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Introduction

Introduction For many years, scholars of history, anthropology, sociology and political science have been pleading for the bridging of the boundary between Ethiopian studies and African studies (James 1986, Shelemay and Kaplan 2006: 192). The putative “exceptionality” of Ethiopia in Africa is evidenced by both Africanist productions that leave little room for case studies from Ethiopia, and from Ethiopianist scholarly traditions mainly anchored in Europe (United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany), and more recently in the USA , that do not engage deeply in the themes and concerns of Africanist scholarship. The “integration of work on Ethiopia into the mainstream of African historiography” (Crummey 1990: 119) is underscored as a major challenge. As a matter of fact, the interpenetration of themes, methods and research questions represent a perennial concern, which 15 years ago was far from achieved (Bahru 2000: 17). If progress has been made since then, the overall objective of bridging Ethiopia and Africa remains unfulfilled. Such an objective calls for comparative studies, as well as for the conceptualisation of research themes that would encourage scholars to encompass Ethiopian historiography as well as other fields of knowledge. This would contribute both to a disentanglement of Ethiopia from itself, and http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png African Diaspora Brill

Introduction

Bonacci, Giulia
African Diaspora , Volume 8 (1): 1 – Jan 1, 2015
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
ISSN
1872-5457
eISSN
1872-5465
DOI
10.1163/18725465-00801006
Publisher site
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Abstract

For many years, scholars of history, anthropology, sociology and political science have been pleading for the bridging of the boundary between Ethiopian studies and African studies (James 1986, Shelemay and Kaplan 2006: 192). The putative “exceptionality” of Ethiopia in Africa is evidenced by both Africanist productions that leave little room for case studies from Ethiopia, and from Ethiopianist scholarly traditions mainly anchored in Europe (United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany), and more recently in the USA , that do not engage deeply in the themes and concerns of Africanist scholarship. The “integration of work on Ethiopia into the mainstream of African historiography” (Crummey 1990: 119) is underscored as a major challenge. As a matter of fact, the interpenetration of themes, methods and research questions represent a perennial concern, which 15 years ago was far from achieved (Bahru 2000: 17). If progress has been made since then, the overall objective of bridging Ethiopia and Africa remains unfulfilled. Such an objective calls for comparative studies, as well as for the conceptualisation of research themes that would encourage scholars to encompass Ethiopian historiography as well as other fields of knowledge. This would contribute both to a disentanglement of Ethiopia from itself, and

Journal

African Diaspora – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2015

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