This article is published in: Stefan Bruene and Heinrich Scholler (eds.), 2005. Auf dem Weg zum modernen
Aethiopien, Festschrift fuer Bairu Tafla. Lit Verlag. Muenster. 276 pages.
Ethiopian Contributions to the Study of Amharic Oral Poetry∗
© Getie Gelaye, Asia-Africa-Institute, Hamburg University, Germany
Summary
Ethiopian writers and historians (both amateur and professional) have attempted to collect,
classify, analyze and document the various genres of Amharic oral poetry in their books,
monographs, articles and theses that deal with the social, cultural, historical, political,
religious, literary and linguistic aspects. In their works the authors presented a variety of
historical and political poems, praise songs, war songs and heroic recitals, dirges and
funeral songs, work songs, wedding songs, religious poems, hunting poems, children’s
songs, etc. These works have contributed (and continue to contribute) significantly as
important source material for scholars and researchers and inspire other writers to continue
the task of collecting, classifying, analyzing, documenting and preserving Ethiopian oral
literature in general and Amharic oral poetry in particular. This paper attempts to provide a
review of the available contributions that dealt with different genres of Amharic oral poetry
and songs.
Introduction
This paper seeks to present a short review of the Ethiopian contribution to the study of
Amharic oral poetry (ca.1900-2000). Both amateur and professional writers and historians
have attempted to collect, publish and preserve various forms of Amharic oral poetry. The
Ethiopian contribution to the study of Amharic oral traditions in general and oral poetry in
particular can be classified into two broad categories. The first group includes writers and
scholars who publish literary, cultural and linguistic materials such as Afäwärq Gäbrä
›yyäsus3, H™ruy Wäldä S™llase, Mah™tämä S™llase Wäldä Mäsqäl, Alämayyähu Mogäs,
Säyfu Mättafäriya, etc., and the second group includes both professional and amateur
historical writers such as Täklä ®ad™q Mäkuriya, Pawlos Ňoñño, B™rhanu Abäbä,
Taddässä Zäwälde, Taffärä Gärima, etc.
∗
This is a revised and enlarged version of a sub-chapter developed from my Ph.D. dissertation which was
submitted to Institute of African and Ethiopian Studies, Hamburg University, Germany in October 2000 and
later published under the title: Amharic Oral Poems of the Peasantry in East Gojjam: Text, Classification,
Translation and Commentary, Muenster-Hamburg-London, 2001.
3
In this article all the Amharic personal and place names as well as titles and nouns are transliterated as used in
the system developed by Wolf Leslau (1967), Amharic Textbook (Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden); and Thomas L.
Kane (1990), Amharic-English Dictionary, (Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden).
Getie Gelaye, Ethn.contr.AOP
96
In this paper, however, much emphasis is given to the contributions of literary, cultural,
linguistic and ethnological works, although some relevant works of historians are provided in
the bibliography. The authors’ methods of collection, classification and analysis are
reviewed chronologically.
The Contributions
According to the material available to me the collection and publication of oral literary
material by Ethiopians begins with Afäwärq Gäbrä ›yyäsus who presented poems, songs,
proverbs and folktales in his book on Amharic grammar in 1905.2 Then follows Blattengeta
H™ruy Wäldä S™llase’s πHof ±+R ”ÿT" yäläqso zema g™ª™m (Funeral Chant Poetry) in
1910 and m䬙hafä q™ne (Book of Qene) in 1918 dealing entirely with poems and songs. In
1915 Gäbru Dästa published the first grammar in Amharic and he presented few historical,
praise and funeral poems at the last section of his book. It took sixteen years for the
appearance of Blattengeta Mah™tämä S™llase Wäldä Mäsqäl’s ≥°[ ä—`" z™krä nägär
(Memorable Things) in 1942, that contains several praise poems, hunting songs as well as
political and historical poems. Moreover, in 1948 Mah™tämä S™llase published
ôR`ì oé" amar™ñña q™ne (Amharic Qene) for which he later prepared keys to all the q™ne
he collected and published in 1962 under the title: ôR`ì oé ûäOıÅ´" amar™ñña q™ne
kännämäfččaw (Amharic Qene With Keys). This book was widely used by then Ministry of
Education and Fine Arts in teaching Amharic oéñ cT õç ®`o" q™ne, säm ™nna wärq
(wax and gold) and g™ª™m (poetry) at schools. Mah™tämä S™llase wrote that he collected the
Amharic q™ne säm ™nna wärq poems from the people during funerals, at traditional litigation
or court hearings and from singers and poets. Mah™tämä S™llase Wäldä Mäsqäl is recognized
as one of the pioneers of Ethiopian authors in collecting, classifying, analyzing, preserving
and documenting the various genres of Amharic poems and songs.
2
In this article the year of publication for all Amharic books, monographs and articles is provided according to
the Ethiopian Calendar. In the bibliography the year is followed by the common abbreviation Æ.T (Amätä
M™hrät), Year of Grace.
97
Getie Gelaye, Ethn.contr.AOP
Mah™tämä S™llase contributed not only the books mentioned above but he also wrote the
following research works which were published in the Journal of Ethiopian Studies as
cultural, literary, sociological, ethnological and historical source books. The first one is
entitled: v#J“" πô&|øº wFJ ÿç|"" bulga yäit™yoÞ ™ya bah™l ª™nat (Bulga: A Study of
Ethiopian Culture) in 1968 and the second is: Ä,! vH´" πô&|øº wFJ ÿç|"" čä bäläw
yäit™yoÞ ™ya bah™l ª™nat (Lit. Say Him čä: A Study of the Ethiopian Culture of Horse-Names)
in 1969. In these books Mah™tämä S™llase presented several collections of war songs, heroic
recitals, historical poems, work songs, praise poems, wedding songs, and New Year songs.
Another contributor to the study of Amharic oral poetry is Alämayyähu Mogäs who
cT õç ®`o" säm
published
™nna
wärq
(Wax
and
Gold)
in
1953,
πôR`ì ”ÿT õç oé RezR]º" yä’amar™ñña g™ª™m ™nna q™ne mastämariya (Amharic
Poetry and Qene Textbook) in 1954, ô&|øº™* oé" it™yoÞ ™yawi q™ne (Ethiopian Qene) in
1967 and πôR`ì K[”" yä’amar™ñña haräg (Amharic [Poetic] Phrase) in 1966. In these
books, Alämayyähu Mogäs analyzed the features and styles of Amharic q™ne and poetry, and
provided the methods of composing, interpreting and analyzing q™ne, säm ™nna wärq and
g™ª™m not only in Amharic but also in Ge‘ez. His collection included several historical
poems, religious songs, work songs, funeral songs, war songs, heroic recitals, love poems,
and children’s songs. Alämayyähu Mogäs has also taught q™ne, säm ™nna wärq and g™ª™m
both in Amharic and Ge‘ez at then Haylä S™llase I University and later, he carried out
extensive research on the same area at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa
University. Blatta Märs™‘e Hazän Wäldä Qirqos in his book πôR`ì c™e´" yä‘amar™ñña
säwasäw (Amharic Grammar) 1948, included several types of Amharic oral poetry at the last
section
of
his
book.
Similarly
Mäng™stu
πôR`ì ”ÿT Ææäz%ñ Y[z%ñ Y`Æz%" yä‘amar™ñña
Lämma
g™ª™m
in
his
‘ay™nätu,
article
s™rrätu,
s™r™‘atu (The Principles and Technical Aspects of Amharic Versification) 1963, contributed
interesting discussions on the classification and versification of Amharic poetry. Mäng™stu
introduced a new type (form) of Amharic oral poetry that he collected from Gondar. In 1970
Taddässä Mulat collected wedding songs from Go‹‹am and studied their features under the
title vW`” ±ÔêÇ ´eÿ πQ{∫ ºR`ì ”ÿUÇ" bäsärg zäfänočč w™sª yämmitayyu
yamar™ñña g™ª™močč (Amharic Poems Seen in Wedding Songs).
98
Getie Gelaye, Ethn.contr.AOP
In 1972 Säyfu Mättafäriya wrote a profound study on the sociological, psychological,
historical,
cultural
and
literary
analysis
of
slave
name
entitled
πw]º eT wR^´ wFJ" yäbariya s™m bä’amaraw bah™l (Slave Name in the Amhara
Culture), a poetic form of ‘addressing and responding’ tradition that has been widely used
by Ethiopian emperors, kings, queens, royal families, warriors, and above all slave masters
or owners. Säyfu collected 580 Amharic slave names3 and provided avery interesting
analysis on the onomastic, philosophical and poetic aspects of the Amharic language. In
another paper that Säyfu wrote in 1981 under the title “Local Contributions to the
Development of Folkloristics in Ethiopia”, he surveys much of the academic and nonacademic contributions to the study of Amharic oral literature in Ethiopia drawing on a
variety of examples. Later on in 1984 he published another interesting research paper entitled
“Oral Literature of Ethiopia As Source Material for Children’s Books”. In this study, Säyfu
outlines the contribution of the various forms of Amharic oral poetry and songs in the
preparation of children’s books in Ethiopia for teaching purposes based on his collection. In
this same year Säyfu published an article on “Verse-Talk in an Ogaden Front of 1934:
Folkloric Study of a Text”. This article presents several soldiers’ songs and poems (or war
songs and heroic recitals), which were composed and recited during and after the Wal Wal
incident. Säyfu also wrote another paper entitled, “Field Definition of Amhara Folklore”.
Moreover, pursuing his research work on Ethiopian oral literature, in 1993 Säyfu published a
major article4 under the title πˆ°H:` O≥—v nI| ÿèm^ o≈O ≥”œ|" yäfoklor
mäzgäbä qalat ª™nqära q™dmä z™g™‹‹™t, (A Preliminary Compilation of Folklore
Dictionary) which attempts to set out problems of definitions and the use of oral literary and
folkloric terms among Ethiopians. Säyfu Mättafäriya is the first Ethiopian scholar who
started teaching the course on “Ethiopian Oral Literature” at the Department of Ethiopian
Languages and Literature, Addis Ababa University and contributed extensive research
between 1979 and 1993.
3
Säyfu Mättafäriya wrote, “Each of the [slave] names is a single sentence broken into a couplet. The first of
the components is used by the master and others to call the slave, and the second is used by the slave to answer
the call” (1972:127).
4
See Säyfu Mättafäriya (1993:73-116).
Getie Gelaye, Ethn.contr.AOP
99
In 1972, Haylu Ar™’aya wrote a Ph.D. dissertation on Amharic oral poetry under the title
“Ten Semantic Categories most Recurrent in Ethiopian Folk Poetry: Their Socio-linguistic
Bases.” In this dissertation Haylu studied what he calls ‘Amharic couplets’. The author
mentions that the poems “reveal the Ethiopian’s mode of perceiving and organizing, his
physical and social universe, his self image, his fears, his moral values and his methods of
obtaining physical and mental relief” (1972:2). Moreover, he indicates that the Amharic
couplets, “... except in a few cases, are originally unwritten, their authors are unknown, and
they have been passed from generation to generation by word of mouth”5. The Amharic
poems analyzed in the study are classified under two categories. The author himself collected
the first 250 poems throughout his “teaching years in various northern, central and eastern
parts of Ethiopia”. The remaining 250 couplets “were selected from the book
ôR`ì oé" Amar™ñña Q™ne (Amharic Qene) by Blattengeta Mah™tämä S™lasse Wäldä
Mäsqäl” mentioned above. The ten semantic categories the author identified and selected in
his socio-linguistic analysis of the poems are ıo`ñf™q™r (love), U|ñ mot (death),
õ”±&ôxK+`ñ ™gzi’abher (God), Oû^ñ mäkära (suffering), õè ^ñ ™n‹ära (bread),
”èä|ñ ‹ägn™nnät (courage), π”x[ Y“ ¿èx ÿc|ñ yäg™brä s™ga dänb ª™sät
(violation of sexual norms), mèñ qän (time), O_|ñ märet (land), and Ô]ä|ñ färinnät
(cowardice). Later on, in 1978, a translation of 200 poems was compiled by the same author,
in a kind of anthology under the title Ethiopian Folk Poetry Recreated. However, the author
did not mention when, where and from whom the poems were collected. Haylu persuasively
attempts to give a brief introductory note about the poems, how he translates them, and in
particular their significance for foreigners though the translation of these poems came under
criticism, starting with the title itself6.
In the 1980s few M.A. theses were written following the commencement of a graduate
program at the Institute of Language Studies of Addis Ababa University. Most of them focus
on the analysis of folktales, while a few were written on oral poetry. For example, the thesis
by Šibäši Lämma deals with Amharic oral poetry considering famine and its related
conditions in Ethiopia under the title “A Thematic Approach to Famine-Inspired Amharic
5
The emphasis is mine to note that these poems and songs belong to the people and hence they can be referred
as ‘oral poems’ or ‘folk poetry,’ as described or labelled by the author.
6
See Zärihun Asfaw (1990:4-8).
Getie Gelaye, Ethn.contr.AOP
100
Oral Poetry”. The poems were collected from a village called Sirrinka, in Wällo
Administrative Region while the author was working in the Relief and Rehabilitation
Commission (1986:3). In 1987 Assäffa Mammo studied the Amharic Oè±#R" mänzuma
poem as a distinct genre in Islamic prayers under the title “Some Prominent Features of the
Menzuma Genre in Wollo Region”. In addition to the works mentioned above, a number of
B.A. essays7 on various genres of Amharic oral poetry were written by students in the
Department of Ethiopian Languages and Literature at Addis Ababa University. This
endeavor, in part, was started “in 1979 as the department introduced the course oral
literature”8. However, most of the senior essays have methodological problems, such as
clarity, systematization and simplicity, while collecting and recording the poems and songs
along with their actual performance. The then Ethiopian Languages Academy, which had
affiliation with the Ministry of Culture and Sports Affairs, was responsible for the collection,
classification and analysis of the various genres of Ethiopian oral literary materials. Field
researches were carried out in several parts of the country in eight languages9 by the ‘Study
and Research Unit of Oral Literature’ and a three days seminar was held from 2-4 May,
1984, on Ethiopian Oral Literature, where 12 research papers were presented. In particular,
the papers by ›mmawayy™š Mällässä and Sälämon Wäldu on Amharic oral literature, and by
Taddässä Tärfa on the relevance of Amharic oral literature in ethnography and
anthropological studies are worth mentioning.
In 1983 Däbbäbä Säyfu wrote a very interesting article in Amharic under the title,
ºR`ì M≥w™* Yä ”ÿT Ixä| ºFJ" yamar™ñña h™zbawi s™nä g™ª™m lä‘ab™nnät yah™l
(A Sample Study of Amharic Folk Poetry). Däbbäbä emphasizes that for centuries the
Ethiopian people have possessed a great heritage of oral literature. Oral poetry, according to
him, pictures peoples in all historical, cultural and political conditions in a specific social
context (1983:31). He makes an analysis of a few Amharic poems reflecting historical
happenings or events {]ü™* Bé{¨Çñ (tarikawi hunetawočč), hunting poeetry
7
The senior essays are written in Amharic and are available at the Institute of Language Studies, John F.
Kennedy and the Institute of Ethiopian Studies libraries in Addis Ababa. Unfortunately, the contributions of
these essays are not included in this article. The idea of “…editing and publishing the BA theses with
introductory notes and necessary annotations in English” have been suggested by Fäqadä Azzäzä (2001:70)
8
See Säyfu Mättafäriya (1981:27).
9
These languages were Amharic, T™gr™ñña, Oromo, Wälayta, Sidama, Hadiyya, Gedeo, and Kämbata.
Getie Gelaye, Ethn.contr.AOP
101
πô¿è ”ÿTñ (yä‘adän g™ª™m) or —#a ®hwΩñ gurro wäšäbaye) and the earliest form of
court poetry πÇH:| ”ÿT" (yäč™lot g™ª™m). In 1984 Fäqadä Azzäzä published a review and
bibliography on the oral literature of the different nationalities in Ethiopia. In 1989 he
published πYänJ OT]º" yäs™nä qal mämriya (Introduction to Oral Literature), which is
a useful guide to students and scholars working in the subject. In 1985 G™rma-S™llase Asfaw
and Richard Pankhurst wrote an article on the Amharic war-songs of Tewodros’ soldiers
based on the private records of Captain Tristan Speedy, a British officer who visited Ethiopia
in the 1880s. Their analysis mainly constitutes a kind of improvisation or reconstruction of
the poem’s stanzas, adding some linguistic and historical commentaries (1985:55). In 1986
Täklä Haymanot Gäbrä S™llase studied the role of the azmari (minstrel) and analyzed some
praise and historical poems in Addis Ababa. In 1988 Šibäši Lämma published a book entitled
πÿèz% ôcÿ ô—w P”|" y䪙ntu ™säª agäba mugg™t (The Ancient [Ethiopian] Litigation),
which he originally prepared it for a senior essay and submitted to the Department of
Ethiopian languages and Literature, Addis Ababa University in 1972. The author provides an
analysis of traditional poems of litigation in dialogical style that have been practiced by
Amhara peasants of Ethiopia until the 1930s. In 1989, Admasu Dästa, published a book
under the title: πR` õh|" yämar ™šät (Fresh Ripened Cereal of Honey), a collection of
historical poems, war songs, heroic recitals, love songs, work songs, and wedding songs he
gathered from high school students while he was working as an Amharic teacher in the
towns of Däbrä Marqos and Gondär.
Between 1970 and 1987 B™rhanu Abäbä published three articles on Amharic oral poetry
based on the private collections of Antoine d’Abbadie. The articles refer to the historical,
political, cultural and sociological aspects of the 19th Century in Ethiopia as depicted in the
poems and songs. The first article deals with the poems of ôQç Amina or KQç" Hamina
(itinerant mendicants or wandering singers), where as the other two focus on historical and
political aspects of the ±Oä Odıè|" Zämänä Mäsaf™nt. Interestingly, B™rhanu prepared
the Amharic texts based on the transcription of d’Abbadie and provided translations and
commentaries both in Amharic and French.
Getie Gelaye, Ethn.contr.AOP
102
In 1990 Alula Pankhurst wrote two articles entitled ôRûHÇ ≈èm%" amakkäläč d™nqu (the
Amazing Jigger Flea), and ô T" a‹ äm, Amharic verses written in Arabic script. Alula
collected the poems from settlers in Wälläga and Wällo, and provided a contextual analysis
of the themes raised from the anthropological and literary viewpoints. Alula translated and
analyzed 40 jigger flea poems and 14 a‹ äm verses. In 1992/3 the present author collected
and studied contemporary Amharic oral poems from the rural people in Yätnora, East
Go‹‹am on the effects of the Därg regime and how its Socialist ideology, agrarian reforms
or policies and local politics were reflected in the poems and songs. The results were used in
his M.A. thesis entitled, “The Social Life of Yätnora Agricultural Producers’ Cooperative
and Its Reflections in Amharic Oral Poetry”10 which was submitted to the school of graduate
studies in Social Anthropology. Furthermore, between 1997 and 2000, he conducted further
research on the role and function of Amharic oral poetry on contemporary issues of the rural
people in Gojjam such as agrarian reforms, land redistribution policies and implementations,
local politics and administration, state peasant relations, etc. as responded in the poems and
songs.
In 1994 Fäqadä Azzäzä collected famine poems from the peasants of North Šäwa, which he
later published in 1998 under the title Unheard Voices: Drought, Famine and God in
Ethiopian Oral Poetry which he later translate and publish it under the title:
cQ º÷# ≈TÓÇ"" Fäqadä analyzed 87 sample famine poems out of a collection of 221
couplets and provided a translation in English. Moreover, in 2002 Fäkadä published another
article on oral literatures depicting the former military dictator, Mäng™stu Haylä Mariam and
the Derg regime. Over the past decade several M.A. theses have been written by the
Graduate Students of the Institute of Language Studies and College of Social Sciences at
Addis Ababa University on the different aspects and genres of Amharic oral poetry.11 These
include the works of Getye Gälaye (1994), Käfyaläw Azzäzä (1998), Berhanu Gäbäyyähu
(1998), Dan‘el Läggässä (1998) and Mäsf™n Mässälä (2000). In 2003 The Department of
Ethiopian Languages and Literature has initiated a new Graduate Program in “Folklore and
Ethiopian Literature” which shows a growing interest in the systematic study of the
10
11
See also the other books, articles and papers contributed by the same author listed in the bibliography.
See Fäqadä Azzäzä (2001: 66).
Getie Gelaye, Ethn.contr.AOP
103
discipline. In sum, it is hoped that more research contributions by Ethiopians will continue to
come out not only on the different genres of Amharic oral poetry but also on the four major
language families of Ethiopia: the Semitic, Cushitic, Nilo-Saharan and Omotic.
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