Ulrich Braukämper Livres

Studies on Islam in Ethiopia have long been neglected although Islam is the religious confession of almost half of the Ethiopian population. The essays focus on the following Islamic Principalities in Southeast Ethiopia between the 13th and 16th Century * Notes on the Islamization and the Muslim Shrines of the Harar Plateau * The Sanctuary of Shaikh Husayn and the Oromo-Somali Connections in Bale * The Islamization of the Arsi-Oromo; Medieval Muslim Survivals as a Stimulating Factor in the Re-Islamization of Southeastern Ethiopia. The essays are based on the study of written records and on field research in southern parts of the country carried out during the first half of the 1970s.

Monographic analyses of ethnic groups have always been a major concern of Cultural Anthropology. Yet, a holistic approach encompassing all spheres of culture in one volume is usually unachievable. Publications on the history and the agrarian economy of the Hadiyya, a group of about two million people in southern Ethiopia, have already been presented. This book deals with their traditional socio-religious system, which existed as a functioning body until the 1970s and was then replaced by Orthodox, Protestant and Roman-Catholic Christianity and by Islam. After a comprehensive description of the geographical setting, the history and the culture of the Hadiyya, the characteristics of Fandaanano as a socio-religious system are outlined. Then, the patterns of their traditional socio-political organisation and the life cycle of the individual are dealt with before the ideas and practices of the meanwhile extinct religious system are depicted. Despite the recent extinction of Fandaanano by the impact of the world religions, features of its legacy are pervasive in modern Hadiyya society. Appendices present a collection of Hadiyya folktales and of photographs representing objects and positions of former socio-political status.

The Hadiyya are an ethnic group of 1.5 million in central-southern Ethiopia, belonging to the Highland East Cushitic cluster. Historical records from the 13th to 17th centuries depict them as part of a powerful Muslim state that challenged the Christian Ethiopian Empire. Following the Oromo expansion in the 16th century, the Hadiyya became fragmented and adopted various ethnic identities, such as Gurage, Allaaba, Sidama, and Oromo. Despite this, they retained a collective memory of their common origin, the Hadiyya state, particularly among those who still identify as Hadiyya. Ulrich Braukämper's study focuses on this aspect, reconstructing their history through oral traditions due to the culture's illiteracy. His research covers the period until the Ethiopian Empire's conquest in the late 19th century, highlighting the lasting impact of this event, while the brief Italian colonial period (1936-41) is noted as peripheral. Braukämper's chronological account concludes with the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974 and is further complemented by an ethnographic monograph on the Hadiyya. The revised and translated edition published in 1980 was requested by members of the Hadiyya community.

Trotz einer Vielzahl von Veröffentlichungen zu dem Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkrieges als der 'Urkatastrophe des 20. Jahrhunderts' wurde ein Thema zu wenig berücksichtigt: die Aufstände gegen die Kolonialherrschaft, die jenseits der Weltkriegsfronten in allen Teilen des Kontinents ausbrachen. In den geschichtlichen Analysen stand bisher zumeist die Eroberung der deutschen Kolonien durch die Alliierten im Mittelpunkt. Ulrich Braukämper untersucht den antikolonialen Widerstand in Afrika zur Zeit des Ersten Weltkrieges. Zwangsrekrutierungen von Trägern und durch Plünderungen ausgelöste Hungersnöte werden dabei ebenso behandelt wie die mit dem Krieg verbundene Erinnerungskultur und die Entkolonialisierung.