ABSTRACT
Ethiopia has a much longer history of self-rule than any other African country. The 1896 Battle of Adwa at which Italy's colonialism succumbed to Ethiopia has been memorialized by Africans as one of their first triumphant engagements against intruders in the pages of modern history. The diverse aspects of its history, its rich literature and pluralistic culture are hardly appreciated in the rest of Africa. In far too many scholarly writings Ethiopia is seen as an island, blighted by the ghost of localism. Emergent but vigorous debates about the country have tended to remain insular, undertaken for the most part by Ethiopians at home and in the Diaspora. While these are important, because detailed understandings of Ethiopia have emerged from such studies, sometimes this fixation and self-referential discourse on Ethiopia by Ethiopians can result in academic seclusion.
