jon Abbink*
Affiliation:
African Studies Center, Leiden
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Extract

In this paper I take up the methodological issue of combining archived fieldwork notes and contemporary field data in the reconstruction of the recent history of Wolaitta, a former kingdom in southern Ethiopia. The old fieldwork data, archived and little known since the 1960s, consist of the notes of the German Ethiopianist ethnologist Eike Haberland (1924-1992), while the field data are based on my intermittent fieldwork in Wolaitta since 2001. In ongoing research on this subject, I intend to write an historical ethnography of Wolaitta, by combining a study of the methods and interpretive strategies of Haberland as ethnographer and product of his time, with new research. The effort may also allow us to see how his ‘facts’ and explanations fit with current concerns in anthropology and African studies. As the subject of this paper will eventually be elaborated into a book, I aim to be brief here and illustrate the value and challenge of such a reconstruction effort.

The study also is meant to contribute to understanding the dynamics of regional identity in today's Ethiopia, which has been struggling with a very problematic implementation of ethnicity-based federal policies since 1991. A study of a corpus of ethnography gathered in the heyday of German field ethnology (1950s-1960s), in conjunction with present-day research, may highlight processes of identity formation among the Wolaitta, who today in 2005 count some 1.5 million people, with perhaps an additional 80,000 living outside the Wolaitta borders elsewhere in Ethiopia, and having various shades of identification with their country and traditions of origin.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 33 , 2006 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2006

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References

1 My preferred (phonetic) spelling is “Wolaitta”. In existing literature “Wolayta,” “Welaita,” “Wälayta,” and “Wolaita” are often used.

2 See Seyfarth's, Siegfried obituary: “Eike Haberland 1924-1992,” Paideuma 38(1992), iii–xxiiGoogle Scholar. Also “Eike Haberland” in Uhlig, Siegbert, ed., Encyclopaedia Aetbiopica 2 (Wiesbaden, 2005)Google Scholar.

3 The literature about the subject is voluminous. For an introduction see Clapham, Christopher, “Ethiopian and the Challenge of Diversity,” Africa Insight 34(2004), 50–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Cf. Planel, Sabine, “Du Wolayta à l'Éthiopie,” Annales d'Éthiopie 19(2003), 43–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Outmigration from the region is increasing due to land scarcity and lack of employment.

5 See Haberland, Eike, Galla Süd-Äthiopiens (Stuttgart, 1963)Google Scholar; idem., Untersuchungen zum Äthiopischen Königtum (Wiesbaden, 1965) idem., Hierarchie und Kaste. Zur Geschichte und politischen Struktur der Dizi in Südwest Äthiopien (Stuttgart, 1993) and idem., (with Siegfried Seyfarth) Die Yimar am Oberen Korowori (Neuguinea), (Wies-baden, 1974).

6 He also noted that he “… had one of the happiest times of his life in Wolayta,” with “friendly people and good conversation partners.” (Haberland Nachlass, Box Wolayta, file 10).

7 For a unique eyewitness account see Vanderheym, Jacques, Une expédition avec le Négus Ménélik (Paris, 1896)Google Scholar.

8 The official name of one of the nine regional states of federal Ethiopia. See also Map 1 below.

9 This was in Damot Gale district; see Finance and Economic Development Department Wolayta Zone, Wolayta Zone Socio-Economic Profile, (Soddo, 2003), 17. In the last thirty years, the population of the Wolaitta region has more than doubled.

10 For more information see De'a, Data, “Managing Diversity? A Note on the “WoGaGoDa” Politics in Omotic-speaking Southwest Ethiopia” in Uhlig, Siegbert, ed., Proceedings of the XVth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, July 21–25, 2003 (Wiesbaden, 2005)Google Scholar. Local zone administrators in the South may also have thought that by magnifying the scope of their units through language (seen as the prime defining mark of ethnicity by the government) they could enhance their own political clout.

11 Although in imperial times it was known under the old name “Wolamo,” today seen as denigrating. This name was already mentioned in the soldiers' praise song on Ethiopian Emperor Ishaq, dating from the early fifteenth century. See Guidi, Ignazio, “Le canzoni Geez-Amarica in onore di Re Abissini,” Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei 5(1889), 53–66Google Scholar. Emperor Haile Sellassie had allowed Wolaitta to be governed by fitawrari Desta Fisseha, the grandson of their last king, T'ona (who died in Addis Ababa in 1908). Desta Fisseha was a major informant of Haberland.

12 The Nachlass is not only on Wolaitta, but on many other subjects and projects. I am very grateful to Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Kohl, director of the Frobenius Institute, for giving me permission to consult the Haberland Nachlass. I also thank various of the Institute's staff members, among them Dr. Beatrix Heintze, Peter Steigerwald (Photographic Archive), secretary Ms. Astrid Hünlich, and the library staff, for their kind cooperation.

13 I will quote the relevant German words in brackets.

14 It is often underestimated that this allowed Frobenius—in the heyday of colonialism—to call for an authentic recognition of African cultures in their own terms and not imposing our own views. Ultimately, however, this amounted to a romanticizing, relativist view. Senegalese scholar-statesman Léopold-Sédar Senghor had a very positive view of Frobenius's work, but contemporary African intellectuals much less so.

15 Two relevant tables on 1960s population statistics of Wolaitta were found in Box 1.

16 See Braukämper, Ulrich, “Der ‘Verdienstkomplex’: Rückblick auf einen Forschungsschwerpunkt der deutschen Ethnologie,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 126(2001), 209–36Google Scholar.

17 Characteristic is his remark of preconquest Wolaitta as having had a “… long and happy history,” Haberland, Untersuchungen, 256.

18 E.g., in Haberland, Eike, “An Amharic Manuscript on the Mythical History of the Adi Kyaz (Dizi, South-west Ethiopia),” BSOAS 46(1983), 243CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Apart from his chapter on Wolaitta (“Das Königtum von Wolamo”) in his Untersuchungen, 255-80, these are idem., “Eheschliessung im alten Wolayta,” Ethnologica ns 1 (1983), 556-67; idem., “Zum Geschichtsbewusstsein der Wolayta (Süd-Äthiopien)” in Peter Snoy, ed., Ethnologie und Geschichte (Wiesbaden, 1983), 212-20; idem., “Eine ‘tigre’-Tiir aus Wolayta (Süd-Äthiopien),” Paideuma 34(1988), 23-30; and idem., “Sklaverei im alten Wolayta (Süd-Äthiopien),” Jahrbuch des Museums für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig 39(1992), 157-73.

20 Cf. Haberland, , Hierarchie und Kaste, 23Google Scholar. However, this book, on a remote southwest Ethiopian, Omotic-speaking people, has a remarkable amount of invaluable historical and ethnographic details of which even few present-day Dizi people have any knowledge.

21 Sketch of the Introduction, Haberland Nachlaß (Frobenius Institute, Frankfurt/M), Kiste “Wolayta.”

22 “Vorwort,” ms., Haberland Nachlaß, Kiste “Wolayta,” file 3.

23 See, for example, Thurnwald, Richard, Grundfragen Menschlicher Gesellung: Ausgewählte Schriften (Berlin, 1957)Google Scholar. Compare also his remarkable early work, Die Gemeinde der Bànaro (Stuttgart 1921, a translation of his Banaro Society [Menasha, WI, 1916])Google Scholar.

24 Apart from Kafa, Wolaitta was the only full-blown authoritarian state that formed in the Ometo-speaking area, probably departing from a small chiefdom or a democratic, egalitarian assembly society, as still retained today in neighboring Gamo. Dauro was a somewhat similar kingdom, but less powerful.

25 Even some of the Wolaitta oral genres, such as the gerésa praise songs, were not fully valued by him.

26 His preliminary sketch of the table of contents for his projected book had chapter headings very similar to those in many of his articles and chapters on South Ethiopian groups, his Oromo monograph (1963), and his last book on the Dizi. His outline of Wolaitta book chapter titles was: 1. Land and People, 2. History, 3. Material Culture, 4. Economy and Food, 5. The Kingship, 6. The Imperial Structure, 7. The Social Strata (“Stände”), 8. Kinship and Family, 9. The Life-Cycle, 10. The Achievement Complex, 11. Religious Life, and finally 12. Story Material (Haberland Nachlass, Kiste “Wolayta,” file 11).

27 Klausberger, Friedrich, “Die Königsdynastien der Wolamo (1270-1900), Süd-Äthiopien,” Wiener Ethnohistorische Blätter 15(1978), 29–50Google Scholar.

28 Bureau, Jacques, “Comment s'écrit l'Histoire d'une Province d'Éthiopie: le Wollaita,” Abbay 11(1980/1982), 225–41Google Scholar, and idem., “The ‘Tigre’ Chronicle of Wollaita; a Pattern of Kingship” in Richard Pankhurst et al., eds, Proceedings of the First National Conference of Ethiopian Studies, April 1990 (Addis Ababa, 1990), 49-64.

29 Chiatti, Remo, “The Politics of Divine Kingship in Wolaitta (Ethiopia), 19th and 20th Centuries (Ph.D, University of Pennsylvania, 1984)Google Scholar.

30 Haberland Nachlass, Kiste “Wolayta,” file 35.

31 Wolaitta has more than 90 patrilineal clans.

32 The “meritorious complex” was expressed in the successful quest for wealth and prestige commodities, public display of generosity, and a record of killing enemies and/or large animals.

33 Haberland Nachlass, Kiste “Wolayta,” file 20, and idem., Untersuchungen, 257.

34 This point emerges in many places in his work and his notes; one example is ibid., 269.

35 Cf. ibid., 256-57.

36 The “Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional National State” is currently a weak and underfunded state in the Ethiopian federation, although there is no scarcity of dedicated and capable leaders on the regional and local levels. The central (federal) government still exerts major control over politics and the economy. Ethnically-defined tensions within the South are generated by the new political system and have impeded economic growth and development, and people have been sidetracked in identity struggles behind the scenes.