The Political Economy of an African Society in Tranformation

The official historiography of the Ethiopian Empire as well as the majority of the publications on Ethiopian history by European authors used to view the country as a single cultural whole, and to deal only with the history of the Christian empire. The different historical experiences of the Ethiopian multiethnic society and culture used to be usually ignored. In contrast to such one-sided approach this book deals with the Macca Oromo activities, social transformation and historical experiences in the western part of Central Ethiopia, focusing on the political economy of the region. The sources for the book include: 1. written documents in Ethiopian languages (Amharic and Ge'ez), e.g. archival materials, 2. reports by European travellers and missionaries, 3. recent secondary literature, and 4. traditions and oral history collected mainly in Wallagga in 1972-73 and 1979-80. In that region the Macca states had played an important political and economical role until they were subjugated by the order of Menelik II and incorporated into the Ethiopian Empire at the end of the 19th century. Tesema Ta'a belongs to the first generation of the Ethiopian historiographers who graduated from Addis Ababa University in the seventies, and later formed the teaching staff of the History department in Addis Ababa.