Ismagilova R.N. Ethiopia: History and Modernity

Ismagilova R.N.
Ethiopia: History and Modernity.
М.: IAS RAS, 2025. – 388 с.
ISBN 978-5-6052752-4-4

The book was prepared to commemorate the author's 75th anniversary of his study of Africa and his 35th anniversary of his study of Ethiopia. It brings together articles published in various periodicals, some of which are not readily available. The book has two parts: history and modernity. The historical part, for the first time in Russian African studies, offers a detailed analysis of the work of Emperor Menelik II, the founder of modern Ethiopia. It describes the momentous victory over the Italian colonizers at Adwa on March 2, 1896, which resulted in Ethiopia becoming an independent state recognized worldwide.

For the first time, the history of slavery in Ethiopia, beginning in the 15th century, is covered. The second part opens with an analysis of the ethnopolitical situation. It describes in detail the characteristics of ethnic federalism: Ethiopia is the only country in the world where ethnicity is officially recognized as a political ideology. This led to interethnic conflicts, a struggle between the political elites of various ethnic communities for power and resources, and between ethnic minorities for self-determination. This resulted in radical ethnonationalism. The article explores the ethnopolitical situation in the most conflict-prone states.

The article "The Past in the Present (The Power of Traditions)," based on the author's fieldwork and the latest research by young Ethiopian scholars, unavailable to their Russian colleagues, contains unique material concerning the persistence of vestiges of social institutions such as slave descendants and artisan castes among a number of Ethiopian peoples.