Ethiopia has an ancient history in literature. People have been expressing their culture, history, identity, and aspirations through various forms of literary texts. As sources shows, the ancient Ethiopian literature dates back to 300AD. During the Axumite period texts written in the Ge’ez language dominated the country. The writings were identified in a specific genre during the early Solomonic dynasty (1270-1974). That society was mainly characterized by oral literature. People expressed their intentions and feelings regarding the ongoing system through oral forms. In the written forms of literature like novels, short stories, dramas, and poetry, writers picked the basic concerns of society and portrayed them artistically.
Though the writing had shown lots of literary products on various topics, the nation did not have its theoretical perspective that aimed at examining literary outputs. These days in Africa and in the world too some practical interests and actions show the relevance of using one’s indigenous knowledge in the process of criticizing the literary products of the given nation. African Feminism is the best instance here. Since the Western perspective is designed based on the socio-cultural reality of the Westerners themselves, it is not effective to practically mirror the socio-cultural issues of Africa and others. This philosophy is increasingly being adopted by scholars in the continent and beyond. As such theoreticians are proposing theories that best fit their reality.
For issues emanating from the given society, the logical approach for analysis and criticism is using the perspective of that society. The way and historical backdrop of the people across the universe cannot be the same. Thus, such realities are best studied if the examination stems from the actual experiences of the people.
In gender studies, for example, African Feminism is proposed to examine texts that are thematically focused on gender-related issues. Texts written by writers of the continent are about the issues of the continent. Issues on this theme are studied using this theoretical framework. Various scholars are progressively applying it in their study. Since it vividly showed the real status of African women, the criticism and the recommendation forwarded are, I think, too sound for understanding and implementation. As sources in this regard showed such studies are found very appropriate for the region than those which are studied using Western Feminism. They perfectly synthesize the practical life of society. This is very important for persuasive interpretation to bring the required change in the mentioned theme.
But when we come to Ethiopia, observably the country has not yet proposed its own framework. Well acknowledged and formal theoretical perspectives, as far as my reading is concerned, are not formulated in the country. The question is why? Thus, to get the scholastic justification for the raised issue and other related points, I had a valuable conversation with Dr Ayenew Guadu.
Dr. Ayenew is an assistant professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Bahir Dar University. He is a Graduate, Research, and Community Service Vice Dean in the Faculty of Humanities at Bahir Dar University. He is also a senior researcher and advisor at the post-graduate level. A good Read. Excerpts:
Herald: Did Ethiopia have its literary theory? If not, why?
Dr. Ayenew: I would like to start with a general comment that Ethiopia did not have its own nation-based literary theory. But there were signs that could urge us to produce some. When we scrutinize the classical Ethiopian literary period, some cyphers appeared in Ethiopian writers’ strands of theoretical poetry. During this period, I have read that Ethiopian classical authors and intellectuals were not translating texts just word by word rather they were contextualizing the words and their meanings into Ethiopian flavor. When they translated works from Arabic, Greek, and the like they contextualized things. The themes, settings, and even characters were changed to assume Ethiopian identity.
Here, as the best instance, I can refer to Tsegaye G/Medihn’s works. He translated Hamlet and Macbeth ,the masterpieces of Shakespeare. In Hamlet there is a character whose name is Ophelia. Then Tsegaye had translated this name as ‘wofeyila’ which is an Ethiopian name. He also changed the character’s name from Hamlet that is Claudus to ‘Gelawudiwos’ which is the name used in Ethiopia to make easy adaption by the people. Again in Macbeth, the English version says ‘for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth’ then Tsegaye translated this as “ሴት የወለደችዉ ሰዉ ሊገድልህ አይችል which is to mean that ‘a person who is born by a woman could not kill you’. Since Macbeth was a killer Tsegaye translated him as ‘you are not like one whom a woman born with delivery’. In this story, the one who killed Macbeth was Macduff the one who was born with delivery. Thus, Tsgaye added the idea of ‘delivery’ in the translation. The difference is in the delivery of the woman. Thus, I bring this to show you the presence of trials for positing a certain framework. Some attempts seem national and Ethiopian in their setting, characterization, or theme.
Though there were some signs, I cannot say that there are that many canonical and scholar-based theoretical perspectives in Ethiopia. The studies and even the writings of literary materials were not cohesive. There were fragmentations. Sometimes they could not be produced with their original frequency. That is why there are no complete products and studies that push theories to get determined.
Herald: But there was a chance to reshape the trails and to form a certain perspective. Why do scholars propose perspectives as per their specialization? What is the problem which hiders us from that? What are the challenges?
Dr Ayenew: Sure. It was possible. There are studies which have been done on this issue. I can mention for example, Dr Yonas’ works. He raised some points in this regard in his two articles. The first challenge he showed is the absence of studies and examinations on literary texts that are not well organized and collected for detecting major similarities and differences they raised in the texts. For example, different scholars had studied many research and articles on the works of Dr. Haddis Alemayehu, Bealu Girma, Alemayehu Gelagay, and others.
As Dr Yonas mentioned it if we examine the works of each writer and collect the study which is made on these works, this alone is very vital for characterizing that specific novel or work in a specific theme or perspective. That is different people can examine the works of Dr Haddis Alemayehu, like his novels, short stories, poems etc. Then collecting these diverse peoples’ studies can bring a certain clue for proposing a specific theoretical framework. That is the works of Haddis Alemayehu alone can be examined and based on the studies made on the works we can be able to posit some points and regarding other writers too the approach could be done the same way as per the writers’ work. Then from this collection, some commonalities can be screened and documented. This can continue based on the representativeness of the texts in a given period. Thus as Dr. Yonas, idea showed, the logic behind this is after an exhaustive examination of each study made on the literary outputs of a given writer, the national color or Ethiopian trait could be posited from the gathering.
In this process examining the works of one writer for example might take up to 3 years. Thus, budget, time, and intensive follow-up are very necessary from the responsible bodies.
Since the national literary perspective did emanate from the national identity and culture of the people, studies on texts could not be continuously done on texts. The reasons could be many which are related to the historical reality of the country. For example, during the invasion of fascist Italy, the production of literary outputs was diminishing. Before they came, there were lots of literary publications and they were pacing progressively. This did mean that the studies on literary texts were also lower during that period. Thus, there have been fragmentations. Secondly, in the absence of much-modernized-digital library, works are scattered here and there. It is impossible to find them all at a time. This makes it very difficult to collect and identify the major concerns of the given writer.
The challenges that hinder us from proposing a clear and workable literary theoretical framework according to Dr. Ayenew are generally leveled into four categories. They are presented below.
Dr Ayenew: The first one is the domination of Western literary theories. Western perspectives are influencing the globe massively. After 1940s, 1950s, and 60s perspectives like structuralism, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, and deconstruction, these theories hinder Indigenous knowledge. They are widespread in the world and inferred as the right ways to follow in the studies of the globe. It has been a very difficult step to avoid this attitude. Some were rejecting this trend. For instance Nugugi wa Thoing’o is strongly demanding Indigenous knowledge. He was too alerted on this issue. But it is too difficult to avoid it. There is an already established theory so we ran to use that perspective through the setting, the culture, and politics that is our own.
The second challenge is the influence of global academia. In the academic discourse it is the Western approach which is appreciated and accepted than the indigenous one. For this, there are factors that are related to the economy. In here, I mean that conferences, materials and even curriculums are supported and acknowledged if they incorporated Western principles and frameworks. The curriculum that is imported from them is highly encouraged and promoted. But the indigenous one is always brushed aside. However, these days some inclinations toward indigenous knowledge are palpable. Thus, if these attempts gather momentum in time, the interest and trials for creating own theory could be fostered similarly.
The third one is the lack of sustained scholars’ efforts. We can enumerate many reasons for this problem. The first one is there is no enough budget that enables scholars to collect and examine the studies which are made on the works of each writer. Secondly there is a problem of finding the sources in the form of digitalized version. It is obvious that very old works have the tendency to be rammed and damaged or even lost and impossible to find. The other problem can be related to the socio-political situation of the country. For example, the literary production in Ethiopia during the 1950s was very promising. But after the Italians invaded us the process was interrupted.
The fourth one is the diversity of Ethiopian literary tradition. In the country there are more than 85 languages like Amharic, Tigrigna, Somali, Oromipha and the like. Thus, these languages had their own literary production which exhibits their own culture and history. The storytelling tradition could not be the same. Thus coming to an inclusive theoretical framework at a time is impossible since all these literary outputs should be examined first for the act.
Herald: what can we do to circumvent the challenges and move forward to having our literary perspective?
Dr. Ayenew: The first thing we should do is we need a comprehensive understanding of literary tradition. As I mentioned earlier, there are some attempts. But they are fragmented. Thus, we need to collect and organize them coherently. The collection can be done based on the time of publication, genre, and theme. At a given time, there are representative texts that show the status of the people during that period. Thus, the studies done on these texts can be collected and their features could be speculated out by themselves. Therefore this can pave the way for formulating a nation colored perspective.
The other thing we should do is to decolonize the colonized academy. This measure needs an exhaustive effort which should be exerted for a longer period. It is not a one-time job. It only gets achieved through continued work and interests.
Institutions, ministers and other concerned bodies should give priority to indigenous knowledge. Most of the time, it is the Western value that is prioritized. This should be changed. Emphasis and encouragement should be placed on our own perspective. The Ministry of Education must zero in on nation-based knowledge. Budget need be allocated, and projects have to be designed for this purpose because it has a greater impact on the area and the overall development of the people.
Herald: If we take African Feminism, it is posited based on the study made on the culture of Igbo society of Nigeria. Theoreticians identified the basic cultural practices and facts of this society and based on that they propose frameworks. Nowadays, these frameworks are progressively applied by scholars for critiquing texts. Like them, why can’t we take a communal culture and draft our perspective?
Dr. Ayenew: That is not an easy task in our country. Though we have many common cultural assets as Ethiopians, we have several literary traditions. We have many languages which do carry the cultural and historical identities of the specific community. Thus, studies that are made on all of these literary texts under each language should be critically gathered and examined. As I said before, that is to find their basic focuses. This is the way to be followed in our case. It is very coherent, logical and transparent so that a theory that disguises a nation’s color can be proposed.
Herald: Ethiopian literary outputs are mostly difficult to examine using a specific theoretical perspective. What is the reason?
Dr. Ayenew: You are right. The problem exists. The first influencing factor is the absence of the writers’ theoretical orientation. The basic question here is how many writers of novels, short stories, drama and poetry know the theoretical frameworks? Most of them do not have that orientation. Sometimes those who write from experience can be good at securing genres. They could be better than the ones who learned in the genre school.
They can be good naturally. Let me give you an example. Sibhat G/Egziabher was a much-alerted writer about literary theories. His writings can be classified by a given genre. Alemayehu Gelagay frequently segmented Sibhat as a follower of a naturalistic school. His works ‘Tikusat’ and ‘Letum Aynegalign’ are best instances that show neutrality.
This demonstrates the writer’s theoretical orientation. The second one is Sibhat; he was reading the works of Sigmund Freud, the theoretician of psychoanalysis theory. This means that with the application of Simon Frauds theory, it is possible to analyze the works of this writer. He even mentioned Sigmund Freud in his works. But for those who do not have such orientation, the works are simply collections of various perspectives. Therefore, there might be generic eclipsing. For example, in ‘Fikir Eske Mekabir’ the writer is realistic, therefore he showed us the exploitation of feudalism, again there was a tragedy, and many passed away in the resolution of the story.
In addition, the major character Seblewongeal was facing danger while she was crossing Abbay River in search of her lover Bezabih. The danger was the presence of a lion and a tiger which were fighting when she was on her way and the one was trying to save her, but the other one was trying to catch her. Thus, it exemplifies magical realism. It is a fantasy. Therefore, there are ecliptic elements in this text. Thus, the best way in the process of analyzing a given text is to read the text first and decide on the theories that mirror the literary products appropriately.
Herald: Ethiopian literary texts are not well segmented as per their theme for examination in Google search. What is the problem?
Dr. Ayenew: That is the right insight. The problem is we do not have a well-developed digitalization. To upload texts at their publication period, advanced digitalization should be there for assisting the process. Since the themes are found in their summary sections just by referring to that section it could be very easy to create columns and level novels or any other forms of literature in their equivalent themes. Though there are some trials in digital technology, it is not enriching the demand of the sector. Thus, the greatest challenge is related to digitalization. If it is there, texts could be easily detected and leveled as per their subject, which is very relevant for researchers, readers and writers too.
To sum up, in the interview above it is underlined that Ethiopian theoretical perspective could be crafted by Ethiopian scholars. As Dr. Ayenew stated there had been very relevant trials by writers and critics for many years. It was attempted by some prominent writers like Tsegaye G/Medihn. But things were not going along. The nature of the Ethiopian cultural background poses challenge to produce an inclusive framework. In addition to these, various studies that are made on different literary outputs across languages in the country are fragmented and are very hard to collect and examine. Thus, the application of digitalization can elevate this challenge. Since organizing the studied materials did demand time and budget, if concerned bodies like MoE did take over this challenge there is a huge potential that can formulate a perspective of the nation. Thus, digitalization, commitment and assistance of institutions can propel scholars to work on the issue.
BY MEKDES TAYE (PhD)
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 30 AUGUST 2024
