A History of the Hadiyya in Southern Ethiopia

Looking past conventional histories and their focus on European activities and institutions, Braukamper (U. of Gottingen) analyzes and interprets the oral traditions by which the Hadiyya, an illiterate people of southern Ethiopia, preserved their people's past. Among his perspectives are traditions of the Hadiyya proper, from 1269 to the Islamic-Christian conflict of the 16th century, folktales and traditions about the time of Ahmad Gran, migrations and ethnogenesis of the Sidaama, the Shaashoogo, the 1894 Walaytta campaign, and from the Italian occupation to the end of the era of Hayla Sellase I. The German edition was published in 1980, and though in this edition he refers to some recent events in footnotes, he otherwise ends his account before the 1974 revolution. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)