The Wife's Tale
Page 27
CHRONOLOGY
HISTORY YETEMEGNU (NANNYÉ)
1775 – Establishment of Ba’ata
1866 – Tewodros II sacks Gondar
1886 – Addis Ababa established
1888 – Gondar burned by the Mahdi army
3 November 1889 – Menelik II crowned emperor, and Taitu Bitul his empress
23 July 1892 – Tafari Mekonnen (later Emperor Hailè Selassie I) born
1893 (1886 in Ethiopian calendar*1) – Tsega Teshalè born
1896 – Battle of Adwa
1911/12 (1904 in Ethiopian calendar) – Tsega, aged eighteen, arrives in Gondar with Memhir Hiruy
12 December 1913 – Death of Menelik II
1916 – Lij Iyasu, Menelik’s grandson, deposed, and Zewditu, Menelik II’s daughter, crowned empress; Tafari Mekonnen becomes ras
6 January (Tahsas 28, the feast of Ammanuel) ?1916*2 – Yetemegnu Mekonnent*3 (Nannyé) born in her maternal grandmother’s house, close to Ba’ata church
28 September 1923 – Ethiopia admitted to League of Nations; slave trade banned
? 1924 – Yetemegnu marries Tsega in Ba’ata church
2 November 1926 (Tiqimt 23, 1919) – Tsega awarded aleqa-ship of Ba’ata church
October 1928 – Ras Tafari crowned Negus (King) Tafari of Gondar
2 April 1930 – Empress Zewditu dies
2 November 1930 – Coronation of Negus Tafari Mekonnen, who becomes Emperor Hailè Selassie I (his baptismal name)
November 1930 – Tsega present at Hailè Selassie’s coronation. Alemitu born
? – Baby girl born to Yetemegnu. She dies, unnamed, just before her christening day
3 October 1935 – Italy invades Ethiopia
1 April 1936 – Gondar falls
2 May 1936 – Hailè Selassie leaves Ethiopia
5 May 1936 – Italian forces enter Addis Ababa
July ?1935 – Edemariam born
19 February (Yekatit 12) 1937 – Massacres in Addis Ababa, ordered by Viceroy Oraziani. All intellectuals killed. Followed by execution of 297 monks at Debrè Libanos on 21 May, and 1,500 people shot as soothsayers
? Late 1937 – Birth of Yohannes
1939 – Abunè Yohannes replaces Abunè Abraham
? 1939/40 – Teklé born
December 1940 – Dedication of Ba’ata church
20 January 1941 – Emperor Hailè Selassie, Ras Kassa and British forces enter Ethiopia
5 May 1941 – Emperor Hailè Selassie returns to Addis Ababa
1941 – Yetemegnu, pregnant with Molla and carrying Teklé, escapes on a mule to her father’s house in Atakilt Giorgis; Tsega goes to war in support of Ras Birru?
25 November 1941 – Battle of Oondar
1941/42 – Molla born in Atakilt Giorgis
2 December 1941 – The British begin dismantling Italian factories; in less than a year they take 80 per cent of industrial assets
1942 – Asratè Kassa, only surviving son of Ras Kassa, made deputy governor-general of Wollo, Begemdir and Semien
1942 – Mitiku Jemberé, later Abunè Theophilos, made dean of the new cathedral
May 1945 – Ras Imru made governor-general of Begemdir
1942 – Tsega leaves the battlefield to take his family to Denqez
c. September 1942 – The family return to Oondar; Yohannes dies two months later
1942 – Tsega promoted to judge by Hailè Selassie
1948 – Tsega gets Ba’ata back
14 January 1951 – Etchegé Gebrè-Giorgis becomes Abunè Basilios, the first Ethiopian archbishop. Mitiku Jemberé becomes his regent and deputy
1952/53 – Asratè Kassa returns as governor-general of Begemdir
? March/April 1953 – Tsega imprisoned
1953 – Yetemegnu miscarries her tenth child. Goes to Addis to petition for Tsega’s release
16 December 1953 (Tahsas 7, 1946) – Tsega dies
1955 – Silver jubilee of Hailè Selassie’s coronation
1956 – Molla and Teklé enter Fasiladas boarding school in Gondar; Tiruworq and Zenna sent to Princess Tenagnewerq school, also in Gondar, then to Harar
26 October 1957 – Asratè Kassa promoted to vice-president of the Senate
28 June 1959 – Abunè Basilios consecrated as first Ethiopian patriarch. Church achieves autonomy from Alexandria
December 1960 – Attempted coup led by Mengistu and Germamé Neway
1961 – Edemariam leaves for Canada
August 1969 – Molla goes to Russia, via Khartoum
1971 – Abunè Theophilos becomes patriarch of Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Asratè Kassa appointed president of the Crown Council
1972 – Hailè Selassie’s eightieth birthday
1971 – Edemariam and his wife Frances arrive from Canada
1973 – Wello famine
January 1974 – Revolution begins with army revolt in Negellé Borena
12 September 1974 – Hailè Selassie deposed
24 November 1974 – Derg announces it has executed its chairman, and sixty other dignitaries
1973–74 – New house built for Yetemegnu according to plans by Rev. Harold Lester, Frances’s father
March 1975 – Nationalisation of all rural land; abolition of the monarchy
July 1975 – Nationalisation of all urban land and ‘surplus housing’; church also loses its main economic assets
27 August 1975 – Emperor Hailè Selassie dies
May 1976 – Abunè Theophilos arrested
3 February 1977 – Launch of the Red Terror
1977 – Molla returns from Moscow to work as a doctor
14 July 1979 – Abunè Theophilos executed
1984 – Worst famine in Ethiopia in over ninety years affects eight million, kills one million; tenth anniversary of the revolution
1989 – Royal women released from prison
May 1991 – Mengistu flees; EPRDF enter Addis Ababa
5 November 2000 – Emperor Hailè Selassie buried
January 2001 – Alemitu dies
October 2001 – Yetemegnu makes pilgrimage to Jerusalem
8 December 2006 – Mengistu convicted in absentia of genocide and crimes against humanity
May 2009 – Teklé dies
14 August 2012 – Molla dies
21 December (Tahsas 12) 2013 – Yetemegnu dies
*1The Ethiopian calendar has thirteen months (the thirteenth, Pagumé, has five or six days depending on if it is a leap year). New Year’s Day equates to 11 or 12 September in the Gregorian calendar; the seven- or eight-year difference arises because of differing original calculations for year zero, the date of the Annunciation. The Wife’s Tale proceeds according to the Ethiopian year, months and seasons, except for the dates at the beginning of each book, which are Gregorian. I am indebted to https://www.funaba.org/cc for conversions between the Ethiopian and Gregorian calendars.
*2Yetemegnu was not unusual in carefully remembering birth times, days, months, saints’ days, but not being specific about years. Formal birth certificates were not used in Ethiopia at the time.
*3Ethiopian naming convention is that the surname is the father’s first name, i.e. Yetemegnu Mekonnen, because her father was called Mekonnen Yilma (and his father Yilma Woldè-Selassie). A woman does not change her surname upon marriage, though in some places the groom’s family will give her a new first name. Most born into the Orthodox Christian faith have both a daily name and a baptismal name, given at their christening.
GLOSSARY
abet – ‘Yes, sir!’; ‘At your service’; also, ‘Abet! Abet!’ means ‘Justice! Justice!’
amolé – salt bars, historically used as currency
araqi – arrack, alcoholic liquor
awiy; wiy – an exclamation, roughly ‘Oh no!’
ayzosh/ayzoh/ayzot – take heart (‘ayzosh’ when addressed to a female, ‘ayzoh’ when to a male, ‘ayzot’ when to an elder or someone higher on the social scale)
berberé – dried, ground and spiced chillis
/>
Betè Israel – literally, house of Israel – Ethiopian Jews
bethlehem – a small building in the church grounds where nuns prepare eucharistic bread
birilé – small glass drinking flask with a round base and narrow neck, used for drinking mead
birr – literally silver, but also Ethiopia’s official currency
chat – leaves chewed for their mildly narcotic effect
das – a temporary shelter of wooden poles, covered in leaves and branches. Used for events such as weddings and funerals
dibab – a type of ceremonial umbrella
dirsanè – homily
enaté – my mother
erè – exclamation
finjal – small, handle-less porcelain coffee cup
gabi – a particularly heavy shemma (q.v.), effectively a blanket
gan – large pottery jar, like an amphora
garri – two-wheeled, horse-drawn cart
gasha – shield, bulwark; also about forty hectares of land
ghibbi – compound or courtyard; also castle complex
ihité – my sister
ilbet – a smooth, spiced sauce of broad-bean flour
ililta – ululation/joy cries
injera – flat sourdough bread made with teff flour
jendi – a blanket of hide
kahinat – clergy
kebero – a drum
kosso – a tree, parts of which are an anthelmintic (against tapeworm)
lijé – my child
madiga – very large pottery jar, usually for carrying water; also a large hide sack capable of holding up to 50kg
masinqo – a one-stringed spike-fiddle
masqal – cross; also, as Masqal, the feast of the True Cross, 27 September (Meskerem 17 in Ethiopian calendar)
meqdes – in a church, the sanctuary, where the altar is located
mesob – a table of woven straw with a conical base and a round top, usually the size of one injera (q.v)
netela – a shawl of thin cotton muslin
qiné – church poetry, sacred hymn
shemma – a shawl, which can be light single-ply muslin – called a netela (q.v.) – or thicker (double- or triple-ply)
shifta – bandit/rebel/guerrilla
shirro – a flour of dried, spiced chickpeas and split peas which becomes a smooth sauce when cooked; a staple meal, especially for poorer people
siljo – a sauce of spices, fermented barley and sorghum
tabot – the Ark of the Covenant, a copy of which is found at the centre/at the altar of every church
teff – the seeds of Williams’ love grass/annual bunch grass. Used to make injera (q.v.)
tej – mead
teklil wedding – a church wedding, and indissoluble (other forms of wedding allowed for divorce)
tella – beer
terèt – a folk tale
woizero – respectful title for a woman: Madam, lady, Mrs
yelam berèt – literally a cow’s byre, but part of a call and response that transcends literal meaning
zar – a spirit; a possession cult or therapeutic society
Ranks and titles
abba – father; also Father, as in a title for priests and monks
abunè – archbishop, patriarch
aleqa – administrative leader of a large monastery or an important church
bitwoded – beloved [of the realm]
dejazmatch – general, commander of the gate; title just below ras (q.v.)
fitawrari – commander of the vanguard; title just below dejazmatch (q.v.)
Jan Hoy – a title by which to address the emperor
liqè-kahinat – head of the clergy of a province or a large area
meto-aleqa – commander of a hundred
negus – king
negusè-negest – king of kings, or emperor
qengazmatch – commander of the right flank
ras – head of an army; highest title below king
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
While I may have grown up in Ethiopia, there were many reasons (not least the revolution and its attempts to erase and recast the past) why things familiar to my grandmother were unknown to me, so I needed years of reading before I could begin to understand the world in which she grew up. I can only mention a fraction of the books and articles here, but Bahru Zewdé’s A History of Modern Ethiopia 1855–1974 was invaluable, as was his work on the Gondar census of 1930–31 and his commentaries on the revolution, in particular his insights about what it did to language, and the dark jokes people told. Solomon Getahun’s History of the City of Gondar was foundational, as was Adna Abejè’s BA thesis on ‘Ba’ata Church in Gondar (1775–1968)’, written at Addis Ababa University in 1990. Gondaré Begashaw by Gerima Taferè provided eyewitness accounts, as did Blatengeta Mahitemè-Selassie Woldè-Mesqel’s Zikrè-neger and Evelyn Waugh’s Waugh in Abyssinia and Remote People. Despite his opinions and his mockery, Waugh was a good noticer. I spent whole days, weeks, even, in the company of Thomas Lieper Kane’s two-volume Amharic–English dictionary. The Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Vols 1–5 (Harrassowitz Verlag) is a remarkable undertaking, as is, in a different way, Simon D. Messing’s huge unpublished 1957 PhD ‘The Highland-Plateau Amhara of Ethiopia’, from which the descriptions of agricultural work assigned to each month are taken. Messing’s transcriptions of the familiar stories of Aleqa Gebrè-Hanna were very useful, as were his investigations into zar culture; Ronald A. Reminick and Wolf Leslau were also helpful with this, especially with regard to zar language. Sylvia Pankhurst’s weekly newspaper the Ethiopia Observer was invaluable, as were book after article after book by her son, the Ethiopianist Richard Pankhurst; as was, in turn, the book Gender, Development and Identity in Ethiopia by his daughter, Helen Pankhurst. Selamawit Mecca’s insightful study of the hagiographies of Ethiopian female saints (with special reference to Gedlè Christos Semra and Gedlè Feqertè Christos) was very useful.
As I do not understand Ge’ez, the church language (which relates to Amharic rather as Latin does to Italian), I was grateful for E.A. Wallis Budge’s translations of The Legends of Our Lady Mary the Perpetual Virgin and Her Mother Hanna; One Hundred and Ten Miracles of Our Lady Mary; The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church; The Book of the Praise of Mary; The Virgin’s Lyre; and The Queen of Sheba and Her Only Son Menyelik (otherwise known as The Kibrè Negest, or The Book of the Glory of Kings). The quotations that tell the story of Mary’s life, the prayers of Ruphael and of the praise of Mary are all from these books.
Donald Levine’s Wax and Gold illuminated attitudes and assumptions so familiar I hadn’t known I was surrounded by them: the phrase ‘the dance of David, of reeds in water’ I owe to him. Alberto Sbacchi’s Ethiopia Under Mussolini: Fascism and the Colonial Experience was very informative, and I am grateful for Reidulf Knut Molvaer’s fascinating study Tradition and Change in Ethiopia: Social and Cultural Life as Reflected in Amharic Fictional Literature; to his translation of the chronicles of Zewditu, and to his synopsis of Dubb-Ida by Balambaras Mahitemè-Selassie Woldè-Mesqel, a detailed account of the characters and events in the abortive coup of 1960. Richard Greenfield’s account in Ethiopia: A New Political History was vital too, especially his transcriptions of radio broadcasts. BBC journalist Blair Thomson’s Ethiopia: The Country that Cut Off its Head provided a similarly vivid day-to-day, even hour-to-hour sense of seismic events; the insight that that year’s Masqal bonfire collapsed in on itself is his. I am grateful for Philip Marsden’s biography of Tewodros, and also for a specific line from his The Chains of Heaven, which appears almost unchanged, it so exactly describes what I remember: ‘not everyone lying by the side of the road was sleeping’. I am indebted to Marina Warner, whose sympathetic and learned account, in Alone of All Her Sex, of how the worship and iconography of Mary is simultaneously an ideal, a comfort and a subjugation, helped me to understand fundamental things about my grandmother and what she shared with women across the Coptic and Cath
olic worlds; the phrase ‘surrounded by more frescoes which, because Yetemegnu could not read, were in effect her Bible’ is a quotation and a tribute. Colm Tóibín’s The Testament of Mary, for leading me to Warner, and for the freedom of the voice. And Michael Ondaatje, whose memoir Running in the Family (and his biographical novel Coming Through Slaughter) suggested, nearly two decades ago, a possible way in which to approach what is essentially a subjective oral history.
And, as such, my greatest debts are to everyone who told me stories. My sincere thanks to Felegush Mekonnen and her daughters Serawit and Seged Getahun, to Seyoum Getahun, Adanè Jemberu and Neberu Ayalew, Qes Addisé Mekonnen, Migib Tadessè and Kassa Worku, Dr Fisseha Gebrè-Selassie and Abebech Yosef, Derejè Seteng and Tigist Hailu, Qes Dawit Beqalu, Aderajew Asfaw, Habtamu Teklé, Qes Girma Mengistu, Robel Yohannes, Abebè Gedefaw, Dagm, Tewodros and Mesfin, all in Gondar. Professor Bahru Zewdé, Mamo Hailé, Damtew Bizuneh and Abebech in Addis Ababa, and Abba Teklè-mariam in Debrè Libanos. HIH Prince Be’edè-mariam Mekonnen, Princes Asfè-Wossen Asratè Kassa and Mulugeta Asratè Kassa – all shared memories and/or guidance and material support.
Thanks to Tim Rostron, John Pearce, Christopher Clapham, Lisa Dwan, Karolina Sutton, David Levene, Martin Orwin, John Binns, Kumlachew Muluneh, Laura Thomas, Kieron Humphrey, Andy Beckett, Paula Cocozza, Ariane Koek, Benjamin Markovits, Joanna Kavenna, Leah McLaren, Kazvare Knox and Sarah Habershon for everything from the first germ of encouragement to design and orthographical advice to a room to work in. To the librarians at the British Library (especially in the Map Room), at SOAS, at the Bodleian and at the Oriental Institute library, University of Oxford; to Anne Catterall at the Sherardian Library of Plant Taxonomy, University of Oxford, and to Weinishet Behailu and Genet Getaneh at the Ethiopian Institute and Museum, Addis Ababa. To Guardian colleagues (and my bosses over the years) Ian Katz, Katharine Viner, Becky Gardiner, Charlie English, Sally Weale, Paul Johnson, Clare Margetson and Kira Cochrane for their patience, not least with various leaves of absence. To Robert Young and St Catherine’s College, Oxford, who trusted that at some point I might fulfil the promises that won me a scholarship that changed my life. To Steven Pollard, Seamus Perry, Jonathan Wordsworth, Bernard O’Donoghue. To the Royal Society of Literature, and especially Jerwood judges Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Andrew O’Hagan and Jane Ridley, for a prize that provided both a much-needed sum of money and, almost more important, a public vote of confidence in my project. To Ellah Wakatama Allfrey for unstinting encouragement and expert guidance, and to Mary Target. To Susanna Rustin and Annalena McAfee, who took a punt on an unknown non-writer and simply assumed the highest ambitions were possible – a rare and generous gift. To Pat Kavanagh, to whom Annalena introduced me, and who offered a similar trust.