Translation and Annotation of THE CHRONICLE OF SUSENYOS, EMPEROR OF ETHIOPIA, 1607-1632

FAIN: RZ-20669-00

Morehouse College (Atlanta, GA 30314-3776)
Haile M. Larebo (Project Director: September 1999 to September 2006)

To support a translation and annotation of the CHRONICLE OF SUSENYOS, EMPEROR OF ETHIOPIA, 1607-1632.

The project will translate one of the most important and extensive Ethiopian royal chronicles, The Chronicle of Susenyos, King of Kings of Ethiopia, 1607-1632 (= The Chronicle). Written in Ge'ez, a classical language of Ethiopia no longer spoken, The Chronicle is a rare and an unequalled historical record containing details of both domestic and foreign politics and social dynamics in Ethiopia and east Africa that are not found in the other highly valued Ethiopian royal chronicles. Most significantly, it looks at Ethiopia at a particularly critical juncture, when it encounters the west, and provides the readers a rare and valuable African perspective on European expansion that can be set in the context o0f similar indigenous reactions elsewhere in Africa and Asia. The information that The Chronicle provides will fill a major vacuum in our resources for teaching African civilizations, a task hampered by lack of African-authored historical texts. Its availability in English will open up a major period of Ethiopian history to both the scholarly community and a general audience, not least students of world history, and will contribute to an understanding of that country's current predicament. More specifically, it will be of immense value to specialists of the Horn of Africa, to readers and students interested in non-European views on European encounter with non-western societies. The translation will be accompanied by an introduction and background material and extensive annotation that provide broad historical and literary context to this rare document.