BY MULUGETA GUDETA
Ethiopia’s search for modernization roughly started under emperor Menelik in the 19th century. Menelik is considered in Ethiopian history as a modernizing monarch although not on a par with some of the greatest modernizers in world history. Menelik’s passion for Ethiopia’s modernization was amazing as he imported from Europe some of the advanced technologies and inventions of the time such as the automobile, the telephone, firearms, the cinema and innovations in housing construction.
However as the concept and practice of modernization is not confined to technology and includes mental development, the monarch was also keen to import the technical knowledge or knowhow of the Europeans or train Ethiopians in these skills so that they could operate the machines and tools on their own.
Moreover Menelik set high moral standards by playing an exemplary role in state management with his humble and God-fearing approaches towards his subjects. Some writers tend to believe that the erosion of traditional moral and ethical standards is one factor among others, for the failure to achieve genuine modernity in Ethiopia.
Architect Fasil Giorgis, Lecturer at the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture corroborates the above fact when he wrote the following in his essay on Ethiopian modernity: “Besides his desire to acquire large quantities of arms, Emperor Menelik was also interested in technology. Many modern technological innovations were introduced to Ethiopia during his reign. Unlike his conservative dignitaries, he was curious about new discoveries. For instance, Menelik was not only the first Ethiopian to drive a car but he also received the first driving license.
“The birth of the capital also coincided with a period of new discoveries in Europe. The victory of Adwa contributed to the positive image of Ethiopia and attracted foreigners to Addis Ababa. Some of the foreign immigrants, who came after the victory of the Battle of Adwa, such as; Indians, Armenians and Greeks, were involved in construction work and introduced new building techniques.”
Writing about Menelik’s works to modernize and change the face of Addis Ababa, the architect says that, “Menelik’s modernizing ventures of Addis Ababa after the fire of 1892, which destroyed the old Ghebi (palace) and its environs, more ambitious construction activities began to emerge that expanded upon the previous facilities. With the coming of modern materials and techniques, a gradual change in the external appearance, finishing and durability of buildings was evident. The earlier structures were built with open verandahs on the perimeters and the roofs covered with thatch.
After the arrival of the railway line in Addis Ababa, the open verandahs were gradually covered with glazed wooden curtain walls and the roofs were covered with corrugated iron sheeting. The shiny corrugated iron sheet roofs changed the appearance of the city, thus giving Addis Ababa the images of modernity and change.”
Yet, modernizing the mind so to say was not as easy as importing modern technology. It required a whole set of new approaches to education, culture, religion and the general outlook on life. Occupied as he was with the arduous job of unifying the Ethiopian state and forming a single and centralized polity, Menelik could not complete his modernizing process. This task was largely handed over to his successor emperor Haile Sellassie who had understood that Ethiopia needed cultural, educational and mental overhauling in order to achieve the earlier vision of modernization started by his predecessor.
Here too the major challenge of ‘modernizing the mind’, so to say, was the absence of a clear vision as to how to achieve mental modernization. Can it be achieved by negating traditional values and assets or by copying entirely the Western approach of ‘modernizing the mind’ that was totally alien to Africans in general and to Ethiopians in particular?
Combining both traditional and European approaches to modernity may produce something of a hybrid that might have achieved the objectives of genuine modernization. These issues, as unanswered as they remain, throughout the last half a century either by the ruler or by the modernizing intellectuals, still continues to remain at the center of Ethiopia’s paradox of modernity.
Doctor Elizabeth W. Giorgis, a curator at the Skunder Bogossian College of Performing Art at the Addis Ababa University agrees with the fact that Haiel Sellassie was indeed the pioneer or one of the early pioneers of Ethiopia’s modernization when in her essay entitled ” The Beginning of Ethiopia’s Modernism” where she said that, “If one was to locate in time, the historical trajectory of modernity and modernism in Ethiopia, one would focus on the period from 1941-74; the reign of Emperor Haile Selasssie I.
It is especially important to assess the imaginaries and sensibilities of modernity in Emperor Haile Selassie’s time, not only because his modernist projects are widely discussed among Ethiopian intellectuals, but also because his reign significantly charted the course of Ethiopian modernism.”
Dr. Elizabeth further develops her thesis on modernism by referring to her expertise in the field of fine arts when she says that, “One cannot talk about the inception of modern education in Ethiopia, including the education of fine arts, without the critical engagement of its Western genealogy. Although serious scholarship that looks into the conjunctures of Haile Selassie’s space of modernity and modernism has yet to be produced.
Ethiopian academics, like Messay Kebede, have written about the serious shortcomings of Haile Selassie’s modernizing projects. They have gone as far as saying that it was the Emperor’s Eurocentric educational policy that debilitated the production of serious scholarship and that contributed to the Emperor’s own demise and to the eventual uprising of the 1974 revolution.”
Speaking of Ethiopian artists or painters who returned from Europe or America and tried to apply what they learnt in order to modernize Ethiopian art, Dr. Elkizabeth says the following: “These artists returned to Ethiopia determined to modernize their country visually. The only problem was their uncritical evaluation of notions of modernity and modernism. What type of modernity and modernism should Ethiopia follow? Their answer to this question was ambiguous and tentative. These artists, just as the regime was, were enamored by European modernity and modernism.”
The above quotation is another proof that neither Ethiopian rulers of the past nor the pioneering modern artists had a clear vision of what modernity meant in their specific contexts. The work of state building and national unification that was started under Menelik continued under Haile Sellassie with unprecedented vigor. Haile Sellassie considered Ethiopia’s educational and cultural modernization not only as a necessary step towards creating a modern country modeled after Japan or Great Britain but also as a national existential threat.
He understood that without a well-functioning modern state apparatus manned by Ethiopians trained in the sciences and modern education, the nation’s survival in the age of European colonialism could be jeopardized. His emerging bureaucracy, the modern army and the other state functions needed educated cadres who could ran them without foreign support.
As many historians have pointed out in the course of their writings, emperor Haile Sellassie harbored a feeling of suspicion towards foreigners in general and Europeans in particular. He had reservations as to the sincerity of European modernizing project in Ethiopia which was later on substantiated following the Italian invasion of the country.
For the modernizing emperors, modernization was not a matter of adopting Western lifestyles but Western technology and education and they have partially succeeded in the following decades. However, as soon as the modernization drives started to bear fruits, the Western powers proved Haile Selllassie’s suspicions and fears by trying to keep the nation in the dark and turned it into another African colony. Unfazed by their defeat at Adwa, the Italians, emboldened by the viciousness of some Western powers, invaded the country and nipped the modernizing gains of the previous decades into the bud.
Most of the last two centuries of Ethiopian history were therefore defined or characterized by the two main national objectives, namely national unification under emperor Menelik and modernization under emperor Hail Haile Sellasie. These objectives however remain half fulfilled as opposing forces of history tried to derail the process and succeeded to some extent. As a result of this we can say that Ethiopia, at the dawn of the 21st century is still wrestling with unfinished business of nation building and mismanaged national modernization drives.
The confusion still persisting in minds of Ethiopian modernizers had spillover effects at the lower level of society that was reflected in works of architecture and design to this day. Elias Yitbarek (PhD), Assistant Professor at the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture says the following in an essay he wrote about the practice of contemporary modernization in architecture:
“The influence of European modernism has become so potent that it has engulfed the disposition of all aspects of life of developing countries, such as Ethiopia. The prerequisite of European modernism had been industrialization. Its drawbacks are being extensively debated during the current age and, particularly, its exasperated characteristics of neglect for cultural aspects that have resulted in a dehumanized and faceless urban character.
Such debates are sidelined in countries like Ethiopia, as the urgent concern for politicians and donors is the hurried expedition to the universal conception of European modernity. Developing countries, such as Ethiopia, are trying to replicate similar values, simultaneously demolishing essential and significant components of their cultural fabrics.”
The above bird’s eye view of Ethiopia’s modernization drive in the last half a century or so testify to the fact that although notable achievements were made in many areas of modernization, there were also setbacks in such vital area we may call “modernizing the Ethiopian mind” in a way that would positively impact on the other aspects of modernization.
‘Modernizing the mind’ is not only an arduous but also a slow process characterized by setbacks until the correct ‘formula’ for its realization is discovered. It is however up to the present generation of modernizing elites to discover and apply a vision of modernization that takes into account Ethiopia’s past achievements and at the same time transcends its deficits.
The Ethiopian Herald August 21/2021
