When was ethiopia colonized

Adwa turned Ethiopia into a symbol of freedom for black people globally. It also led to a change of government in Italy. The town of Adwa is located in Northern Tigray, closer to the southern border of Eritrea.

The battle between Ethiopia and Italy took place in the mountainous terrain of the area. Adwa still stands as witness to what ordinary Africans can do when they come together as farmers, pastoralists, women and rural people, workers and artists. They are able to score a decisive victory against global colonialist forces.

Since the beginning of slavery and colonialism in the 16th century, similar battles had occurred around the world. The outcome of every war was the same. Europeans ended up ruling the native peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australia. Ethiopia stood as the antithesis of the colonial worldview.

The people spoke an Afrasian language , which is the origin of almost all languages currently spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. Ethiopians developed the Geez or Ethiopic writing system. From the fourth century, an indigenous Christianity, Orthodox Tewahido, developed through the synthesis of belief in the Ark of the Covenant, the gospel and ancient traditional practices.

The Kebra Nagast, the national epic that elaborates this belief, provided the basis for the emergence of a Solomonic dynasty that incorporates diverse lands and cultures into one country. Muslim immigrants were welcomed and protected by the Christian king in the seventh century. In the 19th century, the three successive kings, namely Emperor Tewodros of Gondar , Yohannes of Tigrai and Menelik of Shoa , sought to centralize power. A decade before the Battle of Adwa, European powers had decided the fate of Ethiopia.

At the Berlin Conference of , 14 European countries divided Africa among themselves. Italy had a colonial possession over Assab port since At the Berlin Conference, European colonial powers agreed that Italy could take over Ethiopia as its future colony. Italy expanded its presence in the Red Sea, an area that had become important since the opening of the Suez Canal in With British support, Italy took control of the port city of Massawa in From Massawa, Italy moved slowly inland, leading to a number of clashes with locals, which culminated in the battle of Adwa.

Famine and disease wiped out a third of the population between and This argument would hold if the imposed culture was a native one and not a foreign one as Woldeyes is trying to demonstrate. The author of this article seems too young to remember the time when primary and secondary education in Ethiopia was in Amharic up till the 12 Grade with English being the language of study only in University and Higher Education.

It is only since that local languages were used in the primary schools and that English became the language of instruction in the Secondary and Tertiary levels. The changes to education curriculum and languages is actually very revealing. It demonstrates that rather than a foreign epistemology being imposed as is by a native power, the matter of the fact is that the native elites have used this foreign epistemology as a tool to cement their power in a process of mimicry.

The Haile Selassie government used it to establish a domination of the Amhara culture and the distinction between the cooptive nature of this process is important in differentiating the Amhara culture from the Amhara people per se. The Derg regime followed the same trend with the notable difference that it was no longer geared towards producing an educated elite but rather educating the masses thus for example the imposition of Ersha as a subject for everyone rural like urban.

The reform and the introduction of local languages is a major change but it also serves to reproduce the narrative of the EPRDF on the nations and nationalism.

So there is an argument to be made that there has been a native colonialism to impose the Amhara culture, the Ethiopian Socialism and now the ethno-nationalist agenda of the successive power holders including at times with the use of physical violence.

It is important at this point to distinguish between the techne and the episteme. The western techne was sure used as the basis of the education system, but the episteme itself was never fully foreign to Ethiopia. This also calls into question the very existence of an Ethiopian epistemology. A trap that Woldeyes and the author of this article seem to have been happy to fall into. We live in Sweden.

My kids go to the English School in Eskilstuna. Most of the tuition is in English, and most of the teachers are recruited from USA and the Commonwealth, but also from other countries in all continents. There is only benifits to this. My kids become fluent in English, not only in everday situations but also in technology, science, math, business, they learn all the technical terms. History, religion and geography is taught from a Swedish point of view.

And they do have lessons in Swedish and also another language of their choice. After finishing grad school, they are prepared to work or educate themselves further anywhere on Earth. English is the dominant language in science and technology, international trade and communication. Ethiopia needs the technical knowhow required for its economic transformation, and the extensive body of knowledge used for this purpose is available in English, and not in Amharic.

So yes, for obvious and practical reasons, English for higher learning and Amharic for Ethiopian literature and cultural matters — theatre, music, etc. Here is where I would like to say, ignorance is bliss. You exaggerated and attempt to undermine the history of Ethiopia by shedding your crocodile tears about the system of its Education.

The western system of education was pursued by majority of nations throughout the world for development. Ethiopian rulers have fought with Europeans as well as made agreements and friendship on their own free will without compromising the nations independence and sovereignty.

Of-course a lot should be done to spread national language and Ethiopian system of Education. This by no means tantamount to calling it a colonized system. The gallant fighters of our ancestors beat the European power at the battle of Adwa.

This makes Ethiopia the only nations in Africa, probably in the world that has never been colonized. As France was occupied by Germany, at around the same time Ethiopia was occupied by Italy for merely 5 years.

Ethiopians never surrendered and patriots were fighting day and night until the Italian forces were removed. This is our proud history that our fathers and forefathers and mothers sacrificed for.

Do not mess with it. Do not make a mountain out of a mole. Your header is offensive for it has double meaning. The system of Education can be addressed with clear heading line. I think the purpose of education is to solve problems and to create a better future for the society. I traveled to many places including Japan, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Netherland, and the only countries they use a foreign language as a medium of instruction is most of the colonized African countries, including in French.

I think the author is no referring learning English as a language but changing the countries medium of instruction to a language that is not spoken among the people is ridiculous. The best-developed countries in Technology including Japan, China,… they use their language as a medium of instruction.

Learning in English is enables the learner to acquire developed technology, science and culture. Whether we like or not globalization is a must. The world is becoming one village. So, sticking only to ours is not the sign of growing. To dramatize or sensationalize to sell books and articles has become a terrible norm these days. Why should we trouble ourselves pulling Amharic, the language of a single entity in Ethiopia from abyss to have all of us the subjects carny the load!!

Who on earth would bother to bring Amharic in to the language of modern education except possibly the Amhara. The Amhara tribe could own the burden of uplifting their language for their own cause! Please enough is enough for us the subjects! Let the Amhara use it within their Administration! The headline misleads readers. We just lean as language to communicate with others. Sc there and did my Ph. English became a medium of instruction because of sound reasoning and wise and visionary decision by the rulers who facilitated the introduction of Modern, i.

European Education to Ethiopia. GW High school admitted the brightest kids from across Ethiopia and those from more or less most ethnic or religious persuasion. The Alumni of this and other major high schools in Ethiopia went on becoming Academic, scientists,Engineers,Medical practitioners or capable managers. GW used to follow the most rigorous academic standard. When Modern Education was introduced west Europe and America were the leading industrialized countries and inviting The Brits,Canadians TMS, the 1st HSchool had Candian School principal for a long time who were leaders in science is the smartest decision.

Ethiopia barely had its own Teachers,Lecturers and Proffessors and only text books in sci. Hence the main reason we Ethiopians use English as Medium of instruction, are addicted to English Lits or Hollywood movies is because of the way our exposure to the Advanced Nations was engineered.

I write and speak in English reasonably well but I am a lot more fluent in Amharic. Your Afrocentric definition of Africanness is the reason our intellectuals are those misleading Africa most. How on earth can people continue to push an idea of Africa that has so monstrously failed us? African studies is waste of cultural and intellectual energies. What Africa needs most urgently is not deepening of African knowledge but extraction from our archaic traditional worldviews. This is what we are doing under the banner of Post-Africanism.

One critic even complained that HIM was pushing Amhara domination by using Amharic as a medium of instruction in grade schools. Amhara culture was already engrained within Ethiopian society, both through political culture, and, as the author mentions, religious traditions.

What language would you have preferred the Emperor employ for grade school instruction… Tigrinya? This is manifested not just in schools, but in societal modes of discourse and expression, as well as in societal norms and values. Is this problem rooted in using English as the language of instruction? Partially, but it is also rooted in harmful exposure to propaganda from the international media outlets.

And while using English as a medium of instruction has its advantages in terms of economic utility in the global market, the author makes the very important point that it incurs an important opportunity cost. It is important to note that international development is not just about economics.

Is some semblance of dignity not lost in losing your linguistic identity to the pressures of globalization? Do the urban youth in Ethiopia today not resemble the spoiled Millennials of the west more than they do their more cultured counterparts in the more rural areas?

Do we not worship the same celebrities worshipped in the West? Do we not mock or denigrate traditional values? If the answer to these questions is yes, then the author of this article has certainly identified part of the problem.

Do you ever ask what the purpose of public education is? N2 - Explanation why Ethiopia was not conquered by European states in a time when they easily invaded almost all other remaining independent countries in Africa. The reason is found in an age-long sound agricultural structure, enabled by favorable environmental conditions, and a concomitant age-long process of state-formation. AB - Explanation why Ethiopia was not conquered by European states in a time when they easily invaded almost all other remaining independent countries in Africa.

Overview Fingerprint. Abstract Explanation why Ethiopia was not conquered by European states in a time when they easily invaded almost all other remaining independent countries in Africa.