BY TAMERU REGASA
Ethiopian history has been characterized largely as elitist, on which it focuses on only the elite and their associates and narratives in every victory in Ethiopia discuss the deeds of kings and their entourage while peoples from all walks of life have contributed a lot for each victory in Ethiopia.
The consequence of this is automatically denying people with a lack of written culture but ample historical evidence with the accumulated body of Knowledge in oral data were neglected as peoples without history.
Different researches indicated that there are also real critics that the history of Ethiopia did not cover the failure Ethiopia faced along the road in the state-building process. All that is covered are our glory, our victory, and great achievements. Of course, that is necessary and should be an integral part of our history curriculum. Both our glories and agonies should be given weight so that our generation should learn from both and have balanced narratives.
To address the challenges related to the history Ministry of Science and Higher
Education has been operating to provide history education for fresh university students through preparing new curriculum and new history module.
As to the information obtained from the ministry the new curriculum, addresses, people’s history across time and space, it tried to uncover what has been silenced and tried to serve as the voice of all. Above all, it tried to give recognition for the victims by addressing some issues in a modest way.
The ministry indicated that the endorsement of the curriculum which took a longer gestation period in comparison to other common course modules is really a historic moment for the country.
The ministry reflected that the other positive aspect of the module is that it has benefited a lot from comments, critics and feedbacks from different sections of the society at different phases of its preparation. So it is essential to adjust the history of the country through creating a disciplined and patriotic generation.
Alemseged Debele (Ph.D.) history teacher at Arsi University and member of history teachers committee who have been operating to establish the association of historians told the Ethiopian Herald that in the country there is a politicization of history which can adversely affect the overall condition of the country
As to him the generation should get the true history of his country which is free from any
interest and written in line with professional discipline. He stated that to address the problems resulted from history the scholars agreed to undertake successive discussion believing that it is easy to agree on politics if we agree on history.
He argued “I hope the currently launched operations to end history related skirmish will bring the overall change in the country”
Tsigereda Woldebirhan Ph.D. student in History at Addis Ababa University and member of the committee on her part appreciating the measurements that have been done by scholars and different institutions to reach an agreement on issues related to history said that the measurements will bring fruitful results for the future of the country.
She noted that the module is very important to play its role in nation building, narrowing down differences among the communities of the country.
She underscored that lack of properly documenting the history and the intervention of political interest in the history are the major causes for the history related problem of the country. So the generation needs to distinguish the true history from fabricated one.
The Ethiopian Herald 19 January 2021
